This is an excerpt from my book Florida and the American Revolution.

In recent years thanks to HBO’s wonderful, John Adams miniseries, a revival of interest in John Dickinson who was expertly played by Zeljko Ivanek has occurred. Dickinson opposed the Declaration of Independence as we learn in the miniseries. But before and after July 1776, he was instrumental in the formation of the American nation. Dickinson was one of the primary authors of the Articles of Confederation which governed the newly independent United States until 1787 and in the 1760’s was quite possibly the leading agitator outside Boston for the Patriot cause. Dickinson is known in history as the “Penman of the Revolution.”

Dickinson’s famous “Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer,” are critical for us to understand the attitude of the Thirteen Colonies toward both Canada and Florida. 

In the letters, Dickinson makes it clear both Canada and Florida represent a threat economically to the established Thirteen Colonies and that they should either be self-sufficient or be supported by Great Britain alone, not colonial taxes or duties. 

Dickinson wrote in the wake of the Townshend Acts one of his twelve letters with regards to Canada, Nova Scotia and Florida. 

“I cannot think of it just that these colonies, laboring under so many misfortunes, should be loaded with taxes, to maintain countries, not only not useful, but hurtful to them. The support of Canada and Florida cost yearly, it is said, half a million sterling. From hence, we may make some guess of the load that is to be laid upon US; for WE are not only to “defend, protect and secure” them, but also to make “an adequate provision for defraying the charge of the administration of justice, and the support of civil government, in such provinces where it shall be found necessary.”

Not one of the provinces of Canada, Nova-Scotia, or Florida, has ever defrayed these expenses within itself: And if the duties imposed by the last statute are collected, all of them together, according to the best information I can get, will not pay one quarter as much as Pennsylvania alone. So that the British colonies are to be drained of the rewards of their labor, to cherish the scorching sands of Florida, and the icy rocks of Canada and Nova-Scotia, which never will return to us one farthing that we send to them.”

At the end of this particular letter Dickinson wrote:

“In truth, Great Britain alone receives any benefit from Canada, Nova-Scotia and Florida; and therefore she alone ought to maintain them. The old maxim of the law is drawn from reason and justice, and never could be more properly applied, than in this case.” 

The pen of Dickinson was particularly powerful. Great Britain repealed the specific taxes in question but the colonists grew more restless with British rule, while Florida was taking on a completely different personality than its northern neighbors. 

Florida continued to be an object of resentment for many colonists, a reality that would help frame the Revolutionary War period in the state.