Tampa historical exhibit explores Florida's role as 14th colony for holiday weekend
Learning Florida's unique history in the American Revolution
Families are kicking off the Fourth of July weekend by discovering a surprising chapter of local history at the Tampa Bay History Center. A newly opened exhibition details how Florida served as a loyalist stronghold for the British during the Revolutionary War. FOX 13's Briona Arradondo reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - Families are kicking off the Fourth of July weekend by discovering a surprising chapter of local history at the Tampa Bay History Center. A newly opened exhibition details how Florida served as a loyalist stronghold for the British during the Revolutionary War.
Tampa exhibition opens
What we know:
The Tampa Bay History Center opened its new exhibit Friday, "Mapping the 14th Colony," inside the Touchton Map Library. Touchton Map Library director Rodney Kite-Powell explained that Great Britain ruled the region as two separate colonies, East Florida and West Florida, for a 20-year period spanning from 1763 until 1783.
The collection includes highlighted regional maps and historic excerpts published in London magazines. Visitors can view precise locations of early cities, bodies of water and plots of land charted by British cartographers. Tampa resident Daniel Tulsiak noted that the artifacts help enhance "our sense of our place in the country that we live and the land that we live in."
British loyalist history
The backstory:
While the rest of the American colonies fought for independence, residents living in Florida during the revolution remained loyal to the British Crown.
"I think as we celebrate the Fourth of July and American independence, it is interesting to think of the folks on both sides of that conflict and as Floridians, if we had been here back then, we'd have been on the other side of it," Kite-Powell said. "East Florida being the peninsula, its capital was St. Augustine, which is very close to Georgia. And it became home to a lot of loyalists who were fleeing South Carolina and Georgia as the revolution was going on."
Exhibition timeline details
What's next:
The exhibition is currently open to the public during the holiday weekend. The gallery will remain on display at the history center through Nov. 29.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo from interviews with Tampa Bay History Center’s Rodney Kite-Powell and local museum visitors.