Who Controlled Florida Before The French And Indian War

Colony of Neat Great britain and a province of Spanish Florida

East Florida
Territory of Neat U.k. (1763–1783), Espana (1783–1821), United States (1821–22)
1763–1822
Left: Red Ensign of Uk Right: Flag of the Castilian Empire
Uppercase	St. Augustine
History
Government
Governor

• 1763–1784	5 nether United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland
• 1784–1821	8 nether Spain
• 1821	i U.S. military commissioner


History

• Treaty of Paris	10 February, 1763
• Transferred to Kingdom of spain	25 November 1783
• Adams–Onís Treaty	1821
• Merged into Florida Territory	30 March, 1822

East Florida (Spanish: Florida Oriental) was a colony of Bully United kingdom from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Peachy United kingdom gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of La Florida in 1763 as part of the treaty ending the French and Indian State of war (as the 7 Years' War was called in North America). Deciding that the territory was too large to administrate as a single unit, Britain divided Florida into ii colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: East Florida with its upper-case letter in St. Augustine and West Florida with its upper-case letter in Pensacola. Due east Florida was much larger and comprised the bulk of the former Spanish territory of Florida and near of the current country of Florida. It had also been the virtually populated region of Spanish Florida, but earlier control was transferred to Britain, nearly residents - including about everyone in St. Augustine - left the territory, with virtually migrating to Cuba.^[1]

Britain tried to attract settlers to the two Floridas without much success. The sparsely populated colonies were invited to ship representatives to the Continental Congress only chose non to do and then, and they remained loyal to United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland during the American Revolutionary State of war. However, as role of the 1783 treaty in which U.k. officially recognized the independence of thirteen of its former colonies equally the United States, information technology ceded both Floridas back to Kingdom of spain, which maintained them as divide colonies while moving the boundary east to the Suwannee River.

By the early 1800s, Spain had proved uninterested in and incapable of organizing or defending either of the two Floridas much beyond the two small capital letter cities. American settlers moved into the territory without authorization, causing disharmonize with the Seminoles, a new Native American civilisation which had coalesced from refugees of nearby southern states. British operatives fomented turmoil in Florida during the State of war of 1812 and prompted the interest of American troops, all in Castilian territory. American settlers in East Florida further weakened Spanish control in 1812 when a group calling themselves the Patriots declared the short-lived Republic of Eastward Florida at Amelia Isle with semi-official support from the U.S. government.

Edge disputes between the Americans and Seminoles in Florida continued afterward the war. By 1817, much of Spanish West Florida had been occupied and annexed by the United States over Castilian objections, with the land eventually becoming portions of the states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. After a decade of intensifying border disputes and American incursions, Kingdom of spain ceded both Floridas to the U.Due south. in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. The U.S. officially took possession in 1821, and in 1822, all of East Florida and the few remaining portions of West Florida were combined into a unmarried Florida Territory with borders that closely approximated those of the electric current state of Florida.

British menses [edit]

Extract of 1803 map past John Cary showing East and West Florida, limited past the Us' merits to part of Spain-controlled West Florida.

Under the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which concluded the Vii Years' War (the French and Indian War), Spain ceded Castilian Florida to Britain. At the same time, United kingdom received all of French Louisiana e of the Mississippi River, with the exception of New Orleans, from France. Determining the new territory too large to administer every bit one unit, Britain divided its new southeastern acquisitions into two new colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: East Florida, with its capital in the erstwhile Spanish city of St. Augustine, and West Florida, with its majuscule at Pensacola. However, almost of the Spanish population departed post-obit the signing of the treaty, with the entirety of St Augustine emigrating to Republic of cuba.^[1]

The settlement of East Florida was heavily linked in London with the same interests that controlled Nova Scotia. The Due east Florida Society of London and the Nova Scotia Society of London had many overlapping members, and Council oft followed their suggestions on the granting of lands to powerful merchant interests in London.

Perhaps it is foreign to think of such dissimilar geographic areas with such opposing climates every bit having much in common. But if one considers naval and armed services strategy, one can come across that these areas accept a mutual significance, especially when viewed from London by the ministry building. Halifax (Nova Scotia) was the command mail for both the admiral and general in charge of the American forces.... St. Augustine evoked the same strategic considerations. These posts have been described as the two centers of strength to which the British army was withdrawn in the late 1760s.^[2]

The apportionment of lands in the new colonies fell to the same group of English and Scottish entrepreneurs and merchant interests, led chiefly by the Englishman Richard Oswald, later a diplomat, and the British general James Grant, who would later become governor of Eastward Florida. A list of the grantees in both Florida and Canada show that the plums fell to a well-connected—and inter-connected—group. Lincoln'due south Inn barrister Levett Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett, a powerful merchant and Lord Mayor of London, came in for grants of 20,000 acres (81 kmⁱⁱ) in both locales, for example. Other aristocrats, nobles and merchants did the same.

The most powerful lubricant between the East Florida speculators and the Nova Scotia speculators was Col. Thomas Thoroton of Flintham, Nottinghamshire. Thoroton, the stepbrother of Levett Blackborne, had married an illegitimate girl of the Duke of Rutland and often lived at Belvoir Castle, where he acted as principal agent to the Knuckles, who, along with his son the Marquis of Granby, were heavily involved in overseas ventures. Thoroton frequently acted as the go-between for Richard Oswald and James Grant, particularly after those 2 gave up their Nova Scotia Grants to focus on East Florida, where a drumbeat of steady speculation (particularly from Dr. Andrew Turnbull and Dr. William Stork) had fanned the flames of interest in London.^[2] It was non until March 1781 that the Governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonyn, chosen elections for a provincial legislature.^[3]

Both Floridas remained loyal to Keen Britain during the American War of Independence. Britain used the territory as a temporary shelter for slaves as they attempted to remove all of them from the s. This slave removal was intended for dual-purposes; firstly, it would provide labor for other British colonies, in particular holdings in the West Indies, and secondly, it would impact the wealth and economic capabilities of the American revolutionaries.^[iv]

Kingdom of spain participated indirectly in the war every bit an ally of French republic and captured Pensacola from the British in 1781. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, the British ceded both Floridas to Spain. The same treaty recognized the independence of the United States, directly to the north.

Census [edit]

Racial demographics [edit]

During the period of British rule in East Florida, the blackness population came to outnumber the white population in the province by a ratio of 2 to 1. The ratio of blacks to whites in East Florida was lower than in British West Florida only higher than in the other southern British colonies. Those who were white in Florida by and large served in the military or worked as overseers, artisans, or merchants. There were very few white yeomen farmers. White residents generally lived in or around St. Augustine with an exception existence generally made for overseers and those who resided in New Smyrna.^[5]

Population and other characteristics [edit]

It is unclear what the population of E Florida was prior to the American Revolution but it is estimated to have had a population of close to iii,000, making it much larger in population than West Florida, which is believed to have had only several hundred residents.^[6] The British tried to encourage settlement in Due east and West Florida, thinking information technology would have force per unit area off the proclamation line that colonists in the northern British colonies wanted to move beyond. However, this plan was by and large unsuccessful as many of those who got land grants did not end up settling on those lands.^[7] By 1783 the population of East Florida was nigh 17,000.^[eight]

During the American Revolution, East Florida sided with the British and became a "loyalist haven".^[8] With the terminate of the Revolution and the handing over of both Floridas to the Spanish, many loyalists were hesitant to exit.^[nine] In the end, most of the loyalist and British residents, approximately 10,000 people, left with most of these going to the Bahamas or West Indies and some going to Nova Scotia and England. Another iv,000 people "melted away into the wilderness", with some going equally far abroad as the Mississippi River.^[8]

A town named St. Johns Bluff or St. Johns Town was laid out in 1779 along the St. Johns River. The planned community was the starting time town to be established on the river.^[10] Most of those who fled to Florida settled at that town and St. Augustine. St. Johns Barefaced became a port and had 300 houses in it by the jump of 1783.^[11] With the end of the British flow, it was renamed as St. Vincent Ferrer before information technology was somewhen abased.^[10]

St. Augustine, the capital of the colony, was much smaller and less advanced than the capitals of the other Thirteen Colonies.^[12]

Slavery and economic science [edit]

Eastward Florida did not establish a formal slave lawmaking until 1782. Those who were black or of mixed race of European and African origin and could not bear witness they were free were considered to be slaves. During the American Revolution, many Georgians and Carolinians moved to Florida along with their slaves. The colonial regime, along with slave-owners, used slaves to construct defensive fortifications. A militia act that allowed for conscripting slaves equally laborers and soldiers was passed in 1781.^[11]

Goods produced and exported in E Florida included carbohydrate, timber, indigo, rice, naval stores, and barrel staves; most of these goods came from plantations forth the St. Marys and St. Johns rivers that used slave labor.^[thirteen]

Media [edit]

The East Florida Gazette was a pro-loyalist newspaper that was published weekly in St. Augustine from 1783 to 1784. It was founded by a loyalist printer, John Wells, and his brother, Dr. William Charles Wells, who had moved to St. Augustine from Charleston, South Carolina.^[fourteen] ^[xv] ^[16] Prior to the institution of a newspaper, most news came into St. Augustine through gazettes that were published in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston.^[12]

Castilian period: Florida Oriental [edit]

Map of East and West Florida in 1819, the twelvemonth that Spain ceded Florida to the United States by the Adams–Onís Treaty (ratified 1821)

Under Spanish dominion, the provinces of East Florida and West Florida initially remained divided by the Apalachicola River, the purlieus established by the British.^[17] ^[eighteen] ^[19] Only Spain in 1785 moved information technology eastward to the Suwanee River.^[20] ^[21] ^[22]

"Under Spanish rule, Florida was divided by the natural separation of the Suwanee River into West Florida and East Florida."—University of Florida

Kingdom of spain continued to administrate East and West Florida equally separate provinces. The Spanish offered favorable terms for acquiring state, which attracted many settlers from the newly formed U.s.. In that location were several territorial disputes between the US and Spain, some resulting in military action.^[23]

An American army under Andrew Jackson invaded East Florida during the First Seminole War. Jackson's forces captured San Marcos on vii April 1818; equally well every bit Fort Barrancas at W Florida'southward capital, Pensacola, on 24 May 1818.

James Monroe'southward Secretarial assistant of State, John Quincy Adams, defined the American position on this issue. Adams defendant Spain of breaking Pinckney's Treaty by failing to control the Seminoles. Faced with the prospect of losing control, Spain formally ceded all of its Florida territory to the US under the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819 (ratified in 1821), in exchange for the US ceding its claims on Texas and the US paying any claims its citizens might have against Spain, upwards to $v,000,000.

In 1822, the United states Congress organized the Florida Territory. In 1845, Florida was admitted as the 27th country of the Usa.

Governors [edit]

List of governors of East Florida [edit]

Name	Term	Notes
John Hedges	20 Jul 1763 – 30 Jul 1763	uppercase at St. Augustine (acting governor)
Francis Ogilvie	xxx Jul 1763 – 29 Aug 1764	acting governor
James Grant	29 Aug 1764 – 9 May 1771	Considered the inaugural governor.
John Moultrie	9 May 1771 – 1 Mar 1774
Patrick Tonyn	1 Mar 1774 – 12 Jul 1784
Vicente Manuel de Céspedes y Velasco	12 July 1784 – July 1790	capital letter at St. Augustine
Juan Nepomuceno de Quesada y Barnuevo	July 1790 – March 1796
Bartolomé Morales	March 1796 – June 1796	acting governor
Enrique White	June 1796 – March 1811
Juan José de Estrada	March 1811 – June 1812	Patriot War with U.S.
Sebastián Kindelán y Oregón	June 1812 – June 1815	Patriot War with U.S.
Juan José de Estrada	June 1815 – January 1816
José María Coppinger	January 1816 – 10 July 1821	First Seminole War with U.S.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b "The British Period (1763-1784) - Fort Matanzas National Monument". U.S. National Park Service . Retrieved 5 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b The E Florida Society of London, Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. LIV, No. 4, Apr 1976 Archived fourteen Jan 2009 at the Wayback Auto
^ The Impact of Loyalists in British East Florida, folio 7
^ Kirschke, James J. (May 2005). "Steps toward nationhood: Henry Laurens (1724–92) and the American Revolution in the Due south". Historical Research. 78 (200): 185. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.2005.00227.x. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
^ Wright Jr., J (April 1976). "Blacks in British Due east Florida". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 54 (iv): 3–iv.
^ Bauer, Deborah (Fall 2010). ""... in a foreign place...": The Experiences of British Women during the Colonization of E & Due west Florida". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 89 (two): 145–185.
^ Mowat, Charles (Apr 1940). "The Country Policy in British Eastward Florida". Agronomical History. Agronomical History Society. fourteen (2): 75–77. JSTOR 3739336 – via JSTOR.
^ ^a ^b ^c Peters, Thelma (October 1961). "The Loyalist Migration from East Florida to the Commonwealth of the bahamas". The Florida Historical Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 40 (ii): 123–141.
^ Troxler, Carole (October 1989). "Refuge, Resistance, and Advantage: The Southern Loyalists' Merits on East Florida". The Journal of Southern History. 55 (4): 563–596 – via JSTOR.
^ ^a ^b "History of the St. Johns River". The Jacksonville Historical Club . Retrieved 19 May 2022.
^ ^a ^b Wright Jr., J. (April 1976). "Blacks in British Due east Florida". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 54 (4): 6 & 9–10.
^ ^a ^b McCrady, James Waring; Bragg, C. L. (2020). Patriots in Exile: Charleston Rebels in St. Augustine during the American Revolution. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 39. ISBN978-one-64336-080-5.
^ Wright Jr., J (April 1976). "Blacks in British E Florida". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 54 (4): 425–442.
^ Wroth, Lawrence C. (1994). The Colonial Printer. Courier Corporation. pp. 51–52. ISBN978-0-486-28294-7.
^ "THE EAST FLORIDA GAZETTE, 1783–1784". Journal of the American Revolution . Retrieved 19 May 2022.
^ Jasanoff, Maya (2012). Liberty'due south Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. Vintage Books. p. 380. ISBN978-ane-4000-7547-8.
^ Bernard Romans (15 November 1999) [1775]. A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. Academy of Alabama Press. p. 43. ISBN978-0-8173-0876-half-dozen.
^ James Grant Forbes (1821). Sketches, Historical and Topographical, of the Floridas: More than Particularly of Due east Florida. C.S. Van Winkle. p. 120.
^ A Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the Territory of Florida at its Second Session. publisher not identified. 1840. p. 81.
^ Wright, J. Leitch (1972). "Research Opportunities in the Spanish Borderlands: West Florida, 1781-1821". Latin American Research Review. Latin American Studies Association. 7 (two): 24–34. JSTOR 2502623. When Spain acquired Due west Florida in 1783, the eastern British purlieus was the Apalachicola River, simply Spain in 1785 moved it east to the Suwanee River.[at Footnote one:"It was some fourth dimension afterward 1785 before it was clearly established that Suwannee was the new eastern boundary of the province of Apalachee."] (Few maps betoken this eastward shift.) The purpose was to transfer San Marcos and the district of Apalachee from East Florida to Due west Florida.
^ Weber, David J. (1992). The Spanish Frontier in N America. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 275. ISBN978-0-300-05917-5. Spain never drew a clear line to separate the 2 Floridas, merely West Florida extended easterly to include Apalachee Bay, which Spain shifted from the jurisdiction of St. Augustine to more than accessible Pensacola.
^ "Territory of Florida Map i". Historical Florida County Maps. Academy of Florida. 1936. Archived from the original on iii February 2016. Under Spanish rule, Florida was divided by the natural separation of the Suwanee River into W Florida and East Florida. Upon the purchase of Florida, (1819) by the United states of america, West Florida and E Florida became two counties: Escambia County and St Johns County, so named and and so ordained as counties with corresponding county governments by Andrew Jackson, Military Governor of the Territory of Florida.
^ Cusick, James Yard. (2007). The other War of 1812 : the Patriot War and the American invasion of Spanish East Florida. Athens. pp. 293–294. ISBN978-0820329215.