The Fourteenth Colony: Florida and the American Revolution in the South
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THE FOURTEENTH COLONY: FLORIDA AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH By ROGER C. SMITH A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Roger C. Smith 2 To my mother, who generated my fascination for all things historical 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Jon Sensbach and Jessica Harland-Jacobs for their patience and edification throughout the entire writing process. I would also like to thank Ida Altman, Jack Davis, and Richmond Brown for holding my feet to the path and making me a better historian. I owe a special debt to Jim Cusack, John Nemmers, and the rest of the staff at the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History and Special Collections at the University of Florida for introducing me to this topic and allowing me the freedom to haunt their facilities and guide me through so many stages of my research. I would be sorely remiss if I did not thank Steve Noll for his efforts in promoting the University of Florida’s history honors program, Phi Alpha Theta; without which I may never have met Jim Cusick. Most recently I have been humbled by the outpouring of appreciation and friendship from the wonderful people of St. Augustine, Florida, particularly the National Association of Colonial Dames, the ladies of the Women’s Exchange, and my colleagues at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum and the First America Foundation, who have all become cherished advocates of this project. From my family I gained much strength during my years of study at the University of Florida, but none so much as my daughter Lyndie, who encouraged me to go back to school, allowed me to be her college roommate, and tolerated five years of listening to me formulate theories and hypotheses as this project percolated in my mind. Finally, I would like to thank my cohort and fellow Gators at Keene-Flint Hall. You made it bearable. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................6 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................11 2 A TALE OF TWO FLORIDAS .............................................................................................30 3 THE ECONOMICS OF REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH ...................................................72 4 SONS OF LIBERTY, SONS OF ENGLAND .....................................................................111 5 A WAR OF DEPENDENCE ................................................................................................150 6 THE SECOND SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN .........................................................................195 The “Loyalist Front” .............................................................................................................196 Phase One: Eastern Theater, 1778 ........................................................................................204 Phase One: Western Theater, 1778 .......................................................................................212 Phase Two: Eastern Theater, 1780 .......................................................................................219 Phase Two: Western Theater, 1780 ......................................................................................226 7 THE FAÇADE OF BRITISH FREEDOM ...........................................................................232 8 “ARE THEY TO DIE IN THE WILDERNESS?” ...............................................................263 9 THE “LONG EVACUATION” ............................................................................................301 10 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................338 APPENDIX: CATEGORIZATIONS ..........................................................................................354 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................355 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................371 5 LIST OF TABLES Table page 1-1 Documented Battles and Events of the American Revolution. ..........................................26 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1 View of the outer wall and moat of the Castillo de San Marcos facing north from the town of St. Augustine. .......................................................................................................28 1-2 View of the outer wall and moat of the Castillo de San Marcos facing east toward Matanzas Bay. ....................................................................................................................29 2-1 Map of East and West Florida. ..........................................................................................69 2-2 Proclamation Line of 1763. ................................................................................................70 2-3 1764 map of the Iberville River connection from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. ..............................................................................................................................71 3-1 Disputed ceded lands of Georgia. ....................................................................................110 4-1 Wood’s Tavern. ................................................................................................................149 5-1 Close-up of a clipper ship sailing over the treacherous bar which stretches across the St. Augustine Inlet. ..........................................................................................................192 5-2 Distant view of St. Augustine Inlet. .................................................................................193 5-3 Map of East Florida’s defenses. .......................................................................................194 7-1 Remnants of the earth works constructed during the American Revolution. ..................262 8-1 View of St. Augustine from the western perimeter (modern day Coronado Avenue) to the bay. .........................................................................................................................296 8-2 View of St. Augustine from the northwestern corner of the perimeter (present-day Orange Street) to the Castillo de San Marcos. .................................................................297 8-3 View of St. Augustine from the southwestern end of the perimeter toward the bay. ......298 8-4 View of St. Augustine from the southeastern corner due north toward the Castillo de San Marcos.......................................................................................................................299 8-5 Perimeter of American prisoner-of-war boundaries in St. Augustine. ............................300 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CO Colonial Office Papers of the British National Archives. The Colonial Office was established in 1854, but the CO classifications have since been modified to include those records preceding this date back to the sixteenth century. PKYL P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History and Special Collections at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. PRO Public Records Office: previous name of the British National Archives. PRO is still the name of designation on all colonial records of the eighteenth century. WLCL William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan. 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE FOURTEENTH COLONY: FLORIDA AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH By Roger C. Smith May 2011 Chair: Jon Sensbach Major: History This study will examine the southern theater of the American Revolution from a British perspective. By looking beyond New England, Bunker Hill, and the “original” thirteen British colonies, utilizing the same map of the British Americas one would find at the war ministry in Whitehall, it becomes obvious that Florida was not a peripheral entity to British interests on the North American continent. I will argue three intertwined points: 1) that Florida was the geographic center of the British Americas and, therefore, integral to the American Revolution early on; 2) that the southern colonies were a significant and continual focus of Great Britain’s war ministry from the outbreak of the conflict in 1775 resulting in two major southern campaigns, the first beginning in March 1776; and, 3) that the famous British Southern campaign of 1780 was but one phase of a more extensive British southern invasion, which originated from St. Augustine and Pensacola in 1778, and encompassed the southern mainland from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean.