The strategic role of British East Florida in the Revolutionary War, its battles, loyalist forces, and impact.During the Revolutionary War, East Florida was a strategic staging ground for the British campaigns in the south. Early in the war, George Washington recognized the strategic importance of neutralizing this loyalist outpost, before its proximity to Georgia and the Carolinas could create problems for the Patriots. East Florida was a haven for runaway slaves,...

Abe Lincoln did not split rails in Tampa, and George Washington's cherry tree might not have been cut in Miami-Dade, but in Key West, the famous Harry S. Truman sign--"The Buck Stops Here"--still resides on the former president's Florida White House desk. A few hours north is the Kennedy bunker, complete with the presidential seal painted on the concrete floor just in case the Soviets started a nuclear war while Kennedy was vacationing in Palm Beach. Florida may not have a presidential hom...

The physical connections to most American presidents are deeply rooted in the past and unfamiliar. One can no longer see Washington's birthplace or William Henry Harrison's log cabin. Plains, Georgia, is different, and the attachment Americans have for it remains truly unique. Jimmy Carter in Plains: A Presidential Hometown tells the inspirational story of how one man and his community transformed a nation. When Jimmy Carter, a one-term governor of Georgia, announced his candidacy for pres...

The state of Florida has a unique place in the annals of national history and has been a constant contributor to the country's identity. The 51 men who have served as the state's governors are an essential part of its complex identity and have produced resonant material for historians of all ages. They have been farmers, generals, boat captains, restaurant owners, presidents, and sons of presidents. They have been given the office by both popular mandate and the happenstance of fate. These...