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General Note

Seminole Chief Osceola as painted by George Catlin in 1838 - photograph of oil on canvas portrait.

Biographical Note

Osceola earned his place of leadership among the Seminoles by the force of his personality and ability, for he was neither born nor selected as a chief.

Osceola fought the United States and was finally captured only after coming into a camp under an American flag of truce. While General Thomas S. Jesup, the American commander, never lived down the public revulsion which followed this violation of the truce, Osceola remained in prison, first at the Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine but later transferred to Fort Moultrie at Charleston, South Carolina. Weakened by chronic malaria and quinsy, he lost the will to live in captivity. Osceola died there, and his head was removed from the body before burial.

Osceola was born 1804 and died January 30, 1838. He is known for resisting the efforts of the United States government to clear Florida by transporting them across the Mississippi. He has been used as a central character in works of fiction by a number of the bestselling authors of today.

Osceola is derived from the Creek asi-yahola, "black drink cry". The Creeks and later the Seminoles prepared a ceremonial black drink from the leaves of the yaupon. Research indicates Osceola was a half-breed: part Creek Indian, part Scottish.