Was Florida’s Western Frontier a Haven for
Heathens?
1559 – Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano’s fleet
anchors in Pensacola Bay to begin colony in
Northwest Florida frontier. Colony devastated by
hurricane within a month. Hungry, disgruntled
colonists return to Spain.
 1698 - Don Andres de Arriola establishes a presidio
to become formal Spanish colony, Pensacola.
 1719 - 1723 – French briefly occupied colony of
Pensacola
 1763- 1783 – British occupied Pensacola
 1783 - 1821 – Second Spanish Period
 1821 - 1861 – United States occupy Pensacola
 1861 - 1862 – Confederate States of America
 1862 - present – United States of America

 the
frontier is the outer edge of the wave-the meeting point between savagery and
civilization.
 "begins
with the Indian and the hunter;
 it goes on with the disintegration of savagery
by the entrance of the trader...
 the pastoral stage in ranch life;
 the exploitation of the soil by the raising of
unrotated crops of corn and wheat in
sparsely settled farm communities;
 the intensive culture of the denser farm
settlement;
 and finally the manufacturing organization
with the city and the factory system."
 The
students will investigate Florida’s
Western Frontier and determine whether its
inhabitants were considered to be
nonreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized
people or simply nonconformists who made
worthwhile contributions to a multicultural
society.

Benchmark #: LA.8.3.3.3





Benchmark Number:
LA.8.3.3.3
Benchmark Description:
The student will revise by creating precision and interest by elaborating ideas
through supporting details (e.g., facts, statistics, expert opinions, anecdotes), a
variety of sentence structures, creative language devices, and modifying word
choices using resources and reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus); and


Benchmark #: SS.8.A.1.5





Benchmark Number:
SS.8.A.1.5
Benchmark Description:
Identify, within both primary and secondary sources, the author, audience, format,
and purpose of significant historical documents.


Benchmark #: LA.1112.3.3.3





Benchmark Number:
LA.1112.3.3.3
Benchmark Description:
The student will revise by creating precision and interest by elaborating ideas
through supporting details (e.g., facts, statistics, expert opinions, anecdotes),
a variety of sentence structures, creative language devices, and modifying
word choices using resources and reference materials (e.g., dictionary,
thesaurus) to select more effective and precise language; and



Benchmark #: SS.912.W.1.3





Benchmark Number:
SS.912.W.1.3
Benchmark Description:
Interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources.
 Who
are the people in the sketch?
 Where
are they congregated?
 What
is the mood of the people?
 What
can you infer from the sketch?
 Was
Florida’s Western Frontier a Haven for
Heathens?
 Document
A- Two reports from Reverend A.P.
Cook, a Methodist Missionary to Pensacola in
1824.
 Document B- Image of Abraham and wife Hagan
1826.
 Document C- Two reports from Reverend Steele,
an Episcopal Pastor to Christ Church, Pensacola
1834-35.
 Document
D- The Dagurreotype, “The
Branded Hand” of Jonathon Walker taken in
1845.
 Document E- Report of the Joint Committee
on Reconstruction Congressional interview:
John W. Recks, Pensacola resident 1866.
 Document F- John Wesley Hardin’s Pinkerton
circular and timeline 1877.
_____ PRIMARY TEXT
_____ SECONDARY TEXT
Enter the following information about your document:
Document Letter/Number: ________
TITLE:
AUTHOR:
YEAR:
MAIN IDEA:
SUPPORTING FACTUAL INFORMATION: (Facts found in
documents)
INFERENCES: Information you discovered (but not
written in text).
HOW DOES THIS DOCUMENT
RELATE TO THE ANALYTICAL
QUESTION?





Soon after the discovery of America, frontier West Florida became important as a means of
protecting Spanish interest from other European countries. Pensacola Bay had a deep, sheltered
harbor and had been visited by Spanish explorers Narvaez and Soto. In 1559, Pensacola was
chosen as the place to colonize and Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano was given command. On August
15, 1559, Luna’s fleet anchored in Pensacola Bay with 1,000 colonists including women and
children, black servants and Aztecs and Tlaxcalans. Within a month a hurricane would destroy the
colony and survivors would return to Spain. For over a century, the Florida Gulf Coast was
forgotten by the Spanish but in 1698 a presidio garrisoned by soldiers was established and
Pensacola became a formal Spanish colony. The colonists who came with Don Andres de Arriola
were mostly “convicts, beggars and others from the dregs of society.”
The flags of France and England would fly over the city as Spanish Pensacola sought to carve out
their claim in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Convicts, friendly Indians, mulattoes, blacks and
women would form the labor supply. By 1757, the fort would be moved to the mainland and
houses for civilians, officers and married soldiers were built within the stockade. There was also a
church, hospital, government house, storehouse, bake oven, and barracks for the soldiers.
When Spain gave up Pensacola in the Treaty of Paris (1763), the English went to work to organize
the “primitive society”. Many men and women came alone but Pensacola also attracted families.
There were government employees, artisans such as carpenters, blacksmiths, bricklayers,
shopkeepers, sawmill operators, unskilled laborers, indentured servants and farmers. Due to a
shortage of white or Indian laborers, some black slave trade developed. Pensacola was a seaport
and people from other English colonies and European countries were drawn here making the
population even more diverse. There were soldiers, sailors, blacks, Indians and women with the
affluent and the ordinary sometimes becoming drunk and disorderly.
Bernardo de Galvez would lead his army against the British in 1781 and Pensacola would again
come under Spanish control. Blacksmiths, masons, bricklayers, carpenters, building contractors,
shipwrights, laundresses, seamstresses, dressmakers, domestic servants, barbers, bakers, and
tavern keepers as well as industry like brick making, naval stores and sawn lumber made up the
military/economic life of Pensacola. There was a small Catholic congregation and several doctors.
By the time the Americans took control of Pensacola in 1821, it was a city full of diversity, trade,
and growing industry. Runaway slaves from the Deep South would come to the area to hide out
and search for a ship to freedom. If you wanted to get lost in the crowd, Pensacola’s population
was diverse enough to allow that to happen.
CATEGORY
Thesis
1
2
Fails to address the
task; confusing and
unfocused
Addressed the task but Thesis stated addresses Strong thesis-responds
has weak structure and the task in a well written directly to the question
focus
fashion
Use of Documents
Fails to use documents
correctly; simply
paraphrased or
misunderstood
Uses most documents
correctly-simplistic
analysis; does not
always weigh the
importance or validity
of the evidence
Outside Information
Includes no relevant
Includes little/irrelevant Cites some relevant
Cites considerable
information from
information from
information from outside relevant information from
beyond the documents outside learning
learning
outside learning
Does not use opening
Use of
introduction/conclusio or concluding
statements
n
Organization
Disorganized; littered
with errors in standard
English
3
Uses documents
correctly; recognizes
that all evidence is not
equally valid
4
Uses documents
completely and accurately;
weighs the importance
and validity of evidence
Uses an
Includes a good
unorganized/irrelevant introduction and
introduction and
conclusion
concluding paragraph
Uses strong introduction
and conclusion
Weaker organization;
some errors in writing
detract from the
essay's meaning
Well structured, well
written; proper spelling,
grammar, and mechanics
Clearly written and
coherent; some minor
error in writing
“The old town of Pensacola had one of
the finest harbors in all Florida, but was of no
commercial importance whatever. The
inhabitants were chiefly West India traders,
smugglers, privateersmen, Indians, half-breeds,
runaway negroes, and white men who had fled
from American territory for good cause.”