Benjamin Franklin’s East Florida Warning
On July 25, 1768, Benjamin Franklin set his friend, Charles-Guillaume-Frédéric Dumas, straight. Dumas, a man of letters who would later serve as an American…
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Phraseology and the “Fourteenth Colony”
The phrase “fourteenth colony” describes a province in British North America that did not revolt alongside the original thirteen colonies. Such a province usually…
Charlotina
In the fall of 1763, a pamphlet was published in Edinburgh titled The Expediency of Securing Our American Colonies by Settling the Country Adjoining…
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Following William Bartram’s Footsteps in Northeast Florida
From 1765 to 1766, botanist John Bartram explored Florida, the new southern territory Britain acquired after the Seven Years’ War. William Bartram, his son,…
Review: Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic
Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic by Brad A. Jones (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021) In Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the…
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Review: Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty
Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty by Jack Kelly (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021) Scholarly focus on decisive military actions…
Five Women of British East Florida
In the male-dominated historical record of East Florida during the era of the American Revolution, a few women stand out as noteworthy. Most women…
Robert Bisset’s East Florida Holdings
Captain Robert Bisset arrived in East Florida in 1767. Immediately upon his coming, he set to work on establishing himself as a planter. For…
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Seventeen Testimonies Seal New Smyrna’s Fate, 1777
In March 1777, while Andrew Turnbull was away in England, several Minorcans escaped New Smyrna and fled to St. Augustine, East Florida. They hiked seventy…
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Review: Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era
Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era by Mike Bunn. (Montgomery, AL: NewSouth Books, 2020) In Fourteenth Colony, Mike…
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Texas and the American Revolution
In discussions on the American Revolutionary War, the contributions of Texas are seldom brought up.[1] But in the 1770s, Texas, inhabited by Spaniards and…
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The British Invade Nicaragua: The San Juan Expedition
According to Andrew Jackson O’ Shaughnessy, the San Juan Expedition was among “the most ambitious enterprises of the American Revolutionary War.”[1] In 1779, after Spain’s…
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Minorcans, New Smyrna, and the American Revolution in East Florida
Beyond Florida’s state boundaries the history of New Smyrna is seldom mentioned.[1] Well known to the locals of New Smyrna Beach, the region’s settlement by…
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The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington
The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington by Martha Saxton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) Historians who have studied Mary Ball Washington…
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Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning
Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning, 1778-1783, edited by Louis Arthur Norton. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,…
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The British Invasion of the Bahamas, 1783: One of the Final Actions of the American Revolution
Tucked away in a small corner of history and buried deep beneath mountains of text lie brief mentions of the British invasion of the…
The East Florida Gazette, 1783–1784
East Florida only had one newspaper in the colony’s entire history. The newspaper went live during the final year of the American War for…
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Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother
Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother by Craig Shirley (Harper, 2019) Rare indeed is the historian of early American history who…
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James Moore’s Commission in the East Florida Rangers
Under the leadership of Royal Governor Patrick Tonyn, East Florida remained in the hands of the British Crown during the Imperial Crisis, not an…
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Thomas Fletchall’s Association: A Loyalist Proclamation in the South Carolina Backcountry
Thomas Fletchall was a man of considerable influence in the South Carolina backcountry. Born in Maryland in 1725, Fletchall and his family relocated to…
“My Dear Nell:” The Love Letters of John Moultrie
Dr. John Moultrie was born in 1729 in South Carolina to a father of the same name, one of five brothers. Educated in Edinburgh,…
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James Bruce’s Report on the Situation of West Florida and Havana, 1782
The British loss of West Florida in 1781 ushered in a new era for the region, an era dominated by Spanish rule. For some,…
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Brothers Mourn the Death of Captain Thomas Moultrie
Thomas Moultrie was one of five sons of a successful South Carolina planter. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War as…
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Loyalist James Allen’s Reflection on the State of the Colonies
A councilman by profession, James Allen, esquire, lived in Philadelphia during the early years of the American Revolution. A man of considerable social prominence…
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James Grant’s American Confession
In American history, the name James Grant became synonymous with advocacy for British supremacy in colonial matters. For much of Grant’s early military career,…
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William Taylor: Loyalist Refugee in East Florida
During the War for American Independence, displaced Loyalists from the southern colonies sought refuge in East Florida. Due to a large influx of refugees,…