The Second Spanish Period: 1784–1821
By 1781, Spain had captured much of West Florida. Under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Britain returned East Florida to Spain. Spanish officials envisioned a thriving agricultural industry in the Floridas. However, wars in Europe had weakened Spain, and by the early 1800s, it lacked its former power. It could devote little attention to the colonies, and they experienced almost continual turmoil.
During the Second Spanish Period, the Floridas’ population was diverse and included Spaniards, French, Menorcans, and British who chose to remain in Florida. Other Europeans, Americans, free and enslaved Black people, Creek, and Seminole added to the mix. In response to American pressure, Spain ended its policy of offering refuge to runaway slaves in 1790. Still, they fled south and Spain did little to stop them.
Economy
Spain wanted East and West Florida to develop economically. Officials hoped for large plantations, naval stores, and other agricultural projects that could help the colonies prosper. Offers of land grants brought new settlers to establish plantations and farms. However, unsettled conditions along the northern border slowed the colonies’ growth. The government sent the situado, funds to help support the colonies, but it failed to arrive on a regular basis.
Spain lacked the industry to make trade goods to supply Indigenous tribes and permitted the British firm of Panton, Leslie and Company to manage the trade. The company had formed in East Florida shortly before the colony’s return to Spain and set up headquarters in Pensacola in 1785. It dominated the southeastern Indian trade in the late 1700s.
Panton, Leslie and Company was highly profitable. It allowed Indigenous people to buy goods on credit and then pressured them to sell their lands in American territory to the US. With the cash received, Indigenous people could pay their debts to the company. It later became John Forbes Company.
By the late 1790s, the trade was in decline. After the US and Spain resolved a boundary dispute, many Native tribes came within US borders. The Americans had their own trade system. At the same time, British factories began using cheaper cotton and wool textiles, greatly decreasing the demand for deerskin.
The “Negro Fort” at Prospect Bluff
During the War of 1812, the British established a military presence in Spanish Florida. They built a fort supplying firearms to Indigenous people on the Apalachicola River. After the war ended, the departing British turned over the fully armed fort at Prospect Bluff to their free Black and Indigenous allies. The American press named the fort “Negro Fort.” Americans viewed the fort as a threat to navigation on the Apalachicola River. In addition, a free Black fortress manned by formerly enslaved people alarmed slaveholders across the border.
To eliminate this perceived threat, a US force of gunboats and troops, along with Creek allies, violated Spanish territory to move against the fort. The gunboats fired several shots and then launched a fire-heated hot shot. The red-hot cannonball hit the fort’s gunpowder magazine, causing a huge explosion that killed an estimated 270 people who had taken refuge in the fort.
A Troubled Frontier
Spain’s weak control of large areas of Florida gave rise to several attempts by adventurers to carve out their own independent “nations” within the territory. One attempt in 1799 was led by former British officer William Augustus Bowles, who tried to organize the Creek and Seminole. He married a daughter of Creek Chief Perryman. Bowles briefly seized the Spanish fort at St. Marks and later was captured.
Located at Florida’s northeastern tip, the island and its town of Fernandina experienced multiple small-scale invasions. During the War of 1812, a group from Georgia launched one such expedition, but the project failed. A group of Americans sponsored a similarly unsuccessful effort to declare an independent state in 1817, led by Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor. Another attempt by a Mexican-affiliated French pirate resulted in US military intervention, in part to halt the illegal importation of enslaved people.
William Augustus Bowles
The charismatic, self-appointed “Director General of the State of Muskogee” adopted elements of Indigenous dress and led an attempt to build a Native nation, with its capital near present-day Tallahassee.
Painting by Thomas Hardy, 1791, courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
The Free Black Population and Free Black Communities
Though Spaniards in the Florida colonies practiced slavery, free Black people also lived in La Florida. The Spanish government did not view slavery as a permanent state, and enslaved people had the right to buy their freedom. They could earn money to purchase their freedom by hiring themselves out as labor, or they could gain their freedom through military service. Free Black people mainly lived in St. Augustine, Fernandina, and Pensacola, or they owned small farms. Some had their own enslaved laborers.
Some enslaved people achieved freedom by escaping captivity. They formed settlements in the interior of the colonies, sometimes near Seminole villages. Many Black communities were largely independent but had economic and political ties to Indigenous villages. English speakers often called Black people who lived in these communities “Black Seminoles.”
Some Black Seminoles became interpreters for Indigenous communities or fought alongside them against Americans attempting to seize the Floridas from Spain. They knew that they risked re-enslavement under American rule. The Black Seminole Abraham was born about 1787. He was an interpreter and advisor to the Seminole leader Micanopy. Abraham served as an interpreter when a delegation of Seminole visited Washington D.C. in 1825.
Abraham
Abraham, pictured in this engraving ca. 1836, courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
Plantations
Spain sought to develop Florida’s agricultural industry through plantations that grew indigo, citrus, rice, sugar cane, and other crops. Cotton was especially profitable. Some of the largest plantations were situated along the St. Johns and St. Marys rivers in East Florida. In 1790, to boost population, Spain began offering land grants to non-Spaniards. The newcomers pledged loyalty to Spain and promised to work and live on their land for at least ten years.
Zephaniah Kingsley was a slave trader and businessman. He came to East Florida in 1803 and eventually owned several plantations. In 1814, he and his African wife, Anna Jai, settled on a plantation on Fort George Island, near the mouth of the St. Johns River. They remained for more than twenty years. Enslaved Blacks on the plantation raised cotton, sugar cane, citrus, and corn. Today, Kingsley Plantation is a National Park Service site open to the public.
Anna Jai Kingsley
Life-cast figure representing Anna Jai Kingsley
Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley was born in Senegal, West Africa. She was captured and enslaved as a girl. She was sold to Zephaniah Kingsley. He brought her to Laurel Grove, his plantation in East Florida. She was thirteen years old. Anna became Zephaniah’s wife and managed the property during Zephaniah’s absences. In 1811, Zephaniah freed her and their children. She acquired her own homestead and enslaved Black laborers. During the Patriot War of 1812, she burned her homestead rather than let Patriot raiders have it. The Spanish government recognized her heroism for the act and awarded her a land grant. In 1814, she and her family moved to a plantation on Fort George Island, near the mouth of the St. Johns River. After Florida became a US territory, the local government began passing laws restricting the rights of free Black people. Zephaniah and Anna moved to Haiti in the 1830s to escape those laws. Anna returned to Florida to live near family and to manage her remaining property after Zephaniah’s death. She died around 1870.
The First Seminole War, 1817–1818
The United States viewed Spanish Florida as a lawless frontier refuge for Native tribes and Africans who had escaped enslavement. It wanted to rid the border area of these threats. An attack by Indigenous peoples on an American boat on the Apalachicola River provided the pretext for invading northwestern Florida. The US forces raided deep into the interior, burning hundreds of Seminole and Black homesteads. The already-controversial presence of the US military was worsened by wartime incidents. In one instance, US forces executed a Seminole medicine man and a warrior after capturing them using the ruse of flying a British flag. In another incident at St. Marks, General Andrew Jackson ordered the executions of two British citizens accused of inciting the Seminoles, thus sparking a diplomatic crisis.
General Andrew Jackson’s actions threatened to provoke war with both Spain and Great Britain. He demanded that Spanish Pensacola surrender, which led Spain to strongly protest the violation of its territory. When the war ended in 1818, West Florida was under American occupation. It was clear that Spain could not hold Florida against an expansionist United States. In 1819, Adams–Onís Treaty was signed which arranged the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States. In 1821 the treaty took effect, formalizing Florida’s status as a United States territory.
Strategy or Treachery?
Seminoles captured by US troops flying a British flag at St. Marks, 1818
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
