On this day in 1837, Africans and Native Americans who had formed Florida’s Seminole Nation decisively defeated an invading U.S. force more than twice their size, led by slaveowner and future U.S. president Zachary Taylor.

Since the founding of the U.S., escaped African slaves had settled in modern-day Florida. At the same time, Seminoles suffering under Creek rule in Alabama and Georgia were fleeing south to seek independence. There, the two groups formed an alliance, sharing cultivation techniques and putting up armed resistance against colonization and slaver forces.

The U.S. repeatedly invaded territory controlled by this alliance, and, on Christmas Day in 1837, 380 to 480 Seminole fighters gathered on the northeast corner of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee ready to halt the armies of Colonel Zachary Taylor, a Louisiana slaveholder and future U.S. president.

Seminole riflemen waited for the soldiers in trees, firing on them from above. The battle was a decisive defeat for U.S. forces, however Taylor falsely claimed a victory when returning to Fort Gardner.

Dec. 26, 1835: Second Seminole War, Largest Uprising of the Enslaved

Christmas day freedom fighters: hidden history of the Seminole anticolonial struggle - William Katz

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