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

Food and drink in 1780 St Augustine 

St Augustine was bustling population wise during the war yet only had about 400 homes, leading to many exiles living on the periphery of the town or outside it entirely. The town boasted about 40 taverns, additional “punch houses,” a few tea-selling establishments, access to the produce from Jesse Fish’s Orange plantation on Anastasia Island and lots of home gardens. Local butcher Francisco Sánchez made a hefty profit selling meat to all of the new residents and seafood logically was abundant. 

There is no record of the Datil Pepper, native to St Augustine and cultivated by Minorcans who had recently moved north from New Smyrna, being discussed this early. But in time, the pepper would become synonymous with St Augustine and the Minorcan community. 

Minorcancs, Greeks and Italians settle in to St Augustine

St Augustine’s cosmopolitan feel was enhanced as noted earlier in this work by the resettlement of colonists from the failed New Smyrna project. Most acquired land either in the outskirts of the town just south of the plaza and Government House or nearby the town in the surrounding areas.  

Many of the new residents became shopkeepers, merchants or owned taverns. Others became carpenters or rope makers, often competing for work with free blacks. 

The loyalty of the Minoracan community whose descendants still live in St Johns County today has been a hotly debated topic through the years. On one hand, it’s very clear the community resented the Anglican Church and worked hard to keep the flame of Catholicism burning in East Florida. But on the other hand, the patriots represented a threat to Catholicism in the eyes of some, as we’ve outlined previously in this work. 

In reality, the Minorcan community like most were split in their preferences. They kept their heads down and became productive and leading citizens of St Augustine, irrespective of how they felt about the British or Patriot causes. 

As noted earlier St Augustine boasted what is the oldest Greek Orthodox community which is now in the United States. The views of that community on the conflict were largely mixed.