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Early History of the State of Florida

When talking about the U.S. states with rich histories, Florida’s name is always the first to get a mention.
The Sunshine State’s early years alone warrant this inclusion. It served as a crossroad for the varied
people that shaped the history of the United States - Native Americans, colonial rulers from Europe, free
blacks and fugitive slaves – foreshadowing the current composition and political condition of our
country.

Before any discussion of the people that inhabited the state, we first need to first understand its
geological origins and how it came to be a large peninsula. Florida originated from the collision between
ancient continents Gondwana and Laurentia, which led it to become a mass of land surrounded by
desert in the middle of Pangaea.

The Florida that we know today in the North American continent came to be after branching out from
Pangaea’s split. This early Florida had twice the land mass of the Florida we know today and had a cooler
climate. This attracted the earliest known inhabitants of Florida, the stone tool-using Paleo-Indians who
came to the land during the last glacial period. Also promoting settlement on the land were its available
freshwater sources.

By 8000 B.C., the glaciers started melt leading to a rise in sea levels and a decrease in land mass. With
more water sources, the population increased and the hunting-based Paleo-Indian culture got replaced
by the subsistence farming Meso-Indian culture in the Early Archaic period. The middle to end of the
Archaic period, occurring between 5000 and 500 B.C., saw the development of many cultures like
Norwood and Orange, caused by settlement in different areas of the peninsula. These cultures differed
by their geographical location and their adoption of fiber-tempered ceramics.

By 500 B.C., the monolithic Archaic period culture grew into many distinct cultures at a development
range independent from each other due to geographical differences. By the estimation of
archaeologists, it is very likely that the people who came into contact with European explorers
descended from these post-Archaic inhabitants.

The first European contact with native inhabitants of Florida was made by Spanish explorers in early
16th Century. These explorers found around 100 Native tribes that were both large and politically-
developed like the Apalachee or small with no political involvement. The predominant language of this
land was Timucua, spoken by around 150,000 people out of an estimated total population of 350,000
Native Floridians across various tribes.

The explorer mostly credited for discovering Florida is Juan Ponce de León, although the knowledge of
Spanish language among some natives Juan Ponce encountered serves as evidence that there was
earlier contact. Juan Ponce is also credited for coining the name ‘Florida’, which means "full of flowers”
– signifying the abundant flora and fauna native to the land.
Although this period of Spanish exploration provided us with records of these early indigenous cultures,
it was also responsible for their death and destruction. The Spanish’s entry into Florida was prompted by
the European Age of Discovery and resulted in La Florida, the first attempted settlement in North
America. Its historical significance stems from the fact that it was the first major land claim on the
continent, even though it didn’t have much strategic importance for the Spanish Empire. The native
population was not large enough to provide labor and the mineral composition of the land did not
include the much-valued gold. The ambitious Spaniards were not interested in agriculture, so the land
only served as a port for journeys to Mexico (then New Spain), their Caribbean colonies and the newer
English colonies.

By the 17th century, the populations of indigenous native people like Timucua, Calusa, Tequesta,
Apalachee, Tocobaga, and the Ais reduced due to the intervention of the European explorers. Spanish
missions to convert the natives to Christianity were encouraged, as they assured local control of the land
before anyone else. These were met with hostility and resulted in the death of many missionaries at the
hands of the indigenous people.

These Eurasian expeditions inadvertently brought with them diseases like smallpox and measles for
which the native population had no immunity to. There were also native casualties caused while
resisting Spanish and English excursions. If accounts of the Spanish explorer Álvaro Mexía are to be
believed then these incidents were isolated or later developments and the relationship between the
natives and the Spanish explorers were mostly cordial.

The disease and violence had significantly lessened the native population by the 18th century. Hence,
the missionary system was abandoned. The final blow to the missionary system was the Queen Anne’s
war. The English raids during that war gravely affected the missionary network and made them
unsustainable. Further shrinking Spanish Florida were English overtures to establish new territories and
directly attack the Spanish forts.

While these developments took place, a hybrid culture called Seminole came into being. The Seminoles
were formed by banding together small populations of Creek with other Native American tribes who
were displaced by the English occupation and took refuge in Spanish Florida. They later absorbed
fugitive slaves who reached Spanish Florida from other parts of the continent. Slaves were encouraged
to flee British colonies, come to Spanish Florida and convert to Catholicism in order to gain their
freedom. This was done to cause instability in the British territories and led to Spanish Florida’s
reputation as a safe haven for slaves.

Eventually, the British gained control of the territory at the end of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1763 and
this remained the case during the American Revolutionary War. During their rule, they divided the
former Spanish Florida into West Florida and East Florida for administrative reasons. Both of these
regions were returned to Spain after the Treaty of Paris which took place between the British and
American forces to end the Revolutionary War in 1783.

The diplomatic relationship between this second Spanish establishment and the new American
territories were uneasy and at best, tenuous. The bone of contention between these two authorities
was regarding the border of West Florida. These disputes, known as West Florida Controversy, resulted
from how the borders were set during the British governance of the land. In the case of West Florida,
the British did not clearly determine its borders which led to conflicting claims of ownership between
Spanish and American governments. The conflict came to an end first through Pinckney's Treaty of 1795
and the 1810 annexation of West Florida ordered by President James Madison. The justification for
annexation was the American government’s claim on West Florida as part of purchasing Louisiana
territory from the French. Over the years, the U.S. annexed more and more areas of West Florida,
increasing its control of the region.

In order to gain control of East Florida, the U.S. Army launched a campaign against the Seminole Indians
under the leadership of Andrew Jackson. The Seminoles, along with runaway black slaves, had
previously sided with the British in fighting the Americans during the War of 1812 and were now having
conflicts over land with settlers in Georgia and on Florida’s northern border. The Seminoles were also
being attacked by slave traders who wanted to capture Black Seminoles. This conflict, known as the First
Seminole War of 1817, resulted in the United States taking over most of East Florida.

Spain could not do much to contest the U.S.’s growing control of Florida as it was involved in the
Peninsular War aiding France. As the U.S. had seized control of most of the territory, Spain decided to
transfer control of the entire territory by signing the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819. In return, the U.S.
government relinquished claim over Texas and paid back $5 Million in debts.

Florida became a U.S. territory in 1822 with Tallahassee designated as its capital. The years following
this were followed by efforts to remove the Seminoles from their lands. Hundred of Seminoles had
already left the state for Bahamas and more were now making their way towards Cuba for refuge. Those
who stayed behind were either negotiated with or were dealt with military force.

The 1832 Treaty of Payne's Landing took place between the U.S. government and some Seminole chiefs,
resulting in their relocation to areas west of Mississippi river. Those who stayed behind were forced to
leave through military intervention of the U.S. Army. All of this led to the Second Seminole War of 1835,
notable for the Dade Massacre in which Seminoles ambushed and killed nearly 110 U.S. soldiers using
guerilla warfare. Despite this heroic incident, the war resulted in defeat for the Seminoles who were
expelled to west Mississippi. This war ended in 1842 and Florida became the 27th State of the United
States on 3rd March 1845.

After being granted statehood, it ceased to be a sanctuary for fugitive slaves and became a slave state,
legalizing the practice of slavery. This resulted in settlers bringing in their slaves from neighboring states
like Georgia and the Carolinas. A Third Seminole War took place between 1855 and 1858, which
removed more Seminole Indians from their lands. The main occupation in this new state of Florida was
plantation agriculture, dependant on slave labor. Enslaved African Americans made up half of the state’s
population. These slaves would have a long road to freedom as Florida was one of the states which
strictly enforced Jim Crow laws even when slavery was outlawed.

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