Coacoochee

Wild Cat, also known as Coacoochee or Cowacoochee (from Creek Kowakkuce "bobcat, wildcat") (c. 1807/1810–1857) was a leading Seminole chieftain during the later stages of the Second Seminole War as well as the nephew of Micanopy.

Wild Cat's exact place year and place of birth is not agreed upon. Many local scholars believe he was born in 1807 on an island in big Lake Tohopekaliga, south of Orlando. Some scholars say Wild Cat was born to King Philip (or Ee-mat-la) in Yulaka, a Seminole village along the St. Johns River in northern Florida around 1810. Still others suggest that he was born near present-day Apopka, Florida. Wild Cat may have had a twin sister who died at birth and, having been born a twin, he was regarded by the tribe as being particularly gifted. As tensions mounted between Seminoles and local settlers following the purchase of Florida by the United States in 1821, Seminole tribes encouraged the escape of slaves in neighboring Georgia in reaction to encroaching settlers who began settling on the Florida coast previously occupied by Seminoles.

At the start of the Second Seminole War, the nineteen-year-old Wild Cat gained prominence leading a band of Seminoles and Black Seminoles until his father's capture and imprisonment in Fort Marion in 1837. Although some of the Black Seminoles had fled to Florida to escape slavery, most of the Black Seminoles were free descendants of Black Seminoles who had lived in Florida for more than a century.

In October 1837, Wild Cat appeared before American forces in a ceremonial peace headdress claiming to be an emissary of Osceola and, after negotiations with Colonel Thomas S. Jesup, American authorities agreed to peace talks. However, after the arrival of the Seminoles, Jesup ordered their arrest. While imprisoned at Fort Marion, Wild Cat would escape with nineteen other Seminoles, reportedly fasting for six days before they were able to slide through the bars of their jail cell and drop into the moat on the outside of the fort.

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