Red Devil or Tragic Hero?: Osceola as Settler-Colonial Icon

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Why is it important?

For better or worse, Osceola was thrust into the limelight as Antebellum America's most recognized Indigenous personality. This essay presents a far more nuanced view of this Seminole leader than is commonly accepted. The heretofore unrecognized pressures of settler-colonialism, the rise of political parties and the newspaper press, are now seen to have contributed to Osceola's sudden rise to fame (or infamy).