[2] The properties owned by Ana, including a 3,200-acre plantation called "Orange Grove", enabled Hernández to establish himself as a planter of some standing.

The campaign ended in May 1818 with the cession of West Florida to the United States with the signing of the Adams–Onís Treaty on February 22, 1819, following which Hernández pledged his allegiance to the US.

The land that he bought or inherited by marriage along with the large holdings he received as service grants from the Spanish crown amounted to 25,670 acres by the time of the annexation to the US.

[4] During the 1820s, Hernández became a major planter in the territory, his properties producing some of its biggest cash crops, including sugar cane and cotton, with the forced labor of between 60 and 150 enslaved black persons on his three largest holdings, especially the Mala Compra and the St. Joseph plantations.

In spite of his success as a planter, Hernández was forced to sell off large tracts of his land during the mid-1820s to discharge debts and make mortgage payments.

He was appointed Brigadier General over a troop of volunteers from the Mosquito Roarers militia during the war and was subsequently commissioned in the United States Army, serving from 1835 to 1838.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress