Province of East Florida

Origins

Britain received Spanish Florida from Spain under the Treaty of Paris of 1763, in exchange for returning Havana. The Proclamation of 1763 split the territory at the Apalachicola River, creating East Florida with its capital at the old Spanish town of St. Augustine. Almost the entire Spanish population left for Cuba.

Rule and society

Royal governors, first James Grant and later Patrick Tonyn, tried to attract settlers with land grants. The most ambitious scheme, Andrew Turnbull's New Smyrna colony of Minorcans, Greeks and Italians, collapsed amid disease and hardship. Plantations produced indigo, rice and naval stores. The province did not join the rebellion of 1776 and became a refuge for thousands of Loyalists from Georgia and the Carolinas.

Decline and legacy

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 returned both Floridas to Spain. Most British settlers and Loyalists departed for the Bahamas, Nova Scotia or Britain, and the territory became part of Spanish Florida again until its cession to the United States in 1821.