British Era
In 1763 British troops arrived and took over control of Pensacola. George Johnstone was appointed as the first British Governor, and in 1764 a colonial assembly was established. The structure of the colony was modelled after the existing British colonies in America as opposed to Quebec which followed a different structure. In contrast to East Florida where there was little development and population growth, West Florida began to boom in the years following the British takeover and thousands of new arrivals came to advantage of the favourable conditions there.
West Florida was invited to send delegates to the First Continental Congress which was convened to present colonial grievances against the British Parliament to George III, but along with several other colonies including East Florida they declined the invitation. Once the American War of Independence had broken out, the colonists remained overwhelmingly loyal to the Crown. In 1778 the Willing Expedition saw a small force proceed down the Mississippi ransacking estates and plantations, until they were eventually defeated by a local force of militia. In the wake of this the area received a small number of British reinforcements.
Read more about this topic: British West Florida
Famous quotes containing the words british and/or era:
“Gaze not on swans, in whose soft breast,
A full-hatched beauty seems to nest
Nor snow, which falling from the sky
Hovers in its virginity.”
—Henry Noel, British poet, and William Strode, British poet. Beauty Extolled (attributed to Noel and to Strode)
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)