Link To This Page — Contact Us —
State of Florida History
Link To This Page — Contact Us —
The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León called the region La Florida, roughly translated as Land of the Flowers, when he visited it in 1513. It is thought that he chose this name because he was impressed by the many colorful flowers of the region and because he sighted it on Easter, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. The state’s official nickname, the Sunshine State, reflects the economic importance of its climate, which has been called its most important natural resource. Among the other nicknames, all unofficial, are the Everglade State and the Orange State, for its most renowned crop.
"No man would immigrate into Florida-no, not from Hell itself," declared the Honorable John Randolph of Roanoke in the United States House of Representatives. The newly annexed territory was, he declared, "a land of swamps, of quagmires, of frogs and alligators and mosquitoes."
Nonetheless, Florida's 1980 census count of 9.7 million would mark it as the nation's seventh most populous state, and by 1987 it ranked fourth. Because native Floridians perpetually seem to be scarce (fewer than a third of the state's current inhabitants were born there), there is a persistent myth that few Americans outside the state today would have had Florida ancestors. Many of the settlers who flooded the state from Georgia and the Carolinas before and especially after 1821, however, eventually fled the swamps, alligators, and mosquitoes to return home or to migrate further west. Numerous "brick walls" in Southern genealogy have toppled when a missing ancestor or family suddenly turned up in Florida, either permanently or en route to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or gold-rush California.
Many are surprised to learn that numerous living Americans can document their ancestry a full ten generations in Florida. Nearly fifteen hundred Florida pioneer lineages (those pre-dating statehood in 1845) have been identified and documented in the past decade alone.
The early history of Florida falls neatly into the following periods: 1513, discovery; 1565-1763, first Spanish colonial period; 1763-83, British colonial period; 1784-1821, second Spanish period; 1821-45, U.S. territorial period: and 1845, statehood as the twenty-seventh state.
The Spanish colonial presence began with the landing of Juan Ponce de Leon at Eastertide of 1513, ninety-four years before Jamestown, and Spanish Florida ultimately embraced all of the present state and much of the Gulf Coast, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
In 1564 French Huguenots settled Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River near present-day Jacksonville. The Spanish reacted immediately, by establishing St. Augustine as the first permanent European settlement in America and immediately destroying Fort Caroline. After further hostilities France soon abandoned designs on peninsular Florida. Elizabethan England, however, was not to be so easily intimidated.
Spain was to spend much of the seventeenth century attempting to dissuade the English by scattering colonists across Florida, and by the 1680s San Marcos de Apalache (now St. Marks) on the Gulf coast had grown to noteworthy proportions. In the final third of the century, pressure from the French to the west and the English and their Native American allies to the north prompted Spain to fortify St. Augustine and to re-establish a former settlement at Pensacola in 1698. In 1702 and 1703 there were numerous British raids. Seventeen years later the French took and briefly held Pensacola before relinquishing the town, joining with Spain against England, and finally retiring further westward along the Gulf Coast.
Following an indecisive treaty in 1748 and a decade of peace with Spain, England was again at war with France. By 1761 Spain, fearful that a French defeat could damage its own colonial interests, finally took sides with France, but it was too late. The Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years' War in 1763, saw Spain cede Florida to England in exchange for the captured city of Havana.
British East Florida reached from the Atlantic to the Apalachicola River; British West Florida ran from the Apalachicola to the Mississippi. In 1765 England sent Surveyor General William Gerard de Brahm and Royal Botanist John Bartram to the new possession and offered bounties, land grants, and other inducements to settlers. Thus East and West Florida remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution, and St. Augustine became crowded with Tory refugees from Georgia and the Carolinas.
In 1781 Spain captured Pensacola from Britain, which two years later exchanged both Floridas for the Bahama Islands. Between 1785 and 1821 there were sporadic Spanish-American border disputes until the Pinckney Treaty of 1795 at last fixed the 31st parallel as the northern boundary of West Florida and gave the United States undisputed control of an area that now comprises nearly a third of Alabama and Mississippi.
Spain supported the British in the War of 1812 but never declared war on the United States. Nonetheless, Andrew Jackson seized and then abandoned Spanish Pensacola in 1814 and helped convince Spain of the folly of trying to hold an overseas colony contiguous to a large and unfriendly nation already coveting its lands. Under the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty, which took effect in 1821, Spain gave up East and West Florida in exchange for American settlement of U. S. citizens' claims against Spain.
In 1821 Congress provided for a territorial governor, territorial courts, and a thirteen-member legislative council. The first two counties were established on 21 July 1821. By its first territorial census in 1830, three years before skeptical John Randolph of Roanoke died, Florida boasted 34,730 inhabitants. By statehood fifteen years later, its population had surpassed 66,500, and by 1990 Florida's "swamps and quagmires" were inhabited by more than thirteen million Americans.
The massacre of Army Major Francis Langhorne Dade and two companies of soldiers in December of 1835 marked the opening hostilities of the Second Seminole War, which would end seven years later after an expenditure of more than $20 million and the loss of 1,500 soldiers. By 1858, 3,824 Native Americans and blacks were relocated to Arkansas; Native American and white civilian casualties and property losses cannot accurately be calculated.
Florida attained statehood on 3 March 1845, first among the Atlantic coast colonies settled but last admitted to the Union. By then her people had lived under the flags of four sovereign nations: Spain, France, Great Britain, and the United States. Since attaining United States territorial status in 1821, Floridians had been "free." Under statehood, at long last they were "equal."
Between 1950 and 1970 Florida’s population experienced a phenomenal increase of 145 percent. Between 1970 and 1980 the population increased by another 43.4 percent, and by 32.7 percent between 1980 and 1990. Much of this increase was attributed to the large influx of people from elsewhere rather than natural increase. Many were people who had retired. Many were refugees from Cuba. Others came to work in the state’s new and expanding industries and to share in its general economic growth.
Tourism has been Florida’s major source of income for many years. Although it initially attracted visitors from the Northeastern states during the winter months, it is now a year-round vacationland visited by tourists from every state, Latin America, and also from Canada and other foreign countries. The most popular attractions are the theme parks around Orlando and the many resort cities that rim the coast. Their importance is reflected in the distribution of the state’s inhabitants, most of whom live in cities along the coast or in a corridor stretching between Tampa and Daytona Beach and including Orlando.
African American - Voluminous records of various aspects of black life in Florida have been surveyed for The Black Experience: A Guide to Afro-American Resources in the Florida State Archives (revised; Tallahassee: Florida State Archives, 2002), which is now available online on its website (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies). Compiled by Debra D. McGriff, former curator of the Florida State Archives’ genealogy collection, this invaluable resource gives record groups and series titles, coverage dates, and descriptions for a vast array of primary sources for research on the African Americans of Florida.
The archives’ public record and manuscript holdings include slave books, African-American church membership lists, the governors’ administrative correspondence, Black Teacher Association papers, and the papers of Judge Joseph Lee, a prominent African-American Republican of Duval County. African-American marriage records, deeds documenting African-American ownership of land, and probate files containing wills and appraisement inventories including lists of slaves are interspersed throughout the archives’ county records microfilm collection. A few counties (Gadsden, Leon, and Gulf) provide indexes for “Negro” or “Colored” marriages, but there are no separate indexes for deeds or probates involving African Americans. Chancery case files, marks and brands, mortgages, guardianships, and court-order books can also be useful to the researcher of African-American genealogy.
There are currently two African-American societies in Florida: Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society-Central Florida Chapter, 6013 Wedgewood Dr., Orlando, FL 32808 (mailing address: P.O. Box 1347, Orlando, FL 32802-1347) <www.rootsweb.com/~flcfaahg/>; and South Jacksonville African American Historical & Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10693, Jacksonville, FL 32247 <www.jacksonvillestory.com>.
Some research centers available for African-American research are:
- Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL 32307 <www.famu.edu/acad/coleman/index.html> the state’s “historically black university,” maintains an African American Collection, including a microform reproduction of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History, an important resource for the study of African American people.
- The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311 <www.broward.org/aarlcc.htm> contains more than 75,000 books, documents, artifacts, and related materials that focus on the experiences of people of African descent. Local history is a cornerstone of the available resources.
- The Black Archives Collection, History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc., The Joseph Caleb Community Center, 5400 NW 22nd Ave., Miami, FL 33142 constitutes another resource for researchers.
In addition to websites of national interest for African-American research (see pages 14-15), Internet sites for Florida include:
- Florida African-American Roots <www.rootsweb.com/~flafram/home.html>
- Florida Slave Data <www.rootsweb.com/~flafram/Slavedata.htm>
The following is a select group of important or unusual sources:
- Brown, Carter, Jr. Florida’s Black Public Officials, 1867–1924. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1998.
- Jones, Maxine D. and Kevin M. McCarthy. African Americans in Florida. Sarasota, Fla.: Pineapple Press, Inc., 1993.
- Midwifery Program Files, 1924–75, at the Florida State Archives, contains a few applications for licensing of black midwives under the state midwifery program.
- Rivers, Larry E. Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
- Smith, Julia Floyd. Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida, 1821–1860. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1973.
Voter registration rolls for 1868, at the Florida State Archives, lists each registrant’s name, race, length of residence in the county and state, nativity (by state), naturalization (where, when, how), and the date of registration.
Native American - Today’s true “Florida Indians” constitute three separate but historically related groups: the Seminole, the Miccosukee, and the Creek tribes. Thousands of them were transported during the mid-1800s to Oklahoma, where they formed one of the “Five Civilized Tribes.” Many still live on federal and state reservations in or near the Everglades. The most common starting place for Native American research on the pertinent tribes is the index to Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory: Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, Seminole (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003).
The Miccosukee have a reservation forty miles west of Miami on the Tamiami Trail <www.miccosukee.com/tribe.html>. The Seminole provide community libraries on five of their six reservations:
- Billy Osceola Memorial Library, Rt. 6, Box 668, Okeechobee, FL 34974
- Dorothy Scott Osceola Memorial Library, (Broward County), 3100 NW 63rd Ave., Hollywood, FL 33024
- Willie Frank Library (Hendry County), HC 61 Box 46A, Big Cypress Reservation, Clewiston, FL 33440
- Tampa Reservation Library, 5219 Orient Rd., #K, Tampa, FL 33610
- Immokalee Reservation Library, 303 Lena Frank Dr., Ste. 3, Immokalee, FL 33934
Two research guides assist with Seminole family research:
- Lennon, Donna Rachal. Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2002.
- Wickman, Patricia R., Ph.D. So You Think There’s a Seminole in Your Family Tree? Hollywood, Fla.: Seminole Publications; Seminole Tribe of Florida, 1997.
- Some published materials available on researching Florida Native Americans are:
- Bowen, Jeff. Seminole of Florida: Indian Census 1930–1940, with Birth and Death Records 1930–1938. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 1997.
- Kersey, Harry A. The Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes: A Critical Bibliography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
- Lantz, Raymond C. Seminole Indians of Florida, 1850–1874. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1994.
- ______. Seminole Indians of Florida, 1875–1879. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1995.
The Seminole tribe, 6300 Stirling Rd., Hollywood, FL 33024 <www.seminoletribe.com> has more than 3,000 members on six reservations: Big Cypress, Brighton, Fort Pierce, Hollywood, Immokalee, and Tampa. Extensive information about their resources is provided on the website.
Hispanic
Many Floridians who have Cuban or Spanish ancestry will benefit from the files in the David Masnata Y De Quesada Collection at the University of Miami, Otto G. Richter Library, Archives & Special Collection Department (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies). Masnata became a Cuban exile and moved to New York in 1961. When he left Cuba, he left behind records covering many years of researching family and local history. However, he compiled a new collection of documents on Cuban and Spanish families. A complete description of this collection can be found at <www.library.miami.edu/archives/papers/MASNATA.html>.
Other helpful sources, especially for tracing Spanish or Cuban ancestry:
- Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, FL, Inc., 5521 SW 163 Ave., Southwest Ranches, FL 33331 <www.cgcmiami.org/cuba>
- Cuban Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 2650, Salt Lake City, UT 84110 <www.rootsweb.com/~utcubangs>
- Los Floridanos Society, Inc., P.O. Box 4043, St. Augustine, FL 32085 <www.losfloridanos.org>. Los Floridanos Society represents descendants of the early Spanish settlers of St. Augustine, Florida, who arrived during the “First Spanish Period, 1565–1763.” Currently, the society represents the Solana and Sanchez families.
- Cuban Heritage Collection, Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami, Florida (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies). Cuba GenWeb <www.cubagen.org> includes church records on the website.
Other resources include:
- Caribbean Historical & Genealogical Journal. Published four times a year by TCI Genealogical Resources, P.O. Box 15839, San Luis Obispo, Calif. 93406.
- Carr, Peter E. Genealogical resources of Hispanic Central & South America. San Luis Obispo, Calif.: TCI Genealogical Resources, 1996.
- Carr, Peter E. Guide to Cuban Genealogical Research—Records and Sources. Chicago: Adams Press, 1991.
- Feldman, Lawrence H. Anglo-Americans in Spanish Archives: Lists of Anglo-American Settlers in the Spanish Colonies of America: A Finding Aid. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991.
- Platt, Lyman. D. Cuba General Research Guide. Salt Lake City: Institute of Genealogy and History for Latin-America, 1991.
Other Ethnic Groups - Florida is a melting pot of people from different backgrounds, beyond the historical presence of Native Americans and African Americans. Hispanic migration did not occur until the last half of the twentieth century, except for the Spanish colonial period. Among the earliest colonies still traceable are the Minorcans, who came from the Mediterranean, Greek, Spanish, and Italian isles with Dr. Andrew Turnbull to settle his ill-fated New Smyrna plantation on the coast south of St. Augustine in 1768. See: Griffin, Patricia C. Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768–1788. St. Augustine, Fla.: St. Augustine Historical Society, 1990.
Rasico, Philip D. The Minorcans of Florida: Their History, Language, and Culture. New Smyrna Beach, Fla.: Luthers, 1990. Quinn, Jane. Minorcans in Florida: Their History and Heritage. St. Augustine, Fla.: Mission Press, 1975.
Immigration to southern Florida in the 1920s by Jewish U.S. northeasterners of European heritage boosted today’s Jewish population. As a result, there are many Jewish genealogical societies and Holocaust Museums located in Florida, including Jacksonville, Broward County, Greater Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach, Southwest Florida, Tallahassee, and Tampa Bay. Most can be located online through standard search engines.
Florida History by County
