Fourteenth Colony

September 7, 2020
Historian Bunn (Early Alabama) spotlights British West Florida during the American Revolution in this accessible and well-researched account. In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years’ War (known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War), Britain took control of territories on the Gulf Coast formerly claimed by France and Spain, including substantial sections of present-day Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. West Florida remained loyal to Britain during the Revolutionary War, leading to the influx of thousands of settlers—some loyal to the British crown and some just hoping to avoid the conflict—from Georgia, South Carolina, and England’s Caribbean colonies. Bunn also documents Philadelphia patriot James Willing’s 1778 raid on British forts and plantations in the Natchez area (“a mission of unvarnished plunder”), and Spanish commander Bernardo de Gálvez’s seizure of Mobile and Pensacola in 1781, effectively ending British rule. Though West Florida was formally ceded to Spain in 1783, a series of annexations, uprisings, and military interventions brought the region entirely under U.S. control by 1819. Bunn combines deep scholarship with vivid storytelling, though the subject remains somewhat niche. Still, Revolutionary War completists and regional history buffs will appreciate this comprehensive record of the period.