On this day in 1837, Africans and Native Americans who had formed Florida's Seminole Nation decisively defeated an invading U.S. force more than twice their size, led by slaveowner and future U.S. president Zachary Taylor.
Since the founding of the U.S., escaped African slaves had settled in modern-day Florida. At the same time, Seminoles suffering under Creek rule in Alabama and Georgia were fleeing south to seek independence. There, the two groups formed an alliance, sharing cultivation techniques and putting up armed resistance against colonization and slaver forces.
The U.S. repeatedly invaded territory controlled by this alliance, and, on Christmas Day in 1837, 380 to 480 Seminole fighters gathered on the northeast corner of Florida's Lake Okeechobee ready to halt the armies of Colonel Zachary Taylor, a Louisiana slaveholder and future U.S. president.
Seminole riflemen waited for the soldiers in trees, firing on them from above. The battle was a decisive defeat for U.S. forces, however Taylor falsely claimed a victory when returning to Fort Gardner.
Dec. 26, 1835: Second Seminole War, Largest Uprising of the Enslaved 
Christmas day freedom fighters: hidden history of the Seminole anticolonial struggle - William Katz 
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
- 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⭐️ September Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
(reposting here because I posted it in the news thread lel)
got a shortwave radio for christmas. I don't know shit about the technical stuff but it's fun just scanning for stations and seeing what I hear. You'd think in the era of the Internet that it wouldn't be that interesting, but there's something cool about randomly tuning to something being broadcast locally thousands of miles away. I guess it's because I'm listening to something that's not really intended for me to hear, almost like I'm spying.
I hope you enjoy it! I think part of the magic of radio is the randomness/chance we miss with internet technology. We can listen to podcasts or music on demand but surfing the dial with a radio brings you something curated by someone else. With shortwave, not only is what you're listening to time-bound, but it's also determined by solar conditions. Depending on the suns activity, radio waves propagate better or worse, so night by night what's available changes.
I am a dork for radio and it started with listening to my parent's shortwave receiver when I was a kid. I hope you have fun with it, and I just want to add, think about taking it with you whenever you travel. It's always fun to see what else you can hear from a new location.
Yeah, it's the randomness angle that makes it so fun. It takes some amount of effort to find something so it feels that much more rewarding when you do find something, even if it's some random show in a language you don't understand. I definitely plan on taking it with me places to see what I pick up.