Historian Dr. Brian Rucker  offers this reading list for those who would like to learn more about the events leading up to Spain handing over Florida to the U.S.


Belko, William S., ed.  America’s Hundred Years’ War:  U.S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763-1858.  Gainesville:  University Press of Florida, 2011.

Brooks, Philip Coolidge.  Diplomacy and the Borderlands – the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1939.

Brown, J. A.  “Panton, Leslie, and Company.” Florida Historical Quarterly 37 (January-April 1959):  328-336.

Clavin, Matthew J.  The Battle of Negro Fort:  The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community.  New York:  New York University Press, 2019.

Clune, John J.; and Margo S. Stringfield.  Historic Pensacola.  Pensacola:  University Presses of Florida, 2009.

Coker, William S.; and Thomas D. Watson.  Indian Traders of the Southeastern Borderlands:  Panton, Leslie & Company, 1783-1847.  Pensacola:  University Press of Florida, 1986.

Cox, Dale; and Rachael Conrad.  Fowltown:  Neamathla, Tutalosi Talofa & the First Battle of the Seminole Wars, 2017.

Cox, Dale.  The Scott Massacre of 1817:  First U.S. Defeat of the Seminole Wars. Bascom, FL: Old Kitchen Books, 2017.

Cox, Dale. The Fort at Prospect Bluff:  The British Post on the Apalachicola & the Battle of Negro Fort.  Bascom, FL:  Old Kitchen Media, 2020.

Cusick, James D.  The Other War of 1812:  The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida.  Athens:  University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Davis, William C.  The Rogue Republic:  How Would-Be Patriots Waged the Shortest Revolution in American History.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.

Din, Gilbert C.  War on the Gulf Coast:  The Spanish Fight Against William Augustus Bowles.  Gainesville:  University Press of Florida, 2012.

Doherty, Herbert J.  “Ante-Bellum Pensacola:  1821-1860.”  Florida Historical Quarterly 37 (January-April 1959): 337-356.

Gannon, Michael D., ed.  The New History of Florida.  Gainesville:  University Press of Florida, 1996.

Halbert, H. S.; and T.H. Ball.  The Creek War of 1813 and 1814.  Tuscaloosa:  University of Alabama Press, 1995.

Kimball, Christopher D.  Seminole & Creek War Chronology.  Christopher D. Kimball, 2013.

Knetsch, Joe.  Florida’s Seminole Wars:  1817-1858.  Charleston:  Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

McAlister, L. N.  “Pensacola During the Second Spanish Period.” Florida Historical Quarterly 37 (January-April 1959):  281-327.

McGovern, James R., ed.  Andrew Jackson and Pensacola.  Pensacola:  Pensacola Bicentennial Series, 1974.

McGovern, James R.,  Colonial Pensacola.  Pensacola:  Pensacola Bicentennial Series, 1974.

Missall, John; and Mary Lou Missall.  The Seminole Struggle:  A History of America’s Longest Indian War.  Palm Beach:  Pineapple Press, Inc., 2020.

O’Brien, Sean Michael.  In Bitterness and In Tears:  Andrew Jackson’s Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles. Guilford, Connecticut:  The Lyons Press, 2005.

Owsley, Frank L., Jr.  “Jackson’s Capture of Pensacola.”  Alabama Review 19 (July 1966):  175-85.

Owsley, Frank L., Jr. Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands:  The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, 1812-1815.  Gainesville:  University Presses of Florida, 1981.

Parks, Virginia.  Pensacola:  Spaniards to Space-Age.  Pensacola:  Pensacola Historical Society, 1986.

Patrick, Rembert W.  Florida Fiasco:  Rampant Rebels on the Georgia-Florida Border 1810-1815.  Athens:  University of Georgia Press, 1954.

Rucker, Brian R. “In the Shadow of Jackson:  Uriah Blue’s Expedition into West Florida.”  Florida Historical Quarterly 73 (January 1995):  325-38.

Rucker, Brian R.  “Nixon’s Raid and other Precursors to Jackson’s 1814 Invasion of Spanish West Florida.”  Gulf South Historical Review 14 (Spring 1999):  33-50.

Rucker, Brian R.  “The Origins of West Florida’s Cattle Industry,” pp. 20-35; in The Proceedings of the Florida Cattle Frontier Symposium, 1845-1995.  2nd ed. Kissimmee, FL:  Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the Florida Cracker Cattle Association, 2003.

Tebeau, Charlton W.; and William Marina.  A History of Florida.  Third ed.  Coral Gables:  University of Miami Press,1999.

Warren, Harris G.  “Textbook Writers and the Florida ‘Purchase’ Myth.” Florida Historical Quarterly 41 (April 1963): 325-331.

Wilson, Harry J.  “The Development of Spanish Colonial Pensacola, 1781-1821.” Dissertation with the Department of Geography and Anthropology.  Louisiana State University, 2007.

Wright, J. Leitch, Jr.  William Augustus Bowles:  Director General of the Creek Nation.  Athens:  University of Georgia Press, 1967.