The Colonial History of Pensacola (original) (raw)
The British Influence on the Development of Florida, 1763–1783
This article begins by documenting the main reasons the Spanish failed to establish a self-sustaining colony in Florida during the First Spanish Period, 1513–1763. It then documents the steps Great Britain took during its short-lived possession of Florida (1763–1783) to occupy, govern and repopulate the territory with the ultimate goal of transforming it from an unproductive Spanish backwater into a civilized and profitable British colony, centered on the plantation system and black chattel slavery. Ultimately, this article contends, contrary to what some historians have argued, that the British, despite the brevity of their rule, greatly influenced the social, political and economic development of Florida.
American Journal of Legal History, 2015
Law in East Florida 1783-1821 by M.C. MIRow* I am delighted to dedicate this article to Larry Reilly who has shepherded the American Journal of Legal History for many years. Despite the challenges presented to the Journal, Larry never lost sight of its academic mission and its important place in the world of legal history. It was my pleasure to serve as a book review editor for the Journal from 2002 to 2010 and to correspond frequently with Larry about our work. I remember meeting him in person, perhaps at the Austin ASLH meeting in 2004, where he, Hamilton Bryson, and I discussed aspects of the Journal. It was clear that he deeply cared about its future. Because Larry is a librarian, I thought it fitting that this contribution focus on a particular source, the East Florida Papers, and discuss their use and potential in telling us something about colonial Spanish law and society in North America. It is also a happy coincidence that this study seeks in some ways to expand on the work of Charles R. Cutter, whose book I reviewed in this Journal in 1998.1 In 2013, at a roundtable discussing the works American legal historian William E. Nelson, Nelson himself described one of his first meetings with his supervisor at Harvard, Bernard Bailyn, the United
The urban development of Spanish colonial Pensacola, 1781--1821
2007
Many people have helped me complete this research and deserve special acknowledgement. I realize that I have omitted mentioning several people who deserve acknowledgement. Know that this is not for lack of appreciation. I was blessed to have access to the knowledge of many scholarly experts while at LSU Geography and Anthropology, but my committee deserves special recognition for their scholarly insight and continual moral support. Andrew Curtis provided GIS and statistics expertise, and persistently kept me on course. Kent Mathewson afforded his unparalleled understanding of the history of geography at LSU and beyond. Michael Leitner supplied valuable insight into the various intricacies of spatial analysis and computer cartography. Paul Farnsworth challenged me to consider theoretical approaches and methods of researching historical documents. I am also indebted to Paul Hoffman whose knowledge of colonial America, and of those who study its history, continually proved invaluable. Geographer Carville Earle deserves special mention for challenging me in his own blunt and direct way to focus my research interests into something worthwhile. Dr. Earle demanded much of me but, I soon discovered, not nearly as much as he demanded of himself. During the initial weeks in his introductory graduate seminar, Dr. Earle quite emphatically asked me why he should "spend his precious time" with someone who had not defined his research goals. In retrospect, I now know that his choice of words had other meanings beyond motivating a new, impressionable graduate student. But at the time I realized that this particular path required me to obtain skills that I did not yet possess, skills that Dr. Earle had in abundance. Although I have no way of proving it now, I believe he iv agreed to co-chair my committee because he realized that I was determined to learn as much from him as I could about historical geography and geographical history, and because he recognized that I simply was not going to quit. I am very proud that Dr. Earle decided to spare a few moments of his precious time to help me "find a star" on which to hang my research. While at Louisiana State University, the Department of Geography and Anthropology provided me with an assistantship that allowed me to complete the necessary course load and much of my dissertation research. The department also granted me support through the West Fund that permitted me to travel to Pensacola and find pertinent historical documents. Dana Sanders, the department's graduate secretary, was my rock of faith through this entire ordeal. Much of my time in Baton Rouge I was distracted by other, more pressing issues, but the love and support of friends and family brought me through these difficult times and allowed me to recover and continue my academic endeavors. My mother and Joe stayed with me during the most difficult times, and phone conversations with Lou kept me sane. My many friends visited and called, lifting my spirits and giving me hope. These include:
The evacuation of South Florida, 1704-1760
2003
The fall of Spanish Florida’s western mission chain between 1704 and 1706 brought the ravages of the English-sponsored Indian slave trade into South Florida, which had previously remained isolated from intensive European contact for more than a century. The peninsula was quickly evacuated, with Indian refugees coalescing both to the south around present-day Miami and the Florida Keys and to the north around St. Augustine. Final remnants of both groups independently settled in Cuba in 1760 and 1763, leaving the entire southern peninsula under Creek domination. This paper presents newly-discovered details and ongoing analysis of this process. Paper presented at the 60 annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, November 13, 2003.
Towns in Plantation Societies in Eighteenth-Century British America
Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2017
There is a long-standing historiography that the plantation system of the American South and the British West Indies was inimical to urbanization. If we focus on towns in the Lower South and the West Indies, however, rather than the Chesapeake, we see urbanization as central to plantation development. The slave trade was vital to this urbanization, forming the dynamic trade that allowed for entrepreneurial decision making. It allowed towns like Kingston, Charleston, and Bridgetown to become more than shipping points. They became places of deep linkages between different economic sectors. In addition, they had an independent, autonomous existence in which growth was endogenous and in which people found multiple opportunities for wealth creation and the pursuit of pleasure. One of the most enduring theses in American colonial history is Jacob Price's 1974 meditation on the economic functions of port towns in colonial North America on the eve of Revolution. Price concentrated on the northern seaport cities of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. He explained not only their growth and relative wealth in the quarter century before the American Revolution but also their subsequent explosion in the nineteenth century as the spearheads of industrialism in the American North. He made a distinction between urban growth in the port towns of the American North and growth in urban places in the American South. He did not deal with the British West Indies. Price concentrated on the ability of urban entrepreneurs to make decisions about trade that deepened linkages between various sectors of the population as the crucial factor separating dynamic port towns from pretenders. One of the principal conclusions of his thesis, influencing a generation of scholars, concerned the limited nature of urbanization in the American South. Price insisted that there were no
2023
On the final day of January in 1766, the duly-appointed British Governor of West Florida gave a direct order to the commander of the Pensacola Garrison, Ralph Walsh, to open one of the fort gates to let in a Native American leader known as the Wolf King. In defiance of the governor’s expectations, Lieutenant Colonel Walsh refused the order. This was the beginning of a chain of often laugh-worthy events which compose what is here called The Walsh Affair. Why did Walsh refuse the order? What was the social and political context that allowed him to disobey the sitting governor? What were the consequences for those involved? This fascinating and far-reaching incident in local history reveals important details about life on the far-flung West Florida frontier where new and extreme circumstances allowed for novel social behaviors to develop.