Andrew Jackson’s Cronies in Florida Territorial Politics

In Pensacola, an ancient Spanish village but then the boomtown capital of West Florida, the fifth day of October, 1821, was greeted with an unusual air of excitement. Along Palafox and Zaragoza streets, named long since for the Spanish hero General Palafox because of his heroic defense of Zaragoza, curious townsfolk gathered in gossiping knots around the Government House and public market, both fronting on Plaza Ferdinand VII. In Austin’s Tavern, the servants clearing away the remains of the great farewell party of the previous night, must have furtively gathered around the windows and peered expectantly into the street. Each horse and wagon momentarily distracted every man from his work or his conversation. At length the curiosity of everyone was rewarded by the appearance of a handsome horse-drawn carriage which pulled away from the Governor’s residence, crossed the Plaza and headed north through sandy Palafox street. Inside the carriage could be glimpsed the stern gray visage of Governor Andrew Jackson and the plump plain face of his wife Rachel

Ante-Bellum Pensacola: 1821-1860

The morning sun over Pensacola on July 17, 1821, shone on a scene of historic pageantry not since repeated in Florida’s history. During the early hours of that day a full company of Spanish troops, dismounted dragoons of the regiment of Tarragona who were elegantly clad and equipped, paraded in the plaza before the Government House. A few miles away, through the flat piney woods, came elements of the Fourth United States Infantry and Fourth United States Artillery regiments with flags flying and band playing. At their heads rode the gaunt gray figure of Andrew Jackson. After almost two months of tedious, irksome, and-so far as Jackson was concerned-unnecessarily time-consuming negotiations, the surrender by Spain of the province of West Florida to the United States was about to be consummated. At half-past six, Jackson and a few of his staff entered the city and took breakfast with Mrs. Jackson who was already established in a house near the plaza. At about eight o’clock a battalion of the Fourth Infantry and a company of the Fourth Artillery were drawn up by Colonel George M. Brooke opposite the Spanish troops on the plaza, which is still the plaza today. After the two bodies of troops had saluted each other, Brooke detached four companies of infantry under Major James E. Dinkins to take possession of Fort Barrancas nine miles away

Richard K. Call vs. the Federal Government on the Seminole War

In the city of Washington in the autumn of 1836, the United States War Department was in a state of high confusion. On the sixth of October Lewis Cass had resigned as Secretary of War and the vacancy was temporarily filled by an under secretary, C. A. Harris. Within a few days the office was bestowed upon Benjamin F. ButIer, an interim appointee. These changes came during one of the crises of the Seminole War in Florida, which added to the confusion in Washington, In midsummer the command of that war had been vested in Governor Richard K. Call who launched an end-the-war campaign in early October. This initial move was not successful and rumors of its failure kept official circles in Washington in a state of nervous tension

Florida Books from University Presses

Three universities in the state of Florida now support presses devoted to the publication of scholarly and worthwhile books. The publication of volumes dealing with the history of Florida has been one of their important functions. The oldest of the presses is that founded in 1945 at the University of Florida. Its first publication was a brief history of the state, Rembert W. Patrick’s Florida Under Five Flags. Since its first appearance it has gone through three editions and has been a perennial bestseller. Since 1945, under the direction of Lewis F. Haines, the University of Florida Press has turned out twenty-one titles dealing with Florida history, and maintains a long catalog of books in a variety of other fields. Included in its works on Florida history are five biographies of significant state figures ranging all the way from Menendez to Hamilton Holt. In 1959 the Press started a series of social science monographs, publishing four every year. Three of these titles are in the area of Florida history. In 1962 a significant reprint series of rare old works was begun as the “Floridiana Series of Facsimile and Reprint Editions.” The books in this series are actually photographic reproductions of old classics, attractively bound in simulated leather covers with handsome gold stamping

Florida in 1855

One hundred years ago when the Florida Historical Society was founded at St. Augustine the members of that organization lived in a region and a society which was vastly different from that which is known to millions of twentieth century Americans as “Florida.” In those ancient days tourists were a rarity and resort hotels south of St. Augustine were even rarer. The cities were mere hamlets by present-day standards and almost all of the population was concentrated in the extreme northern part of the state. Industry was virtually non-existent and the mass of men were farmers. Negroes were held in slavery, and the aristocracy of the state was based upon and much of the wealth of the state was represented by this human chattel. The political scene was enlivened by two vociferous political parties but the grim sounds of sectional conflict which would mark the death of the two party system were already being heard. Yet in those early Floridians there was a pride and self confidence familiar to Floridians of the present-day

Andrew Jackson vs. the Spanish Governor

For more than one hundred years Andrew Jackson has been to writers of American history an exciting, inspiring, controversial, or shameful figure - according to the varying beliefs of those many writers. This writer, in recent issues of this Quarterly, has reexamined Jackson’s Florida career in two articles which were suggested by several previously unpublished Jackson letters. Several new letters coming to light have suggested a more detailed look at some of the ground covered in those earlier articles, specifically, the sources of hostility between Jackson and the last Spanish governor of West Florida, Jose Callava. Some historians have looked upon that hostility as stemming from Jackson’s inherent rascality; to others this was an inevitable product of his explosive temperament and frontier crudity. There is no denying the heat of his temper and its frequent manifestations, but this writer is inclined to deny that he was a rascal at heart or that he was the crude hillbilly some writers portray. Rather, let us dwell or the factors which conspired to inflame the feelings of both Jackson and Callava and brought on their collision, resulting in the throwing of the governor into the common jail at Pensacola at midnight under Jackson’s direct orders. These factors were: misunderstandings, several tedious delays, personal hardships, and cultural differences, as well as numerous petty annoyances

The Governorship of Andrew Jackson

It was a stifling hot day in July of 1821 but the inhabitants of Pensacola, Florida, and hundreds of recently arrived newcomers were all jammed into the town’s central plaza. This was to be an important day in the lives of the people of Florida, for at ten o’clock in the morning the gaunt gray figure of Andrew Jackson would stalk from the governor’s residence and cross the plaza to the government house where the ceremonies marking the transfer of the Floridas from Spain to the United States would be completed. As he sat in the governor’s residence eating breakfast with his wife Rachel and the members of his staff, the old soldier may well have thought back to other days in Pensacola - for this was not the first time he had entered the ancient city. Twice in the previous seven years Jackson had led conquering armies into Spain’s feeble North American outpost. Yet each of those earlier visits had been followed by the restoration of Spanish sovereignty, and this time Jackson was present for the purpose of terminating that sovereignty

A Free Negro Purchases his Daughter

Many interesting sidelights to Southern history are to be found in the documents comprising the Richard Keith Call collection in the Florida Historical Society Library. Certain letters addressed to Call give us new and intriguing views of life in the old South. Here are two letters addressed to Call from Canada by a free Negro. We know very little about these letters or the circumstances surrounding them; as Call’s side of the correspondence is not preserved in the collection, nor is there any reference to the matter nor the persons in any other documents of the collection which this writer has examined. Consequently, we can only speculate, in the light of the usual practices of that day, upon what actually took place

Rembert Wallace Patrick

In the Fall of 1940 a young South Carolinian with a brandnew doctor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina appeared among the new faculty members at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Rembert Wallace Patrick had begun his long and warm association with Florida, its people, and its history. In the small, north Florida college town the youthful historian energetically devoted himself to his work and soon won the devoted following of students and the affection and respect of his colleagues. Though he was a practical, down-to-earth man, he quickly revealed a dry, often irreverent sense of humor. Despite his newness to the University of Florida, young Professor Patrick was not an inexperienced teacher. He came to Gainesville from Meredith College in North Carolina where he had taught history while completing his Ph.D. degree. Earlier he had been employed for several years in the public schools of South Carolina