History of Florida
Florida's written history begins with the arrival of Europeans; the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1513 made the first textual records.
The Late Archaic period started about 3000 BC, when Florida's climate had reached current conditions and the sea had risen close to its present level.
Many people lived in large villages with purpose-built earthwork mounds, such as at Horr's Island, which had the largest permanently occupied community in the Archaic period in the southeastern United States.
The populations of all of these tribes decreased markedly during the period of Spanish control of Florida, mostly due to epidemics of newly introduced infectious diseases, to which the Native Americans had no natural immunity.
[16]: 227–231 In the aftermath, the Seminole, originally an offshoot of the Creek people who absorbed other groups, developed as a distinct tribe in Florida during the 18th century through the process of ethnogenesis.
After 1630, and throughout the 18th century, Tegesta (after the Tequesta tribe) was an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in Joannes de Laet's History of the New World.
Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition explored Florida's west coast in 1528, but his violent demands for gold and food led to hostile relations with the Tocobaga and other native groups.
Facing starvation and unable to find his support ships, Narváez attempted return to Mexico via rafts, but all were lost at sea and only four members of the expedition survived.
The Spanish Crown, beginning with King Charles II in 1693, encouraged fugitive slaves from the British North American colonies to escape and offered them freedom and refuge if they converted to Catholicism.
[36] During this period, the British (including their North American colonies) repeatedly attacked Spanish Florida, especially in 1702 and again in 1740, when a large force under James Oglethorpe sailed south from Georgia and besieged St. Augustine, but was unable to capture the Castillo de San Marcos.
In 1771, Governor John Moultrie wrote to the Board of Trade that "it has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back".
A large number of British colonists who were "energetic and of good character" moved to Florida, mostly coming from South Carolina, Georgia and England, though there was also a group of settlers who came from the colony of Bermuda.
[46] During the American Revolutionary War, Florida Loyalists fighting for the English Crown participated in raids against the Patriot forces in South Carolina and Georgia.
[47] Continental forces attempted to invade East Florida early in the conflict, but they were defeated on May 17, 1777, at the Battle of Thomas Creek in today's Nassau County when American Colonel John Baker surrendered to the British.
North Florida continued to be the home of the newly amalgamated black–native American Seminole culture and a haven for people escaping slavery in the southern United States.
On October 27, 1810, most of the Republic of West Florida was annexed by proclamation of President James Madison, who claimed that the region was included in the Louisiana Purchase and incorporated it into the newly formed Territory of Orleans.
The revolt was organized by General George Mathews of the U.S. Army, who had been authorized to secretly negotiate with the Spanish governor for American acquisition of East Florida.
[51] A similar filibuster action took place in September 1817, when the Scottish veteran and con-man Gregor MacGregor led a private force and captured Amelia Island and declared it part of the Republic of the Floridas.
[53] After Jackson's incursions, Spain decided that Florida had become too much of a burden, as it could not afford to send settlers or garrisons to properly occupy the land and was receiving very little revenue from the territory.
It was proposed several times that the territory be split with varying motivations ranging from: the regions of East and West Florida feeling a sense of disconnection from each other, adding another slave state and that Pensacola would be a good port for Alabama.
[54]: 157 Florida also had one of the highest per capita murder rates prior to the Civil War, thanks to a weakened central government, the institution of slavery, and a troubled political history.
In order to combat the increasingly growing Ku Klux Klan, Reed mobilized black and white militias and purchased two thousand rifles in New York with which to arm them.
People from throughout the Southeast migrated to Florida during this time, creating a larger southern culture in the central part of the state, and expanding the existing one in the northern region.
Hurt badly by the Great Depression and the land bust, Florida, along with many other States, kept afloat with federal relief money under the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration.
[85][86] White mobs committed massacres, accompanied by wholesale destruction of black houses, churches, and schools, in the small communities of Ocoee, November 1920; Perry in December 1922; and Rosewood in January 1923.
They sought better lives, including decent-paying jobs, better education for their children, and the chance to vote and participate in political life — escaping segregation, lynchings, and civil rights suppression.
Investors of all kinds, many from outside Florida, raced to buy and sell rapidly appreciating land in newly platted communities such as Miami and Palm Beach.
The following November, state voters repealed Florida's constitutional ban on liquor and gave local governments the power to legalize or outlaw alcoholic beverages.
After World War II, Florida was transformed as the development of air conditioning and the Interstate highway system encouraged migration by residents of the North and Midwest.
Citrus growers doubled their output, cattle ranching expanded in the Kissimmee Valley and farmers began to cultivate the Everglades Agricultural Area with sugar being the most prominent crop.
