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Eighteenth-Century Florida and the Revolutionary South

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Eighteenth-Century Florida and the Revolutionary South Eighteenth-Century Florida and the Revolutionary South Eighteenth-Century Florida and the Revolutionary South Edited by Samuel Proctor LibraryPress@UF Gainesville, Florida Cover: Map of the West Indies, published in Philadelphia, 1806. From the Caribbean Maps collection in the University of Florida Digital Collections at the George A. Smathers Libraries. Reissued 2017 by LibraryPress@UF on behalf of the University of Florida This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. You are free to electronically copy, dis- tribute, and transmit this work if you attribute authorship. Please contact the University Press of Florida (http://upress.ufl.edu) to purchase print editions of the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribu- tion, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the University Press of Florida. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights. ISBN 978-1-947372-76-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-947372-77-1 (ePub) LibraryPress@UF is an imprint of the University of Florida Press. University of Florida Press 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611-2079 http://upress.ufl.edu The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series In 2016, the University Press of Florida, in collaboration with the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mel- lon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program, to repub- lish books related to Florida and the Caribbean and to make them freely available through an open access platform. The resulting list of books is the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series published by the Li- braryPress@UF in collaboration with the University of Florida Press, an imprint of the University Press of Florida. A panel of distinguished schol- ars has selected the series titles from the UPF list, identified as essential reading for scholars and students. The series is composed of titles that showcase a long, distinguished history of publishing works of Latin American and Caribbean scholar- ship that connect through generations and places. The breadth and depth of the list demonstrates Florida’s commitment to transnational history and regional studies. Selected reprints include Daniel Brinton’s A Guide- Book of Florida and the South (1869), Cornelis Goslinga’s The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast, 1580–1680 (1971), and Nelson Blake’s Land into Water—Water into Land (1980). Also of note are titles from the Bicentennial Floridiana Facsimile Series. The series, published in 1976 in commemoration of America’s bicentenary, comprises twenty-five books regarded as “classics,” out-of-print works that needed to be in more librar- ies and readers’ bookcases, including Sidney Lanier’s Florida: Its Scen- ery, Climate, and History (1876) and Silvia Sunshine’s Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes (1880). Today’s readers will benefit from having free and open access to these works, as they provide unique perspectives on the historical scholarship on Florida and the Caribbean and serve as a foundation upon which to- day’s researchers can build. Visit LibraryPress@UF and the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series at http://ufdc.ufl.edu/librarypress . Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series Project Members LibraryPress@UF Judith C. Russell Laurie N. Taylor Brian W. Keith Chelsea Dinsmore Haven Hawley Editorial Advisory Board Gary R. Mormino David R. Colburn Patrick J. Reakes University of Florida Press Meredith M. Babb Linda Bathgate Michele Fiyak-Burkley Romi Gutierrez Larry Leshan Anja Jimenez Marisol Amador Valerie Melina Jane Pollack Danny Duffy Nichole Manosh Erika Stevens This book is reissued as part of the Humanities Open Books program, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Introduction EAST and West Florida did not support the patriot cause during the American Revolution. These newly acquired provinces remained loyal to the British Crown and were thus related to the Revolu­ tionary South not as allies but as antagonists. American histori­ ans dealing with the Revolution tend to emphasize the conflict be­ tween the thirteen colonies and the mother country. This was indeed a civil war as far as America was concerned, but it was part of a worldwide conflict. France, Spain, and Holland were also involved, and there was fighting on all of the great oceans of the world and in the West Indies, the Mediterranean, Africa, and elsewhere. France and Spain supported the Revolution not out of sympathy for repub­ licanism but because these two powers were seeking revenge and hoped to restore the balance of power which England had upset in 1763. The American Revolution, from their point of view, was just another phase in the great wars which Europe and her far-flung colonies had been waging for two hundred years. France had supported the American cause almost from the be­ ginning. She was a secret ally at first, but in 1778, France openly declared war on England. Spain followed suit the following year. The American colonists were delighted. They had everything to gain from these alliances. The combined Franco-Spanish navies equaled or outnumbered Britain's fleet. The colonists desperately needed military supplies, foreign troops, and foreign credit. From Savannah to Boston, Americans welcomed their new allies with enthusiasm. But this was not true of the colonists in Florida. Weak v vi / Introduction and exposed, the Floridas were sparsely populated and unable to defend themselves without British military support. Without the British fleet on patrol in the South Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, St. Augustine and Pensacola were vulnerable to attack. When the British arrived in 1763, they found Florida an empty wilderness. Only a handful of Spaniards remained to dispose of property. Everyone else, whites and Indians alike, had moved to new homes elsewhere. Introducing a generous land grant policy and using a variety of advertising gimmicks, Britain attracted settlers from the colonies north of the St. Marys, from the Bahamas and the West Indies, and from abroad. These immigrants settled in St. Au­ gustine and its environs, along the St. Johns River, and on Amelia Is­ land in East Florida. Others moved into West Florida: into St. Marks and Pensacola and along the rivers that flowed through Alabama and Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. Land was cleared for farms and plantations, an agricultural economy began to emerge, and barrel staves, turpentine, lumber, citrus, and a variety of other agricultural products were being produced for shipment abroad. In terms of English settlement, however, the Floridas were too new to meet even their own food needs. They depended upon shipments from the West Indies, Europe, and, up until the time of the Revolution, the other American colonies. Unlike the other southern colonies—Georgia, the Carolinas, Vir­ ginia, and Maryland—the Floridas could not sustain themselves without British help. They would have been foolhardy to bite the hand that was feeding them so generously, and the aid and support from Britain was indeed plentiful. Bounties were offered to encour­ age the development of staple crops and for lumbering and other industries. The annual appropriation voted by Parliament paid the salaries of all of the government officials, sustained the courts, pro­ vided religious and educational services, developed transportation facilities, and maintained the defense of the colonies. It is little wonder that Floridians failed to ring their church bells or light bon­ fires when they received notice that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. Instead, they drank to the good health and long life of their generous and good sovereign, George III. There were no celebrations in Pensacola or St. Augustine to mark the beginning of the Revolution. Instead, the effigies of Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, those dastardly rebels, were burned in the public plaza at St. Augustine. Introduction / vii With France, Spain, and the United States all fighting a common enemy, they were united in their belief that the British should be expelled from the Floridas. How this would be brought about was a matter for debate, and there was confusion over disposition of the Floridas. There was no limit, however, to the enthusiasm for inva­ sion. Plans were launched for an assault against St. Augustine by way of Georgia. French troops in the West Indies made preparations for an attack, and Bernardo de Galvez, the intrepid governor of Spanish Louisiana, carefully prepared to move against the British at Manchac, Mobile, and Pensacola. Except for small skirmishes, East Florida never became a theater of major military operations during the course of the Revolution, but West Florida was another matter. Galvez overwhelmed the British and in three short years ex­ pelled them from West Florida. Once more Spain's royal banners flew over the area from the Apalachicola River to the Mississippi. Pensacola had fallen before a great land and naval attack. In still another way, Florida related to the Revolutionary South during the course of the war. Loyalists from Savannah, Charleston, and the backcountry, men and women who were unwilling to break their ties with the mother country, were forced to leave their homes, and they made their way south to the Floridas. Hundreds flocked into Pensacola, and even more sought refuge in St.
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