The Republic of West Florida

Have you ever heard of the soldiers of the independent nation, the Republic of West Florida?  Chances are the answer is no.  Of course, most people have a pretty fair understanding of the United States’ Civil War in the middle of the 19th Century, when the South wished to secede from the Union.  But Florida was once a nation unto itself?  That may be news for a lot of people.  It’s one of those quirks of history, where for a few days in time, what you thought you knew was turned upside down.  In this case, the nation was established well before the Civil War, in 1810, and the short-lived country lasted for precisely ninety days.  If you ever find yourself traveling and pausing to stop at West Florida hotels, you may want to keep some of this remarkable story in mind:

West Florida was in dispute between Spain and the United States at the time.  Both American and British settlers lived there, resenting Spanish control.  A rebellion occurred in 1810, and thus the Republic of West Florida was officially born.  It was on the 23rd of September, when rebels took Baton Rouge, a Spanish garrison at the time, and raised the new flag of one white flag against a blue background.

The new nations’ boundaries included land North of Lake Pontchartrain, West of the Perdido River, East of the Missippi, and South of the thirty-first parallel.  Despite the fact that the new nation was called the Republic of West Florida, and despite the fact that it’s official name for the new country was the State of Florida, most of the place did not actually exist in what we now call Florida!

Ninety days after the Republic of West Florida was created, parts of that small nation were taken by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.  Skipwith opposed the U.S. move at first, wanting to figure out terms to join the Union, rather than be annexed.   The legitimacy of the new government, though, wasn’t recognized, and while Skipwith said he was prepared to die to defend his flag, he and his legislature finally agreed to accept Madison’s proclaimation.

And just like that, the nation of West Florida was gone, subsumed by four states: Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and, finally, Florida.

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