What's this? A person who actually did some good in his life? Talk about off-brand! Still, I think he's got an amazing story. From fighting the US in the Seminole Wars and in Washington, breaking out of Fort Marion, old enemies turning into friends and his own people turning against him, and who can forget the proper Exodus to Mexico he led. Seriously, I want to make a TV series out of this man's life, he's got it all. Also one of the rare cases of someone having a really close friend, I feel like I haven't seen that before. Special thanks to History House Productions for collaborating with me on this and making a whole video all about the Seminole Wars! Link to his video here: • The Seminole Wars | An...
Footnotes:
00:18 - Probably wanted to send like 10 white guys down to watch their slaves build a plantation of some description, but still, less than prime real estate
0:18 - Also I really wanted to make a reference to that guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail who keeps building castles in a swamp and something something Disney it would've been really funny you guys but I was short of time and alas it can never be
0:40 - You may think I'm joking here, but no, his father's name was actually Charley. Except he was known as Charley Cavallo, which sounded like "Caballo" which is Spanish for Horse, which is how John became known as John Horse, but his name was still kind of Charley Horse
0:40 - John was also known as Gopher John due to some kind of trickery he pulled involving selling a Gopher Tortoise to an army cook.
00:46 - About the same time as the Seminole tribe declared war via the Dade Massacre, Osceola and a small troupe assassinated representative Wiley Thompson
1:05 - Coacoochee, who aside from his deceptively-pronounced name was also known as Wild Cat, has an interesting life story all his own. He was the son of a chief and expected to fill those shoes, but when his father eventually died (after the war, in Oklahoma) he was passed over in favor of someone who was pro-chattel slavery.
1:19 - Coacoochee actually gave his account of the escape, but I can't find it for the life of me. In any case, people have raised questions about how they fit through the windows, how they were strong enough to do all this if they'd been fasting, and why Osceola didn't escape.
One book said he stayed due to a sense of honor but that book also said he died of a broken heart when in fact he got a nasty case of tonsillitis. Further reading here: www.jstor.org/stable/30138496...
1:24 - At the Battle of Loxahatchee, they even managed to wound Jesup, who was later replaced by Zachary Taylor of Mexican-American War fame. Also he was president for a year and then he got a really bad stomach bug that killed him. And now you know!
1:29 - Fun fact! That sound effect, the Wilhelm Scream, is originally from a film that shot at the prison where John and the Seminoles were held prisoner!
1:55 - No, I didn't say "guaranteed they'd be guaranteed" that's silly you're imagining things
3:06 - Yeah, actually Americans weren't a big fan of Jesup after the false surrender thing. But then they weren't a fan of him doing this either. Just an unpopular guy all around.
4:05 - This is a reference to the time John and friends supposedly met up with General Sprague of the 2nd Seminole War, reminisced about the good old days when they wanted to kill each other, then the US army caught up with them and Sprague may have been responsible.
4:35 - I normally do my best to choose music that's representative of the culture of each video's subject. Unfortunately, Seminole music has little in the way of instrumentation and is much for focused around precussion and a capella, which makes for distracting background music. But if you're looking for better examples, you can find a whole bunch of songs here: www.loc.gov/audio/?fa=subject...
Music:
0:00 John Philip Sousa - Hail to the Chief
0:10 Kevin Macleod - Hidden Past
0:15 Kevin Macleod - Fuzzball Parade
1:06 Kevin Macleod - Faceoff
1:22 Kevin Macleod - Fuzzball Parade
2:36 John Philip Sousa - Review
2:57 Angelin Fonda - Smith's Speech
3:21 Kevin Macleod - Fuzzball Parade
3:34 A dramatic sting sound effect, not a music piece
3:44 Kevin Macleod - Fuzzball Parade
4:15 Patrick Ugwu - Spanish Lament
4:35 Marty Robins - The Little Green Valley