This is a non-fiction book, very slim, and a quick read about the Black Seminole named John Horse, and how he led his people from Florida to Mexico to escape slavery and back to Florida in the 1900s.
He was a child when the First Seminole War began and by 1819 the Adams-Onis Treaty was signed with Spain and Florida ceded to the US for $5 million. John Horse and his mother settled near Tampa Bay, on Lake Thonotosassa.
The Black Seminoles quickly ran afoul of Andrew Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act, ordering most tribes east of the Mississippi be relocated to the west. It prompted the Second Seminole War in 1835.
American soldiers capture John Horse and imprison him, but he escapes and, now a principal chief, leads the resistance. He and his family are eventually captured again and sent to live in Indian Territory west of the Mississippi.
There's quite a bit more, and it's an intriguing look at how one individual navigated several different concepts of slavery -- Seminole, Creek, American -- in search of freedom for himself and his followers.
