Spanish Colonial Policies and Cultural Diversity

By VISIT FLORIDA staff

Published: July 17, 2009

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When Spain reoccupied Florida in 1784, the colony had only five Spanish-born families. The rest were from Scotland, England, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Turkey, Italy, Corsica, Greece, the Balearics, the United States, Africa, and India. Nevertheless, Spanish families soon arrived and the colony adapted to Bourbon customs (the ruling Spanish family), which focused more on social rank than on skin tone.

How much of your ancestry was African was less important than whether you were of hidalgo rank. Only hidalgos, those with "purity of blood" (limpieza de sangre), could hold public office. Originally, as part of the Spanish effort to rid the country of Moorish invaders, this meant that you had no Muslim or Jewish ancestry. But by the 1780s "purity of blood" meant simply that you held a certificate issued by the Church, or an exemption (cédula de gracias al sacar) issued by the crown.

Spanish Floridians were soon interpreting "purity of blood" as synonymous for "rank." King Charles III (r. 1759-1788) decreed that marriages between hidalgos and those of mixed ancestry required royal permission. He then delegated permission-granting authority to local governors. Weddings thus became opportunities for governors to resolve uncertain social status.

On several occasions, Florida's governor awarded hidalgo status to children of high-ranking fathers, although their mothers were of Afro-European ancestry. Such mobility was also common in Louisiana and South Carolina, where having slight African ancestry was not mentioned in polite conversation. In Florida, in contrast, the awarding of official "whiteness" to a popular family of mixed heritage was cause for public celebration.

Slavery also differed. Spanish laws imagined slavery as a labor contract between legal equals. Mistreated slaves sued their masters. Masters could not make slaves work on Sundays and Holy Days. Slave marriages were encouraged and protected. Slave families could not be split and, if one member was sold, the others had to go to the same buyer. Slaves had to be properly fed and clothed, and their children taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. The legal doctrine of coartación meant that any slave who acquired five percent of his value, typically by loan, had to be freed with the obligation to gradually pay his former owner the balance.

In short, Florida's Spanish rulers tried to create a society stratified by hereditary rank. By 1821 they had succeeded. They failed, however, to connect rank to purity of European blood, creating a culturally diverse and open society. Incoming Anglo-Americans then reversed both results.

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