First Seminole War Begins as Jackson Invades Spanish Florida to Recapture Enslaved People

U.S. troops from Fort Scott attack the small Seminole village of Fowltown in southern Georgia, killing about 20 people and igniting the First Seminole War. The attack represents escalating border tensions stemming from enslaved people regularly fleeing from Georgia into Spanish Florida, where they find refuge among Seminole bands, prompting Georgia slaveowners to conduct slave raids across the international border. On December 26, 1817, the U.S. War Department directs General Andrew Jackson to take command in person and bring the Seminoles “under control,” precipitating a full-scale military invasion of Spanish territory ostensibly to secure the Georgia-Florida border but actually to recapture escaped slaves and eliminate refuge for freedom seekers.

General Andrew Jackson invades Spanish Florida in 1818 with an army of about 3,000 men, scattering villagers, burning Seminole, Mikasuki and Black Seminole towns, and seizing the Spanish-held forts of San Marcos and Pensacola before withdrawing later that year. Jackson’s military forces fight against the Seminole and their African American allies in what becomes collectively known as the First Seminole War (1817-1818), which begins over U.S. authorities’ attempts to recapture runaway Black slaves living among Seminole bands. Jackson exceeds his orders by capturing Spanish forts and executing two British subjects for assisting Native peoples, creating an international incident. Following tense discussions inside the Monroe administration about Jackson’s unauthorized actions, President Monroe decides to back Jackson rather than discipline him for invading a foreign nation’s territory without authorization.

The Spanish government expresses outrage over Jackson’s “punitive expeditions” into their territory and his brief occupation of Pensacola, the capital of West Florida. However, as several local uprisings and “border anarchy” make clear, Spain can no longer defend nor control Florida. To avoid further conflict, Spain eventually decides to cede its Florida territories to the United States in February 1819 through the Adams-Onís Treaty. The First Seminole War demonstrates how slavery enforcement drives American military aggression and territorial expansion, with the federal government deploying military force to eliminate refuge for escaped slaves by invading foreign territory and destroying indigenous communities. Jackson’s successful defiance of both Spanish sovereignty and his own orders—combined with presidential backing despite his unauthorized actions—establishes precedents for executive overreach and military adventurism in service of slavery expansion that recur throughout the antebellum period, revealing how the Slave Power uses federal military resources to enforce human bondage beyond U.S. borders.