January 30, 1838

Chief Osceola, who was one of the prominent leaders of the Seminole tribe, died on this day in 1838. He was born near what is now Tallassee in 1804, and raised as a Creek by the name of Billy Powell. The U.S. Army defeated the Creek in 1814, and Powell relocated with his mother to the Seminole lands of Florida, where he took the name Osceola. He was still a teenager when the U.S. purchased Florida from Spain, and another round of land battles began. Late in 1837, Osceola led a small resistance that was finally captured near St. Augustine, Florida. He was imprisoned at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, where he succumbed to several diseases that had plagued him for years.

Read more at Wikipedia. 

Portrait of Osceola, 1837. (British Library, Wikipedia)

Osceola of Florida, 1838. (George Catlin, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Seminole Chief Osceola, 1838. (George Catlin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wikipedia)

Fort Moultrie National Monument, 2015. (Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Wikipedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.