9781422286104

14

Lower Atlantic: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina

More families began carving out farms during the mid-1800s. The great majority owned relatively small plots of land and no slaves. However, Florida officially was a slave state when it was admitted to the Union. It joined the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861–1865). The state experienced further pop- ulation growth in the 1880s. Investors were attracted by the discovery of large deposits of phosphate, used in making countless consumer products. To this day, Florida leads the nation in phosphate production. By 1896, America’s network of rail lines along the Eastern Seaboard had spread all the way to Miami. Engineers began draining swampland in the early 1900s. This created new farmland as well as coastal resort properties. Land speculation in the 1920s boosted the state’s population. Many more new residents came after World War II. Construction began on the Cape Canaveral rocket launch site in 1950. The first rocket was launched that year and the first satellite in 1958. The

Florida was one of the first parts of the New World that Europeans explored and settled. Juan Ponce de

León landed here first in 1513. He claimed the land for Spain. St. Augustine is the oldest European city in North America. It was established by Spaniards in 1565. Two centuries later, in

Ponce de León

1763, Spain ceded the territory to England—but British control lasted only 20 years. When the British with- drew from the colonies at the end of the American Revolution in 1783, Florida again became a Spanish domain. Spain surrendered the penin- sula to the United States in 1819. Florida became a U.S. territory two years later and a state in 1845. With the spread of European set- tlements, conflicts with the Indians made for a violent chapter in Florida’s history. After the Second Seminole War (1835–1842), most of the Seminoles were relocated to the Midwest. Their chief, Osceola, was captured and died in prison.