The Florida History Podcast

Silver Springs, Florida's original tourist attraction first opened in 1878.

In part two of our look back at the Florida GOP’s evolution we cover the years from Jeb Bush to Ron DeSantis.

We discuss the evolution of the Florida GOP from 1960 to 2000 talking ideology, environment and political success

We look at the site of the second battle of the Loxahatchee River which took place in January 1838.

Our first video episode features the battle site of Powell’s Battle, The First Battle of Loxahatchee in the second Seminole War. 

Update on Podcast - next few weeks we will feature video programming also available on YouTube. A new season of audio content with Robert & Kartik beginning in July is being planned now. Thanks for listening!

We close out our Albion Florida series with a quick look at the Second Spanish Period from 1784-1821. We discuss lingering British influence, a state of anarchy that has developed and Florida’s importance to the new United States which sought to incorporate it in the new nation. 

St Augustine's population swelled with loyalists and prisoners' including signers of the Declaration of Independence. By early 1781, St Augustine had one of the largest populations in British North America and was heavily fortified. British St Augustine was at its apex, but American victory at Yorktown would change everything. 

We discuss the 1781 siege of Pensacola and its critical role in securing the ultimate American victory at Yorktown, later that year. 

We discuss the Spanish and American efforts to free West Florida from British rule between 1779 and 1781. 

The American Continental Army tried three times to invade East Florida. The region had a military significance and even George Washington was concerned about the British presence in St Augustine. All three times they were repulsed before crossing the St Johns River. 

We discuss Governor Patrick Tonyn's missteps that left East Florida vulnerable as well as the Continental Army's first attempted invasion for East Florida. 

Why did Florida stay loyal to Britain during the American Revolution?  We discuss the factors. 

We introduce why Florida was so important in the American Revolution despite the lack of teaching about it in schools. 

We discuss the repopulation of St Augustine, Pensacola's importance, the founding of New Smyrna Beach, the early citrus industry and the St Johns River in this episode. 

In this episode we discuss the British takeover of Florida and why  the British made Florida an important strategic point in their empire. Florida was , contrary to the mythical American narrative about the era, critical between 1763 and 1782.   We begin the road to the American Revolution with this episode. 

In this episode we discuss the economics of slavery and The War of Jenkins Ear including the 1740 British Siege of St Augustine .

The first free African-American settlement in North America is created in Florida and that leads to the region's largest largest slave rebellion to the north in South Carolina. We discuss that and the general build up to the War of Jenkins Ear.

In this episode we discuss the worst period of Florida's Colonial History,  Queen Anne's War from 1703 onward. This period left Florida depopulated and an economic basket-case, a far cry from the thriving colony of the previous 100 years. 

We discuss the origins of Queen Anne's War including its links to the European War of Spanish Succession.  The war kicked off in 1702 and would prove a calamitous event for Florida. We discuss the issues in 1702, and the battles that took place that year. including the siege of St Augustine  by the English. 

On the second episode of our Albion Florida series we discuss the reasons the Castillo de San Marcos was built, the frequent raiding of La Florida by English and French pirates as well as the founding on Pensacola and the process by which the Spanish Crown finally built a secure fort in St Augustine. 

In the introduction to our series designed to bust historical myths, we discuss why Florida was different than the other European colonies in North America as well as discussing the El Camino Real road that connected St Augustine with towns in the interior of the colony. 

Why are we launching a new podcast series about colonial Florida? We answer that here. 

We discuss previous Florida Governors whose ideology wasn't conservative or liberal but were in fact populists.

We discuss a particularly infamous legislative panel in Florida's History- the Charley Johns led FLIC.