Abstract
During the British Period in Florida the New Smyrnea settlement (1768-1777) was part of the British effort to populate East Florida. The settlement pattern of modern New Smyrna Beach overlaps that of eighteenth-century New Smyrnea creating a complex setting for historical and archaeological research. This paper reviews the efforts of local citizen volunteers, historians, archaeologists, and civic officials to recover part of their city’s heritage through archaeology and historical research. City, county, state, national, and international levels have been involved. Some sites have been excavated, others have been lost, and some have been preserved during the past decade and the future will bring many more challenges.
Highlights
During the British Period in Florida the New Smyrnea settlement (1768-1777) was part of the British effort to populate East Florida
Eighteenth-century New Smyrnea settlement is largely invisible because it lies beneath the modern city of New Smyrna Beach, Florida and most residents are unaware of the original British colony
During the past several years substantial parts of the original settlement have been the subject of archaeological research
Summary
The British acquired Florida from Spain in 1763 and New Smyrnea settlement was the largest of the plantations established during the British effort to populate the Province of East Florida (Schafer, 2001). Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish physician, was the on-site manager His partners were Sir William Duncan, physician to King George III, and Sir William Temple (acting for Lord George Grenville). New Smyrnea settlement encompassed 40,000 of more than 100,000 acres granted to the partners. Slaves, and white workers preparing for 500 settlers while he went to the Mediterranean where he recruited 1403 Minorcans, Greeks, Italians, and others as indentured settlers. He arrived at Smyrnea with 1255 survivors in 1768 (Griffin, 1991:28). This paper is not about the settlement, ; it is about how local people participated in archaeology to explore this part of the brief British period
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