Spanish Relief Policy and the East Florida Refugees of 1763

So runs the pious ejeculation scrawled across the front page of the bundle of documents in the Archivo Nacional de Cuba concerned with pensions to wives, widows and daughters of the Floridians who chose to follow the retreating Spanish flag in 1763 and 1764. 1 It is not surprising that the Havanese officials called for help from on high when they found themselves confronted with the feeding and housing of the whole population of East Florida after the cession of that province to Great Britain by the Peace of Paris. Fortunately the total of that population scarcely exceeded three thousand ; but, even so, the drain on a treasury always dependent on a subsidy from New Spain was considerable; moreover, that same treasury was also faced with the financing of the reconstruction and fortification of Cuba’s capital after an eleven months siege and occupation by British forces

The Last Spanish Census of Pensacola

Prior to 1812 the Spanish monarch did not see fit to grant Pensacola the right to organize as a municipality; consequently, the West Florida capital was governed up to that year by military commandants whose authority was untrammeled by elective officers. With the inauguration of the Constitution of 1812, however, it became necessary to allow the organization of municipal government there, since the charter in question provided such government for all towns and communities having one thousand or more free inhabitants, or whose special conditions necessitated local government. Therefore, Pensacola’s municipal government, consisting of an alcalde, or mayor, and a city council was set up. It functioned until Ferdinand VII abrogated the constitution in 1814