East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763-1785: Britain’s Fifteenth Colony

In 1763, Great Britain organized the colony of East Florida-which formed the entirety of what is now the state of Florida east of the Apalachicola River. East Florida is the Revolutionary Era’s fifteenth colony. Today, East Florida is forgotten and cast aside, relegated to the outskirts of Colonial and Revolutionary Era literature, if the colony is mentioned at all. Such relegation leads many to assume that nothing significant must have happened there. Nothing is further from the truth. In 1775, a violent border war erupted between East Florida and the state of Georgia; two noteworthy Revolutionary War battles were fought on East Florida soil; and three American invasions failed to bring East Florida into the rebellion. In East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763-1785, historian George Kotlik provides the first comprehensive and detailed history of British East Florida, drawing attention to the colony’s early development and connection to the American Revolution.