The Florida History Podcast

Even after American forces were rebuffed again at the Battle of Alligator Creek Bridge, up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania General George Washington was gaining intelligence from the Culpher Spy Ring that tempted him to attack East Florida again in late 1778 and in 1780. However, the Continental Congress had seen enough and did not sanction the invasion.

The Americans are coming! Again! Another attempted invasion of British East Florida is thwarted in modern-day Nassau County at a bridge over Alligator Creek (near present-day Callahan). This battle took place in June of 1778.

In early 1777, the American Continental Army resolved to invade Florida but they failed miserably being turned back at Thomas Creek near the modern-day Nassau-Duval County line. This ended up being the deepest penetration of American forces into East Florida during the Revolution. Despite defeat several more invasions would be planned.

A narrative not often told in US History is how obsessive General George Washington became about conquering East Florida and specially St Augustine. We discuss the origins in this podcast.

We discuss José Solano y Bote the Spanish Admiral who lead the siege of Pensacola in 1781.

We will be back with new episodes starting next Tuesday, May 13. Life happens unfortunately and both Robert and Kartik have been exceptionally busy the last several weeks.

With the party switch for former Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo, Ryan Ray joins Kartik Krishnaiyer to discuss the history of sitting legislators leaving the Democratic Party since the 1990's and the larger general trends associated with this. Note with Kartik's recent intense focus on Canadian politics, he's applying some of those lessons of the current campaign to Florida as well.

We discuss the Georgia planter turned commander of the mixed-race East Florida Rangers, Thomas Brown.

We take time away from history this week to discuss an important current issue and how it relates to taxpayers. --- Billy Corben whose production credits include Cocaine Cowboys, Dawg Fight, The U, and The U Part 2 needs no introduction to most of you. For those who don’t know, he’s a relentless advocate for government efficiency in southeast Florida and regularly discusses these topics on the Dan LeBetard Show. Today he joins us to discuss the soccer stadium hustle in southeast Florida and why Inter Miami CF was given land in BOTH Miami and Fort Lauderdale, why they did not build on land they already owned in Miami as well as discussing the current hustle where tens of millions in taxpayer money is going to support FIFA’s World Cup efforts in Miami- as well as the relocation of some of FIFA’s most important jobs from Switzerland to south Florida. Even at a time of great political polarization in Florida and the USA, the one clear thing that seems to unite Democrats and Republicans is their desire to scam taxpayers to profit off of sports venues while enabling oligarch owners of sports entities. This is a MUST-LISTEN to anyone concerned about taxpayer funds being wasted on vanity projects and real estate scams.

John Stuart fled from the Carolina's to East Florida in 1775 and began a program of arming Seminoles and Creeks to do battle against the American rebels.

The Royal Governor of East Florida during the American Revolution was the prickly British Major General Patrick Tonyn.

Bernardo de Gálvez is one of the most colorful and intriguing figures of the American Revolution in Florida. We discuss him in this pod.

We're back after a layoff and this week we discuss the book project we're working on with a publisher on the American Revolution.

We do not have a new podcast this week as Robert and Kartik in the final stages of finishing the initial manuscript on a new book which will be published later this year. We hope to be back next week, but for certain we will be back the following week.

One of Florida's most controversial politicians, Charlie Crist won election as Governor in 2006- he was then a Republican but didn't necessarily govern as one and would end his term as an Independent.

Jeb Bush's transformative governorship had a huge impact on the direction of the Sunshine State.

Lawton Chiles had a rocky second term fighting a conservative legislature, and Jeb Bush crushed Buddy MacKay in the 1998 election. But Chiles died suddenly a month later ushering MacKay, who passed last month into a short one-month term as Governor.

The period between Hurricane Andrew and the 1994 Election saw a period in Florida politics characterized by flux and a GOP surge- which would carry us into a 1995 Legislative Session at parity between the parties.

Presumptive Dem nominee Bill Nelson wasn't cutting it, so Lawton Chiles unretired, ran for Governor, beat Bob Martinez and began reforming Florida Government.

Bob Martinez had a troubled Governorship and entered 1990 as an underdog for reelection.