History of Florida: Difference between revisions

After Jackson's incursions, Spain decided that Florida had become too much of a burden, as it could not afford to send settlers or garrisons to properly occupy the land and was receiving very little revenue from the territory. Madrid therefore decided to cede Florida to the United States. The transfer was negotiated as part of the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]], which also settled several boundary disputes between Spanish colonies and the U.S. in exchange for American payment of $5,000,000 in claims against the Spanish government.<ref name="Tebeau p. 156" /> The treaty was signed in 1819 and took effect in 1821, and the United States formally took possession of Florida on July 17, 1821.

 

===Florida Territory (1822–1845)===

{{Main article|Florida Territory}} {{see also|Seminole Wars}}

On the eve of the Civil War, Florida had the smallest population of the Southern states. It was invested in plantation agriculture, which was dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. By 1860, Florida had 140,424 people, of whom 44% were enslaved and fewer than 1,000 were [[free black|free people of color]].<ref name= "Tebeau p. 157">{{harvnb|Tebeau|1999|p=157}}</ref>

 

{{Main article|Florida in the American Civil War|Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era}}

[[File:Battle of Olustee.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Battle of Olustee]] was the only major Civil War battle fought in Florida.]]

Following [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[1860 United States presidential election in Florida|election in 1860]], Florida joined other Southern states in seceding from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. [[Secession]] took place January 10, 1861, and after less than a month as an independent republic, Florida became one of the founding members of the [[Confederate States of America]]. During the Civil War, Florida was an important supply route for the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]]. Therefore, Union forces operated a [[naval blockade]] around the entire state, and Union troops occupied major ports such as [[Cedar Key, Florida|Cedar Key]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Key West, Florida|Key West]], and Pensacola. Though numerous skirmishes occurred in Florida, including the [[Battle of Natural Bridge]], the [[Battle of Marianna]] and the [[Battle of Gainesville]], the only major battle was the [[Battle of Olustee]] near [[Lake City, Florida|Lake City]].

 

During the [[Reconstruction era]] that followed the Civil War, [[Republican Party (United States)|moderate Republicans]] took charge of the state, but they became deeply factionalized and lost public support. Florida was a peripheral region that attracted little outside attention. The state was thinly populated, had relatively few [[freedman|freedmen]], had played no great role in the war and saw little violence, and increasingly became a haven for sunshine-hunting Northerners.

 

After [[Compromise of 1877|Federal troops left the South in 1877]], conservative white Democrats engaged in [[voter suppression]] and intimidation, regaining control of the [[Florida state legislature|state legislature]]. This was accomplished partly through violent actions by white [[paramilitary]] groups targeting freedmen and their allies to discourage them from voting.

 

From 1885 to 1889, after regaining power, the white-dominated state legislature passed statutes to impose [[poll tax]]es and other barriers to [[voter registration]] and voting, in order to eliminate voting by blacks and poor whites. These two groups had threatened white Democratic power with a [[populism|populist]] coalition. As these groups were stripped from voter rolls, white Democrats established power in a one-party state, as happened across the South.

 

 

Without political representation, African Americans found that their facilities were underfunded and they were pushed into a second-class position. For more than six decades, white Democrats controlled virtually all the state's seats in Congress, which were apportioned based on the total population of the state rather than only the whites who voted.{{dubious|date=February 2018}}

 

==Since 1900==