THE ANGRY FRONTIER

Despite Indian friends, the Spanish faced continual armed conflict along its Northern borders, particularly in West Florida. When France ceded the region to Spain in 1763, the French did not accurately define the boundaries. England had recognized Spain’s claim that 30 degrees, 38 minutes North latitude was the border; later accepted 30 degrees as the border. American frontiersmen accepted none of these early agreements.

To the frontiersmen, this empty wilderness belonged to those daring enough to homestead the frontier. Years of Spanish rule, they noted, had resulted in few settlements. Spain’s talks with Washington’s administration had resulted in no binding assurances that armed Indians would use Spanish Florida as a refuge.

By 1784, relations between Spain and the United States had deteriorated toward armed conflict. After serious incidents between the Spanish and American merchants on the Mississippi River, Spain closed the port of New Orleans to American vessels. This cut off water access to the Gulf for American frontiersmen and endangered Pensacola with invasion from the North.

Ano added cause of serious confrontation was the policy the Spanish had to give asylum to runaway slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. Southern planters joined the frontiersmen in the desire to drive the Spanish out of Florida. In 1790 the Federalists in Congress, trying to stop the escalation of conflict, sent American surveyor Andrew Ellicott to survey a boundary with the Spanish. Unfortunately, the Creeks prevented this intrusion into Indian hunting grounds and the survey was halted.

In 1795, Spanish leaders met with American diplomat Thomas Pinckney and agreed to make the “Mississippi River the western border of the United States” excepting New Orleans. This Treaty of San Lorenzo assured American vessels access through New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico and temporarily muffled the Warhawk demands to seize Spanish Florida.. The United States told Spain they would try to control settlement in the Western territories of Georgia and South Carolina. The Treaty delayed confrontation, but did not satisfy the Southern frontiersmen.