You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
Several years ago I looked at what might have happened if the British had been able to hold on to the American deep south at the end of the Revolutionary War. Let’s try something a little more modest.
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
What actually happened: A very competent and aggressive Spanish commander managed to grab a strong enough position in Florida that it was awarded to Spain at the end of the war.
What might have happened: The British defeats in Florida were not preordained.. They were largely a matter of timing and who deployed their forces most effective. Let’s say that the British end the war in control of Florida. This was a fight between Britain and Spain and Florida goes to Britain instead of Spain at the end of the war.
So what does Britain do with the colony? Among other things, most of the 3,500 black loyalists (African-Americans who fought on the British side in the American Revolution) who historically ended up in Nova Scotia would probably end up there, along with a few others who historically were already in Florida.
A large free black population in Florida would make the area a magnet for slaves in adjoining areas of the US south. That would be an ongoing source of friction with the US, as would British efforts to maintain influence with the major Indian tribes in the Southeast.
Some of the tens of thousands of non-African American loyalists who historically went to various parts of Canada would undoubtedly settle in Florida too. Actually several thousand loyalist refugees fled to Florida during the American Revolution and then went to Nova Scotia or back to England when the British gave it up.
Florida would be a focus of US/British conflict in the War of 1812, of course. I doubt that the US would take it back unless the British decided that it wasn’t worth the effort. I doubt that they would do that at the end of the war because they would see it as being too useful in containing the US and maintaining British influence on the major Indian tribes of the Southeast. Florida would also be a convenient dumping ground for African American populations that were accumulating in Britain itself for various reasons.