Louise Titchener’s Blog-Fun with Trouble in Tampa

For the past year I’ve been researching Florida history in order to write an Oliver Redcastle mystery set in 1885 in the “sunshine state.“ Knowing nothing about the state’s past I wondered if anything interesting was happening during this period. I started reading and what a revelation! Florida is and always has been a most intriguing place—a sort of wild west of the south. Anyhow, I’m learning a lot. I had wondered at first if I my protagonist, Oliver Redcastle (ex-Union Army sharpshooter and ex-Pinkerton operative) might meet some Indians in Florida. What I learned is that by 1885 there were no Native Americans—or almost none. The indigenous Calusa Indians, lacking immunity to European bugs, had fought off the Spaniards in the 16th century but succumbed to the diseases the invaders brought and been virtually wiped out. The Seminoles, native to Georgia and South Carolina, had been pushed south by white settlers. The Seminoles had been successful farmers and hunters in north Florida, but early in the 1800’s they had come into conflict with white settlers. President Andrew Jackson ordered them forced out. Except for a few who escaped to the Everglades and learned to adapt to that challenging environment, the Seminoles were sent west—where they did not want to go.  This is only one of the many Florida stories I’ve found in my research. All of them offer fascinating insights into American history.