Thursday, November 09, 2006

The oldest city in America

We are W.N.B.N.I. promised to talk about all the colonies of America we could, and so we would like to talk today about America’s forgotten colony of Florida. Although Florida changed from Spanish, to British, to Spanish, to American it was oddly all done be treaties, and not warfare. Florida is home to the longest continuously occupied European city in the United States. It is also most likely the oldest continuously occupied city in the U.S. today, as we know of no Native American cities in use that have been around longer. We are talking of course about St. Augustine, Florida that was founded in 1565. Before that a few colonies were attempted. These include Pensacola colony in 1559 and Fort Caroline in 1564. Both were also in Florida. St. Augustine was founded 21 years before the lost colony of Roanoke and 42 before Jamestown was founded in part to find the lost colony of Roanoke (and to paint with wind, i.e. grow “hemp”.) The 1st European born in what would become the U.S., Martin de Arguelles, was born here in 1566. (The 1st English baby born in America was Virginia Dare in 1587.)

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