Ever heard “Florida has no history”? Dr. Sam wants you to know how incorrect that common perception actually is…
We examine how after European powers learned of the ‘New World’ and began to scramble to claim the islands of the Caribbean for themselves, they soon turned to Florida as the first beach-head in the exploration & conquest of the North American mainland itself, a hundred years before the colonizing of Virginia, New York or New England, all of which set off a centuries-long struggle to control the tropical peninsula, as it passed back and forth between Spanish, French, and English – and eventually American – control.
A bewildering array of people lived or settled in Florida over the generations, from Seminole warriors to early European conquerors and indentured workers, to Scottish speculators, to “Cracker” cattle-herders, to Jewish utopians, to slave-driving planters, to evangelical missionaries, and in the last century to messianic cult leaders, women’s suffragists, Cuban revolutionaries, bohemian poets and many more…each adding their own layer to the rich history of the area, and who’s conflicts with each other have led to winners and losers in ongoing battles on who gets to live where, and in the power structures we see in the state today.
Dr. Sam then explores how with 20th century innovations like DDT, orange-juice concentrate, and air conditioning, the population and economy of Florida grew at an unimaginable pace, leading to new collisions in use of the land, epitomized by some of the surreptitious amassing of farms in the creation of Disney world.
First, however, in Part 1, Dr. Sam begins with an examination of what we know of what came before European contact, with an exploration of the Native Peoples who we know lived on the peninsula for many thousands of years, and who’s settlements and cities are evident in landscape today, much it uncovered the construction boom of the 20th century, before eventually confronting the first European invaders…
Part 1
We discuss the complex and multilayered history of Florida, beginning with the prehistoric peoples that survived in and mastered the tropical landscape, built monumental mound complexes, and formed powerful kingdoms that would eventually confront the first European invaders.
Image: Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Gulf of Mexico
Part 2
After 1500, Florida becomes a battleground in a new struggle for control of North America; we discuss the repeated doomed attempts by French and Spanish adventurers, from Ponce de Leon to the Huguenot colonists at Fort Caroline, to establish a foothold in Florida, until Spain finally succeeds in creating a lasting European stronghold at Saint Augustine…
Part 3
We consider the struggles of European colonists and missionaries, indigenous tribes, and African laborers to protect their territories and secure their freedom through two tumultuous centuries of Spanish rule in Florida. From the first arrival of yellow fever, to the construction of an indestructible limestone fortress, to the creation of the first black-led town in America, the Spanish era laid the foundations of a distinctive Floridian society which miraculously persisted and was never conquered by its powerful enemies to the north…
Part 4
From 1763 to the 1840s, Florida was repeatedly tossed and traded among the British, Spanish, and American empires, as all sorts of adventurers — from Greek and Turkish indentured workers, to Scottish speculators, to Seminole warriors, to West African widows, to British Army deserters, to Mexican pirates, to “Cracker” cattle-herders — attempted to establish themselves and exploit the subtropical landscape. Under American rule, two societies take shape in the Florida Territory — one of cotton plantations and the other of backcountry homesteads — and come to loggerheads over questions of development and ultimately, the idea of statehood…
Part 5
We follow the southward-racing juggernaut of modern Florida, from statehood in 1845 to the 1930s – the insatiable quest of visionaries and megalomaniacs, from Jewish utopians, to slave-driving planters, to evangelical missionaries, to black politicians, to hotel magnates, to messianic cult leaders, to women’s suffragists, to Cuban revolutionaries, to bohemian poets, to impose a sense of order upon the chaotic and unruly wilderness of tropical Florida…
Part 6
In the final lecture on Florida, we examine how the tropical state, thanks to innovations like DDT, orange-juice concentrate, and air conditioning, was able to boom at an unimaginable pace, rocketing into the top five biggest states in the union, with massive scientific and artistic communities, a diverse immigrant mosaic, and after the Civil Rights movement, exceptionally volatile and unpredictable politics…
Rolling Stone article outlining ways to help Florida, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Ian and Fiona.
Closely Related:
- Becoming Modern: Columbus – The Tragedy and the Enigma
- History of the United States in 100 Objects:
And see more in the Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
