Creolization in Southwest Florida: Cuban Fishermen and "Spanish Indians," ca. 1766—1841

Not long after Spanish Florida became United States territory in 1821, the attention of Anglo-American settlers was drawn to the handful of remaining Spanish fishing ranchos along the lower gulf coastline, inhabited by Cuban fishermen and their "Spanish Indian" families and neighbors. The history and identity of these groups, many of whom were forcibly relocated west along with the Seminoles by 1841, has long remained enigmatic due to a paucity of documentation. This paper uses extensive new documentary data from Cuba and Spain to explore the emergence of these new creole communities during Florida's British and second Spanish periods.