The Florida History Podcast

In the finale of our miniseries of the French in Colonial Florida we discuss the 1719 capture and occupation of Pensacola by the French. By 1726, Pensacola had been returned to Spanish rule.

French privateer Dominique de Gourgues works with the Timucuan to exact a measure of revenge on the Spanish with a massacre at San Mateo.

We read from Laudonnière 's memoires of his voyages how exactly he escaped Fort Caroline and why he believes "Florida was lost."

The Spanish effort to retake Florida ends in success- Jean Ribault and his men are slaughtered.

Summer 1565 led Laudonnière's Fort Caroline colony to interact with help British travelers, then be reinforced and botted up by their own countrymen sent by the French King and then finally slaughtered by the Spanish while the other French left the colony to try and hunt down the Spanish at St Augustine.

Rene Laudonnière establishes Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St Johns River. The colony struggles with mutiny and food though relations with the nearby Timucua were generally good, they began to become strained. All the while the Spanish are hunting down the French Huguenots.

The first French settlement in what was then Florida but is now South Carolina took place in 1862. But the colony was soon abandoned while religious strife back home engulfed some of our key figures.

We discuss the religious strife that dominated 16th Century Europe as well as France's pragmatic diplomatic and foreign policy of the era- despite being a Kingdom dominated by the Catholic Church hierarchy, tension with Spain often led to pragmatism and alliances with Protestants and Muslims on the continent. This world view also contributed to France's colonial policies in the New World s...

We're going to do a few episodes on colonial interactions between France and Florida centering around Fort Caroline and Pensacola. It can be argued the French interactions in Florida between 1562 and 1565 was the stimulus for so much of what happened in North American History after.

Kartik Krishnaiyer describes his new book on the Canada-USA relationship and gives an update on the podcast and what he and Robert are working on outside the podcast. Link to buy the new book .

We discuss the British leaving East Florida between 1784 and 1785 and how the British kept their hands in the pie of Florida for the decades following 1785.

We discuss the peace treaties between Britain and Spain on one hand and Britain and the US on the other. Ceding East Florida to Spain seemed simple enough but was part of a deeper calculation by the crown to continue to cause problems for the newly independent United States.

The Spanish (with French assistance) complete the conquest of West Florida by sieging and capturing British-held Pensacola, in a decisive battle in the American Revolutionary War .

The last naval battle of the American Revolution took place off the coast of Merritt Island in March 1783. It was an American victory.

Led by St Augustine resident Andrew Deveaux Loyalists restore the Bahamas to British rule in April 1783. This would factor into the narrative about East Florida's future.

We discuss the refugee influx to East Florida and the Shipwrecks involving loyalists fleeing to St Augustine in the 1782-83 time period.

After defeat at Yorktown loyalists flee to East Florida, now a fortress British colony with an elected provincial legislature. But Governor Tonyn clashes with the legislature over a tough slave code and as refugees keep coming St Augustine becomes more and more crowded.

An episode requested by listeners, before we continue our Revolution narrative next week, we tackle Andrew Turnbull and the failure of the New Smyrna colony in 1777.

American patriots of note were hauled off from Charleston after the British capture of the city in 1780 and imprisoned in St Augustine. This included three signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Even after American forces were rebuffed again at the Battle of Alligator Creek Bridge, up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania General George Washington was gaining intelligence from the Culpher Spy Ring that tempted him to attack East Florida again in late 1778 and in 1780. However, the Continental Congress had seen enough and did not sanction the invasion.

The Americans are coming! Again! Another attempted invasion of British East Florida is thwarted in modern-day Nassau County at a bridge over Alligator Creek (near present-day Callahan). This battle took place in June of 1778.

In early 1777, the American Continental Army resolved to invade Florida but they failed miserably being turned back at Thomas Creek near the modern-day Nassau-Duval County line. This ended up being the deepest penetration of American forces into East Florida during the Revolution. Despite defeat several more invasions would be planned.

A narrative not often told in US History is how obsessive General George Washington became about conquering East Florida and specially St Augustine. We discuss the origins in this podcast. This is the first in a series of four podcasts the next four weeks on this subject.

We discuss José Solano y Bote the Spanish Admiral who lead the siege of Pensacola in 1781.

We will be back with new episodes starting next Tuesday, May 13. Life happens unfortunately and both Robert and Kartik have been exceptionally busy the last several weeks.