History Of Florida Research Articles

Rise and fall of St. Louis Encephalitis Virus in Florida

St. Louis encephalitis virus has had a fascinating history in Florida. The virus was introduced into the Miami area in the early 1950s. This introduction resulted in two human outbreaks, one in 1952 and a second in 1958. Three urban SLE epidemics were reported in the Tampa Bay area in 1959, 1961, and 1962. The virus virtually disappeared from the state until 1977 when a widespread rural SLE epidemic was reported in 20 Florida counties with 110 confirmed human cases. An almost identical rural SLE epidemic was reported in 1990 when 226 human SLE cases were reported in 28 Florida counties. Following the introduction of West Nile virus into Florida in 2001, reports of SLEV transmission to sentinel chickens and humans decreased dramatically. Except for a 2014 focal outbreak of two SLE cases in Duval County, only sporadic transmission of SLEV to humans and sentinel chickens was reported in the state between 1998 and 2022.

Zora’s Legacy: Community, History, and Decolonial Methodology in Central Florida

This essay is a reflective letter from myself, the author, an undergraduate anthropology student at Rollins College in Central Florida, to pioneering anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Arising out of an anthropology course on the U.S. South, I reflect on Hurston’s foundational contributions to the discipline of anthropology, to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, and to my own institution, Rollins College, where Hurston directed and organized stage performances of folklore in the early 1930s. Despite Hurston’s works falling into obscurity towards the end of her life and the decades following, her contributions to Southern literature and anthropology survive to this day, inspiring scholars, Eatonville residents, and students alike to pursue more decolonial methodologies in ethnographic research. I ask Hurston many of my unanswered questions about her life, relationships, fieldwork methods, and messages from her works. I end with a call for anthropology students to continue stewarding Hurston’s legacy by engaging further with her work as an exemplary founder of American anthropology.&nbsp

VOLUME 52 (2022)

VOLUME 52 (2022)

Brown Basilisks in Florida

This publication presents information about the nonnative lizard Basiliscus vittatus (brown basilisk) in Florida. It contains information about brown basilisk identification, natural history, and distribution in Florida. The intended audience includes homeowners and land managers primarily in central and south Florida.

Early Modern Wetlands: A Brief Literary History of the Unfast

In western literary history, wetlands often appear as nature’s ugly mistakes. Key to understanding humans’ widespread animus toward wetlands is the perception, rooted in a teleological and anthropocentric understanding of history and enshrined in early modern discourse of wetlands, that these locales are inimical to human movement and progress. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as England and Spain, in particular, experienced an expansion in mobility that rendered the world more accessible and traversable than it had ever been, their wetland encounters threatened to destabilize their global enterprises. Taking examples from the early modern Atlantic world, this essay argues that the perceived slowness of wetlands often runs athwart the circulation of dominant cultural and religious attitudes, the fast violence of conquest, and imperatives for technological progress. These “unfast” countercurrents invite reading strategies better attuned to the categorial and temporal impurities of wetlands. I offer such a reading of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s History of Florida (1605), where explorers’ disorientation in swamps shows the limitations of colonial mastery, and indigenous habitation practices demonstrate how humans might accommodate themselves not just to the unique ecomateriality of the terraqueous, but also to the augmenting shakiness of planetary and intellectual life. [H.E.]

Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era by Mike Bunn

Reviewed by: Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era by Mike Bunn John Paul Nuño Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era. By Mike Bunn. ( Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, 2020. Pp. xiv, 289. $28.95, ISBN 978-1-58838-413-3.) In recent years, scholars have begun addressing the historiographical gap that relegated West and East Florida to the status of forgotten British North American colonies, especially in the traditional narrative of the American Revolution. Even to a greater extent than for East Florida, scholarship on West Florida has been particularly sparse, except for older foundational texts by Cecil Johnson and, later, Robin Fabel. More recently, Andrew McMichael's Atlantic Loyalties: Americans in Spanish West Florida, 1785–1810 (Athens, Ga., 2008) and Kathleen DuVal's Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution (New York, 2015) have shed light on the colony's history. The latter recontextualizes and complicates the traditional narrative of the American Revolution for a general audience. DuVal focuses on historical figures whose lives illuminate important themes and the contingent nature of the period. Entering into the fray is Mike Bunn's Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era, which is also aimed at a general audience but provides more of a comprehensive narrative focused on the creation and eventual conquest of British West Florida. Bunn is a public historian, the director of Historic Blakeley State Park, and the editor of Muscogiana, a journal of the Muscogee County, Georgia, Genealogical Society. His book fits well within his efforts to educate the public. He explains to his readers that he seeks to present a "broad arc of the life of the colony" while demonstrating that the history of West Florida, once seen as inconsequential, is "worth telling and remembering" (p. xii). Bunn embarks on this mission by taking a chronological approach that details the British founding of the colony and ambitious plans to develop it. Of note here is the ineffective leadership of Governor George Johnstone, who fostered political divisiveness in the colony. The author then devotes several chapters to themes such as settlement, daily life, and earning a living. He also includes an [End Page 147] informative chapter on the Indian trade despite acknowledging that most of his work does not focus on the Indigenous population. His decision to include this chapter is vital since Florida's Native peoples had the power to significantly shape events on the ground. Toward the second half of the book, Bunn returns to a chronological scope by outlining the events of the American Revolution on the Gulf Coast. Readers will find James Willing's notorious incursion into West Florida and Bernardo de Gálvez's stereotype-defying performance as an effective Spanish colonial administrator and military leader particularly interesting. This book is primarily a synthesis of secondary works, in which the author is well versed, supplemented by primary sources from the British Colonial Office and published archival materials. The text serves a general audience that would benefit from an introduction to the nuts and bolts of the British colonization of West Florida. However, an academic reader may find that the end-notes, which are condensed in one note at the end of each paragraph, are not always clearly delineated. Further, the text would benefit from a tighter conceptual and thematic focus. Nonetheless, it succeeds in its objective of showing that the history of the colony enriches our understanding of the American Revolution. Bunn's work contributes to the larger project of presenting more nuanced narratives of southern history to the public, which is not inconsequential. John Paul Nuño California State University, Northridge Copyright © 2022 The Southern Historical Association

Pyrodiversity promotes pollinator diversity in a fire‐adapted landscape

Fire is a key determinant of vegetation structure and composition in ecosystems worldwide and is therefore an important management tool. The “pyrodiversity hypothesis”, which postulates that biodiversity will increase as fire diversity increases, remains largely untested for pollinators, a group of high conservation concern. We tested the relationship between pollinator diversity and pyrodiversity based on a decade of burn history in Florida, as well as testing other parameters, including burn frequency, the percentage of area burned during the year of sampling, canopy openness, and various plant metrics. Both bees and butterflies responded positively to pyrodiversity and to the percentage of area burned during the year of sampling. In addition, our results indicate that pollinators, especially butterflies, may be sensitive to high burn frequency. Our findings reveal the important role fire history plays in shaping pollinator communities and demonstrate that increasing burn heterogeneity can benefit this fauna in fire‐managed landscapes.

A systematic review of waterborne and water-related disease in animal populations of Florida from 1999-2019.

Florida's waters are a reservoir for a host of pathogens and toxins. Many of these microorganisms cause water-related diseases in people that are reportable to the Florida Department of Health. Our objective in this review was to ascertain which water-related pathogens and toxins of public health importance have been found in animal populations in Florida over the last twenty years. Nineteen databases were searched, including PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection, using keywords and search terms for the waterborne diseases, water-related vector-borne diseases, and water-based toxins reportable to the Florida Department of Health. For inclusion, peer-reviewed journal articles were to be written in English, published between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2019, and contain primary research findings documenting at least one of the water-related pathogens or toxins of interest in an animal population within Florida during this same time frame. Of over eight thousand initial search results, 65 studies were included for final analysis. The most common animal types implicated in the diseases of interest included marine mammals, fish and shellfish, wild birds, and livestock. Toxins or pathogens most often associated with these animals included toxin-producer Karenia brevis, vibriosis, Escherichia coli, and Salmonellosis. Findings from this review elucidate the water-related disease-causing pathogens and toxins which have been reported within animal populations in recent Florida history. As most of these diseases are zoonotic, our results suggest a One Health approach is necessary to support and maintain healthy water systems throughout the state of Florida for the protection of both human and animal populations.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Highway Traffic Patterns in Hurricane Irma Evacuation

The State of Florida is significantly vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes that cause widespread infrastructural damage and claim lives annually. In 2017, Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 hurricane, took on the entirety of Florida, causing the state’s largest evacuation ever as 7 million residents fled the hurricane. Floridians fleeing the hurricane faced the unique challenge of where to go, since Irma made an unusual landfall from the south, enveloping the entire state, forcing evacuees to drive farther north, and creating traffic jams along Florida’s evacuation routes that were worse than during any other hurricane in Florida's history. This study aimed to assess the spatiotemporal traffic impacts of Irma on Florida’s major highways based on real-time traffic data before, during, and after the hurricane made landfall. First, we conducted a time-series-based analysis to evaluate the temporal evacuation patterns of this large-scale evacuation. Second, we developed a metric, namely the congestion index (CI), to assess the spatiotemporal evacuation patterns on I-95, I-75, I-10, I-4, and turnpike (SR-91) highways with a focus on both evacuation and returning traffic. Third, we employed a geographic information system-based analysis to visually illustrate the CI values of corresponding highway sections with respect to different dates and times. Findings clearly showed that imperfect forecasts and the uncertainty surrounding Irma’s predicted path resulted in high levels of congestion and severe delays on Florida’s major evacuation routes.

Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Longleaf Pine Ecosystems of Florida: Tropical Cyclogenesis, Landfall Frequencies, and Climate Change

Tropical storms and hurricanes (collectively hereafter,tropical cyclones) are among the most destructive forces in nature. These threats are of particular concern to human populations and ecosystems of coastal areas of the southeastern United States, most especially in the State of Florida. This review begins with an overview of the effects of tropical cyclones on Florida’s most conspicuous terrestrial ecosystem—longleaf pine. Environmental factors leading to tropical cyclogenesis will also be reviewed, with a specific focus on (1) landfall history in Florida, and (2) the potential relationship between climate change and the frequency/intensity of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean. Given its geographical distribution, it is not surprising that longleaf pine has long been impacted by tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic. Tropical cyclones are formed from a complex combination of meteorological conditions, driven initially by the release of excess heat from the surface waters of the ocean, along with an unstable atmosphere comprising air temperatures decreasing and wind speeds increasing with altitude. Among the coastal counties from Texas to Maine, those of Florida have experienced by far the highest frequency of tropical cyclones, especially the southern tip of peninsular Florida, with its most populous county (Miami-Dade) receiving 25 hits from 1900 to 2010, second only to Monroe County (32 hits) during that period. Frequencies of all categories of cyclones have increased significantly from 1850 to the present. Cyclone frequencies were significantly correlated with increases in air and ocean temperatures, both of which have increased over the past, suggesting a causal relationship with anthropogenic climate change. Of future concern is how increases in frequencies and intensities of tropical cyclones will negatively affect the structure and function of these ecologically and economically important longleaf pine ecosystems.

Slavery, economics, race and convict leasing: A general and materialist history of punishment and prisons in Florida, 1840-1923

ABSTRACT This paper employs archival data and historical analysis to trace Florida’s penal history, and to connect that history to the economic and social context of the time. Section I reviews the history of Florida’s penal system, and the use of convict labor and avoidance of imprisonment from 1840 to 1923. Section II examines theoretical assumptions that guide the analysis of Florida’s prison history undertaken in Section III. Drawing upon the insights of Rusche and Kirchheimer, Section III examines Florida’s penal history in relation to economic and social trends and issues. Of particular importance to the discussion are concepts such as race, class, and marginalization.

Ants Tend Ghost Orchids: Patrolling of Dendrophylax lindenii (Orchidaceae) by Crematogaster ashmeadi in Florida

Myriad symbioses exist between insects and orchids, especially in tropical forests where the majority of species are epiphytic. Relationships between ants and rare epiphytic orchids are underrepresented in the scientific literature. The natural history and ecological entomology of Florida's endangered and epiphytic ghost orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii (Lindley) Bentham ex Rolfe (Orchidaceae), remain limited. Widely recognized for long-standing hypotheses concerning the species' pollination ecology, that documentation recently overturned, other interactions between insects and ghost orchids are scarce. Here we describe the first associations between ants, Crematogaster ashmeadi Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and D. lindenii. Ghost orchid roots provide facultative and opportunistic structures for arboreal ants to use in nesting. Furthermore, excrement from ant colonies within the root mass can increase nutrient availability in the orchid's nutrient-poor substrate; the proximity of these ants permits patrolling to defend the plant and exert control over possible extra floral nectaries that require further inquiry. This study presents novel observations that expand the known insect associations with ghost orchids, elucidating the complex ecology of one of Florida's rarest and most endangered species.

“The mildest form ever known upon earth?”: reconsidering racial slavery in Seminole society, 1800–1835

ABSTRACT The extent of the multi-ethnic integration of the Seminoles remains a cause of debate in both Florida history and the wider field of Indigenous studies. This article argues against the notion that the Black experience among the Seminoles prior to the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) was homogenous and considers the role of those who experienced the restrictions of enslavement: the Estelusti. Through a synthesis of published observations and archival evidence on the Seminoles, this paper highlights that the varying treatment of the Estelusti is a means of understanding the barriers to coalescence in the Native South.

The Effects of Huanglongbing on Florida Oranges

Minor revision: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fs169

Review: A History of Central Florida: The Podcast Project, Robert Cassanello

Review: A History of Central Florida: The Podcast Project, Robert Cassanello

The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis

Reviewed by: The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis Erin Stewart Mauldin The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea. By Jack E. Davis. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017. 557 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-8714-0866-2. Jack Davis's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Gulf, is a beautifully-written, wide-ranging synthesis representing the best of what environmental history offers to both academia and the general reading public. The delightful prose and frequent use of intimate, person-centered narratives provide an entertaining package for Davis's thorough research, innovative interdisciplinary discussions, and deft handling of chronological and geographical scale. As most environmental histories do, this work blurs the line between human and non-human narratives in a way that restores the "natural struts of our existence" (9). Yet what could have been a standard, declensionist tale of nature's ruination at the hands of farmers, real estate developers, and oil men, is, in Davis's hands, a story of resilience and hope, focusing on the ways the Gulf "has long been and will continue to be a gift to humankind" (11). Of course, the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico encompasses a variety of environments and histories, and Davis is careful not to artificially conflate the history of Florida's Mangrove Coast with that of southern Texas or Louisiana. Zooming in to focus on developments in one area does not prevent the author from discussing more general developments across the Gulf states. Thus, he manages to produce a local, regional, and national history [End Page 159] all at once, for the events in and resources of the Gulf make their way into American life through trade, tourism, and technology. The book is divided into nineteen chapters over four parts, each part organized by its temporal coverage. The early chapters highlight the contributions of little-known figures during the Euro-American "conquest" of and settlement in the areas around the Gulf of Mexico, from sea captains and mapmakers to nineteenth-century engineers and soldiers. Outside of the in-depth coverage of Native American groups often passed over in textbook explanations of pre-Columbian America (which tend to focus on either the Northeast or the Southwest), the basic narrative of this first section is not particularly revelatory for readers familiar with early American history. However, Davis intersperses explanations of the non-human history of the Gulf in a way that ably introduces the lay reader to geology, riverine and estuarine hydrology, botany, and field zoology—all of which are necessary to understanding the particular character of the Gulf and its attraction for humans over time. In this way, The Gulf diverges in its structure from many environmental histories; it organically threads science throughout the entire narrative, rather than using natural history as prelude or background before moving on to the human history of the Gulf of Mexico. Exploration and discovery of the Gulf gave way to extraction, and the chapters covering the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries cycle through the various things humans wanted from the area. Tangible resources, such as oysters, tarpon, snapper, grouper, exotic birds, and oil, are juxtaposed with more abstract attractions such as isolation, health, and vacation time. Throughout, Davis emphasizes the "invention" of the Gulf as we know it today—for centuries, fears of lashing rainstorms, unpredictable waters, perilous swamps, man-eating alligators, and swarms of insects kept large-scale settlements off the coastlines. Technological and transportation advances, breakthroughs in the treatment of tropical diseases, a thriving tourist business in fishing and hunting, the works of artists and writers who found wonderment in the Gulf, and changing attitudes toward leisure [End Page 160] time during industrialization all worked together, over time, to bring throngs of sun-loving beachgoers to the coast. The most riveting sections of this work are those in which Davis describes the Gulf's ecology as it operates out of human control. Chapters Twelve and Thirteen, "Islands, Shifting Sands of Time," and "Wind and Water," respectively, are gripping disaster stories grounded in compelling portraits of individuals, such as Walter Anderson, who witnessed and were awed by the destructive natural forces at work in the Gulf...

An Overview of Florida Water Policy Framework and Institutions

This publication is intended to provide a background on the history of Florida’s water laws, developed to address various regional and statewide water challenges. This document also provides an overview of laws and regulations governing water resource use. This publication also intended to provide an overview of the chapters included into this [handbook] (which are hyper-linked to this document).

Brazilian Peppertree Control

Brazilian peppertree is a nonnative invasive tree widely distributed in central and southern Florida. This fact sheet provides readers with the Brazilian peppertree history in Florida, habitats where found, identification, biology and control recommendations. The control recommendations in this fact sheet include traditional herbicide strategies as well as innovative new applications of biological control.

Insights into the introduction history and population genetic dynamics of the Argentine black-and-white tegu (Salvator merianae) in Florida.

Invasive species are a major threat to global biodiversity. The US state of Florida is especially susceptible to the spread of exotic reptiles due to its subtropical climate, disturbed habitats, and robust pet trade. The Argentine black-and-white tegu (Salvator merianae) is a large, omnivorous lizard currently established in two different regions of Southern Florida. These two populations pose potential threats to sensitive ground nesting species such as gopher tortoises, American crocodiles, and migratory birds. At present, the introduction histories of these populations and the degree to which they are connected by gene flow are largely unknown. To address these issues, we genotyped S. merianae from Hillsborough and Miami-Dade Counties at ten microsatellite loci to assess intrapopulation genetic diversity, the degree of gene flow between populations, and compare the plausibilities of several potential introduction scenarios. Our results indicate that both populations have low genetic diversity [mean number of effective alleles across loci in both populations = 2.09 and are highly differentiated from each other (GST = 0.170; G″ST = 0.545)]. In addition, our results suggest that these populations underwent a bottleneck event prior to their divergence. We discuss what our results suggest about the histories of Florida's invasive tegu populations, as well as how they inform ongoing management strategies.

Digital Collections of the University of West Florida Archives and West Florida History Center, John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida

By Dean DeBolt and Tim Bulger, University of West FloridaEntering its fifty-first year as a department and collection, the University of West Florida Archives and West Florida History Center, John...