Tangled Roots: Florida's Revolving Empires and the Opportunities of Changing Borders, 1760-1830

FAIN: HB-273689-21

Jason Timothy Sharples
Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL 33431-6424)

Research and writing leading to a book on the history of Florida during the colonial period, offering a new interpretation of early American history rooted in the Caribbean.

Colonial Florida offers an alternative origin story for the United States with roots in the Caribbean, Latin America, Native America, and anglophone North America. These influences became tangled as successive empires -- Spain, Britain, Spain (again), and the US -- claimed the territory. This book is organized around three pivotal moments of transition between empires: 1763, 1784, and 1821. With each, how did inhabitants and newcomers -- indigenous people, enslaved people, free people of color, and settlers -- experience the change in governance and take advantage of overlaps and tensions between imperial powers? And how did a new colonizing power attempt to govern a "foreign" people who had established roots and transformed the landscape, economy, customs, and Native American diplomatic relations? The answers speak to the common historical phenomenon of conquered and annexed territories and illuminate how people conceived of, and used, subjecthood and citizenship when borders moved.