Florida's French Huguenots

French Huguenots, not unlike the Jews of the Diaspora, have left their religious, cultural and historical footprint around the world. In La Florida, two separate French Huguenot colonies were established almost exactly 200 years apart, one before the French Huguenot Diaspora (which commenced in 1685, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes), and one after.

In April 1562, Jean Ribault, under orders by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, first landed on Florida's east coast and soon, after friendly interaction with the native Timucua Indians, claimed territory for the French King, by leaving a statue near what would become Jacksonville, Florida. He sailed north through Georgia waters to establish the first Protestant colony in the United States at Port Royal, South Carolina, before returning to France. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, however, before he reached home. Thus, when Admiral Coligny was ready to send more ships to La Florida, it was Ribault's second-in-command, Lieutenant René Goulaine de Laudonnière, who led the 1564 expedition. Laudonnière established Fort Caroline where Ribault's first statue was built. The first Protestant thanksgiving service in America was held here on June 30, 1564. Laudonnière wrote of the occasion: "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please His Grace to continue His accustomed goodness toward us."

The full story of this colony, although it only lasted for less than two years, is too long to tell in this brief blog post. It ended effectively when the Spanish founded St. Augustine and massacred the French at Fort Caroline and also, soon after, on the shores of Matanzas. The U.S. National Park Service has established national parks to commemorate both sites, the only U.S. National Parks dedicated to the remembrance of French Huguenot colonists and martyrs.

In 1765, French Huguenot refugees in England petitioned authorities for land in west Florida in which to grow grapes and silkworms (each employed in two industries for which French Huguenots were especially known). Their plans were aided by Monfort Browne, who later became governor of West Florida and served as a high-ranking British officer in the American War of Independence a decade later. A group of around 48 colonists, including Rev. Peter Levrier who served them as pastor and schoolmaster, arrived at Pensacola in January 1766 and soon after established Campbell Town. By 1770, the colony had fizzled out because the land they settled was not fertile, and malaria or yellow fever had likely taken its toll.

Fort Caroline and Campbell Town represent two important, though short-lived, efforts by French Huguenots to settle Florida. Both ended in sadness and disappointment. Therefore, it is not surprising to read the words of a carpenter, Nicolas Le Challeux, who accompanied Jean Ribault on a 1565 expedition and survived the Fort Caroline massacre, returning to France after a brutal voyage home, in a poem he wrote which was first translated into English by Charles E. Bennett (who was the primary influence in the creation of the Fort Caroline National Memorial), Laudonnière & Fort Caroline: History and Documents, p. 164:

OCTET

(By the author when he arrived famished in his home in the town of Dieppe)

Who wants to go to Florida?
Let him go where I have been,
Returning gaunt and empty,
Collapsing from weakness,
The only benefit I have brought back,
Is one good white stick in my hand,
But I am safe and sound, not disheartened,
Let's eat: I'm starving.