SW001 What were the Seminole Wars?

In the 1800s, the United States Government waged an exhausting military campaign of Indian removal against the Florida Seminole. Various accounts put it in total at between 41 and 46 years in length with periods of hot and cold warfare.  In our inaugural episode, historian and Seminole Wars scholar John Missall joins us to provide an overview of the Seminole Wars: what they were; how they came to be; how they were fought; and how they still resonate with us some two centuries later.  John Missall and with his wife Mary Lou are historians and authors who have written extensively on Florida’s Seminole Indian Wars. Their works include detailed histories, biographies, and two award-winning novels.  The couple’s latest books are The Seminole Struggle: A History of America’s Longest Indian War, available from Pineapple Press; and The History of the Third Seminole War, co-authored with Dr. Joe Knetsch, and available from Casemate books. Both works can be found at our Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminoleswars.us Host Patrick Swan is board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. He holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in Strategic Studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.