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Introduction to the book:

In 2023, Ridley Scott directed a film about Napoleon that was a box-office sensation. The resulting revival in the interest in the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon corresponds nicely with the issuing of this third and final volume of the Albion Florida series.

This is because in fact, Florida was deeply impacted by the European conflicts that resulted from the French Revolution. The eventual American invasion and conquest of Florida was dictated by events across the Atlantic as well as by the need for more land to set up slave-driven Plantations, and to quell the native population. 

The Second Spanish period (1784-1821) saw an increase in activities around runaway slaves from the southern states of the newly-independent United States. These African-Americans as well as Native Americans allied with the British during the War of 1812. 

The British in 1814 occupied Pensacola, which was under Spanish control. In December of that year, the United States Andrew Jackson attacked Pensacola and liberated the city from British control. 

Even after Jackson’s victory at New Orleans, the Spanish continued to harbor runaway slaves in its territory. The Americans eventually invaded Florida leading to the First Seminole War. During that war, multiple individual British officers aided the Seminole and free African-American cause. Following the war, Spain ceded Florida to the United States and British influence on Florida disappeared almost overnight. 

Another key aspect of this work will be to consider the impacts the efforts to annex Florida had on the future US-Mexico conflict over Texas and the similar issues in the domestic political dispute related to Texas.