FOURTEENTH COLONY
The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era
by Mike Bunn
A history of a short-lived British colony on the Gulf Coast in the mid-to-late 1700s.
West Florida came into being in 1763 and lasted until 1781, when the Spanish captured it. Originally ceded to the British (along with East Florida) in the wake of the Seven Years’ War, the colony included parts of modern-day Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. From the beginning, its strategic location on the Gulf Coast outweighed its economic contribution to the empire. From there, “they facilitated control of the outlets of a number of major interior river systems and potentially important Gulf and Atlantic ports.” However, the fortifications left behind by the French badly needed upgrading, and many were ultimately abandoned. The British also faced the question of how to manage relations with the Native American inhabitants of the territory as well as the former French and Spanish colonists. Bunn, the author of several regional histories, outlines the struggles to set up a government, with regular clashes between the often overmatched royal governors and the colonists, most of whom were struggling despite receiving large land grants. Furthermore, writes the author, “a host of dangerous communicable diseases plagued the new colonists.” Attempts to find exportable commodities fell short of expectations except for trade with Natives for deerskins and fur. Bunn aptly summarizes the colony’s history, which really comes alive with the arrival of the Revolution. West Florida, isolated from the other colonies, remained officially loyal to the crown—“a lukewarm and conditional loyalty to say the least but a circumstance that, given the situation, Great Britain was happy to have.” A raiding expedition along the Mississippi by Philadelphian Thomas Willing and then a campaign by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, brought the conflict to West Florida—and ultimately brought the colony under Spanish control.
A readable and illuminating exploration of a chapter of American history most readers haven’t previously encountered.