The Florida History Podcast

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.

With the party switch of former Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo, Ryan Ray joins Kartik Krishnaiyer to discuss the history of sitting legislators leaving the Democratic Party since the 1990's and the larger general trends associated with this. Note with Kartik's recent intense focus on Canadian politics, he's applying some of those lessons of the current campaign to Florida as well.

We discuss the Georgia planter turned commander of the mixed-race East Florida Rangers, Thomas Brown.

We take time away from history this week to discuss an important current issue and how it relates to taxpayers. --- Billy Corben whose production credits include Cocaine Cowboys, Dawg Fight, The U, and The U Part 2 needs no introduction to most of you. For those who don’t know, he’s a relentless advocate for government efficiency in southeast Florida and regularly discusses these topics on the Dan...

John Stuart fled from the Carolina's to East Florida in 1775 and began a program of arming Seminoles and Creeks to do battle against the American rebels.

The Royal Governor of East Florida during the American Revolution was the prickly British Major General Patrick Tonyn.

Bernardo de Gálvez is one of the most colorful and intriguing figures of the American Revolution in Florida. We discuss him in this pod.

We're back after a layoff and this week we discuss the book project we're working on with a publisher on the American Revolution.

We do not have a new podcast this week as Robert and Kartik in the final stages of finishing the initial manuscript on a new book which will be published later this year. We hope to be back next week, but for certain we will be back the following week.

One of Florida's most controversial politicians, Charlie Crist won election as Governor in 2006- he was then a Republican but didn't necessarily govern as one and would end his term as an Independent.

Jeb Bush's transformative governorship had a huge impact on the direction of the Sunshine State.

Lawton Chiles had a rocky second term fighting a conservative legislature, and Jeb Bush crushed Buddy MacKay in the 1998 election. But Chiles died suddenly a month later ushering MacKay, who passed last month into a short one-month term as Governor.