Beast Of Many Names: Cattle, Conflict, And The Transformation Of Indigenous Florida, 1519-1858

Abstract

Beast of Many Names argues that cattle sat at the epicenter of environmental and societal transformations as well as conflict between Indigenous people and Euroamerican empires in Florida between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This dissertation argues that cattle were a motivating factor in nation building in what became the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and played a critical role in both American aims to take the peninsula as well as Seminole resistance efforts. Further, the dissertation argues that cattle filled a niche left by the departure of other large megafauna, and that feral cattle populations helped to transform landscapes throughout the peninsula.