ABSTRACT
Poised between the North American and Caribbean worlds, Spanish Florida was buffeted by the revolutions of the late eighteenth century, as well as by annexation plots, invasions and Indian wars in the early nineteenth century. The dangers of the age created hardships for many, but also, on occasion, avenues for upward mobility, which in a more stable time might not have been available. This essay examines how free blacks in Spanish Florida acquired, exploited and retained or lost land and other property despite great political and economic challenges on a volatile frontier.
