[ November 5, 2012 ]Florida : Revolution to Statehood The Spanish gave Florida to the British at the end of the French-Indian War because the Spanish sided with the French, the 'wrong side.' At the time that the British received Florida, it stretched from St. Augustine all the way west to the Miss. River. Most of the Spanish citizens of Florida left in 1764, they didn't want to be under British rule. There is hardly anyone in this area. British decide Florida is too big to be governed as one colony. They make the border where the Apalachicola River (divides Florida & West Florida into two administrative sections). Two reasons Brits want FL:1. When the Spanish had Florida, and slaves escaped, if they could make it to Spanish Florida they were freed, the British could not obtain them in Spanish Florida.2. Florida promised economic benefits for the British / sugar plantations along the St. Johns river, and West Florida is very forested, which is good for Naval stores (anything that had to do with the construction / upkeep of a boat). British have this huge track of land and they want people to move into FL. The British have the same problem that the French had with Canada: Florida or Pennsylvania (days before air conditioning) - FL is pretty shitty in the 17/1800s. Andrew Turnbull, goes to Florida, a Scottish doctor / he saw that Florida was the same distance from the equator as the Mediterranean, so he thought it would have the same climate as Italy / Spain / Med. Sea. The crops of those regions will grow in Florida. He wanted to start a plantation in FL in the 1760's with unorthodox crops from the Mediterranean: citrus / grapefruit / oranges / olives / grapes. He was also married to a Greek woman, he called his plantation New Smyrna. He doesn't believe in slaves, he wanted free labor. He recruits settlers from the Med. to come to Florida. They get to Florida and they say 'WTF.' Florida is nothing like the Mediterranean, the recruits felt cheated. He had brought 300 families / they abandon New Smyrna in 1777 and move to St. Augustine. They could not handle the diseases that existed in Florida (yellow fever, spread by mosquitoes). Most of the Spanish names in St. Augustine are not from the Spanish colony, instead they are from these immigrants. The British hold on to Florida from 1764 through the Am. Revolution. It became a haven for refugees, people who flee the N. colonies come to Florida. The population swells to 17,000 (total population) in 1780. The Spanish and the British fought at Pensacola. The Spanish were mad about the loss of Florida in 1764, they held a grudge. During the revolution, the Spanish join the Americans, become an ally of the Americans. The Spanish don't want to send troops to the North, they are just interested in getting Florida back. 1781: Spanish force lands at Mobile, AL / they seize it and they march to Pensacola and surround the British soldiers. Both sides sit in forts and look at each other, the Brits haveenough food / Spanish don't want to attack. Until May 1781: a British soldier took a smoke break, dropped the match into a pile of gunpowder and it blew up. The whole British fort was destroyed, troops died, Spanish knew they could now break through. Pensacola fell in May of 1781 to the Spanish army. 1783: Rev. war ends / Spain receives Florida back --> The Second Spanish PeriodThis period lasts from 1783 to 1821. Problem with Spanish Florida: they realize that Americans want land and expansion of new country. They decide the best policy to defend Florida is to have a militia in Florida, fill it full of settlers that can defend it when the time comes. No one wants to come to Florida from the Spanish colonies. Idea: open Florida up to American immigration to become Spanish citizens in return for land. In return for land, you will defend Florida if it is attacked from the United States. Unlike in Texas, the Spanish in Florida say: 1. you can bring your slaves2. and we don't care about your religionSo the Americans move into Florida.Florida is a drain on the Spanish treasury / Spain not wealthy at this time. Andrew Jackson comes into the picture. Tribes never called themselves SEMINOLES / they used tribal names where they came from (Creek / Mickosuckee / etc.). The Spanish gave all the Indians in Florida the collective name of SEMINOLE (which meant 'Wild Men'). The Indians living in this area, around Tallahassee, raided across into Georgia .Take cattle & crops from American settlers. By 1818 the incursions between the two had caused such a problem, the settlers in GA asked for military help. 1818: Andrew Jackson sent into Florida to deal with the Indians. Florida is a Spanish possession, so Jackson is invading another countries territory to attack Indians. James Monroe, president at the time, says: 'if you attack FL I will protect you'. Jackson invades FL. Attacks the indians around Tallahassee and scatters them. Jackson then gets bored. He goes to Spanish fort at St. Marks, 15 miles south of Tallahassee and Jackson takes the fort and makes all the Spanish soldiers prisoner. Chases the seminoles out of the area, then creates an incident by attacking St. Marks. Jackson marches 100 miles south to the Suwannee River and destroys an Indian village on the banks of the river, finds two British agents among the Indians giving them guns. Jackson hangs the two British agents. Two things come out of this:1. Seminole Indians sign a treaty with the U.S. in which they are put on land in S. Florida, they are told to stay in S. Florida, not cause trouble and they will live in peace. 2. Because of the two British agents, the Spanish are now in trouble. The Spanish sell the United States Florida for 5 million dollars.When Jackson gets back to Georgia, he is forced to resign from the army. President's consolation prize: you will become the governor of Florida territory, he is sent to Pensacola. He hated it, stayed for 3 months. While he was there he decided, because Florida is so large, both Pensacola and St. Augustine would serve as dual-capitals for the state. The legislators would travel in-between capitals each year. In 1822 & 1823, the legislatures were shipwrecked at Key West and drowned. They decided sea travel would not work. In 1823, they decide to find a spot halfway in between Pensacola and St. Augustine: thus, they created Tallahassee in 1823, it became the capital in 1824. Jackson has congress pass the Indian removal bill / seminoles were included in
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