Hunted like a wolf

A landmark work on one of the most important, but least written about Indian Wars, Hunted Like a Wolf chronicles the Second Seminole War. From 1835 to 1842, Washington waged a violent war upon the Seminole and their allies in Florida, using any measure, including treachery and fraud, to drive them from their lands. A ragged, starving handful of guerrillas, the Seminole Indians and blacks managed to resist against the invading American army ten times their number, defying the skill of six eminent generals.

Respected historian Milton Meltzer explores the choices facing the Seminole as whites gradually encroached on their land, and the sacrifices they made in choosing to resist. The Second Seminole War was a war over slavery as well as territory, for living among the Seminole were black men and women—some runaway slaves, some free—willing to fight alongside their Indian brothers for the territory they considered their own.

The war was the longest of the Indians Wars, and the costliest in money and human life. But most importantly, in the story of the Seminole War can be seen all the forces of America’s terrible racial history, the consequences of which we are only beginning to understand.