Back in 1776, the land that would become South Florida wasn’t fighting for independence. In fact, our state capital was literally setting the Founding Fathers on fire.
Picture this: It’s August 11, 1776. The humidity is hitting 100%, a afternoon thunderstorm is probably rolling in, and the good people of St. Augustine are gathered in the town plaza.
But they aren’t firing up the grill or chilling some drinks. Instead, they’ve built two massive life-sized dolls out of rags and old rope, strung them up from the trees, and are currently setting them on fire.
Those dolls had name tags: John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
This wasn’t a minor local protest. This was Florida’s official reaction to a piece of paper signed five weeks earlier and a thousand miles to the north: the Declaration of Independence. Word had finally reached the oldest city in America, and to say locals were furious is a massive understatement.
This is the part of the Fourth of July that never makes the tourism postcards. Florida was absolutely here in 1776—we just wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Revolution.
The Colony That Left the Founders on Read
When the First Continental Congress was looking for allies in 1774, they sent a formal invite down south. Florida didn’t just decline; we completely ghosted them.
While Philadelphia was busy debating the finer points of liberty and freedom, East Florida and West Florida were doing the exact opposite of rebelling. According to historical records kept by the Florida Historical Society, we were the only two southern colonies that stayed 100% loyal to King George III throughout the entire war.
This loyalty wasn’t because Floridians just loved British tea. It was entirely about the data. Britain had just taken Florida from Spain in 1763, and they spent the next decade throwing massive land grants, royal salaries, and exclusive trade privileges at anyone willing to move down here.
As detailed by regional historians at Clay County Archives, the elites running the territory owed their entire bank accounts to the Crown. To them, a revolution up north wasn’t a noble cause. It was a threat to the sweet deal they already had going. So when the Declaration arrived? No debate. Just a bonfire.
📜 1776 Florida Revolution Timeline
- ● 1763 Britain takes control of Florida from Spain, dividing it into two loyalist colonies (East and West Florida) fueled by royal land grants and subsidies.
- ● 1774 The First Continental Congress sends an official invite to Florida to join the rebellion. Florida completely ghosts the delegation.
- ● AUGUST 11, 1776 Word of the Declaration of Independence reaches St. Augustine. Furious loyalist crowds gather in the plaza to burn effigies of John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
- ● 1776 – 1780 George Washington authorizes five separate invasions of East Florida. Tropical diseases, lack of supplies, and a routing at Thomas Creek defeat the Continental soldiers.
- ● 1780 Castillo de San Marcos operates as a British POW camp, locking away three signers of the Declaration and Christopher Gadsden, designer of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.
- ● 1783 The Treaty of Paris ends the war. A tired Britain abruptly trades Florida back to Spain in exchange for the Bahamas.
- ● 1821 Spain officially hands Florida over to the United States—meaning the land finally becomes American 45 years late to the party.
George Washington Kept Shooting His Shot (And Missing)
Here is the history lesson that gets completely wiped from the textbooks: the Founding Fathers wanted Florida badly, and Florida kept telling them to lose their number.
George Washington knew exactly how valuable this coast was. He wrote more than eighty letters about the Florida colonies to Congress and his generals, authorizing five separate invasions of East Florida between 1776 and 1780.
Late in the summer of 1776, about 2,500 Continental soldiers marched south out of Savannah to take St. Augustine. The campaign completely collapsed before they even crossed the state line. Supplies ran out, tropical diseases set in, and half the men deserted. A second attempt the next year ended in a brutal defeat at the Battle of Thomas Creek.
Florida stayed stubbornly, unapologetically British. While the thirteen colonies were busy becoming a country, the 14th and 15th colonies became a safe haven for the people running away from it.
The Ultimate Bad-Vibe Airbnb: Castillo de San Marcos
The wildest plot twist of the whole story sits inside the stone walls of the Castillo de San Marcos—the iconic coquina fortress that still guards the St. Augustine waterfront today.
Under British command, it was called Fort St. Mark, and it was used as a high-security prisoner-of-war camp. As documented in the history of St. Augustine, FL three actual signers of the Declaration of Independence were locked inside.
Alongside them was Christopher Gadsden, the South Carolina statesman who designed the most famous protest flag in American history. Yes, the bright yellow banner with the coiled rattlesnake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me” was created by a guy who spent a chunk of the Revolution locked in a dark Florida fortress, courtesy of the people who burned his friends in effigy.
Think about that: America’s ultimate symbol of patriotism has a Florida prison cell in its bio.
What “Independence” Actually Meant on This Coast
If you traveled south of St. Augustine in 1776, the colony thinned out into basically nothing. According to accounts from 10 News and the Tampa Bay History Center, the frontier was completely untamed. The land we call Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and the Keys today was nothing but mangrove wilderness, Calusa and Seminole territory, and a few scattered Spanish and Cuban fishing camps.
The brilliant but eccentric surveyor Bernard Romans charted these dangerous waters intimately, even wrecking one of his own ships near Cape Florida at the tip of Key Biscayne. His work is still preserved today in the Library of Congress’s historical maps collection.
And down here, the word “independence” completely flipped on its head. For enslaved people in the American South, freedom didn’t mean running north—it meant running down here. As highlighted by Creative Loafing Tampa, both the Spanish and the British made Florida a sanctuary for people escaping bondage in the colonies above. The exact same swamps the Founding Fathers viewed as a wild frontier to be conquered were, to others, the closest thing to true liberty on the map. The 4th of July is a story about who got free in 1776, and on our coast, that answer is beautifully complicated.
Check the Math: 45 Years Late to the Party
Spoiler alert: staying loyal didn’t save the colony. When the war ended, Britain didn’t have the energy to keep fighting for a frontier they had bled so much for. Under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, they traded Florida back to Spain in exchange for the Bahamas. Spain held onto it until 1821, which is when it finally became US territory.
Let that sink in next time you’re layout out on the sand: The land beneath your beach chair didn’t officially become American until 45 years after the Declaration was signed. The fireworks we set off every July? They didn’t hit this coast in 1776. They arrived two generations late, by treaty, almost as an afterthought.
So when the sky over South Florida lights up this 4th of July, remember that the people standing on this exact same ground in 1776 wouldn’t have been looking up in awe. They would have been looking away. The history they teach you starts in Philadelphia—but the history that actually happened here started with a bonfire, a hot summer day, and a colony that proudly said no.
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