East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763–1785

East Florida in the Revolutionary Era

East Florida in the Revolutionary Era

1763–1785

George Kotlik

NEWSOUTH BOOKS

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The University of Georgia Press

Athens

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Published by NewSouth Books an imprint of the University of Georgia Press

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Copyright © 2023 by George Kotlik

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022944404

ISBN: 9781588384720 (hardback)

ISBN: 9781588385024 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781588384867 (ebook)

To my parents.

I could not have written this book without you.

Contents

Introduction

I British East Florida

II Border Warfare and the First American Invasion of East Florida, 1776

III The Battle of Thomas Creek and the Second American Invasion of East Florida, 1777

IV The Battle of Alligator Creek Bridge and the Third American Invasion of East Florida, 1778

V British East Florida’s Final Years, 1779–1785

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

East Florida in the Revolutionary Era

Top, 1763 map of East and West Florida; bottom, 1776 map of the Southern British Colonies (both courtesy of the State Archives of Florida).

Introduction

It is an Object of considerable importance, & if it could be effected, would produce the most valuable & salutary consequences, General George Washington wrote in 1777.¹ He was referring to St. Augustine, East Florida’s capital during the British colonial period. During the American Revolutionary War, Washington, like many patriot leaders, particularly those in Georgia, sought to bring East Florida into the rebellion. Today, the story of British East Florida exists on the fringes of Revolutionary War era scholarship. Most research on the American Revolution deals primarily with the original thirteen colonies. Often forgotten is that by 1775, the British Empire boasted thirty-three colonies in the Americas.² Historians and authors usually mention the original thirteen British colonies in reference to the American Revolution. Yet East Florida can be thought of as the fourteenth colony, and was significant during that time period and conflict. When Britain acquired Florida from Spain after the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War, 1754–1763), British leadership divided that territory into two separate provinces: East and West. St. Augustine became the capital of East Florida and Pensacola the capital of West Florida. A lone dirt road hacked through the thick Florida wilderness connected the two provinces.³ Known by the Spanish as El Camino Real, it was the only overland route over Florida. Regarding both East and West Florida, historians usually have written only about one or the other.

In contemporary scholarship, the American Revolution has received much attention. Monographs on the northern theater of the war dominate historical literature. Historians are so apt to write about the exploits of the original thirteen colonies that they have almost written East Florida entirely out of the American Revolutionary War narrative. At best, East Florida is briefly mentioned. At worst, it is not mentioned at all, at least not to anyone who lives outside of Florida. It is unfortunate that the history of Florida’s role in the United States’ founding has been reduced to near anonymity. Such existence along the far-flung fringes of literature, away from any recognition, leads one to assume that nothing important happened in Florida during the Revolution. No statement is further from the truth. East Florida was a hotbed of Revolutionary War activity. Indeed, it was the site of a few significant battles, constituting part of the southern theater of the war; it was a loyalist haven for refugees fleeing rebel violence; it served as a barrier colony, protecting British sugar plantations in the West Indies from the anti-British movement; and most importantly, it was a thorn in the side of the rebellious southern states during the war, threatening Georgia’s invasion on numerous occasions.

To date, few published books have covered British East Florida in the American Revolutionary Era.⁴ During the first half of the twentieth century, East Florida received little scholarly attention. Nothing significant on eighteenth-century East Florida was published until in the 1970s, when the Florida Bicentennial Commission, celebrating the bicentennial of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, brought East Florida into the limelight. The commission sought to recall Florida’s heritage and to examine the role played by Florida in the years leading up to the Revolution and during the American Revolution.⁵ The commission published and disseminated specialized monographs, school pamphlets, and rare out-of-print facsimiles on Florida in the American Revolution. Five symposia were organized and held annually 1972–1976 on Florida’s state university campuses. Scholars were invited to investigate aspects of the social, economic, intellectual, and political events surrounding eighteenth-century Florida. Five volumes published by the University Presses of Florida emerged from these conferences. After the conclusion of Florida’s bicentennial celebrations, East Florida in the American Revolution again fell into obscurity. Since then, apart from a few scattered publications, no detailed source has paid sole attention to East Florida in the American Revolution.

WINSTON CHURCHILL CALLED THE Seven Years’ War the first true world war. The North American theater of the Seven Years’ War is also referred to as the Great War for the Empire, which was fought primarily between New France and British North America. Spain entered the war in 1762. Hostilities came to an end with the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763. This treaty is sometimes called the Peace of Paris since Paris was where the peace negotiations took place.⁶ Because of her participation in the Seven Years’ War, Spain exchanged her Florida territory, La Florida, for Britain’s Havana, Cuba, on November 3 during the 1762 peace preliminaries.⁷ Havana was an important Spanish port in the Caribbean that was lost to the British during the Seven Years’ War. This trade demonstrated Britain’s resolve to fulfill its dreams of a continental empire rather than a commercial one.⁸ The rationale for this decision stemmed from British opinion that North America’s value as a market was more profitable than was sugar production in the West Indies.⁹ This point is of considerable significance and demonstrates the value Britain placed on the North American colonies, especially considering how important sugar was in the world economy. According to Dr. Roger Smith, In the eighteenth-century, sugar had the same impact on world economies as crude oil does today.¹⁰ Indeed, European empires became dependent on sugar and even used the sugar trade to finance their global expansion.¹¹ As such, Article 20 of the 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded Florida, with Fort St. Augustin, and the Bay of Pensacola, as well as all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America, to the East or to the South East of the river Mississippi.

Florida’s transfer from Spain to Britain was not popular among British Parliamentary officials who were stunned by the deliberate loss of Havana. In their eyes, the trade-off of Havana for Florida was uneven. Many officials viewed Cuba as more valuable than Florida. In an address to the House of Commons, William Pitt declared that Florida was no compensation for the Havannah. Havana was an important conquest and that since the city was taken, all the Spanish treasures and riches in America, lay at [Great Britain’s] mercy. According to Pitt, to exchange Cuba for Florida was an inadequate trade that ignored the principles of reciprocity.¹² Alderman Beckford compared Florida to a barren Bagshot Heath, a colony consisting of nothing but pine barrens or sandy deserts.¹³ In the end, two important arguments supporting Florida’s acquisition won the day. First, Florida’s possession would eliminate the Spanish threat to Georgia, and second, British ports in Florida would serve as bases for privateering in future wars with France.¹⁴

At the time of La Florida’s acquisition, the Proclamation of 1763 organized Florida’s colonization. Since the proclamation prohibited westward expansion over the Appalachian Mountains, British leaders envisioned channeling settlement away from the west toward Canada and Florida.¹⁵ The brainchild of this idea to resettle westward colonists in Canada and Florida came from Henry Ellis in a paper he presented before the Board of Trade, Hints Relative to the Division and Government of the Conquered and newly acquired countries in America.¹⁶ At length, in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, British leadership envisioned the regulated westward expansion of American settlers. British leaders sought to regulate westward settlement for a few reasons. They believed that unrestricted westward expansion would prove costly in the need to administer newly acquired territories; they feared that unrestricted expansion would produce ungovernable colonies who would, in time, desire to split with Great Britain; and, most importantly, they sought to avoid a war with the Native Americans who were promised the protection of their land under the British government from further white encroachments after Pontiac’s Rebellion.¹⁷

Speaking to East Florida’s relevance, Benjamin Franklin considered the colony in his diplomatic strategy. Sometime between September 26 and October 25, 1776, Franklin drafted what he called propositions for peace with Great Britain. Among his numerous propositions, Franklin sought to purchase East and West Florida for the United States, promising to pay for that territory in the future.¹⁸ Franklin’s notes do not say exactly how much the United States was willing to pay, nor do they tell how many years it would take the United States to pay the debt in full. He may have deliberately left these sections blank and open to negotiation. Franklin’s consideration of East Florida in his propositions to Britain reveal East Florida’s presence in his mind. Franklin’s consideration of East Florida, albeit however minor, points to just one aspect of that province’s connection to the American Revolution. In the end, Franklin’s propositions for acquiring Florida for the United States never reached Congress.

THIS BOOK OFFERS AN accessible and detailed narrative of East Florida during the American Revolution, with consideration given to the province’s social, economic, political, and military history. Fundamentally, the narrative revolves around conflict. By placing center-stage the major events of East Florida in the American War of Independence, this work draws attention to East Florida’s connection to and significance in that conflict.

I

British East Florida

Naturalist and explorer William Bartram traveled through East Florida in 1774 observing the terrain, flora and fauna, and people and later documenting what he witnessed in a famous book, popularly called Bartram’s Travels. He described Amelia Island in northeast Florida as reedy, grassy, and very fertile, its inlets, sounds, and coasts abounding with a wide variety of fish. Rivers in eighteenth-century Florida afforded travelers effective inland transportation through the region’s dense forests and swamplands. Trees were draped with Spanish moss. Birds, animals, and reptiles were varied and abundant. He also remarked on East Florida’s indigenous population. While traveling down the St. Johns River, he stumbled across an Indian settlement consisting of eight to ten dwellings. The occupants were, he said, civil, happy, and naked.¹

Overall, Bartram’s account reveals that eighteenth-century East Florida was beautiful but wild. For Europeans, here as in similar frontier colonies, life in East Florida could be brutal. On one occasion, a party of drunken British soldiers from the St. Augustine garrison marched the wife of a local tavern owner at bayonet point to their fort, where they raped her. They brought her back to her tavern and forced her and her husband to serve them ale. Sometime later, one of the soldiers was charged with sexual assault. He then blew his brains out. Angered over the loss of their comrade, belligerent soldiers blamed the tavernkeeping couple and destroyed the tavern. British colonial officials searched in vain for the culprits. The British garrison commander refused to cooperate in the investigation lest he lose control of his troops. In an unrelated incident, an angry customer shot and robbed the owner of an East Florida inn. On another occasion, a drunken confrontation between an Indian chief’s son and a British soldier resulted in the Indian’s death after a bayonet was