"The Hero"

From New York to Nashville, the country mourned the Hero. Even former enemies conceded his glory. Though he had stood for slavery, states' rights, and the South, Jackson united the electorate of the country as few leaders ever had or would. Staunchly pro-Union, he stared down both abolitionists and radical pro-slavery southerners. He saw both groups as elites out to reverse democracy and destroy the country.

Jackson's support of slavery and Indian removal were but two aspects of a rich and complex legacy, yet for blacks in the Indian Territory, they were double blows. The Black Seminoles could hardly have mourned the passing of "the Hero," their greatest antagonist. Perhaps they should have, for Jackson's death marked the end of an era. From that time on, the forces that held the fragile Union in check would disintegrate, unleashing a new kind of hell on the western frontier.