The caption reads:

When monarchical Spain governed Florida, many slaves fled thither from republican oppression, and found shelter. One of them, having married an Indian chief, their FREEBORN daughter became the wife of Oceola. She was seized as a slave in 1835, by a person, (who had probably never seen her,) holding the claim of her mother's former master. Oceola attempted to defend his wife, but was overpowered and put in irons, by General Thompson, (our government agent,) who commanded the kidnapping party. What marvel that an Indian Chief, as he looked on his little daughter, and thought of his stolen wife, vowed vengeance on the robbers?

Even though the story was more legend than truth, it nonetheless neatly encapsulated the parameters of Black Seminole history, mentioning Spanish freedom, the genesis of the African-Seminole alliance, and the incidence of free blacks suffering false claims at the hands of Americans. The reference to Thompson imprisoning Osceola was also true. The Second Seminole War had much deeper causes than the capture, real or imagined, of Osceola's black wife, and yet for all its inaccuracies this legend captured the essential causes behind the war better than many American history books.

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