By examining the Second Seminole War through the lenses of race, Jacksonian democracy, media and public opinion, American expansion, and military strategy, Monaco offers an original perspective on a misunderstood and often-neglected chapter in our history.

A landmark work on one of the most important but least-written-about Indian wars, Hunted Like a Wolf chronicles the Second Seminole War. From 1835 to 1842, Washington, D.C. waged a violent war upon the Seminoles and their allies in Florida, using any measure, including treachery and fraud, to drive them from their lands. Respected historian Milton Meltzer explores the choices facing the Seminoles as whites gradually encroached on their land, as well as the sacrifices they made in order to resist. The Second Seminole War was a war over slavery as well as territory, for living among the Seminoles were black men and women—some runaway slaves, some free people—willing to fight alongside their Indian brothers for the territory they considered their own. A ragged, starving handful of guerrillas, the Seminoles and blacks managed to resist an invading American army ten times their number, defying the skill of six eminent generals. The war was not only the longest of the Indians wars but also the costliest in resources and human life. In the story of the Seminole War, we can see at work all the forces of America's terrible racist history, the consequences of which we are only beginning to understand.

This story of a remarkable people, the Black Seminoles, and their charismatic leader, Chief John Horse, chronicles their heroic struggle for freedom. Beginning with the early 1800s, small groups of fugitive slaves living in Florida joined the Seminole Indians (an association that thrived for decades on reciprocal respect and affection). Kenneth Porter traces their fortunes and exploits as they moved across the country and attempted to live first beyond the law, then as loyal servants of it. He examines the Black Seminole role in the bloody Second Seminole War, when John Horse and his men distinguished themselves as fierce warriors, and their forced removal to the Oklahoma Indian Territory in the 1840s, where John's leadership ability emerged. The account includes the Black Seminole exodus in the 1850s to Mexico, their service as border troops for the Mexican government, and their return to Texas in the 1870s, where many of the men scouted for the U.S. Army. Members of their combat-tested unit, never numbering more than 50 men at a time, were awarded four of the sixteen Medals of Honor received by the several thousand Indian scouts in the West. Porter's interviews with John Horse's descendants and acquaintances in the 1940s and 1950s provide eyewitness accounts. When Alcione Amos and Thomas Senter took up the project in the 1980s, they incorporated new information that had since come to light about John Horse and his people. A powerful and stirring story, The Black Seminoles will appeal especially to readers interested in black history, Indian history, Florida history, and U.S. military history.

"Conventional history narratives tell us that in the early years of the Republic, the United States fought three wars against the Seminole Indians and two against the Creeks. However, William Belko and the contributors to America's Hundred Years' War argue that we would do better to view these events as moments of heightened military aggression punctuating a much longer period of conflict in the Gulf Coast region. Featuring essays on topics ranging from international diplomacy to Seminole military strategy, the volume urges us to reconsider the reasons for and impact of early U.S. territorial expansion. It highlights the actions and motivations of Indians and African Americans during the period and establishes the groundwork for research that is more balanced and looks beyond the hopes and dreams of whites." --