Charles Lee on East Florida

British-born American General Charles Lee wrote to the Continental Congress Board of War and Ordinance explaining the need to protect Georgia from raids from the British colony of East Florida:

"The garrison of St. Augustine, and, indeed, the whole Province of East-Florida, draw their subsistence from Georgia; and if all intercourse with her were cut off, that nest of robbers and pirates would probably fall to the ground, and of course the empire of the United States become more round and entire."

For the full text of Lee's August 24, 1776 letter to the Board of War and Ordinance, please visit the American Archives web site of the Northern Illinois University Libraries.  For more on Charles Lee, please consult John W. Shy, "Charles Lee: The Soldier as Radical," in George Washington's Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership, ed. George Athan Billias (New York: De Capo Press, 1994 [1964]), 22-53.  Check also David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005) and David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

From St. Augustine, 20 Aug 1776

In a letter, dated August 20, 1776, from an East Florida resident to a Gentleman in London, the St. Augustine resident observed, “The smallest degree of sense or prudence must have shown any person the necessity of keeping this weak, infant Province as much as possible in a state of neutrality….”

Instead, East Florida colonial leaders sent “a body of plunders” into Georgia.  “These freebooters, in the most cruel and wanton manner, destroyed the crops, broke up the plantations, drove off the cattle, and carried away the negroes belonging to several of the Georgia planters.”  In response, the Georgia militia under Colonel Lachlan McIntosh “retaliated on the miserable Colony of East Florida.  Every settlement to the northward of St. John’s River is broken up, particularly Lord Egmont’s, and the planters thrown in the greatest distress.”  John Perceval, Earl of Egmont, owned plantations in East Florida, including Amelia Island, now part of Nassau County, Florida. 
The inhabitant of East Florida added, “The…troops stationed at the new fort on St. Mary’s River are made prisoners, as are also Sir James Wright's two brothers, Charles and Jermyn.”
 
Lord Egmont’s Amelia Island holdings are mentioned in David T. Courtwright, Violent Land: Single Men and Social Disorder from the Frontier to the Inner City (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996), page 168, quoting Daniel L. Schafer, “‘Yellow Silk Ferret Tied round Their Wrists:’ African Americans in British East Florida, 1763-1784,” in The African American Heritage ofFlorida, ed. David R. Colburn and Jane L. Landers (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995), page 90.