Okla-homey
2/22/2007, 07:52 AM
sorry, no pics with today's installment. Imageshack is acting wierd and allyoucanupload.com is broken too
Feb 22, 1819: The US acquires Spanish Florida
188 years ago today, Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States.
Spanish colonization of the Florida peninsula began at St. Augustine in 1565. As an aside, St Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America. During the 17th century, the Spanish colonists enjoyed a brief period of relative stability before Florida came under attack from Indians and ambitious English colonists from farther north along the eastern seaboard.
Spain's last-minute entry into the French and Indian War, (backing the loser) cost it Florida, which the British acquired through the first Treaty of Paris in 1763. After 20 years of British rule, however, Florida was returned to Spain as part of the second Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution in 1783.
Spain's hold on Florida was tenuous in the years after American independence, and numerous boundary disputes developed with the United States. In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into US hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by US citizens against Spain. IOW, no cash, just assumption of Florida's potential financial obligations to US citizens who were claiming money damages from Spain.
Note: You will recall that John Quincy Adams would become the sixth president, his father John Adams having served as our second. John Quincy Adams was defeated by Jackson in 1828 and was subsequently elected to Congress from his home state of Massachusetts. The former president had a stroke on the floor of the US House of Representatives and died in 1848.
Formal U.S. occupation of Florida began in 1821, and General Andrew Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812, was appointed military governor. Florida was organized as a U.S. territory in 1822 and was admitted into the Union as a slave state in 1845.
Unfortunately for many of Florida's indigenous people, a great many were forced west to Indian Territory after the US gained control of Florida. These people ultimately became known as the Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) Nations of Oklahoma. Interestingly, the people known as Seminoles were merely bands of Creeks who resided in peninsular Florida, while the balance of the Creeks resided in the northern part of state, within the Florida panhandle and the states of Georgia, southern Tennessee and Alabama. Genetically, they are generally the same people.
In the early 1700's, members of the Lower Creek Nation began migrating into southern Florida to remove themselves from the dominance of the Upper Creeks, and intermingled with the few remaining indigenous people there, including the Yuchi, Yamasee, and others.
They went on to be called "Seminole", a derivative of the Mvskoke (a Creek language) word simano-li, an adaptation of the Spanish "cimarrón" which means "wild" (in their case, "wild men"), or "runaway" [men]. The Seminole thus evolved into a tribe made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia, Mikasuki-speaking Muskogees, escaped black slaves, and to a lesser extent, white Europeans and Indians from other tribes.
300 to 500 Seminoles were able to avoid removal to Oklahoma by taking refuge in the vast Florida wilderness (especially the Everglades) and their descendants are the Florida Seminoles today.
Feb 22, 1819: The US acquires Spanish Florida
188 years ago today, Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States.
Spanish colonization of the Florida peninsula began at St. Augustine in 1565. As an aside, St Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America. During the 17th century, the Spanish colonists enjoyed a brief period of relative stability before Florida came under attack from Indians and ambitious English colonists from farther north along the eastern seaboard.
Spain's last-minute entry into the French and Indian War, (backing the loser) cost it Florida, which the British acquired through the first Treaty of Paris in 1763. After 20 years of British rule, however, Florida was returned to Spain as part of the second Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution in 1783.
Spain's hold on Florida was tenuous in the years after American independence, and numerous boundary disputes developed with the United States. In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into US hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by US citizens against Spain. IOW, no cash, just assumption of Florida's potential financial obligations to US citizens who were claiming money damages from Spain.
Note: You will recall that John Quincy Adams would become the sixth president, his father John Adams having served as our second. John Quincy Adams was defeated by Jackson in 1828 and was subsequently elected to Congress from his home state of Massachusetts. The former president had a stroke on the floor of the US House of Representatives and died in 1848.
Formal U.S. occupation of Florida began in 1821, and General Andrew Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812, was appointed military governor. Florida was organized as a U.S. territory in 1822 and was admitted into the Union as a slave state in 1845.
Unfortunately for many of Florida's indigenous people, a great many were forced west to Indian Territory after the US gained control of Florida. These people ultimately became known as the Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) Nations of Oklahoma. Interestingly, the people known as Seminoles were merely bands of Creeks who resided in peninsular Florida, while the balance of the Creeks resided in the northern part of state, within the Florida panhandle and the states of Georgia, southern Tennessee and Alabama. Genetically, they are generally the same people.
In the early 1700's, members of the Lower Creek Nation began migrating into southern Florida to remove themselves from the dominance of the Upper Creeks, and intermingled with the few remaining indigenous people there, including the Yuchi, Yamasee, and others.
They went on to be called "Seminole", a derivative of the Mvskoke (a Creek language) word simano-li, an adaptation of the Spanish "cimarrón" which means "wild" (in their case, "wild men"), or "runaway" [men]. The Seminole thus evolved into a tribe made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia, Mikasuki-speaking Muskogees, escaped black slaves, and to a lesser extent, white Europeans and Indians from other tribes.
300 to 500 Seminoles were able to avoid removal to Oklahoma by taking refuge in the vast Florida wilderness (especially the Everglades) and their descendants are the Florida Seminoles today.