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Cracker-Spanish Florida Style, James A. Lewis

Florida Historical Quarterly

Over the years the regional diversity of the United States has coined scores of colorful words to describe groups of people perceived to have something in common. On occasion, these words, often pejorative in connotation, have worked their way into other languages, a classic example being the term Yankee. One of the more expressive regional terms to find its way into a foreign language has been the word cracker, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a “contemptuous name in [the] Southern States of N. America [applied] to the ‘poor whites’: Whence familiarly, to the native whites of Georgia and …

Plantation Development In British East Florida: A Case Study Of The Earl Of Egmont, Daniel L. Schafer

Florida Historical Quarterly

Over dinners at their country estates and at the stylish Shakespeare Head tavern in London, British aristocrats talked excitedly in 1763 about the prospects of acquiring huge tracts of land in East Florida, a recent prize of the Seven Years War. “We are all East Florida mad,” one potential investor said, describing a “land fever” that prompted his kinsman to abandon prudent caution so as “not to miss a vast future prospect.“ Another aristocrat described the activities of his friends as “a little confused, . . . but you can make allowance for gentlemen settling a Colony over a Bottle …

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

THE OLDEST CITY, edited by Jean Parker Waterbury, reviewed by Eugene Lyon; SPANISH ST. AUGUSTINE: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A COLONIAL CREOLE COMMUNITY, By Kathleen Deagan, reviewed by John S. Otto; FORT LAUDERDALE AND BROWARD COUNTY, by Stuart B. McIver, reviewed by Thelma Peters; EDGE OF WILDERNESS: A SETTLEMENT HISTORY OF MANATEE RIVER AND SARASOTA BAY, by Janet Snyder Matthews, reviewed by Steven F. Lawson; THE PLOT TO STEAL FLORIDA: JAMES MADISON’S PHONY WAR, by Joseph Burkholder Smith, reviewed by J. Leitch Wright, Jr.; DOGS OF THE CONQUEST, by John Grier Varner and Jeanette Johnson Varner, reviewed by Amy Turner Bushnell; …

History News, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Annual Meeting, Florida Historical Confederation, Society of Florida Archivists, Gulf Coast History and Humanities Conference, Military History Conference, Preservation Day, Tampa Bay History Essay Contest, Historical Museum, Timucua, Announcements and Activities, Obituaries

North Florida And The Great Storm Of 1873, Mary Louise Ellis

Florida Historical Quarterly

The autumn of 1873 seemed full of promise for the people of north and central Florida. Luck and the weather, two critical elements of life for an area dependent on farming, were favorable so far. The cotton bolls were ripening on schedule, and high yields were predicted. Farmers paid close attention to the weather, and hoped that the frequent thunder showers would not threaten their prospects of making a good crop. As the summer faded, first luck, then the weather, changed— and the changes dealt a ruinous blow to an agricultural region still mired in the hard times of Reconstruction.

Survival Of A Frontier Presidio: St. Augustine And The Subsidy And Private Contract Systems, 1680-1702, William R. Gillaspie

Florida Historical Quarterly

The last two decades of the seventeenth century were critical years in determining the eighteenth-century destiny of the entire breadth of the Spanish borderlands in North America. Overshadowing the outcome of the international rivalry over the continent were three changing tenets in international law during the last third of the seventeenth century. The first was Spain’s acceptance of “freedom of the seas” in place of mare clausum (closed sea) whereby she had sought exclusivism of the waters adjacent to its territorial holdings. Another changing tenet, to Spain’s advantage, was the European abandonment of “no peace beyond the line” (of demarcation) …

A French Would-Be Settler On Lafayette's Florida Township, Lucretia Ramsey Bishko

Florida Historical Quarterly

Lewis A. Pellerin, thirty-seven years old, a native of Normandy, sailed up the Mississippi to New Orleans in late March 1833. After taking part in the July Revolution of 1830 in France, he had suffered severe financial losses and was emigrating, together with his wife and two children, to the New World in search of a better fortune.

John Ellis, Royal Agent For West Florida, Roy A. Rauschenberg

Florida Historical Quarterly

When Britain acquired West Florida in 1763, John Ellis was appointed royal agent for West Florida. Found only in Nova Scotia, Georgia, and East and West Florida, royal or crown agents were used in underdeveloped but strategically important colonies that lacked the revenue to finance their own government. In these cases the crown assumed the financial load, and the agent was the London-based fiscal officer— the comptroller— supervising the crown’s allocations to the colony. Though easily confused with the better known and more widely used colonial agent, the royal agent was an entirely different kind of office. The royal agent …

War Comes To San Marcos, Lawrence Kinnaird

Florida Historical Quarterly

Of all the military posts established by Spain in West Florida after the Revolutionary War, San Marcos de Apalache was the only one ever to come under enemy fire. When Spain signed the treaty of San Ildefonso on August 19, 1796, and joined France in the war against Britain, military posts on the Mississippi were prepared for possible attack from Canada. There were many alarms, but all proved false. Along the Gulf coast no Spanish post was besieged by the enemy until war was brought to San Marcos by William Augustus Bowles, a British half-pay officer, and his Indian supporters.

Director's Meeting, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Minutes of the Directors' Meeting of the Florida Historical Society

Notes On U. S. Arsenals, Depots, And Martial Firearms Of The Second Seminole War, M. L. Brown

Florida Historical Quarterly

Escalating complaints to the United States War Department about ineffectual ordnance management by the Corps of Artillery, coupled with the rapid technological evolution of innovative small arms systems and radical manufacturing techniques, prompted Congress to pass the act of April 5, 1832, which resurrected an independent Ordnance Department. Elevated a grade in rank and appointed Chief of Ordnance on May 30 was Lieutenant Colonel George Bomford, USA (1780-1848).

Palm Trees, Public Relations, And Promoters: Boosting Southeast Florida As A Motion Picture Empire, 1910-1930, Richard Alan Nelson

Florida Historical Quarterly

While the greater Miami area today is the nexus of Florida’s continuing motion picture industry, this was not always the case. Historically, Jacksonville, and to a lesser extent Tampa, were the leading film centers of the state prior to 1920. This reflected their early importance as commercial and transportation hubs, but these advantages began to be outweighed as other areas within Florida also began to develop as popular location sites.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

MY WORK AMONG THE FLORIDA SEMINOLES, by James Lafayette Glenn, edited by Harry A. Kersey, Jr., reviewed by William C. Sturtevant; THE VISION OF A CONTEMPORARY UNIVERSITY, by Russell M. Cooper and Margaret B. Fisher, reviewed by Jack C. Lane; THE TRANSLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: A HISTORY, by James A. Rawley, reviewed by Jack P. Greene; LA MISION DE DON LUIS DE ONIS EN LOS ESTADO UNIDOS (1809-1819), by Angel del Rio, reviewed by Jack D. L. Holmes; THE PAPERS OF HENRY CLAY, VOLUME 6: SECRETARY OF STATE, 1827, edited by Mary W. M. Hargreaves and James F. Hopkins, reviewed by …

Timucuan Rebellion Of 1656: The Rebolledo Investigation And The Civil-Religious Controversy, Fred Lamar Pearson, Jr.

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Timucuan Indians rebelled in 1656 because they had been mistreated by the Spaniards. In particular, the Indians reacted against the forced labor policy which Governor Diego de Rebolledo had sought to impose on them. Forced labor had not originated in Florida during the Rebolledo Administration, but the manner in which the governor sought to carry out his policy proved galling to the Indians. Often when St. Augustine experienced frequent food shortages because of the uncertainty of the situado, governors turned to the provinces to procure corn to see the settlers through the difficulty. Apparently such a shortage existed in …

Another Road To Disappearance: Assimiliation Of Creek Indians In Pensacola, Florida, During The Nineteenth Century, Jane E. Dysart

Florida Historical Quarterly

In historical accounts of the old South, Indians are customarily treated as participants only in the frontier phase of colonial rivalry and during the era of territorial expansion. With the removal of the Indians to lands west of the Mississippi, southern history becomes the story of a white-dominated society composed almost exclusively of whites and blacks. The diversity of Indian-white and Indian-black relationships during the early years of the antebellum era is rarely part of the story, nor is the account of the Indians who remained behind included in the traditional narratives. Yet Indians constituted a third ethnic group in …

Directors' Meeting, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Minutes of the Directors Meeting

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

JOSÉ DE EZPELETA, GOBERNADOR DE LA MOBILA, 1780-1781, by Francisco de Borja Medina Rojas, reviewed by Robin F. A. Fabel; SUN, SAND AND WATER: A HISTORY OF THE JACKSONVILLE DISTRICT U. S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, 1821-1975, by George E. Buker, reviewed by Nelson M. Blake; THE WESTWARD ENTERPRISE: ENGLISH ACTIVITIES IN IRELAND, THE ATLANTIC AND AMERICA, 1480-1650, edited by K. R. Andrews, N. P. Canny, and P. E. H. Hair, reviewed by Eugene Lyon; LETTERS OF DELEGATES TO CONGRESS, 1774-1789, VOLUME 5, AUGUST 16-DECEMBER 31, 1776, edited by Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, Rosemark Fry Plakas, and Eugene …

South Florida In 1860, Rodney E. Dillon, Jr.

Florida Historical Quarterly

On the eve of the Civil War, the southern half of the Florida peninsula remained the last great coastal frontier region east of the Mississippi River. Although the 700-mile coastline from Tampa Bay to the northern Indian River, embracing the Florida Keys, had been charted since the eighteenth century, much of this land was still unsettled. Despite the recent activity brought about by the Second and Third Seminole Indian wars, the vast interior was, for the most part, unexplored. Although growth was slow, settlement and economic activity were steadily increasing. Despite its unsettled condition, south Florida’s proximity to the rest …

The Southern Indians In The War Of 1812: The Closing Phase, John Sugden

Florida Historical Quarterly

It has been conventional to equate the conflict between the southern Indians and the United States during the War of 1812 with the Creek war of 1813-1814. More correctly, however, there were three stages of the fighting, each emanating from standing grievances against the Americans nursed by Creek and Seminole bands, but receiving their initial impetus from separate sources. In 1812 and 1813, the Seminoles and their Negro allies, rallied by the Spanish who were concerned to protect their possessions in the south from American filibusters, participated in a number of skirmishes. A second phase of Indian hostility to the …

Wherever The Fight Is Thickest: General James Patton Anderson Of Florida, Larry Rayburn

Florida Historical Quarterly

On the night of October 8, 1861, in the harbor of Pensacola Bay, long columns of gray clad soldiers marched slowly aboard steamers moored by the dock. Officers whispered orders, and the enlisted men spoke in hushed tones. Aside from their voices, only the rattle of canteens and the lapping of water against the steamers broke the silence of the autumn darkness.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

ABORIGINAL SUBSISTENCE TECHNOLOGY ON THE SOUTHEASTERNCOASTAL PLAIN DURING THE LATE PREHISTORIC PERIOD, by Lewis H. Larson, reviewed by Elizabeth J. Reitz; THIS SO REMOTE FRONTIER: THE CHATTAHOOCHEE COUNTRY OF ALABAMA AND GEORGIA, by Mark E. Fretwell, reviewed by J. Leitch Wright, Jr.; PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES, by William N. Morgan, reviewed by Jerald T. Milanich; THE SPANISH CROWN AND THE DEFENSE OF THE CARIBBEAN, 1535-1585: PRECEDENT, PATRIMONIALISM, AND ROYAL PARSIMONY, by Paul E. Hoffman, reviewed by Stanley M. Hordes; FIREARMS IN COLONIAL AMERICA: THE IMPACT ON HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY, 1495-1792, by M. L. Brown, reviewed by Albert …

Billy Graham In Florida, Lois Ferm

Florida Historical Quarterly

Billy Graham who suffered periodic attacks of influenza when he was a young boy, first came to Florida because the doctors hoped that a warm climate would restore his health. However, in terms of his career in evangelism, his decision to move South seems almost providential, for as a student at the Florida Bible Institute in Tampa in the 1930s, he was exposed to a veritable “Who’s Who” of evangelical giants. As a high school student, Billy had accepted the claims of Jesus Christ on his life and had surrendered his life to Christ in a revival service held in …

Postscript To The Martin Tabert Case: Peonage As Usual In The Florida Turpentine Camps, Jerrell H. Shofner

Florida Historical Quarterly

In 1923 NAACP Secretary James Weldon Johnson wrote the editor of the New York World thanking him for the paper’s exposure of brutality in the Florida turpentine camps which had caused the state legislature to abolish the leasing of county convicts to private companies. Himself a product of the progressive era and a believer in man’s ability to reform his society through positive legislation, Johnson wrote that “ending this evil” was “a long step toward the ending of peonage.” The state had already been prohibited in 1919 from leasing its prisoners to private firms, but counties had continued the practice …

Florida Seminoles And The Census Of 1900, Harry A. Kersey, Jr.

Florida Historical Quarterly

One of the most persistent problems confronting historians dealing with the Seminole Indians in Florida during the late-nineteenth century has been a paucity of reliable population data. In the first four decades of the modern tribal era, the years following cessation of the Third Seminole War in 1858, there was only one attempt at a comprehensive account of Florida Seminoles. That was a survey conducted in the winter of 1880-1881 by Clay MacCauley for the Smithsonian Institution, which yielded what has become the generally accepted base line population figures. He found 208 Seminoles residing in the state, the unhappy remnant …

Bernard Lintot: A Connecticut Yankee On The Mississippi, 1775-1805, Robin Fabel

Florida Historical Quarterly

Deciding where one’s allegiance lay and adhering to it in the era of the American Revolution was not always easy. Changing it was common but Bernard Lintot changed his an extraordinary number of times. He was successively a citizen of the colony of Connecticut, a loyalist inhabitant of British West Florida, a subject of the king of Spain, a citizen of the state of Connecticut, and finally a founding member of the United States Mississippi territory. He represented unusual continuity. His was one of the very few of the old families of Mississippi to establish itself there during the period …

Educational Opportunities In Spanish West Florida, 1781-1821, Jack D. L. Holmes

Florida Historical Quarterly

Governor Vicente Folch y Juan opened his son Stephen’s 1797 letter with eager hands. Due to the Anglo-Spanish war, communications to Pensacola had been delayed, and he was relieved to learn that both his sons were well. To his superior, Captain-General Conde de Santa Clara, at Havana, Governor Folch wrote, “The lack of opportunity which is generally true of these (frontier) places for providing the youth with an adequate education, has induced me to send my sons to London where they may learn English to perfection, such skill being of inestimable value in these provinces.“

Arturo O'Neill: First Governor Of West Florida During The Second Spanish Period, Eric Beerman

Florida Historical Quarterly

An Irish lieutenant colonel in the Hibernia Regiment— Arturo O’Neill— gazed through the late afternoon haze that ninth day of March in 1781 and received his first look at Sigüenza Point on the western end of Santa Rosa Island at the entrance of Pensacola Bay. As the Spanish invasion fleet moved closer, Arturo O’Neill saw the hill behind Pensacola with British Fort George dominating the surrounding terrain. He no doubt felt a certain trepidation as the Spaniards would be making a nighttime assault on Sigüenza. However, this was not his baptism of fire and with veteran Hibernia troops around him, …

Aa Ms 19 Eugene Jackson Papers, Emily Margaret Newell

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

This collection is comprised of family photographs, photo albums, bibles, hymnals, and newspaper from the early 20th century onward. The collection is organized into three series:

Series 1: Photographs

This series includes the personal photographs of Eugene Jackson’s friends and family as far back as the early 1900s. The most common themes and activities found in these photographs are leisure activities such as trips to the beach or the mountains, family get-togethers, professional portraits, and Christmas greeting cards.

Subseries 1.1: Loose Photographs

Loose photographs are organized into topical folders.

Subseries 1.2: Ruby Family Photograph Album

The photograph album includes black-and-white …

A Conflict Of Disinterest: The Problem Of Party In The Early American Republic, Darren Morgan

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the lost classical republican virtue of disinterestedness—its early role in the nation’s founding, its eventual subordination to partisanship, and its enduring legacy in the realm of politics. Two seminal documents shaped Americans’ early ideas regarding disinterestedness, namely James Madison’s Federalist, No. 10 and George Washington’s “Farewell Address;” however, these cornerstones of impartial politics built upon a long history of classical republican thought from both ancient Rome and mother England. The eventual impracticality of such a virtue quickly gave way to a more enticing and interested form of politics in the early republic—one where lines were rapidly …

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

LAND INTO WATER--WATER INTO LAND: A HISTORY OF WATER MANAGEMENT IN FLORIDA, by Nelson M. Blake, reviewed by George E. Buker; A REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE AT WAR: THE CONTINENTAL ARMY AND AMERICAN CHARACTER, 1775-1783, by Charles Royster, reviewed by Gerard W. Gawalt; THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL POLITICS: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, by Jack N. Rakove, reviewed by Robert A. Rutland; THE MADISONS: A BIOGRAPHY, by Virginia Moore, reviewed by John Hebron Moore; THE MAKING OF TOCQUEVILLE’S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, by James T. Schleifer, reviewed by Herbert Aptheker; CHATTEL SLAVERY AND WAGE SLAVERY: THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CONTEXT, 1830-1860, by Marcus …