Colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain
30°25′58.9″N
87°11′26.5″W
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30.433028°N 87.190694°W
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30.433028; -87.190694
British West Florida
was a colony of the
Kingdom of Great Britain
from 1763 until 1783, when it was ceded to
Spain
as part of the
Peace of Paris
.
British West Florida comprised parts of the modern U.S. states of
Louisiana
,
Mississippi
,
Alabama
and
Florida
. Effective British control ended in 1781 when Spain
captured Pensacola
. The territory subsequently became a
colony of Spain
, parts of which were gradually annexed piecemeal by the United States beginning in 1810.
Creation
[
edit
]
In 1762, during the
Seven Years' War
, a British expedition
attacked and occupied Havana
, the capital of
Cuba
. To secure the return of this valuable city, Spain agreed to cede its territory of
La Florida
to the victorious
Great Britain
under the 1763
Treaty of Paris
. France ceded a large segment of
New France
to Great Britain, including its territory east of the
Mississippi River
except for
Ile d'Orleans
, the area south of
Bayou Manchac
and the
Amite River
that included the city of
New Orleans
.
The British divided this southern region of the North American continent into two separate colonies:
East Florida
, with its capital in
St. Augustine
and
West Florida
, with
Pensacola
as its
capital
. Many of the Spanish inhabitants of Florida were evacuated to Cuba, and new British settlers arrived including some from the
Thirteen Colonies
.
By a separate treaty, France ceded its lands west of
the Mississippi
to Spain, which formed
Spanish Louisiana
with the capital at
New Orleans
.
British era
[
edit
]
In 1763, British troops arrived and took possession of Pensacola.
George Johnstone
was appointed as the first British Governor and, in 1764, a
colonial assembly
was established.
[1]
[2]
The structure of the colony was modeled after the existing
British colonies in America
, as opposed to
Quebec
, which was based on a different structure. In contrast to East Florida, where there was little development and population growth, West Florida began to boom in the years following the British takeover, and thousands of new arrivals came to take advantage of the favorable conditions there. Ministers appointed to the Floridas petitioned the London authorities to build churches,
parsonages
, supply bibles and
prayer-books
, and help pay their passage to the colonies.
[3]
West Florida was invited to send delegates to the
First Continental Congress
which was convened to present colonial grievances against the British Parliament to
George III
, but along with several other colonies, including East Florida, they declined the invitation. Once the
American War of Independence
had broken out, the colonists remained overwhelmingly loyal to the Crown. In 1778, the
Willing Expedition
proceeded with a small force down the Mississippi, ransacking estates and plantations, until they were eventually defeated by a local militia. In the wake of this, the area received a small number of British reinforcements.
[4]
Government
[
edit
]
The royal proclamation that established West Florida served a purpose similar to a constitution, describing how the colony was to function. Governance was similar to other British provinces located in North America, as the colony was to be administered locally by a governor, who was appointed. The governor was to be aided by a lieutenant governor and a twelve member advisory council, who were also appointed.
[5]
The advisory council served as the upper house of its legislature (the General Assembly), while the House of Commons was the lower house, with fourteen elected members. The actual influence of the General Assembly was rather limited as it lacked much autonomy. The General Assembly could only meet when being summoned by the governor. Any bill enacted would have to be signed by the governor to become law, and laws could not be passed in areas in which the British monarch had sole authority. West Florida's chief justice, provincial secretary and attorney general were appointed by Parliament.
[5]
Population and demographics
[
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]
With the issuing of the
1763 Royal Proclamation
, which set a border on Western expansion, the British hoped that the creation of both Floridas and Quebec would take pressure off the line of settlement. During the evacuation of Florida, most of the Spanish left Pensacola and its surroundings, while most of the French who lived near Mobile decided to stay.
[6]
Efforts were made by the British and provincial government to encourage non-British immigrants to live in West Florida. One of the largest instances was when a town named Campbelltown was founded by
French Huguenots
who were brought to the colony by Lieutenant Governor
Montfort Browne
and the colony's board of trade. Campbelltown required assistance by the council and governor several times before it was eventually abandoned.
Acadians
were encouraged to settle in the colony and a group of Germans settled on the coast west of Mobile and even at one point the British imperial government tried to encourage
German Palatines
to immigrate to the colony.
[7]
Governor
George Johnstone
, in office 1763-1767, estimated the population of British West Florida at 1800 or 2000 white people, mostly residing in Pensacola and Mobile, or new colonists settling along the Gulf Coast and in the more fertile lands around
Natchez
. According to one historian,
[7]
a rough analysis of the record yields interesting results. Of some five hundred odd names in the record, approximately four hundred seem to be of English, Scottish, or Irish descent. Of these a little less than one hundred clearly occupy official positions. This probably accounts for their presence in the colony. Some seventy odd French are entered as grantees. Seven grantees seem to be without doubt Hebrews, three seem to be Germans from Pennsylvania, two Germans from the Cote D’Allemand [i.e., the coast west of Mobile], and three other grantees might be either Italian or Spanish.
Economics and slavery
[
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]
Although slavery and the slave trade did exist in British West Florida, it never became dominated by it and slavery remained likely small. Instead, the provincial and imperial government tried to develop a class consisting of small farmers and artisans instead of one that was plantation based.
[7]
Most of those who lived in Florida made a living from the land. Attempts were made to try and develop a reliable cash crop but this was not successful.
Indigo
production grew dramatically between the 1760s and 1770s with 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) shipped out of Mobile and Pensacola in 1772, making it one of the most common and successful of agriculture efforts made in the colony.
[8]
Pensacola handled five times more international trade than Mobile did. A sizable portion of West Florida's trade was illegal trade between West Florida and
Spanish Louisiana
. The exact numbers are hard to assess but authorities in both Florida and Louisiana were well aware of this issue but were not well equipped to monitor the situation. These high levels of trade led to silver Spanish coins becoming practically Florida's currency.
[8]
Spanish conquest
[
edit
]
Following
an agreement signed at Aranjuez
, Spain entered the
American Revolutionary War
on the side of France but not the
Thirteen Colonies
.
[9]
Spanish troops under
Bernardo de Galvez
advanced and seized
Baton Rouge
and
Mobile
. In 1781, Spain captured Pensacola and its garrison. As part of the 1783
Peace of Paris
, Great Britain ceded the territories of West Florida and
East Florida
back to Spain.
When Spain acquired West Florida in 1783, the eastern British boundary was the
Apalachicola River
, but Spain moved it eastward to the
Suwannee River
in 1785.
[10]
[11]
The purpose was to transfer San Marcos and the district of Apalachee from East Florida to West Florida.
[12]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
John Richard Alden (1957).
The South in the Revolution, 1763?1789
. Louisiana State University Press. p.
121
.
ISBN
978-0-8071-0013-4
.
- ^
Coker, William S; Shofner, Jerrell H.; Morris, Joan Perry; Malone, Myrtle Davidson (1991).
Florida from the Beginning to 1992 : a Columbus Jubilee Commemorative
. Houston: Pioneer Publications. p. 4
. Retrieved
28 June
2014
.
- ^
"Journal, June 1764: Volume 71."
Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations: Volume 12, January 1764 - December 1767.
Ed. K H Ledward. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1936. 63-78.
British History Online
Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^
Rose Meyers (1 March 1999).
A History of Baton Rouge, 1699?1812
. LSU Press. p. 36.
ISBN
978-0-8071-2431-4
.
- ^
a
b
Bunn, Mike (2020). "The Government of West Florida".
Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era
(Ebook). Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books.
ISBN
9781588384140
. Retrieved
28 May
2022
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
Howard, Clinton (1945).
"Early Settlers in British West Florida"
.
The Florida Historical Quarterly
.
24
. Retrieved
28 May
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Howard, Clinton (1945).
"Early Settlers in British West Florida"
.
Florida Historical Quarterly
.
24
(1) – via Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship (STARS) at UCF.
- ^
a
b
Bunn, Mike (2020). "Earning a Living".
Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era
. NewSouth Books.
ISBN
9781588384140
– via Google Books.
- ^
Spencer Tucker; James R. Arnold; Roberta Wiener (30 September 2011).
The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607?1890: A Political, Social, and Military History
. ABC-CLIO. p. 751.
ISBN
978-1-85109-697-8
.
- ^
Wright, J. Leitch (1972). "Research Opportunities in the Spanish Borderlands: West Florida, 1781-1821".
Latin American Research Review
.
7
(2). Latin American Studies Association: 24?34.
doi
:
10.1017/S0023879100041340
.
JSTOR
2502623
.
Wright also notes, "It was some time after 1785 before it was clearly established that Suwannee was the new eastern boundary of the province of Apalachee."
- ^
Weber, David J. (1992).
The Spanish Frontier in North America
. New Haven, Connecticut, US: Yale University Press. p. 275.
ISBN
0300059175
.
Spain never drew a clear line to separate the two Floridas, but West Florida extended easterly to include Apalachee Bay, which Spain shifted from the jurisdiction of St. Augustine to more accessible Pensacola.
- ^
"The Evolution of a State, Map of Florida Counties - 1820"
. 10th Circuit Court of Florida. Archived from
the original
on 3 February 2016
. Retrieved
26 January
2016
.
Under Spanish rule, Florida was divided by the natural separation of the Suwanee River into West Florida and East Florida.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Calloway, Colin Gordon.
The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America
. Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Chavez, Thomas E.
Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift
. University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
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