could, if they changed their allegiance to the spanish king and about 500 to 1000 people ended up doing the transition from british spanish rule began. 1784 and july. the spanish governor, the santa manuel the suspicious arrived in st augustine and there's no portrait of him. unfortunately but there was a flower named after him in memory of how he authorized a botanist to collect specimens. so that's the best i can do in to show you what he looked like. the outgoing british governor and was a little more vain perhaps he had an irascible personality we know and he stayed there and in fact in florida for almost a full to oversee the evacuation when suspicious arrived he quickly developed a measure tone in as in his words hypercritical facts. yes and deceitful and he wasn't

wrong. tonin had a famously personality. he had picked fights earlier in governorship during the british period with some powerful people. the two governors battled for the next year. but they rarely did it face to face, even though they could actually see other's houses across the plaza. that's because english, spanish translators were in short supply. these were legal issues that require careful consideration before responding. so instead they furiously wrote letters and memos back and forth, which is very good for historians as far as had no legal adviser assisting him. and we also see in the record his pleas to superior peers for guidance and. they were met with silence. hone in on his side of the paper skirmishes had the assistance of james hume, who had been the colonies chief justice in the british period cesspit has said

that tonin again in his words, rarely left his house and stayed shut in with quarrelsome chief justice hume as the two were busily engaged in prying into my actions and misinterpreting my decisions. cespedes, who is jealous of his own authority newcomer, believed correctly that tonin wanted to convince the enormous population and still in saying augustine that to quote the spanish governor, his authority to govern them has not yet expired. so this became some kind of a period of dual governor ship. that's how tonin thought of it. he proudly identified himself a thorn, which they wished get rid of and he stayed for that full year and he informed his superiors in what, i think we can charitably call exaggeration and that he was an appendage able bulwark against the spaniards in defense of the british and their property.

so how did this year battle play out between the two governors as they both vied for authority over british population in a spanish colony? well, yes, but as began by holding a big party, he a grand public ceremony of that tone and immediately objected to what he did was issue proclamations issues to solidify his power in that first month of july 1784. they ostensibly dealt with bringing the colonies criminal gangs under control, adjudicating property claims and establishing legal status for the people of color with all of these areas, slave was connected in some way it was the locus of the contest over imperial authority. but and that's because in these circumstances slaves were not just numerous, but they complicated the transfer as a

paradoxical form of property that was also a person. this gave tremendous value as movable property as population. also that could contribute to the might of either one empire or the other. and it also meant that as people they made autonomous decisions that involved running away or for manumission or joining a criminal outfit on the and those decisions had legal and diplomatic ramifications for the governors in the form of property rights, property claims and policing slavery was the site of asserting imperial authority in the first month because it combined with those considering oceans of population, property and public cesspit. as antonin made use of people free people of color, british subjects in their contest over

sharing authority that year. so suspect has issued his first proclamation on july 14th, and he did not mention slaves directly in it. but was about slavery. dealt with the bandits and that were plaguing the frontier and british property disputes upon us. but as his arrival learned that the countryside was rife with criminal gangs that had recently formed, when news first broke, that britain was negotiating the colonies transfer to spain the outlaws were comprised former loyalist militias and some army deserters, including, i suppose, the most famous be bloody bill cunningham from virginia. the bandits raided plantations for enslaved people because they recognized slaves as extraordinarily valuable and a movable form of property. so was about in many ways

slavery. but the two governors differed in their approaches to restoring order and protecting the property claims of slave holders. tona in favored the area with a mounted militia, especially that's but as noted bitterly in the vicinity of his own plantation and other estates that he managed for absentees. total plantation. if you look on the west side, the left side of the map, about halfway up black creek is the heart of where tony's landholdings were and give you a sense how close the the bandits were based look up to the next creek mick gertz creek was named after one of the bandit leaders the mick gertz daniel mccarty. it's particularly so tone it and wants to boss around his own estates and the spanish for his part wants to diffuse problem by

offering amnesty outlaws outlaws who and then leave florida would be given amnesty and his first proclamation exten did that offer and it seems like it might actually work because some offenders turned themselves literally the next day. nevertheless, zespri has recognized the need for kind of policing force and allowed tonin to send out a patrol and he used british loyal on patrol because as a new coming governor he couldn't properly equip his own dragoons. he brought them with from cuba. but the prices and the lack of supplies in saint augustine when he arrived handicapped him also zespri's assumed incorrectly that the loyalists would just patrol defensively. and what actually happened was the troop keen to end the slave

stealing that plagued those british plantations and took the fight to the gang this undermined the spanish effort to reconcile the outlaws and cure the colony by expelling the poison. the gang continued kidnaping slaves as a result and the slave holders because they were alienated and the slave holders of the countryside, continued to clamor for protection and this fed the doubts about the spanish ability to bring order. that first proclamation dealt with slavery in another way to this other provision of that first proclamation was to improvise a legal system, to adjudicate disputes among british subject in the spanish territory. tonin considered himself a quasi governor for them during the evacuation but cesspit has seized the initiative from tonin in claiming authority over british community and their affairs by appointing two

british residents as arbitrators. now there weren't many candidates to choose because these had to be people prominent enough among british to command some respect, willing to become spanish subjects and stay on in the new spanish period. one of them, john, plans to stay in spanish and continue to make his fortune by supplying trade goods for, the creeks and other indigenous tribes. but he had no legal training or experience. frances. philip fangio wasn't a lawyer either. the planter from switzerland, who saw an opportunity to consolidate his wealth and authority by staying on these two judges, mostly adjudicated disputes over slave ownership. but tonin found fangio decidedly unqualified because he had been in the british system only since his arrival in florida in 1771,

giving him and the ex-governors words very imperfect knowledge of the language and constitution. john of great britain. in fact the two arbitrators didn't use any consist in legal procedure but worked agreements based more on their personal knowledge of the parties. tonin didn't like photo tended to refer willy nilly to legal precedents from other european systems. he spoke something like four languages, which made him popular with diasporas. but he didn't have a consistent legal legal application that tonin could discern. some plaintiffs grumbled the photo most egregiously made his judgments in private and didn't explain his reasoning afterward, tonin suspected fangio was prejudging the cases if he deems to explain, he would come up

with the reasons. but governor tonin especially disliked an issue of authority. here, though he disliked how far too young used his appointment by the spanish governor assessment as to puff himself up with a title of and i quote here judge as he styles himself over his britannic majesty's subjects. well, also enriching himself and his friends by prejudging cases. i can give you a specific example. one of these cases with luisa waldron and, the enslaved woman, lucy. now we're jumping ahead a few months to look at the implications of this proclamation. we're jumping to september 1784 for a moment. this was when an enslaved woman named lucy went missing. and because of the paradox of, her being a person who was also considered property, her decision and her action made her

the focus of attention for the two governors, her enslaver lorenzo rodriguez was new to her. he was a spanish captain of a military transport ship, and he had purchased her recently from a british who put her up for sale because she had already disappeared in the for lucy rodriguez kept an eye on a certain house mile north of town where she'd been found twice in the past the house's occupant was waldron, a widow and a british subject. so he got authorization from the spanish appointed judge for british affairs francis philip fazio to search the house and question her because she fell into this category of being a british subject under spanish rule. louisa waldron was when she saw the search party arriving and she ran outside to hide the soldiers. the spanish soldiers detained her. the enslaved woman who was with was also detained.

but it turned out that that woman was not the missing. lucy. still, they forced waldron and the enslaved to go both to st augustine for questioning and photo and another holdover from spanish period. another inquisitor, francisco sanchez, interrogated her for two weeks about the whereabouts. lucy they threatened that she might be as later depositions put it, confined in a dark place all by forever. shut up a dungeon or that she might even be sent to havana, cuba or onward from there to be worked into oblivion in the spanish mines, deeper in the empire. they also pressured her to transfer to them the enslaved woman that had arrested with her. and they said that would be compensation for. the value of the missing lucy. they relented and only when they learned that this enslaved woman

was actually the property of not waldron, but someone else of hers. so stymied with that they started to collect the by selling at a fraction of its value the horse and saddle had brought her to jail and. they started to pressure her to sign over to them a handsome annuity. she had that generated 25 pounds per year. they said it be better to pay up than to, quote, die. in a june in a dungeon. they also unofficially did when they sent a. of six spanish soldiers to empty waldron's house of its furniture, clothing and provisions while she was still in jail. this was the loss of. nine pounds. this theft was spotted by some british passers by and documented by her friend, the british jailer, as holding her

watched her unravel during this time, even as she persistently denied involvement to the point that she attempted to take her own life. a pen knife. she went unconscious and 6 hours elapsed before she was resuscitated. after 27 days, though, finally louisa waldron was released because. lucy, the missing enslaved woman, was located on another farm much farther from st augustine, 15 miles away. and lucy is the one who, as person with agency now took it upon herself during this chaotic transition and to look for an improvement in her circumstances. but because of that core of slavery that she considered valuable property but she also could move not freely, but she had autonomy of movement to some degree if she chose seek freedom. that's what thrust the british and spanish governors a conflict over authority over.

louisa waldron now that louisa was vindicated, she petitioned the two governors for compensation. tonin used her case to bash cesspit as his authority. he protested that waldron's 27 day imprisonment and the intimidation faced was very severe, regardless of whether, in fact you did it on suspicion of harboring lucy or because she tried to hide from the spanish officers, he presented an affidavit from the jailer john thomas, who corroborated the intimidation and the to pry property from her in really convincing detail. this was a useful case for tonin to bring attention to the incongruities between the british property rights that were protected by the treaty and the the expectations of judicial rights against the installment of, a judge with no legal training to govern british matters under a standard system of justice it was useful not simply because waldron was

innocent, but also because was a woman and in fact a widow without male assistance. society marked by gender and race as a sympathetic victim, the jailer reported that she fought through what he called her tears and grief for example, to exclaim that she was perfectly innocent. tonin implied that theo and sanchez thought these outlandish threats of dungeons forced labor would manipulate her as a woman into signing over whatever could be seized from her house while after her. louisa waldron, who now was left with almost nothing of actuated across the channel to bahamas, and that's where she continued to seek a compensation for her lost property. her final appearance on the record as a claimant asking for a 390 pounds from the british government government. now let's back a few months

before. the incidents with lisa waldron and lucy back to july. 1784 to look at the second proclamation. this july 26th dealt more explicit with slavery. but again invoked something else property and property disputes as the justification for putting a lot of attention on jurisdiction over slaves. cesspit locked down the colony in this proclamation by requiring an exit license for every person who wished to leave, including both white house and ship color. whether they were free or enslaved and any slaves who were discovered being carried out of the colony would be forfeited to the spanish crown as a kind of contraband. in the second proclamation cesspit as also required that any person of color in the colony who did not hold actual manumission or a deed of purchase had to report to the

governor's office immediately if they did. the default assumption would be that were free and they'd be issued a permit. and if they did not and they were discovered, they would have to. they would be assumed to have slave status. they'd have to be seized as slaves of the spanish crown. so this assumption that this would had. it was incorrect that the british were really good at documenting slave sales and manumission they were not they not nearly as fastidious as the spanish at documenting basically they ever did in government. tonin and chief justice hume were outraged this potential confiscation of property whether the ownership of the was being resigned to the spanish crown to the enslaved person by giving self freedom, by awarding himself property in themself. tonin and hume informed zespri

as that many colonial british slave sales were just verbal that did not generate a paper trail. if the ownership of a in those circumstances became then it was customary prove possession by or prove legal by the enslavers consist in holding of that person and by a neighbors knowledge of the of the household and that that would be sufficient. on top, the basic difference between the british and spanish systems. the turmoil the american war of independence also muddied the waters here. for one thing, if freedom papers did exist, they were sometimes in the war and evacuation. also, if deeds of ownership existed, they could be lost. more concerning was that papers were not usually even generated for any people of color who. status changed from slave free when they served in the british army under dunn morris

proclamation or the philipsburg proclamation? sometimes british officers even animated entire groups of men all at once without issuing papers to the individuals and this made it very hard for lot of people to prove that they were free once were in st augustine on according to the british to the spanish. so some toning. hume calculated that five out of six black people in st augustine did not have kind of documentation that says. but as wanted to classify them spanish as tonin and hume accused or cesspit as of actually fully understanding what he was doing here. but the lack of documentation was a big problem and that cesspit as might have been trying to take advantage of that both to nullify freedom of some black british subjects and to confiscate valuable slaves held by others as evacuated the financial incentive to confiscate slaves was also especially strong for the two

judges appointed by cesspit as to oversee british, namely leslie and because the proclamation awards owed the judges a portion of the proceeds from each confiscated slave incentivizing them to usually rule against british subjects. now cesspit as acknowledged that yes there existed in st augustine's some black residents who had gained their freedom by virtue of the war but lacked papers. but he remained firm that he still to actually know who was who, who actually had freedom. he claimed was necessary for the restoration of public tranquility in two ways. the first was british subjects from stealing slaves from their rightful owners. they left the colony and the other was to bring down a perceived rise in crime that he attributed to black people whom he classified vagrants that had become detached from their enslavers households. he claimed that vagrants were, quote, roving city robbing and

even breaking open houses. he said that those who failed to present themselves would reveal that they wished to continue in this bad way of life. so he was trying to prevent those transgressions as despot as did not state his actual underlying goal. but we can use our knowledge of the historical context of people's memory from this backwards into the 18th century to see how spanish stood to benefit from this. for a time the british spanish rivalry in the colonial south east recognized value of increasing their own size circulation in the region. from the 1730s, the spanish famously had a sanctuary policy for who fled from british carolina, crossed the imperial boundary and settled in spanish. florida as converted roman catholics, who now had freedom. when this population grew, it not only subtracted laborers

from the british empire, but it also added simultaneously contributors to the chronically undermanned florida society and even armed them in defense of the colony at fort mosley shown on the map here. the british empire, for its part, tried to buttress its colony of georgia by, you guessed it, increasing the population. this time by coordinating the transplantation of whole communities from europe and later in the south in the revolution. the british army obviously attempted to do a form of this if we consider the army to be a floating island of imperial people who were enslaved by revolution areas were welcome to cross that moving boundary into domain of the army to contribute to it and receive freedom in east florida in, 1784, as the spanish watched 16,000 british inhabitants leave, they found

themselves again in the position, lacking manpower and as despot as could stem the flow of. people during the evacuation he would strengthen the colony, forcing a decision about people of color who couldn't produce documents would push a lot of them into classifications that made more likely to stay in florida cesspit, as insisted that people who presented themselves immediately, in his words, be considered free. and we know that 251 people did present themselves and were registered free. so suspect has defended his proclamation by pointing to them and celebrating what called their cheerful countenance that they were now acknowledged free people no longer forced to dismayed in solitary corners. we can imagine why everyone without papers attempted, though. for one thing, the spanish governor was an unfamiliar entity that might prove capricious, especially if they believed the propaganda that the

spread about the spanish. this would give people pause in approaching the governor. if you drew attention to yourself it could make you more vulnerable. if the claim was contested by a former enslaver or a dance colonist who posed as a former enslaver, also a successful award of freedom would require staying behind in the spanish when loved ones may have been evacuating with the british. and so that one would have to weigh staying with community family against staying behind in spanish florida and having legal freedom in the end about 450 white british inhabitants and the 253 people of color stayed under this new regime, along with an unknown of enslaved people. the overall population of

spanish east florida hovered around 3000 people for the rest of colony's life, from 1784 to 1821, when it became a territory of the us. so how do we end? well, tonin ultimately had to leave in june 85, but continued to fire missives from his frigate in the harbor. his final fusillade was a 115 page letter to the despot as it took the spanish governor's staff several weeks to translate this letter tone in. also a copy of the dissertation to lord north and one historian and surmises that this probably helps explain why he was not awarded another colonial governor. canaan's final statement rehashed every between the governors as they wrestled authority over the anglo-american. the treaty is protection of property rights and, freedom to exit the colony, both directly to slavery.

running through all of these. but so did the incoming spanish governors concerned with adjudicate property disputes, maintaining public order, reducing criminal activity? but slavery was the locus of the contest for authority between the two governors because slaves were valuable property and movable property. also, along with free people of color. they were people who had valuable contributions to make to whichever empire landed in. thank you, jason. they have little time for questions. tim, there's somebody front and then i will repeat. jason because i know you won't hear it when absolutely great. but early in the presentation jason you mentioned the possession was that the spaniards wanted to trade in

order to get boats back to the bahamas. and i were reading about that which bahamas appears in one of the first u.s. actions in the revolution. and then as location that a lot of the locations that oil is what you and following the treaty making or 83. i'm not familiar the history of the bahamas during that of that period between so it sounds like the spaniards captured in the bahamas or some portion of it. so jason the questions about the bahamas and the role of the transfer of territory during and after the american revolution. was the were the bahamas at one point captured or under the control of the spanish leading up to the of the revolution. yes, the spanish if i remember and i'd have to look up i don't remember if the spanish and the

americans both participated in the same at the same time in this invasion of the bahamas. but it was a successful of the bahamas, very temporary. it was quite near the end of the war. and that was traded back. the british as part of the settlement. so. all right, jason, i think you're off easy. no other. we do a question. we got two questions in the room. really fascinating? presentation. thank you. to what extent did the u.s. get involved in these important deals between? great britain and spain and during that period of vying for? so, jason, what, if any, did the united states play in this? what's going on in florida in the post-revolutionary