Until the arrival of a governor on August 29, 1764,
nothing was done to maintain St. Augustine. Colonel James Grant was
named governor of East Florida. He named his Carolinian friends to
his governing council and provided them with free land. He brought
James and John Moultrie, who were influential in getting other
planters to bring slaves and money to East Florida for their free
land. Grant ignored claims of Spanish ownership of nearly two
hundred buildings. He also obtained land from the Creek Indians in
1765.
Grant promoted East Florida by offering free
transportaion on his schooner and used his plantation as a training
facility to help newcomers. While Grant was away in England seeking
medical attention, John Moultrie was placed in charge of East
Florida. Moultrie supervised the construction of an outstanding
road stretching southward to beyond the plantation at New Smyrna.
The Government House on the plaza was remodeled and strengthened
while Grant sent church bells and a town clock to St.
Augustine.
After the capture of a British supply ship in 1775,
St. Augustine became a place of refuge as well as a rallying point
for rebels in Georgia. Nearly everyone profited by meeting the
needs of the Royal Navy, the British Army and the refugees. Despite
the quality of life in East Florida, there was growing discontent
over the continuing dominance of Grant’s friends in the
governing of the colony. St. Augustinians wanted to elect a House
of Assembly, and in 1781, the Coucil was joined by an elected House
of Commons. In May, 1781 they received shocking news that the
neighboring colony, West Florida, had fallen to Spanish forces.
Although there had been little contact between the two colonies,
the fact that Pensacola was now in the hands of an enemy was a
disturbing turn of events. Then, in October, word arrived from
Virginia that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered his entire army to
George Washington and the rebels. In June, 1783, the official word
on their fate reached St. Augustine from Paris. The colony was to
be returned to the Spanish. The British were forced to sell or
leave their homes, but the Menorcans decided to stay. Most of them
spoke a form of Spanish were Catholic and many had established
successful businesses in St. Augustine.
In June 1784, Governor Zespedes and 500 Spanish
soldiers arrived from Cuba to take over the colony. In November,
the last refugee ship departed carrying Governor Tonyn, his staff
and the few remaining British subjects away to England. Within
weeks, the bustling economic activities of St. Augustine had ended
and the town returned to serving as a remote outpost of the Spanish
Empire. The population of St. Augustine decreased from 17,000 to
about 3,000, with the majority being the Menorcans. Less than 100
British subjects had abandoned their allegiance to King George in
order to continue living in Spanish Florida.
In 1796, a new governor, Enrique White, arrived in
St. Augustine. Under his leadership, new homes were built, the
Cathedral was completed and both the morale and military readiness
of the garrison were improved. In 1812, a new group of visitors
showed up at the location of old Fort Mose just north of the
city’s fortifications. In cooperation with President James
Madison, these armed men called themselves “Patriots”
and demanded that St. Augustine be surrendered to them. Determined
to end the continued escape of their slaves to Spanish Florida and
to put an end to Indian raids from Florida into Georgia, the
Patriots planned to overthrow the government of Florida and then
“invite” the U.S. government to take over the
territory. Governor Estrada refused to surrender and it quickly
became apparent that the Patriots would never be able to breach the
city’s strong defenses. 100 American soldiers showed up to
help, but the “invasion” had by then become an
embarrassment and President Madison ordered the troops to withdraw
from Florida.
The Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812
allowed the United States to keep large areas of West Florida that
were occupied by the Americans during the war. The American
government demanded that Spain reimburse slave owners for the loss
of slaves who fled to Florida for their freedom and to also pay for
property destroyed by Indian raiders based in Florida. To resolve
the dispute, negotiations began in 1819 and two years later the two
nations ratified the Onis-Adams Treaty. Negotiated for the United
States by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the treaty gave
Florida to the Americans in exchange for dropping their $5 million
claim against Spain.
The Spanish rule in Florida came to an end on July
10, 1821 when a small detachment of American soldiers marched into
St. Augustine and were given possession of the Castillo de San
Marcos. Land speculators, and Americans seeking fame and fortune
quickly came to see the latest addition to the United States.
Unfortunately, a yellow fever epidemic swept through town and
killed many residents, including several of the new American
administrators. The number of fatalities was so great that a new
cemetery, called the Huguenot, was opened just outside the city
gate. Americans also faced ongoing attacks from Indians. In effort
to stop Seminole attacks on settlers, the U.S. government met with
the Indians for several days of negotiations just outside St.
Augustine. The resulting Treaty of Moultrie brought peace between
the two groups. In exchange for weapons, food, blankets and a
guaranteed grant of land for their use in central Florida, the
Seminoles agreed to stop their war-like activities.
With the adoption of Tallahassee as the new capital
of Florida, more travelers, especially people suffering from
tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments, came to Florida to
escape the cold weather. Some of the invalids arriving in St.
Augustine were people of some wealth and influence and their
impressions of the city continued to spark interest among other
potential visitors. Among these was a young Ralph Waldo Emerson who
described St. Augustine as “a queer place…full of
ruins, chimneyless houses, (and) lazy people.” But, he added,
“the air and sky of this ancient, fortified, dilapidated
sandbank of a town are delicious” and credited it with
restoring his health.Achille Murat, the nephew of Napoleon and the
reported heir to his empire, lived in the city for about a year
beginning in 1824. |