New Smyrna Colony

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NEW SMYRNA COLONY

NEW SMYRNA COLONY. During 1767 and 1768, Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish physician who had traveled widely in the Mediterranean, brought some 1,400 persons from Greece, Italy, and Minorca to Florida to cultivate sugarcane, rice, indigo, cotton, and other crops. Colonists were supposed to work for seven to eight years, and then, at the end of the period, receive tracts of fifty or more acres of land. The settlement, named New Smyrna, lasted until 1776, when the colonists marched as one to Saint Augustine to ask for relief from their indentures, claiming cruel treatment. Only 600 of the original immigrants by that time remained, and they settled in Saint Augustine after they were released by the governor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Corse, Carita Doggett. Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna Colony of Florida. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Great Outdoors Publication Company, 1967.

W. T.Cash/a. r.

See alsoFlorida ; Immigration ; Indentured Servants .

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New Smyrna Colony