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Florida Becomes a State
British Rule
in Florida
New Smyrna
Life in East and West Florida
Florida and the American
Revolution
The Second Spanish Period
United States Acquires
Florida
West Florida
Conflict
The Territory of Florida
The Territory Grows
Transporting Goods
The Second Seminole War
Osceola
The War Starts
Third Seminole War
The Twenty-Seventh State
The First Constitution
Statehood
Florida in 1850
British Rule in
Florida
In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great
Britain. To cede is to give up as part of a treaty. After 250
years of Spanish rule, Florida came under British rule. When
Great Britain acquired Florida, its government decided to split
Florida into two colonies: East Florida with its capital in
St. Augustine and West Florida with its capital in Pensacola.
The Apalachicola River served as the boundary between the two
colonies. West Florida extended west to the Mississippi River
and included parts of present-day Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana. Counting the two Florida colonies, now there were
15 British colonies in what later became the United States.
New Smyrna
To attract settlers Great Britain gave settlers grants of free
land. By 1774, over one million acres had been given in East
Florida alone. Dr. Andrew Turnbull was one of the recipients
of a land grant. He received a grant of more than 100,000 acres
in present-day Volusia County. In 1768, Turnbull started an
indigo plantation that he called New Smyrna. He recruited mostly
people from Minorca, an island off the coast of Spain. He also
recruited Greeks and Italians to work. The workers were hired
as indentured servants. An indentured servant is an individual
who contracts to work for a colonist for a certain number of
years in exchange for transportation to the colonies and land.
Turnbull and the plantation overseers treated the workers cruelly.
In 1777, the workers rebelled and fled on foot 80 miles north
to St. Augustine. They told the British governor about the abuses
that they had endured, and he freed them, allowing them to stay
in St. Augustine. Today, many residents of St. Augustine are
descendants of the workers at Turnbull's plantation.
Life in
East and West Florida
Both East and West Florida exported
rice, indigo, and furs. A great many languages were spoken in
the fourteenth and fifteenth colonies: English; Mandingo (West
Africa); the Native American languages of Muskogee, Hitchiti,
and Cherokee; Spanish; Minorcan; Italian; Sicilian; French;
German, and Greek. As it is today, colonial Florida was a multicultural
and multilingual society.
Florida
and the American Revolution
When Americans declared their independence
from Great Britain in 1776, East and West Florida remained loyal
to Britain and to King George III. Many British Loyalists from
Georgia and the Carolinas fled for safety to the Floridas. The
migration spurred St. Augustine's growth from 6,000 to 17,000
by the end of war.
First France, then Spain, joined the American
colonists in their war for independence from Britain. Troops
led by the Spanish governor of the Louisiana Territory, Bernardo
de Gálvez, attacked British forts on the Gulf of Mexico, capturing
Mobile and Pensacola.
Gálvez commanded an army of almost 8,000
soldiers during the Siege of Pensacola. His forces were made
up of Spaniards and Cubans, both black and white; Dominicans;
Mexicans; and others from Spanish America.
When the Peace of
Paris was signed in 1783, the American colonies had won their
independence. The British also gave Florida back to Spain.
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The Second
Spanish Period
The Spanish government in Florida took
steps to improve education and to encourage immigration. Governor
Vicente Manuel de Zéspedes arrived with 500 soldiers in St.
Augustine in June 1784. With the governor came two Irish priests
who three years later would establish the St. Augustine School,
the first integrated public school in the United States. The
school was supported by funds from the royal treasury. It was
opened without charge to all children, including African Americans.
United
States Acquires Florida
When Governor Zéspedes offered land
grants, many Americans took advantage of the opportunity to
move to Florida. As Anglo Americans made up more and more of
the population, support for the annexation of Florida by the
United States grew. Annexation is one country taking control
of an area of another country.
The United States was pleased
to have American citizens moving to Spanish Florida. As U.S.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson stated in a letter to President
George Washington in 1791,
"I wish 10,000 of our inhabitants would accept the invitation
(to move to Spanish Florida). It would be the means of delivering
to us peacefully what must otherwise [come through war]."
Other issues built support for
annexation. Slaveholders were angry that their enslaved workers
were escaping to Florida. Another issue involved the boundaries
of the Louisiana Territory. The United States acquired the Louisiana
Territory from France in 1803 when Jefferson was president.
The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the nation. The treaty,
however, did not set the boundaries of the Louisiana Territory.
Some Americans declared that the purchase included the part
of West Florida from Louisiana to the present-day Alabama-Florida
border. The Spanish continued to govern this region.
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West Florida
Some Americans decided to take matters into their own hands.
In 1810, a group captured the Spanish Fort San Carlos in Baton
Rouge. They declared the independence of the "Republic of West
Florida." That same year, President James Madison claimed Florida
from the Mississippi River to the Perdido River as part of the
Louisiana Purchase. Spain criticized the action, but because
it was involved in war with France, did not take action. In
1813, the United States took another piece of West Florida by
annexing the land between the Pearl and the Perdido rivers.
During the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United
States, the British captured Pensacola. General Andrew Jackson
led U.S. forces and drove the British out of Pensacola. Later,
General Jackson would achieve greater fame by defeating the
British during the Battle of New Orleans.
Conflict
During the colonial era, English settlers had pushed Native
Americans farther south. As early as 1702, Creeks began coming
to Florida. They mixed with Timucuans and Apalachees. They also
mixed with Africans who had escaped from the British plantations.
Eventually, these people were known as Seminoles.
During the
second Spanish period in Florida (1783-1821), more Native Americans
and fugitive slaves came into the territory. Relations between
white settlers and the Native Americans worsened. In 1816, U.S.
troops destroyed Fort Apalachicola to punish the Seminoles for
harboring runaway slaves. The Seminole had been using the abandoned
fort. The incident touched off armed conflict. Seminoles began
staging raids into Georgia, and then returning to the safety
of Spanish Florida. General Andrew Jackson pursued the Seminole
into Florida.
In the spring of 1818, General Jackson seized
St. Marks and Pensacola, and ordered the executions of two British
citizens. The British government condemned Jackson's conduct
but took no action. John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State
under President James Monroe, defended Jackson's actions and
hinted that the United States might take Florida by force.
Spanish
leaders realized that they would be unable to hold Florida.
With the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain gave up Florida. Two
years later, the Spanish flag was lowered forever in Pensacola
and St. Augustine.
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The Territory
of Florida
In March 1821, Andrew Jackson was appointed as temporary governor
to supervise Florida's transition from a Spanish territory into
an American territory. When Spain transferred Florida to the
United States on July 17, 1821, Jackson turned in his resignation.
Many Americans wondered why the United States wanted Florida.
Virginia Congressman John Randolph argued that
"Florida, sir, is not worth buying. It is a land of swamps,
of quagmires, of frogs and alligators and mosquitoes! A man,
sir, would not immigrate into Florida. No, sir! No man would
immigrate into Florida…."
Officially, Florida was now a
territory of the United States. Florida was organized and governed
according to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Florida had an
appointed territorial governor, a territorial legislature, and
a non-voting delegate to the United States Congress.
In 1822,
President James Monroe appointed William P. DuVal of Leon County
as the first territorial governor of Florida. A native of Virginia,
DuVal had served in the Kentucky state legislature and as a
district judge for Florida. DuVal served three terms as Florida's
territorial governor. Years later, DuVal served in the Florida
state senate.
Joseph Hernandez was appointed as the territory's
first delegate to Congress. He was born in St. Augustine of
Minorcan parents. Hernandez later served as mayor of St. Augustine.
During the Second Seminole War, he became brigadier general
of the East Florida militia (volunteers.) He was the first Hispanic
American in Congress and the first Hispanic mayor of a city.
The first act of the territorial legislature established four
counties and set up local courts. The four counties were Escambia,
Jackson, DuVal, and St. Johns.
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The Territory
Grows
Tallahassee was chosen as the territorial capital in 1824. Tallahassee
was chosen because it lay roughly midway between St. Augustine
and Pensacola, Florida's major cities at that time. The population
of the territory was less than 8,000, including enslaved African
Americans. However, that would change as news of fertile land
spread and thousands of new settlers streamed into Florida.
Because cotton production exhausted the soil, planters in Virginia,
Georgia, and the Carolinas abandoned their plantations for new
land in Florida. Many established cotton and tobacco plantations,
especially in the Panhandle and northern Florida. Many small
farms and cattle ranches dotted the region of central Florida.
The leading planters of northern Florida played an important
role in the government and politics of the territory.
Transporting
Goods
Moving crops and goods by wagon was difficult. Even major roads
that had existed for a long time, such as King's Road between
the St. Mary's River and New Smyrna and into Georgia, were bumpy
and uneven. The arrival of steamboats in the mid-1820s improved
transportation and helped towns grow along the rivers. By the
mid-1830s, railroad lines were operating. Many of the early
railroads were short lines. Among the most important were lines
from St. Joseph to Lake Wimico and Tallahassee to Port Leon.
The Second
Seminole War
Many new settlers had their eyes on the rich land occupied by
the Seminole. In 1823 near St. Augustine, a group of Seminole
chiefs met with Governor DuVal. According to the terms of the
Treaty of Moultrie Creek, they were forced to leave the productive
land around Tallahassee for a reservation with poorer land in
Central Florida. When Andrew Jackson was elected president,
he wanted to move all Native Americans to west of the Mississippi
River. In 1830, he signed into law the Indian Removal Act. An
Indian territory, which is now the state of Oklahoma, was set
aside for all Native Americans.
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Osceola
Many Seminoles did not want to give up their homes and refused
to move. Only a few left for Oklahoma. As tension mounted in
the territory, a Seminole leader, Osceola, angrily said,
"Am I a slave? I will make the white man red with blood,
and blacken him in the sun and rain."
For making threats such as this, Osceola
was imprisoned for six days. He swore vengeance against General
Wiley Thompson, the new agent of Indian Affairs.
The War Starts
The government set January 1, 1836, as the deadline for the
Seminole to leave for Oklahoma. On December 28th, Osceola and
20 followers killed General Thompson and another officer near
Ft. King. On that same day, Seminole chief Micanopy attacked
a detachment of about 140 soldiers led by Major Francis Dade
as it was moving from Ft. Brooke to Ft. King. Only three soldiers
survived the slaughter. Thus, the longest, bloodiest, and most
expensive of all Indian wars in the United States began.
The
Seminole and their African American allies fought the armed
forces of the United States from 1835 to 1842. Most of the Seminole
and African American leaders were killed, captured, or sent
to Oklahoma. After six and a half years, U.S. forces had lost
1,500 troops. The war had cost millions of dollars.
Seminole
chief Coacoochee expressed the feelings of his people when he
saw Florida for the last time and said:
"I am looking at the last pine tree on my land.... It was my
home, I loved it, and to leave it now is like burying my wife
and child."
Third Seminole
War
A Third Seminole War was fought from 1855 to 1858. More Seminoles
were killed or forced to leave. Those that survived fled deep
into the Everglades. The present Seminoles and Miccosukees of
Florida are descendants of about 50 people who escaped capture.
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The Twenty-Seventh
State
Once
a U.S. territory had 60,000 people, it could become a state.
In 1837, the territory's census reported 48,000 people lived
in Florida. Enslaved people made up about one-half of Florida's
population. A vote was taken to determine if Floridians wanted
to form a state. Only white men over 21 years of age could vote.
The people chose statehood and now a constitution was needed.
The First
Constitution
Florida voters chose 56 people to attend the constitutional
convention in St. Joseph, a small port city on the Gulf Coast.
The first constitution provided for a governor elected for four
years and an elected General Assembly, or legislature. Slavery
was permitted, and the state was asked to set up public schools.
The delegates approved the constitution on January 11, 1839.
It was sent to the U.S. Congress for final approval, or ratification.
Florida wanted to enter the Union as a slave state. It would
take six years for Congress to act.
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Statehood
In 1845, President John Tyler signed the bill allowing Florida
to become a slave state. In order to obtain the approval of
Northern states, Iowa became a free state. Thus, the balance
between the slave and free states in the nation remained the
same in Congress.
Florida became the twenty-seventh state in
the United States on March 3, 1845. Shortly after, Floridians
elected William D. Moseley to serve as the first governor of
the state. Moseley encouraged the growth of agriculture, especially
citrus and cotton. Moseley helped establish state-funded public
schools. Construction of the state capitol was also completed
during his term in office.
David Levy Yulee and James D. Westcott,
Jr., took their seats in the United States Senate as the first
senators from Florida on December 1, 1845. Yulee would later
serve in the Senate of the Confederate States of America. Westcott
would serve as Florida Attorney General after the Civil War.
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Florida in 1850
By 1850 the population of the young state numbered nearly 88,000.
Included in the total were about 39,000 enslaved people and
1,000 free African Americans. The three largest counties were
Leon with 11,442 people, Gadsden with 8,784, and Jefferson with
7,718.
Although Florida was growing, its population ranked low
among the Southern states. Alabama, for example, had 8 times
as many people as Florida did; Georgia had 11 times as many.
Economically, too, Florida was growing. Manufacturing industries
in Florida produced $660,000 in goods and services in 1850.
Florida had 4,143 farms. Yet only two states—California and
Minnesota—had fewer farms than Florida did.
Florida would continue
to grow. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, people from many
places made Florida their home. Its rich natural resources made
it a leader in agriculture. Florida's climate and coastlines
along both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico proved
to be major forces in attracting people to work and to live.
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