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3 years, 10 months, 21 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Drawn from Florida's Spanish Colonial Past 1565-1821, an educational poster prepared by the Florida Humanities Council for teacher workshops conducted by the Council in St. Augustine titled Between Columbus and Jamestown: Spanish St. Augustine. Additional St. Augustine resources including lesson plans, readings, maps, artwork and PDF versions of this poster, in both English and Spanish, can be found at www.flahum.org/colonial
Gone but not for Good [1763-1784]
In 1763, the first era of Spanish rule in Florida ended. By treaty agreement, Spain gave Florida to Britain. Most Florida settlers left for Cuba.
The British divided Florida into two colonies, and made Pensacola the capital of British West Florida and St. Augustine the capital of British East Florida. But the Spaniards were not gone long. During the American Revolution, Spain joined the American colonies and France in fighting against Great Britain. Spanish forces concentrated on trying to win back West Florida.
In 1781, after a series of military successes, Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, forced the British garrison at Pensacola to surrender. It was one of two major British defeats in 1781-the other being Yorktown. At the end of the American Revolution, Britain also returned East Florida to Spain.
The Last Period of Spanish Rule [1784-1821]
The final years of Spanish rule in Florida saw many changes. Bands of Seminole Indians now lived in towns along the Suwannee River, between the Suwannee and Apalachicola Rivers, and in what is today's Alachua County.
The Seminoles raised livestock, and it was common for towns to have 1500head of cattle and 400 to 500 horses. They were also interested in trading with Spanish settlers and ranchers.
The rise of the United States of America also influenced life in Florida. Many Americans wanted land in Spanish Florida. Runaway slaves also continued to escape into Florida. St. Augustine's best group of soldiers was a 50-membermilitia unit of free men of color.
At the same time, slavery became a common feature of life in Florida as Cuban, British, French, and American settlers started plantations to grow rice and cotton. Like settlers in Georgia and South Carolina, they used slave labor to run the plantations.
The early 1800s were not peaceful in Florida. In 1810, revolts against Spanish rule began in West Florida. American troops occupied parts of East and West Florida during the War of 1812.
In 1817 and 1818, American troops again crossed the border, this time to fight the Seminoles in the First Seminole War. By 1819, Spain had agreed to cede the two Florida colonies to the United States.
In 1821 it formally transferred control of the colonies. Under American rule, the Florida peninsula (East Florida) and the Panhandle (part of West Florida) were combined as a single American territory. This was the beginning of Florida as we know it today.
USSKidd Image: Gálvez forces attack British garrison at Baton Rouge, 1779. | 
to simplify music assigned to specific celebrations in the church calendar.
Rabbi Samuel Cywiak, 91, recently retired from Congregation Sons of Israel, continuing service as a hospital chaplain and offering his autobiography, Flight from Fear. A Rabbi's Holocaust Memoir.