The transition to a U.S. territory

George M. Cole and John E. Ladson III
Aucilla Research Institute

Spanish Control - By virtue of Ponce de Leon’s landing in Florida in 1513, Spain claimed the territory including what is now the state of Florida. During the 150 years after Ponce de Leon’s discovery, Spain solidified her claim with the establishment of the colony at St. Augustine, in 1565, and the development of missions in North Florida. Nevertheless, at the end of the French and Indian War, Spain reluctantly relinquished her claim to Florida to England to regain Cuba and the Philippines which the British had captured during the war. That transaction was formalized by the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

English Control - England immediately started to develop her new colony. A staff, including a secretary, attorney general, surveyor, registrar of titles, trade agent, Anglican clergyman and an Indian agent, was assigned to both the eastern and western parts of the territory. The British then began an intensive mapping effort for portions of the coastlines as well as the roads and trails in the territory. The colonial government also began an attempt to channel migration away from the Indian lands west of the Appalachians while promoting Florida colonization. The London Board of Trade advertised 20,000 acre lots to any group willing to settle the new colony.

As an example of these efforts, colonization attempts, such as that developed by Dr. Andrew Turnbull, were encouraged. With a grant of 60,000 acres, Turnbull recruited a group of 900 immigrants from Greece, Italy and Minorca. The settlers were transported to the New Smyrna area of Florida with a promise of receiving title to land of their own after several years of working for Turnbull on his plantation. After being treated as slaves by Turnbull and facing resentment from the Anglican English population who considered the Catholic Minorcans, Italians and Greeks to be potential allies of the Spanish in Cuba, the new settlers fled to St. Augustine, demanding to be returned to their homeland.
Despite the failure of the Turnbull colony, many of the other British efforts to encourage colonization were effective. Plantation owners in Georgia and the Carolinas were encouraged to move to Florida, and a number of them did relocate to eastern Florida.

Nevertheless, none of the British efforts had significant effect on the more remote Aucilla River area. After the flight of Spanish missionaries and the Apalachee from the area, the region was reported to be almost totally devoid of human life. No records have been found indicating any substantial colonial settlement in the area during the British era.

Nevertheless, there is evidence of migration into the general area by some Creek Native Americans from Georgia. This was suggested by notes from a 1778 British mapping of the Spanish trail between Pensacola and St. Augustine. The resulting map, of what was called the St. Pedro Path, is on display at the Public Records Office in London. It is an extremely long map, measuring eight and one-half feet long by two and one third feet wide. While no settlements were described on the map for the area immediately adjacent to the Aucilla, the notes associated with that map did describe a Native American village at near-by “Micasuky” with 60 houses, a square, 28 families and 70 gunmen. The occupants of that village were described as “Seminoles or Wild People being colonies from the Muscogees alias Creek Nation”.

The following notes from that mapping effort also include an interesting description of the trail and the area around the Aucilla River.

“… the main St. Pedro Path is through Oak, high and low Pine lands and St. Pedro Old Fields is plain and well trod. Crosses Assilly (Aucilla), Little Assilly and Bridge Rivers which are Fordable but in high freshes. Assilly and Bridge rivers have wide swamps and marshes on each side which are chiefly overflowed in great freshes. Also cosses [crosses] many small creeks and Branches that are fordable and many Bay galls and Ponds that are full of water and boggy in wet weather.”

Return to Spanish Control - The English claim to the area was relatively short-lived due to the American Revolution. At the end of the war, the United States, England as well as France and Spain, who had supported the American effort, met in Paris in 1783 to formally end the revolution and agree on boundaries. (The United States was represented by John Jay, Henry Laurens, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.) The treaty resulting from that gathering gave the United States all land north of Florida, south of Canada and East of the Mississippi. The British Florida colony, which had remained loyal to Britain during the war, was ceded back to Spanish rule.

Becoming a U.S. Territory - Under Spanish rule, the northern part of Florida became a frequent haven for escaped slaves from the United States. As a result, friction developed along Florida’s northern border. This precipitated General Andrew Jackson’s attack on the Spanish forts at Pensacola and St. Marks in the Territory in 1818. As a result of such friction, U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams met with Spanish Minister Onís in 1819 and presented Spain with a demand to either control the inhabitants of Florida or cede it to the United States. Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Adams-Onís Treaty that turned Florida over to the United States at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by U.S. citizens against Spain. That treaty also defined the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase, recognized Spanish sovereignty over Texas and surrendered Spanish claims to the Pacific Northwest. Per the terms of the agreement, formal U.S. occupation began in 1821 with General Andrew Jackson appointed as military governor. Florida was formally designated as a U.S. territory in 1822.

As soon as word of the Adams-Onís Treaty was signed in 1819, word spread of the rich farmland in the Aucilla River area, and settlers, looking for new land on which to grow cotton and sugar cane, began to migrate to the area. As an example of this, General William Bailey, who had moved to St. Mary’s, Georgia in 1796, moved to the Aucilla region about 1823-1824. Similarly, John Bellamy and his wife Margaret Bell Bellamy, moved first to Cowford (Jacksonville) in 1819, but then migrated to the Aucilla area in the mid 1820’s. The plantation era in the Aucilla River area had begun.