illiam Bartram’s first introduction to the Southeast came in 1761 with his trip to Cape Fear, North Carolina: or more specifically, to his uncle’s plantation “Ashwood” eighty or ninety miles above the capes. Of his four years there we know relatively little. Evidently, William was slow to begin the collection of native plants he had promised his father, for in December of that year, John wrote:
"Thee disappointed my expectation much in not sending me any seeds…I have not received one single seed from my son who glories so much in the knowledge of plants and whom I have been at so much charge to instruct therein…”(7)
Correspondence exists between various members of the Bartram circle, however, to indicate that William did eventually begin to collect and draw while working hard to make success of a trading venture there.
Unfortunately, no journal exists from this period (if, in fact, one was ever kept), but all indications are that Bartram’s ill-fated mercantile venture took up most of his time and precluded any extensive traveling.
After his two years in Florida (1765–1767), which will be discussed shortly,(8) Bartram returned to Philadelphia. Three years later, a disastrous business venture in the North and memories of the pleasant climate and warm hospitality of his uncle and aunt urged him south again. Leaving behind a debt of at least 100 pounds (eventually settled by his father and another relative, George Bartram),(9) William set off to Ashwood. He did not inform his parents of the destination until some time after his arrival.(l0)
It must have been a sad time for William, for in the three years he was in North Carolina, his uncle, cousin and aunt all died (in 1770, 1771, and 1772, respectively).(11) Bartram’s request for Dr. Fothergill’s support in traveling to Florida, submitted with a package of drawings in 1772,(12) may have been caused as much by his desire to leave the sadness of Cape Fear as the desire to return to the territory he and his father had explored seven years before. Whatever the reason, the request was granted, and after a brief return to Philadelphia, William set off again for Florida.
The term Florida is somewhat deceptive, for the Florida of Bartram’s day was substantially larger than the present state. In fact, there were two.(13)
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris brought to an official close a long struggle between Great Britain, France and Spain for control of North America(14) (the French and Indian or Seven Years War). In it France ceded all lands east of the Mississippi (excluding New Orleans) to Great Britain and Western Louisiana (including New Orleans) to Spain. The Spanish in turn gave up East Florida to the British in exchange for Cuba.(15)
While the trade of Spanish Florida for “the Pearl of the Antilles” was roundly criticized by Englishmen who considered Florida unfit for agriculture and devoid of natural wealth (most notably gold and silver for which the French and Spanish had searched in vain), British diplomats considered the exchange a good one. Not only did it provide an impressive acquisition of new land on the map; it also eliminated the long-threatening Spanish foothold on the east coast once and for all.
Now that they held jurisdiction over all of the land east of the Mississippi (except New Orleans), the British made plans for settlement to solidify their control. The Royal Proclamation Act of 1763 officially established British East Florida and British West Florida as the fourteenth and fifteenth colonies and established land policies for settlers in these new areas. British East Florida began at the Apalachicola River and ran north to where the Chattahoochee and the Flint join to form the Apalachicola. From the junction of the two rivers a line was drawn to the source of the St. Marys River which served as the boundary as far as the Atlantic. The line then ran down the east coast and up the west coast of the Florida peninsula to the mouth of the Apalachicola. East Florida’s most important town, St. Augustine, became its capital in 1764.(16)
The initial boundaries of British West Florida were the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and the Iberville River on the south, the Mississippi River on the west; and the 31st parallel on the north. The colony shared its eastern border with British East Florida (the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers).(17)
In addition to establishing the two Floridas, the 1763 proclamation reserved the area north of the 31st parallel and west of the Appalachian Mountains for the Indians and specified that settlers were not to enter this territory. The Board of Trade in London soon realized that certain white settlements were already located north of 31°; and in response to numerous petitions agreed to extend the northern boundary of British West Florida to a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo River.(18) They would make no further concessions. This decision on the part of the British government infuriated the colonists, many of whom had expected to be given land there as a reward for their loyalty to the crown, and contributed to the deterioration of relations between the colonies and the mother country, which would in time add fuel to the fire of the American Revolution.
The seat of government for British West Florida was established at Pensacola because its deep narrow harbor was the best on the Gulf Coast. Many of the French settlers, who had already been advised by the British government that they would have eighteen months in which to dispose of their property and leave the colony, elected to transfer their allegiance to the British King. Offered the same option, most of the Spanish who had occupied Pensacola and St. Augustine left the two colonies when the British arrived.
Cecil Johnson, in his excellent study, British West Florida 1763–1783, has pointed out that in virtually every regard, West Florida was a frontier province with conditions very similar to those which had existed in Georgia a generation earlier and in the Carolinas during the first part of the 18th century. Although there were occasional exceptions, the cultural refinements and niceties of life found in the older colonies were generally lacking. Bernard Romans, who was commissioned in 1771 to survey and map the extensive area of West Florida, observed that:
“The manners and way of life of the white people in Florida differ very greatly from those in other provinces of America, particularly in respect of cloathing [sic]; they are very plain, their dress consists of a slight waistcoat of striped cotton, and a pair of trousers of the same, and often no coat; if any, it is a short one of some light stuff; in winter a kind of surtout [fitted coat or overcoat], made of a blanket, and a pair of Indian boots is all the addition; the women also dress light and are not very expensive; happy frugality!”(l9)
Conditions in British East Florida were not much different. Two major colonial settlements: Rollestown or Charlotia and New Smyrna (a privately sponsored Minorcan Colony in the vicinity of today’s Daytona Beach) had been attempted under the provisions of the new British land policy. St. Augustine and the other settlements which predated the British takeover were more stable, however, and continued to serve as major population centers.
The British government’s desire for new settlers in the Floridas (particularly East Florida) undoubtedly contributed to John Bartram’s appointment as Royal Botanist and the subsequent request to explore the new colonies.(20) In July, 1766, his account of the trip eventually reached the Board of Trade, which, in turn, provided it to Dr. William Stork for inclusion in his “Account of East Florida,” dedicated “to such persons as may be inclined to settle…[in] this happy province, the most precious jewel of his Majesty’s American dominions.”(21) It is ironic that for all of the scientific merit of the Bartrams’ expedition, its purpose (in the eyes of the king) and eventual result was the promotion of real estate ventures in the recently acquired land.(22)
William Bartram’s account of John Bartram’s 1765 expedition (written in an 1804 biographical sketch of his father) is perhaps the most succinct:
“He travelled several thousand miles in Carolina and Florida. At the advanced age of near seventy years, embarking on board of a vessel at Philadelphia, he set sail for Charleston, in South-Carolina. From thence he proceeded, by land, through part of Carolina and Georgia, to St. Augustine, in East Florida. When arrived at the last mentioned place, being then appointed botanist and naturalist for the King of England, for exploring the provinces, he received his orders to search for the sources of the Great River St. Juan. Leaving St. Augustine, he travelled, by land, to the banks of the river, and, embarking in a boat at Picolata, ascended that great and beautiful river (near 400 miles), to its sources, attending carefully to its various branches, and the lakes connected with it. Having ascended on one side of the river, he descended by the other side, until the confluence of the Picolata [St. John’s] with the sea. In the course of this voyage or journey, he made an accurate draught and survey of the various widths, depths, courses, and distances, both of the main stream, and of the lakes and branches. He also noted the situation and quality of the soil, the vegetable and animal productions, together with other interesting observations, all of which were highly approved of by the Governor, and sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations, in England, by whose direction they were ordered to be published, for the benefit of the new colony”(23)
While the route of the 1765 expedition is not the primary subject of this report, it will be partially covered, for, as Dr. Harper has observed, William “showed a remarkable propensity for following in the very track beaten by his father and himself in 1765–1766.”(24)
William’s unsuccessful attempt at farming on the St. John’s (near the mouth of Picolata or Sixmile Creek) has been discussed in the biographical section of this report. We do not know exactly when he left Florida. A letter from Mr. D’Braum (probably cartographer and historian J.G.W. DeBrahm) to Thomas Lamboll of Charleston dated November, 1766, reports that William had departed St. Augustine and suffered shipwreck. Perhaps the notation “wrecked here” on the map of the Florida east cost (Travels, preceeding page xiii) at a point opposite New Smyrna is an allusion to this event.(25) Judging from other correspondence, Bartram spent at least five months in Florida after his accident and returned to Philadelphia in the spring of 1767. Much of this time was probably spent in or around St. Augustine. He drew “two prospects” of that city for Peter Collinson (which Collinson acknowledged in July, 1768),(26) but unfortunately the whereabouts of these sketches are today unknown.
The Florida to which Bartram returned some six years later was already a different place. Political tensions between loyalists and revolutionaries were running high. Border raids by American patriots from Georgia had begun as early as 1773. Despite such tensions and Bartram’s personal associations with many of the leading revolutionaries in the North, however, the naturalist was warmly received by both royal governors.(27)
7. Letter to William Bartram, December 27, 1761; William Darlington, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall 1849, facsimile edition, New York, 1967, p. 421
8. See also Section I of this report
9. Francis Harper, “Travels in Georgia and Florida, A Report to Dr. John Fothergill by William Bartram,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. XXXIII, part II, p. 125
10. Ibid., p. 126.
11. Francis Harper, The Travels of William Bartram, Naturalist’s Edition. New Haven, 1958, p.420.
12. Although Bartram's letter to Fothergill has been lost, we do know that the physician received it in the fall of 1772, for in a letter to William dated October 22, 1772, Fothergill writes: “I received thy obliging letter, and the drawings that accompanied it.” He goes on to state: “I should be glad to contribute to thy assistance, in collecting the plants of Florida…” See Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 345–346.
13. For information on the history of East and West Florida, the Bartram Trail Conference is indebted to Dr. Woodward B. Skinner for his Bartram Trail Conference Technical Study, op. cit., and to Dr. Elbert Hilliard for “Mississippi at the Time of William Bartram's Travels,” Bartram Trail Conference Technical Study, 1978. See also: Cecil Johnson, British West Florida, New Haven, 1971; and Charles L. Mowat, East Florida as a British Province, Gainesville, 1964.
14. Many historians regard the war for American independence as a continuation of that struggle.
15. From the time of Ponce de Leon’s discovery of Florida in 1513, Spain had claimed the land as her own. The French had tried unsuccessfully to take it as had the British. Spain’s alliance with France in their unsuccessful war against England (7 Years War) gave the British their long-awaited excuse to attack her colonial possessions. Cuba soon fell to British troops with the capture of Havanna. It was in trade for this important island that Spain agreed to give up Florida. In 1783 at the second Treaty of Paris, Spain regained control of Florida and reoccupied it after an absence of twenty years. In 1821 Florida was ceded to the United States.
16. For a map of the boundaries of the new colony, see Atlas of Early American History, Lester I. Cappon, Editor, Princeton, 1976.
17. Ibid.
18. James A Padgett, Editor, “Commission, Orders and Instruction Issued to George Johnston, British Governor of West Florida, 1763-1767,” The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 21, October 1938, pp. 1034–1035.
19. Bernard Romans, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, New York, 1775; reprinted New Orleans, 1961, I, p. 79.
20. Lester J. Cappon, “Retracing and Mapping the Bartrams’ Southern Travels,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 118, No. 6, December 27, 1974, p. 509.
21. “An Extract from the Account of East Florida, Published by Dr. Stork,” London, 1766, pp. 19, 22, 24; cited in Cappon, “Retracing and Mapping the Bartrams’ Southern Travels,” op. cit.
22. For a further discussion of this subject, see Francis Harper, “Diary of a Journey Through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida by John Bartram,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. XXXIII, part 1, December 1942, p. 5.
23. William Bartram, “Some Account of the Late Mr. John Bartram of Pennsylvania,” Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, 1, 1804.
24. Harper, “Diary of a Journey,” op. cit., p. 6.
25. Harper, “Travels in Georgia,” op. cit., p. 125.
26. Ibid.
27. It has been suggested that the meetings with Governors Chester and Brown, despite Bartram's emphatic claim that they were “merely accidental and undesigned” (Travels, p. 414, Harper, p. 262), were in fact determining factors in the planning of this part of his expedition. Mr. Fred G. Benton, Jr. of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, believes that Bartram's travels in Western Florida were made despite his severe health problems, to fulfill a request by the Royal Governors to examine a site then under consideration as a new capital for the British Colony. Bartram's later nationalistic sympathies may well have caused him to deny such a close association with the Crown during the Revolutionary War period. For a further discussion of this theory, see Fred Benton, “Location of Bartram’s Travels in Louisiana,” Bartram Trail Conference Technical Study, 1978, on file with the Bartram Trail Conference.