The Florida History Podcast

We get into the heart of the Jackson conquest of Florida. Illegal encroachment on Spanish-held territory and racially-motivated brutality against runaway slaves as well as Seminole people characterize this period. We also discuss the influence of Britain on the conflict and their relationship with the native people of Florida and Georgia.

The Spanish had invited the British to garrison troops in Pensacola in 1814. Meanwhile Andrew Jackson is fighting Creek Native Americans in Georgia and pursues them into Florida illegally. Britain and the US are in a declared war. You can guess what happens next. Jackson defeats the British and Spanish in Pensacola and begins his five year conquest of what remains of Spanish Florida.

In 1812 the Madison Administration tacitly backed a hostile rebellion in East Florida.

We discuss the short-lived Republic of West Florida and the US annexation of areas of Florida west of the Perdido River. These locales are now in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

In the second episode of our series on Andrew Jackson and the Conquest of Florida, we discuss The Louisiana Purchase and how it impacted Florida. US negotiators were more interested in acquiring Florida than the vast wilderness of the west at the time.

On our first pod of a new series, we discuss why the United States was so committed to stealing Florida from Spain in the early 1800's. We cover the period from the Revolution until the 1820's in this series and discuss the broader themes we will explore in future pods in this episode.

Part 2 of the Beyond Politics discussion we started last week.

For the next two weeks we're going to play part one and part two of Kartik's recent appearance on the Beyond Politics podcast discussing Florida's evolution from progressive state in the 1970's, to neoliberal/DLC state in the 1980's and 1990's to competitive leans conservative state in the 2000's to Tea Party state in the 2010's and MAGA Central in the 2020's.

We discuss Julia Tuttle and Bertha Palmer today on the Florida History Podcast, and discuss how both coaxed the railroads on either coast south from their previous terminus' (West Palm Beach and Tampa) toward to Miami and Sarasota.

We discuss one of the most remarkable female Floridians of all time, May Mann Jennings, First Lady from 1901-1905, who became a leading conservationist and activist as well.

We discuss Florida's first female member of Congress, who was the daughter of one of most famous political figures in American history.

Continuing our Women's History Month theme we discuss Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most famous Floridians in multiple fields. 

This week for Women's History Month 2023 we talk about two very famous Florida women who were both writers. 

On this Women's History Month themed Florida History Podcast we discuss Marjorie Harris Carr's fight against the Cross Florida Barge Canal and her impact in influencing the politics of Florida. 

We discuss the 1889 visit to Florida of Frederick Douglass one of the greatest Americans in history.

Florida played a large role in the Civil Rights Movement - and was a critical stage in the fight over the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

We continue our Black History Month series with a look at a dark, dark period in Florida's History. The 1920's until the 1960's. Key figures are NAACP President Harry T. Moore who was the victim of an assassination in Titusville in 1951 and Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall whose control over local police departments in Central Florida and connections to the Ku Klux Klan allowed Florida to be the...

In this second episode of our Black History Month 2023 series, we discuss runaway slaves escaping to British-held territories in the 1800's.

To kick of Black History Month at the Florida History Podcast we discuss several topics we have previously touched upon in greater detail - the impact of runaway slaves on Spanish Florida in the 18th Century, the free black settlement of Fort Mose and the critical role free African-Americans took in defending Florida from British conquest. 

The Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park is in Flagler County and yields a lot of history to discuss from the early 1800's in Florida.

We discuss the history of Florida's State University System which was founded in 1905. 

We discuss President McKinley's 1899 visit to Tallahassee, including the State Capitol and Florida A&M University. This was the first ever Presidential visit to Florida's capital city.  

In this episode of The Florida History Podcast we look back at the enormous contributions of Mary McLeod Bethune, who the state has honored as a designee in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington DC.

Ryan Ray, Chair of the Leon Democrats joins us to discuss the collapse of the Democratic Party in Florida elections. 

We discuss the events leading up to the opening of the Sunshine State Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike) in 1957 and then changes to the road in the 1960's.