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- History
of
Second
Spanish
Florida
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In
1783
Florida
was
once
again
under
Spanish
rule,
but
now
Spain
was
a
war-weakened
country.
England
had
strengthened
Florida's
mainland
considerably
(except
for
the
Indians)
by
her
favorable
land
grants.
The
Loyalists
who
had
fled
south
to
remain
under
the
English
Crown
once
again
had
to
move,
and
many
did.
The
Bahamas
were
their
natural
choice
as
it
was
English.
Land-hungry
U.S.
citizens
from
the
north
began
to
openly
seek
Florida
land,
admittedly
generally
coastal
land
at
the
mouths
of
rivers.
In
the
beginning,
the
Indians
were
generally
left
alone
in
the
inner
regions.
Renegade
white
settlers,
unruly
Indians
and
runaway
slaves
strained
the
Spanish-U.S.
relationship.
Raids
across
the
border
were
more
often
than
not
only
to
steal
slaves.
More
and
more
New
World
trade
from
Europe
was
shifted
from
Havana
to
American
ports,
which
were
more
accessible
and
offered
better
return
cargoes.
Spain
tried
unsuccessfully
to
control
the
Indian
and
slave
situation,
however
the
quantity
of
military
personnel
that
the
Spanish
had
to
send
to
Florida
precluded
its
success.
The
Spanish,
French
and
English
were
primarily
interested
in
the
Florida
coasts
and
readily
left
the
interior
lands
to
the
Indians.
This
land
was
to
become
the
favored
plantation
land
later.
Indians
living
to
Florida's
north
were
constantly
being
pushed
west
and
south
by
the
northern
white
settlers.
The
creation
of
the
Georgia
colony
in
1733
pushed
even
more
Indians
into
Florida.
By
now
the
northern
Indians
began
arriving
in
south
Florida
and
taking
the
lands
of
the
indigenous
Indians.
The
Seminoles
were
an
important
tribe
of
the
Muskegon
American
Indian.
The
Creek
words
"ishiti
semoli,"
which
meant
"separatist,
seceder,
runaway,
or
renegade,"
probably
gave
rise
to
the
label
Seminole.
It
was
applied
to
the
Upper
and
Lower
Creeks,
and
to
the
Hitchitis
in
Georgia
and
Alabama
migrating
into
Florida.
The
land
left
for
the
Indians
became
overpopulated
and
crowded,
so
many
separated
from
their
main
tribes
in
the
mid
1700s.
The
name
"Seminole"
was
first
used
in
written
language
by
British
Indian
Agent
John
Stuart
in
1771.
Others
say
the
name
came
from
the
Spanish
word
"cimarron"
(wild
or
untamed).
The
Seminoles
first
moved
down
the
rivers
and
spread
throughout
north
Florida
with
the
Florida
native
Appalachis
and
Timucuan
Indians.
Those
of
the
Hitchitis
were
primarily
of
the
Mikasukis,
but
included
Yamasis,
Yuchis
and
blacks.
Other
northern
Indians
followed
these
and
ultimately
became
known
as
the
Seminole
Nation.
Within
100
years
the
original
Florida
Indian
-subjugated,
intermarried,
diseased,
killed
or
chased
to
the
Islands-
had
practically
disappeared.
Another
irritation
to
the
whites
-who
agreed
that
all
Indians
must
go-
was
that
the
Florida
wilderness
provided
a
haven
for
fugitive
black
slaves.
The
Seminoles
would
neither
return
the
runaways
to
their
owners,
nor
permit
the
owners
to
retrieve
them.
Some
were
kept
by
the
Indians
as
slaves,
others
intermarried
and
created
a
family
bond
between
the
two
races.
This
bond
meant
that
the
Indians
would
not
enter
any
treaties
that
did
not
protect
their
black
companions.
For
the
other
part,
the
blacks
were
opposed
to
being
forcibly
moved
to
an
Indian
reservation
as
an
Indian.
Osceola,
though
not
a
blood
line
chief,
was
a
spirited
leader
particularly
opposed
to
the
separation
of
the
races.
All
these
factors
resulted
in
a
series
of
Indian
wars
and
manipulation
on
all
sides.
Border
wars
continued
on
both
sides
and
the
Spanish
Crown
could
do
little.
General
Andrew
Jackson
often
had
to
travel
from
his
Tennessee
base
especially
against
the
Seminoles.
At
the
Battle
of
Horseshoe
Bend
(Alabama)
in
1814,
General
Jackson
conquered
the
Creeks
and
large
numbers
fled
to
Florida
to
become
Seminoles.
Florida
extended
to
the
Mississippi
River,
before
present-day
Louisiana
was
transferred
to
France
in
1800.
President
Monroe
took
the
territory
in
1810
and
the
State
of
Louisiana
was
formed
in
1812.
In
April
1813,
General
James
Wilkinson
marched
into
Mobile
and
set
the
western
boundary
at
the
Perdido
River,
west
of
Pensacola,
where
it
remains
today.
The
First
Seminole
War
commenced
in
1817
after
U.S.
soldiers
attacked
a
Seminole
village
and
the
Seminoles
attacked
a
boatload
of
U.S.
soldiers.
Spain,
by
then
a
mere
figurehead,
appeared
powerless.
For
300
years
the
Spanish,
French
and
British
flags
had
flown
over
Florida.
Finally,
in
the
Treaty
of
1819,
for
$5
million
and
certain
claims,
Spain
relinquished
Florida
to
the
43-year-old
United
States.
The
transfer
of
flags
did
not
take
place
until
1821.
Florida
then
became
a
U.S.
Territory,
on
its
way
to
becoming
a
state.
Article
six
of
this
treaty
supposedly
guaranteed
the
Seminoles
"all
the
privileges,
rights
and
immunities
of
the
citizens
of
the
United
States."
Spain
sensed
that
she
was
losing
control
of
Florida
and
gave
liberal
land
grants
to
her
citizens.
All
of
these
land
grants,
two
of
which
were
in
the
Keys,
eventually
would
have
to
be
settled
when
the
U.S.
gained
control.
Things
were
about
ready
to
pick
up
in
the
Keys.
After
1815,
the
Bahamas
enjoyed
a
long
period
of
peace
and
"wrecking"
increased.
English
Loyalists,
Indians,
and
blacks
had
fled
to
the
English
owned
Bahama
Islands
and
improved
their
economic
base.
Most
of
these
economic
features
involved
shipping,
as
the
Bahamas
were
an
island
nation.
The
Bahamas
by
their
law
required
all
salvaged
goods
to
be
brought
to
Gnaws
at
the
Vendue
House
for
disposition
-regardless
of
where
the
ships
wrecked.
Many
of
these
goods
were
from,
or
near,
the
Florida
Keys
reefs.
As
we
will
read
in
the
next
Florida
historical
period,
Florida
became
a
U.S.
Territory
in
1821
and
life
on
the
Keys
as
we
know
it
began.
Pirates
and
wreckers,
the
settlement
of
Spanish
land
grants
and
the
elimination
of
the
Indians
became
federal
problems.
In
1825,
the
United
States
decreed
that
all
goods
from
shipwrecks
in
its
domain
must
be
taken
to
an
American
port
of
entry,
principally
Charleston,
or
Key
West.
To
participate
in
the
wrecking
industry,
many
of
the
original
13
Colonies's
Loyalists
and
their
descendants,
who
had
fled
to
the
Bahamas,
were
now
coming
to
the
Keys.
Many
of
these
were
also
experienced
farmers
with
some
knowledge
of
farming
on
coral
islands.
Typical
family
names
were:
Albury,
Baker,
Bethel,
Curry,
Johnson,
Lowe,
Knowles,
Parker,
Pinder,
Roberts,
Russell,
Saunders,
Sands,
Sawyer,
Sweeting,
Thompson,
and
many
more.
These
names
were
endemic
to
the
Bahamas.
During
Florida’s
second
Spanish
dominion,
its
waters
experienced
a
major
increase
of
what
many
romantically
think
of
piracy.
If
one
likes
marauding
outlaws,
torturers
and
murderers,
then
piracy
is
for
them.
The
failing
of
Napoleon’s
conquest
and
the
War
of
1812
left
a
horde
of
Gulf
and
Bahamian
mariners
and
their
equipment
unemployed.
Transportation
routes
between
the
Americas
and
Europe
attracted
the
less
moral
of
these
resulting
in
a
surge
of
piracy.
The
Keys
was
a
watering
and
anchoring
location,
therefore
is
likely
to
be
mentioned
in
these
exploits.
Any
mention
of
a
pirate’s
headquarters
in
the
Keys
almost
surely
was
a
temporary
anchorage
for
capturing
or
off-loading
their
prey.
Commodore
Porter
and
his
U.S.
anti-piracy
squadron
squelched
this
activity
by
the
mid-1820s.
Corresponding
events
in
1821
were
the
beginning
of
James
Monroe's
second
term
as
President,
the
death
of
Napoleon,
Missouri
became
a
state
and
Mary
Baker
Eddy
was
born.
Population
comparisons
were
the
United
States
9.6
million,
France
30.4
million,
Italy
18
million
and
Great
Britain
20.8
million.
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