The Second Seminole War and the Limits of American Aggression by C. S. Monaco (review)

The Second Seminole War and the Limits of American Aggression tells the story of the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) in a vibrant and engaging manner. Addressing not only military topics but also environmental, medical, political, and social issues, C. S. Monaco takes an interdisciplinary approach to the conflict, which he characterizes as "the boldest and most enduring armed struggle by eastern Indians against the forces of the United States" (1).

Monaco devotes six of the eleven chapters to a chronological account of the Florida war. In the first chapter, he provides background information about events leading up to the Seminole removal treaties of 1832 and 1833. The author then devotes Chapters 3 through 7 to a narrative description of the war. He provides a straightforward account of key events, including the "Dade Massacre" and other attacks on U.S. soldiers and sugar plantations by Seminoles and blacks in 1835 and 1836; successful guerilla-style tactics used by Native forces in later years of the conflict; and successive campaigns led by U.S. officers Edmund P. Gaines, Winfield Scott, Richard K. Call, Thomas S. Jesup, Zachary Taylor, Walker Keith Armistead, and William J. Worth between 1836 and 1842. He also describes deceptive tactics used to capture Osceola and other Seminole leaders, efforts to initiate peace conferences, the Cherokees' involvement as mediators, and rising public discontent with the conflict. Monaco's map should have located more of the sites that he mentions, but his textual description is very clear and effective and the narrative is based on extensive, systematic, and effective use of primary-source evidence.

The rest of the chapters move away from chronological coverage to focus on specific topics: health and environmental factors, politicized newspaper reporting, and African Americans' role in the war. These five chapters add analytical depth to Monaco's book. His exploration of the impact of disease and the Florida landscape (Chapters 8 and 9) brings to the foreground important elements that are not always adequately considered in analyses of the conflict. His examination of ways in which the partisan media promoted political goals by creating a mythical image of Osceola and an exaggerated portrayal of the use of bloodhounds (Chapters 10 and 11) is thought-provoking.

In Chapters 2 and 11, Monaco addresses head-on the subject of African Americans' role in the conflict, describing the historiographical challenge in the former chapter and the black-freedom-fighter motif in the latter. For a long time, writers largely omitted blacks from the story of the Second Seminole War. More recently, scholars of African American history have brought more attention to that subject, with a particular focus on the slave-rebellion component of the war. Monaco contends that such scholars exaggerate the extent to which blacks played a dominant role in leading and fighting against the United States, as well as the extent to which suppressing and capturing blacks in Florida was a central U.S. goal. He observes that a focus on African Americans distorts the facts, effectively marginalizing indigenous people, discounting their leadership, and discrediting their bravery. He argues that minimizing Natives' role perpetuates myths about U.S. expansionism, masking the violence that underlay the nation's acquisition of its territory and implicitly justifying a continuing colonialist state. Although Monaco's observations about the effect of erasing Native Americans from U.S. history are credible, he overstates his case by unduly diminishing the relevance of blacks in the war and by implicitly questioning the motives and mindset of scholars who examine African Americans' participation. The full story of the Second Seminole War includes both Natives and blacks, and discussing the latter need not diminish the obviously central role of the former. In fact, a nuanced, inclusive history of the war that addresses both the shared and the distinctive experiences of black and Native participants has the potential to provide deeper insights about the different ways in which...