Английская Википедия:East Florida

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East Florida (Шаблон:Lang-es) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of the Spanish Empire from 1783 to 1821. The British gained control over Spanish Florida in 1763 as part of the Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years' War. Deciding that the colony was too large to administer as a single unit, British officials divided Florida into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River; the colony of East Florida, with its capital located in St. Augustine and West Florida with its capital located in Pensacola. East Florida was much larger and comprised the bulk of the former Spanish colony and most of the current state of Florida. It had also been the most populated region of Spanish Florida, but before control was transferred to Britain, most residents – including virtually everyone in St. Augustine – left the territory, with most migrating to Cuba.

Britain tried to attract settlers to the two Floridas without much success. The sparsely populated colonies were invited to send representatives to the Continental Congress but chose not to do so, and they remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. However, as part of the 1783 treaty in which Britain officially recognized the independence of thirteen of its former colonies as the United States, it ceded both Floridas back to Spain, which maintained them as separate 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 cities. American settlers moved into the territory without authorization, causing conflict with the Seminoles, a new Native American culture which had formed by indigenous refugees from the American Southeast. During the War of 1812, the American military invaded Florida, occupying West Florida while East Florida remained in Spanish hands. American settlers in East Florida further weakened Spanish control in 1812 when a group of Americans, mostly from Georgia, calling themselves the "Patriots" declared the short-lived Republic of East Florida at Amelia Island with semi-official support from the U.S. government.

Border disputes between the United States and Seminoles in Florida continued after the war. By 1817, much of Spanish West Florida had been occupied and annexed by the United States over Spanish 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, Spain ceded both Floridas to the U.S. in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. The U.S. officially took possession in 1821; in 1822, all of East Florida and the few remaining portions of West Florida were combined into a single Florida Territory with borders that closely approximated those of the current state of Florida.

British period

Файл:East and West Florida 1803 Cary Map.png

Excerpt of 1803 map by John Cary showing East and West Florida, limited by the United States' claim to part of Spain-controlled West Florida.

Шаблон:See also Under the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War), Spain ceded Spanish Florida to Britain. At the same time, Britain received all of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of New Orleans, from France. Determining the new territory too large to administer as one unit, Britain divided its new southeastern acquisitions into two new colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: East Florida, with its capital in the old Spanish city of St. Augustine, and West Florida, with its capital at Pensacola. However, most of the Spanish population departed following the signing of the treaty, with the entirety of St. Augustine emigrating to Cuba.

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

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 East 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's Inn barrister Levett Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett, a powerful merchant and Lord Mayor of London, came in for grants of Шаблон:Convert in both locales, for instance. 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 daughter of the Duke of Rutland and often lived at Belvoir Castle, where he acted as principal agent to the Duke, 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 two 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. It was not until March 1781 that the Governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonyn, called elections for a provincial legislature.

Both Floridas remained loyal to Great 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 south. 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.

Шаблон:Anchor Spain participated indirectly in the war as an ally of France 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.

Demography

Racial demographics

During the period of British rule in East Florida, the black 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 but higher than in the other southern British colonies. Those who were white in Florida generally 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 being generally made for overseers and those who resided in New Smyrna.

Population and other characteristics

It is unclear what the population of East Florida was prior to the American Revolution but it is estimated to have had a population of close to 3,000, making it much larger in population than West Florida, which is believed to have had only several hundred residents. The British tried to encourage settlement in East and West Florida, thinking it would take pressure off the proclamation line that colonists in the northern British colonies wanted to move beyond. However, this plan was generally unsuccessful as many of those who got land grants did not end up settling on those lands. By 1783 the population of East Florida was about 17,000.

During the American Revolution, East Florida sided with the British and became a loyalist haven. With the end of the Revolution and the handing over of both Floridas to the Spanish, many loyalists were hesitant to leave. 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 4,000 people "melted away into the wilderness", with some going as far away as the Mississippi River.

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 first town to be established on the river. Most of those who fled to Florida settled at that town and St. Augustine. St. Johns Bluff became a port and had 300 houses in it by the spring of 1783. With the end of the British period, it was renamed as St. Vincent Ferrer before it was eventually abandoned. A settlement named Rollestown was established by Denys Rolle Шаблон:Convert southeast of St. Augustine, on the east shore of the St. Johns River, south of Deep Creek.

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

Slavery and economics

East Florida did not establish a formal slave code until 1782. Those who were black or of mixed race of European and African origin and could not prove 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 government, along with slave-owners, used slaves to construct defensive fortifications. A militia act that allowed for conscripting slaves as laborers and soldiers was passed in 1781.

Goods produced and exported in East Florida included sugar, timber, indigo, rice, naval stores, and barrel staves; most of these goods came from plantations along the St. Marys and St. Johns rivers that used slave labor.

Bernard Romans wrote the first account of Spanish fishing ranchos existing along Florida's southwest coast in 1770. When the British took control of Florida, they monitored the fisherman but let them continue their activities. Governor James Grant was ordered to stop the fisherman from operating but did not enforce that order. At one point the fishing boats were suspected of being a threat to British control, but a complete review in 1767-68 found they were harmless.

Media

Файл:Front page of East Florida Gazette Vol. 1 (no.16).jpg

Front page of the East Florida Gazette (Volume 1, no 16), a pro-loyalist newspaper.

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. The paper was printed "'...at the Printing-office in Treasury-lane'" Prior to the establishment of a newspaper, most news came into St. Augustine through gazettes that were published in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston.

The Wells brothers also published two books: Nature and the Principles of Public Credit, by Samuel Gale, along with The Case of the Inhabitants of East Florida, written by John Wells himself. In 1783, another printer named David Zubly, who was a loyalist refugee from Savannah, Georgia, printed the first book in the colony, a copy of John Tobler's Almanack, at his home.

Spanish period: Florida Oriental

Файл:Map of East and West Florida in 1819.jpg

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

Under Spanish rule, the provinces of East Florida and West Florida initially remained divided by the Apalachicola River, the boundary established by the British. However, Spain moved it eastward to the Suwanee River in 1785.

Файл:Historic Florida maps ("Territory of Florida Map 1 1820").gif

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

Spain continued to administer East and West Florida as separate provinces. The Spanish offered favorable terms for acquiring land, which attracted many settlers from the newly formed United States. There were several territorial disputes between the U.S. and Spain, some resulting in military action, including the Patriot War in 1812 and the filibuster at Amelia Island in 1817.

An American army under Andrew Jackson invaded East Florida during the First Seminole War. Jackson's forces captured San Marcos on 7 April 1818; as well as Fort Barrancas at West Florida's capital, Pensacola, on 24 May 1818.

James Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, defined the American position on this issue. Adams accused 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 U.S. under the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819 (ratified in 1821), in exchange for the U.S. ceding its claims on Texas and the U.S. paying any claims its citizens might have against Spain, up to $5,000,000.

In 1822, the U.S. Congress organized the Florida Territory, merging East Florida and the portion of West Florida that had remained under Spanish control until 1821. In 1845, Florida was admitted as the 27th state of the United States.

Population and demographics

With the transfer of Florida to Spain, a number of former British subjects decided to stay while some Spaniards came to Florida. St. Augustine had a mix of both residents from the British period and newly arrived Spaniards. The rural areas settled by colonists were described as being "exclusively Anglo". During the Spanish period, the population of St. Augustine "hovered" at about 3,000 people, with half of its population being black slaves. There were nine Native American towns in Florida, but those towns were not counted in the 1786 census. In 1786, St. Augustine had a population of about 950 people. Three hundred of whom had some degree of African descent whether they were enslaved or not.

Economics

With the return of the Spanish, the system of plantation agriculture developed in the colony during the British period remained. Although the production levels were not as high as other British colonies, cash crops like indigo, hemp, and rum made in Spanish East Florida led to economic growth there. As a result, St. Augustine became less dependent on the royal situado (royal financial payments for support). Trade became less restrictive during the second Spanish period as the Spanish monarchies enacted reforms allowing for trade between Spanish and non-Spanish areas, which benefited St. Augustine.

St. Augustine was the largest port on the Atlantic Ocean south of Charleston. Ships would travel often to Charleston, South Carolina and Cap Français in Haiti where goods were traded and crews learned the latest news as well. East Florida became economically dependent on the United States after Spain started to align with France and declared war on the British in 1796; as a result British trade largely stopped. Charleston began to surpass Havana as St. Augustine's biggest trading partner while Savannah, Philadelphia and New York City had become trading partners with the city. East Florida exported oranges, lumber and cotton to the United States while fish, grain and foodstuffs were imported from the United States.

Spain was concerned about the Haitian Revolution, fearing that ideas of independence could be spread to their own colonies, including Florida, with Governor Quesada doing his best to follow the Spanish government's policy of prohibiting interactions with French possessions, "...forbidding the introduction of French ideas, books, citizens, or slaves originating from French possessions."

Governors

List of governors of East Florida

Name	Term	Notes
John Hedges	20 Jul 1763 – 30 Jul 1763	capital at St. Augustine (acting governor)
Francis Ogilvie	30 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 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.

See also

• The Republic of East Florida
• George Mathews (Georgia), Patriot War of East Florida (1812)
• Seminole Wars
• Mosquito County, Florida
• Spanish colonization of the Americas

Further reading

• Kotlik, George. East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763–1785 (Athens: NewSouth Books, 2023) online book review
• Seibert, Wilbur Henry. Loyalists in East Florida, 1774-1785 (1929),
• Smith, Roger. Fourteenth Colony: The American Revolution’s Best Kept Secret (2011)

External links

• Spalding Plate at A History of Central Florida Podcast