Colonizing Florida

The Spanish had great expectations of Florida despite disastrous results from expeditions such as Ponce de Leon and Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon's. In a description of the panhandle region from Hernando de Soto's campaigns, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo wrote, “The Province of Apalache is very fertile and abundantly provided with much corn, kidney beans, pumpkins, various fruits, much venison, many varieties of birds and excellent fishing near the sea.” Notwithstanding the environmental benefits, the Spanish were ultimately unsuccessful in establishing a plantation economy in Florida. Both the British and the proto-Seminoles achieved greater success in establishing a plantation economy after the failure of the Spanish. Many factors contributed to the success of the proto-Seminoles and British in Florida including increased population, choice of economy, and African presence in Florida.

The British were extremely successful in populating Florida in the late eighteenth century. Florida’s exoticism was instrumental in recruiting British settlement in Florida. “Most publications describing the Florida’s during the colonial era originated in England.” At that time, Florida was depicted in oral and written accounts as an exotic region whose natural setting would undoubtedly benefit the British Empire. Such depictions were used as a type of propaganda. The publications of William Bartram (1739-1823) provide one example.

William Bartram was a natural historian and artist who kept detailed accounts of his travels in Florida before he was interrupted by the American Revolution. His manuscript, published in 1791, contained adventurous accounts of his experiences in Florida that would seem like science fiction to readers at the time. In chap...

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...ial Plantations and Economy in Florida ed. Jane Landers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). 136-149.

William Bartram, Travels through North (University of North Carolina: Apex Data Services, Inc., 2001), 119-30, http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/bartram/bartram.html.

Daniel Murphree, “Perpetuating a Mythical Paradise: Transnational Visions of the Colonial Floridas,” Terrae

Incognitae 37 (Jan. 2005): 41.

Andrew Frank, “Taking the State Out: Seminoles and Creeks in Late Eighteenth-Century Florida,” The Florida Historical Quartley 84. (Summer 2005): 10-27

Patricia Griffin, "Blue Gold." Colonial Plantations and Economy in Florida ed. Jane Landers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). 39-68.

Daniel Murphree, “Perpetuating a Mythical Paradise: Transnational Visions of the Colonial Floridas,” Terrae Incognitae 37 (Jan. 2005): 41-52.