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.

This is the first in a series of four podcasts the next four weeks on this subject.

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 of 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.

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.

We talk about Bob Martinez's 1986 triumph in the Governor's race.

We discuss Buddy MacKay, former Florida Governor and US Congressman who passed this week at 91.

Additionally, we've recorded a 1 hour video discussion about MacKay which is available at the Florida Squeeze's YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/HwO2PRL93Bk

President Jimmy Carter passed away today at age 100. We bring you an encore podcast taped in 2021 honoring him and discussing his links to Florida.

It fits in our Governor's series coincidently right during our holiday break, so here is an encore presentation of our Bob Graham tribute podcast from when he passed away earlier this year.

The Governorship of Reubin Askew was a Golden Age for Florida. We discuss it in this pod.

The emerging Florida Republican majority took a thud in 1970 as Reubin Askew won back the Governorship for the Democrats and ushered in a decade of Dem dominance in the state up-and-down the ballot.

Claude Kirk was oh so close to being on Richard Nixon's 1968 GOP ticket and with the RNC convention in Miami, it seemed written in the stars. But then protests happened and got out of control and Kirk's national ambitions were thwarted.

We discuss Florida's first post-Reconstruction GOP Governor, Claude Kirk who was a colorful populist.

We discuss Leroy Collins massive legacy both in Florida and nationally.

We've discussed Leroy Collins many times on this podcast but never taken quite the deep dive into his Governorship that we do on this episode.

The first Governor from South Florida died tragically in office- but changed the trajectory of Florida politics forever.

We discuss Florida's populist Governor Fuller Warren who was impeached multiple times by the legislature.

NOTE: Portions of this podcast were recorded in 2019.

The 2004 Hurricane Season was one of the worst ever experienced by the state of Florida...and coincided with a Presidential campaign centered largely on Florida and an open US Senate seat. How did it impact the election?

A record breaking tropical system, one of the strongest in the history of the Atlantic basin has just ravaged Florida. Kartik Krishnaiyer, Ryan Ray and Johnathan Starling give their take on the impacts, the devastation in the Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas, the Tornado outbreak in south Florida as well as some comments on the NHC forecasting and TV meteorologists in the state and climate action.

Major Hurricane Milton is barreling toward the Sunshine State. A Cat 5 Hurricane with one of the lowest ever central pressures at the time of recording, we dive into some hurricane history in Florida and talk about the threats to the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas as well as the rest of the peninsula with longtime hurricane watcher Johnathan Starling.

Millard Caldwell had one of the most distinguished careers of any public official in the state's history.

What was supposed to the "big one" for Tallahassee ended up being a "bigger one" for the storm-ravaged Big Bend and unfortunately a potential Katrina-like event for the Tampa/St Peterburg Metropolitan area. Helene delivered statewide impacts from Miami to Apalachicola. In a state littered with historic Hurricanes, this one has made immediate and unfortunate history.

We discuss this unfolding historical event in this emergency podcast.

We discuss one of the giants of 20th Century Florida public life - Spessard Holland.

Holland's career saw the transition of Florida from largely rural backwater to urban-driven megastate.

In this first edition of "Squeezing the Season" a special podcast we will run during Election season 2024, Democratic pollster and MSNBC contributor Fernand Amandi offers a frank look at why Florida's Hispanic vote has shifted heavily toward the GOP since 2016 as well as an in-depth look at Democrats success in North Carolina and what Florida Democrats can learn from that state.

Arguably the most embarrassing figure in Florida History, Sidney J. Catts is probably the worst Governor that Florida ever had. The violently anti-Catholic and racist Governor was also inept at the actual art of Governance.

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward is one of the most famous Floridians ever- he drained the Everglades threaded the needle between Populist and Bourbon Democrats while maintaining a Teddy Roosevelt like-persona. He also was close to being on the Democratic ticket as VP in 1908.

Florida has never had a President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader or Minority Leader or major party nominee for President or Vice President (excluding Donald Trump who wasn't exactly a Floridian). But when was Florida closest to real power? Fernand Amandi our guest argues it was during the Senate tenure of George Smathers.

We discuss Governor Oshian B. Hart, the first Florida native to be Governor of the state.

We discuss Florida's first popularly elected Governor

The 1976 Florida Primary won by Jimmy Carter was among the most important in Presidential history.

We discuss Florida's most influential territorial Governor.

We discuss the end of the Second Seminole War and the decision to allow the Seminole that were in Big Cypress and the Everglades to remain in Florida.

We discuss Abiaka/Sam Jones entire life as a great war chief and negotiator for the native people's of Florida.

Major William Lauderdale claimed a March 1838 victory over Sam Jones at the Battle of Pine Island Ridge in what is now Broward County. But did the battle actually take place as described? Jones and the Seminole certainly lived on and fought on in the Everglades over the course of the next several years.

We're joined by noted local historian Josh Liller to discuss what happened right after the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. Two battles effectively won by the remaining Seminole in Florida in January 1838 helped define the draw that was the Second Seminole War.