The Spanish had great expectations of Florida despite disastrous results from expeditions such as Ponce de Leon and Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon's. In a description of the panhandle region from Hernando de Soto's campaigns, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo wrote, “The Province of Apalache is very fertile and abundantly provided with much corn, kidney beans, pumpkins, various fruits, much venison, many varieties of birds and excellent fishing near the sea.” Notwithstanding the environmental benefits, the Spanish were ultimately unsuccessful in establishing a plantation economy in Florida. Both the British and the proto-Seminoles achieved greater success in establishing a plantation economy after the failure of the Spanish. Many factors contributed to the success of the proto-Seminoles and British in Florida including increased population, choice of economy, and African presence in Florida.
The British were extremely successful in populating Florida in the late eighteenth century. Florida’s exoticism was instrumental in recruiting British settlement in Florida. “Most publications describing the Florida’s during the colonial era originated in England.” At that time, Florida was depicted in oral and written accounts as an exotic region whose natural setting would undoubtedly benefit the British Empire. Such depictions were used as a type of propaganda. The publications of William Bartram (1739-1823) provide one example.
William Bartram was a natural historian and artist who kept detailed accounts of his travels in Florida before he was interrupted by the American Revolution. His manuscript, published in 1791, contained adventurous accounts of his experiences in Florida that would seem like science fiction to readers at the time. In chap...
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...ial Plantations and Economy in Florida ed. Jane Landers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). 136-149.
William Bartram, Travels through North (University of North Carolina: Apex Data Services, Inc., 2001), 119-30, http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/bartram/bartram.html.
Daniel Murphree, “Perpetuating a Mythical Paradise: Transnational Visions of the Colonial Floridas,” Terrae
Incognitae 37 (Jan. 2005): 41.
Andrew Frank, “Taking the State Out: Seminoles and Creeks in Late Eighteenth-Century Florida,” The Florida Historical Quartley 84. (Summer 2005): 10-27
Patricia Griffin, "Blue Gold." Colonial Plantations and Economy in Florida ed. Jane Landers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). 39-68.
Daniel Murphree, “Perpetuating a Mythical Paradise: Transnational Visions of the Colonial Floridas,” Terrae Incognitae 37 (Jan. 2005): 41-52.
Florida became a state in 1845 and almost immediately people began proposing to drain the Everglades. In 1848, a government report said that draining the Everglades would be easy, and there would be no bad effect. Canals and dams were dug to control seasonal flooding. Farmers grew vegetables in the rich soil of the drained land, Ranchers had their cattle graze on the dry land, and new railways lines were constructed to connect communities throughout south Florida; but the ecosystem of the Everglades was not suited for either farming or ranching. The natural cycle of dry and wet seasons brought a devastating series of droughts and floods. These had always been a p...
George the Second, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, King, Defender of the Faith, I write to thee from the heart of South Carolina, Charleston to impart my knowledge of the region. My travels have been long and arduous. I arrived by way of a freight ship bearing finished goods for the colony on the twenty-eighth day of March, in the twenty-third year of thy reign. All that province, territory, or tract of ground, called South Carolina, lying and being within our dominions of America is well.
Hover, John C., Joseph D. Barnes, and Walter D. Jones. Memoirs of the Miami Valley. Chicago: Robert O’Law Company, 1919. Print.
Murray, Dru J. "The Unconquered Seminoles." Florida History. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .
Curtin, Philip D: The rise and fall of the plantation complex:essays in Atlantic history (Cambridge, 1990).
Florida has had quite an eventful history. It’s first human inhabitants are believed to be several Native American tribes, including The Panzacola, Chatot, Apalachicola, Apalachee, Timucua, Calusa, and the Matecumbe. These tribes occupied land all over Florida.
Carl Hiaasen, an award-winning author and columnist, is widely recognized for works that span for over 40 years. Characterized by humor and satire, Hiaasen’s Tourist Season, demonstrates his disapproval with the change for tourism in Florida. With tall buildings, millions of people and artificial lakes, Miami has become a top destination for tourists. Through the group “Las Noches de Diciembre” composed of the characters Skip Wiley, Viceroy Wilson, Tommy Tigertail and Jesus Bernal, Hiaasen expresses a radical point of view from a group who obsesses over making the Florida area back to nature. Furthermore, the author talks about the life before tourists took over the area as well as express through different characters such as Brian Keyes, the issues
Milanich, Jerald T. and Susan Milbrath., ed. First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States1492-1570. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 1989.
“ William Bartram’s travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the County of the Chactaws (1791)” Bartram explored the mangrove swamp seeing alligators, poisonous snakes, wolfs, wild-rat and bears. He was a joyful man who was inseparable from nature he was also very interested with the native people of the southeast. A quote with a I enjoyed to read with great word choice is “our place of observation is happily situated under the protecting shade of majestic live oaks, glorious magnolias, and the fragrant orange, open to the view of the great river and still waters of the lagoon just before us.” pg 65 Bartram loved
The circa-1930s home of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this state park preserves Rawling’s slice of north-central Florida that inspired her books — The Yearling and Cross Creek. All buildings on the property, as well as gardens and an orange grove, are completely restored. Guided tours are available.
The Spanish eyewitness accounts of Florida made the first impression of the region as an untouched beauty, but it befitted the lives of the Native Americans. Historians held that Europeans believed that the natives symbolically represented the “purity” of the environment in resources and fertile land. Daniel Murphee suggest that the colonists actually inhabiting the peninsula and its hinterlands increasingly condemned natives whom, they believed, represented a bewildering environment responsible for European failures. The best description that Europeans gave to the native’s appearance is “barbaric” and “red savages”, which was significant in itself. After the first contact, Florida’s indigenous societies were suddenly thrust onto the universal
In the late 1700’s the slave population in the United States had decreased. Before the invention of the cotton gin the South, which could only make money by farming, was loosing money because it didn’t have a major crop to export to England and the North besides tobacco and rice. However, these crops could be grown elsewhere. Cotton was the key because it couldn’t be grown in large amounts in other places, but only one type of cotton that could be cleaned easily. This was long-staple cotton. Another problem arose; long-staple cotton only could be grown along the coast. There was another strain of cotton that until then could not be cleaned easily so it wasn’t worth growing. The cotton gin was the solution to this problem. With the invention of the cotton gin short stemmed cotton could be cleaned easily making cotton a valued export and it could be grown anywhere in the south. The era of the “Cotton Kingdom” began with this invention leading into an explosion in the necessity of slaves.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed up the coast of Cuba. He described the valleys and mountains “full of tall, cool trees that it was a glory to see,” landscapes in which on saw
Even though Florida has developed and changed along with society, we can still tie ourselves to the old Florida and our heritage. The Marjorie Rawlings literary work allows us to go back and relive old Florida and what it was like back when cowboys were the keepers of the land. Today much of our pastures and scrubland have now turned into resorts and golf courses to accommodate our ever growing population. While this shift from agrarian to industrial has occurred, there are organizations and groups of people that are trying to help preserve the old Florida that we once knew.
4. Leighton, A. (1976). American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century: “For use or for Delight.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin.