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- UNITED
STATES
CONTROL
OF
FLORIDA
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Before
we
leave
Florida
history
for
the
Keys,
please
endure
a
little
more
Florida
history.
United
States
Secretary
of
State
John
Quincy
Adams
reached
an
agreement
with
Spanish
Minister
Luis
De
Onis
in
1819
in
which
Spain
gave
the
U.S.
title
to
East
and
West
Florida.
Final
congressional
ratification
and
transfer
of
flags
did
not
take
place
until
February
19,
1821.
The
U.S.
gave
up
its
claims
to
Texas
and
Spain
gave
the
U.S.
its
rights
to
the
Pacific
Northwest.
The
ownership
of
Oregon
was
to
be
settled
between
England,
Russia
and
the
U.S.
In
the
end,
the
Americans
paid
about
$4,100,000
to
citizens
who
could
prove
claims
against
Spain.
There
were
no
permanent
settlers
in
Key
West
until
1822,
when
permanent
settling
of
the
Keys
began.
Bahamian
merchants
often
made
temporary
camps
and
seamen
from
Mystic,
Connecticut
used
Key
West,
Tavernier
Key
and
Key
Vaca.
There
was
a
virtual
cavalcade
of
maritime
traffic
throughout
the
Keys,
but
no
one
staying
and
calling
it
home.
General
Andrew
Jackson
was
appointed
Florida's
military
governor
in
March
1821,
but
resigned
in
November.
President
James
Monroe
signed
into
law
a
unified
government
on
March
30,
1822
and
appointed
William
DuVal
as
the
first
Territorial
Governor.
The
new
governor
was
faced
with
five
major
problems:
a
framework
of
government,
old
of
the
interior
lands.
Tallahassee
was
selected
as
the
territory
capital
in
1824,
as
it
was
then
located
in
the
center
of
the
population,
which
was
mainly
in
St.
Augustine
and
Pensacola.
DuVal's
most
formidable
task
lay
in
dispossessing
the
Indians
of
land.
He
got
the
Treaty
of
Moultrie
Creek
ratified
in
December
1823,
but
it
satisfied
neither
the
Indians
nor
the
whites.
It
really
did
not
make
much
difference;
the
Indians
were
to
be
driven
out
one
way
or
the
other.
Four
years
later,
most
of
the
land
was
in
the
hands
of
the
whites.
The
cost
of
Florida's
involvement
was
three
wars
with
the
Seminoles
that
lasted
until
1857.
After
considerable
struggling
among
the
Whigs,
Democrats,
Divisionists
and
Separatists,
on
March
3,
1845,
President
John
Tyler
signed
Florida
into
statehood.
Its
population
consisted
of
about
35,500
whites,
33,950
slaves
and
560
free
Negroes.
The
election
for
governor
and
other
representatives
was
set
for
May
26,
1845.
On
July
1,
James
Wescott
and
David
Levy
Yulee
were
elected
senators.
David
Yulee
was
the
first
Jewish
senator
in
United
States
history.
By
Act
of
Congress
in
1850,
Florida
was
given
the
Swamp
Land
act,
which
in
effect
was
an
inducement
for
the
building
of
railroads
and
canals.
More
about
this
later.
Florida
withdrew
from
the
Union
on
January
11,
1861,
but
Federal
forces
continued
to
hold
Fort
Taylor
in
Key
West,
Fort
Jefferson
in
the
Dry
Tortugas
and
Fort
Pickens
in
Pensacola.
About
15,000
Floridians
served
for
the
Confederates
and
1,300
for
the
Union
forces.
The
Confederates
defended
the
interior
of
Florida
by
defeating
the
Union
forces
at
the
Battle
of
Olustee
outside
of
Lake
City.
Tallahassee
was
the
only
Confederate
capital
to
escape
occupation
by
the
Union
forces.
On
May
20,
1865,
with
the
war
over,
the
Stars
and
Stripes
once
again
flew
over
the
capitol.
The
Constitutional
Convention
convened
on
October
25
and
decreed
that
slavery
no
longer
existed,
but
the
right
to
vote
was
restricted
to
"free
white
males
of
21
years
or
more,
and
none
others."
Florida
needed
a
transportation
system
badly.
Sailing
ships,
steamboats
and
stagecoaches
were
followed
by
railroads.
There
were
about
400
miles
of
railroads
before
the
Civil
War,
but
they
were
short
line
point-to-point
rail
systems.
Henry
B.
Plant,
in
1884
developed
the
first
major
short
line
in
Tampa
to
serve
the
west
coast.
Henry
M.
Flagler
built
the
opulent
St.
Augustine
Ponce
de
Leon
hotel
in
1887
and
bought
a
narrow-gauge
railroad
in
1885
to
lend
support
to
the
hotel.
This
was
the
beginning
of
the
Florida
East
Coast
(F.E.C.)
Railway,
which
was
to
be
extended
to
Miami
in
1896.
At
the
start
of
the
Spanish-American
War
and
Miami
did
not
have
a
deep-water
port,
so
Tampa
was
used.
This,
among
other
things,
influenced
Flagler
to
build
the
Overseas
Extension
to
Key
West
which
was
inaugurated
on
January
22,
1912.
Along
with
the
railroad,
Flagler
was
a
major
developing
force
on
the
Florida
East
Coast.
Going
back
to
1881,
Hamilton
Disston,
the
saw
blade
manufacturer,
purchased
four
million
acres
of
the
Everglades
at
25
cents
an
acre
to
bail
Florida
out
of
its
deficit
spending.
In
1915,
Florida
took
its
first
legal
steps
to
create
a
state-constructed
and
maintained
highway
system.
Radio
Station
WDAE
in
Tampa
went
on
the
air
in
1922
as
Florida's
first
commercial
radio
station.
Florida
underwent
a
land
boom,
along
with
a
shortage
of
staples,
in
the
mid-1920s.
Two
major
hurricanes
and
the
1929
stock
market
crash
sounded
the
land
boom's
death
knell.
The
1926
hurricane
took
200
lives
in
Miami,
only
to
be
outdone
by
the
1928
hurricane,
which
drowned
some
1,500
people
in
the
Lake
Okeechobee
area.
The
Upper
Keys
then
experienced
its
400
plus
victim
hurricane
in
1935.
The
Poll
Tax
was
abolished
in
1937,
as
was
the
state
ad
valorem
tax
in
1940.
This
was
countered
in
1942
by
a
two-cent
per-gallon
gasoline
tax
for
highway
bonds,
a
cigarette
tax
in
1943
and
a
3
percent
sales
tax
in
1949.
The
Florida
Turnpike
was
authorized
in
1955
and
in
1961,
Commander
Alan
Sheppard
made
the
first
manned
earth-orbital
flights
from
Cape
Canaveral.
The
name
of
the
Cape
was
changed
to
Cape
Kennedy
in
1963,
then
back
to
Cape
Canaveral.
Hurricane
Andrew
mildly
punished
the
northernmost
Upper
Keys
on
August
24,
1992.
Now
for
two
adjacent
territories
which
affected
Florida
Keys
history.
This
concludes
the
history
of
Florida.
For
a
more
comprehensive
version,
please
consult
A
History
of
Florida,
Charlton
Tebeau,
1971/1980
and/or
The
New
History
of
Florida,
Michael
Gannon,
1996.
Many
other
fine
books
are
available
at
most
libraries.
The
triangle
of
Florida,
Cuba
and
the
Bahamas
have
their
history
inter-twined.
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