Colonial Florida

Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection

Pre-Contact America | Explorations and Encounters | Aftermath of the Encounter

Languages and Religion | Competition for Empire | Documenting New Knowledge

The territory of Spanish Florida once encompassed much of what is now the southeastern United States but decreased with the arrival of English and French settlements. The British controlled Florida between 1763 and 1783, when Florida reverted to Spanish hands. On February 22, 1821, the United States and Spain concluded a treaty that gave Florida and other Spanish-held areas to the U.S.

Theodor de Bry (1528–1598).
Admiranda narratio, fida tamen: de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae.
Frankfurt: Ioannis Wecheli, 1590.
Latin translation by Charles de L’Écluse of Thomas Hariot’s Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (113)

Ill-fated Roanoke Colony

For his volume on Virginia, Theodor de Bry, the famous engraver, chose drawings by Captain John White and a narrative written by Thomas Hariot. White was part of the ill-fated Roanoke colony that Sir Walter Raleigh had outfitted to claim Virginia for the English. Fortunately, White survived the colony, and De Bry’s engravings made his images known across Europe. White’s Indians, as interpreted by De Bry, are notable for their careful and studied poses.

“Gentlemen of Elvas.” Virginia richly valued by the description of the maine land of Florida.
Translated from Portugese by Richard Hakluyt.
London: Felix Kyngston for Matthew Lownes, 1609.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (106)

The De Soto Expedition

This English translation of an earlier Portuguese book is by the Gentleman of Elvas, whose identity is unknown although traditionally the work has been attributed to the explorer Hernando De Soto (1496—1542). This work is the primary source for information concerning the De Soto expedition (1539—1543), which began as a search for gold and resulted in a long journey that crossed the southeast region of the United States and extended perhaps as far as the present Oklahoma-Arkansas border. De Soto died on the return journey and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi River.

English military report on St. Augustine, with plans and views of St. Augustine Castle, the Spanish watchtower on Anastasia Island, and Matance’s fort, 1743.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (128)

English Military Report about St. Augustine

This unusual manuscript is a military report on the town and fortifications of St. Augustine, Florida. It was compiled by an Englishman only three years after British Governor James Oglethorpe failed in his attempt to capture St. Augustine's main fort. The detailed descriptions of the fortress and approaches to the harbor could only have been written by someone who saw the subjects firsthand. This detail adds mystery to the piece because Englishmen were not free to visit Spanish Florida.

James Killpatrick.
An Impartial Account of the Late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe.…
London: J. Huggonson, 1742.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (126)

Expedition Against St. Augustine

The War of Jenkins’s Ear (1739–1748) took its name from Robert Jenkins, captain of an English ship, who claimed Spanish coast guards had cut off his ear in 1731. The story so aroused public opinion that England declared war on its commercial rival, Spain. During the conflict, Georgia Governor James Oglethorpe invaded Florida in 1743, and, with the help of Indian allies, captured several forts and marched “to the gates of St. Augustine” where his Indian allies captured and killed forty Spaniards under the very walls of the fort.

The Report of the Committee… Appointed to Enquire into the Causes of the Dissappointment of Success, in the Late Expedition Against St. Augustine, Under the Command of General Oglethorpe.
Charlestown, South Carolina: Peter Timothy, 1742.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (127)

Spanish Attack on Georgia Colony

In July of 1742, Spanish troops stationed in St. Augustine, Florida, landed on the shores of Georgia in an unsuccessful attempt to invade James Oglethorpe’s newly established British colony there. After a skirmish and a bloody battle, the Spaniards retreated to St. Augustine, never to attack Britain’s East Coast American colonies again.

Thomas Jefferys (d. 1771).
The West India Atlas: or a Compendious Description of the West Indies: Illustrated with Forty Correct Charts and Maps Taken from Actual Surveys. Together with an Historical Account of the Several Countries and Islands which Compose that Part of the World.
London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1780.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (129)

Atlas of Florida and the Caribbean

This volume was the first comprehensive British atlas of Florida and the Caribbean. It includes the first large, detailed printed maps of a number of Caribbean islands, such as Antigua, St. Christopher, and Barbados. On many of these individual maps, the topography is rendered with particular skill. The maps provide unprecedented detail documenting the sugar industry, slave life, roads, trade routes, and even individual homes and estates. The atlas exemplifies the qualities that ushered in a period of dominance for British chart-making related to the Americas.

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