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.
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.
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