5 days of research

I’m making plenty of progress with my list of Pensacola-related material—latest count is 4200 scans of 22 volumes, plus another 20+ skimmed.

Archivo Historico de Hacienda offers glorious financial details. For example, one volume is about 500 pages of 4 years of Windward Fleet finances. I went through Volumes 472, 967, 1117, (an expediente from 1118), 1184, 1306, 1318, 1738, 1739, and 1749, often photographing entire volumes. Between these and other sources, including French documents, Pensacola's economic status can be more accurately summarized, compared to other areas, and evaluated in the context of particular events.

I went through all Correspondencia de Virreyes volumes, stopping at those that date to mid 1770s. Because this section started in the 1750s, that’s only a few. These volumes include Viceroy letters to the Council of the Indies, in which the Viceroy offers detailed summaries about the goings-on. I haven’t found too much here that wasn’t covered in more detail in other material, but using it as a springboard for more details is certainly possible.

Tierras 911 and 1085 describe land granted to the Pensacola Indians in Veracruz, Mexico from the 1760s to 1780s. I photographed all of both of them, and read a few other Tierra volumes. Indiferente de Guerra 260B is critical— it details the military status of Pensacola and Havana in the few years before 1763. Another full volume on the flash drive!

Reales Cedulas Originales are likely largely available in Seville’s Archive of the Indies. It’s a good place to start, as Royal Orders serve as good critiques of goings-on. This section and General de Parte are...well…general, so I’m doing other material first. For that reason, I’ve only gone through volumes 38 and 40 of Reales Cedulas Originales because each of those hinted at material of the Native American chiefs setting out from Pensacola to visit the Viceroy and receive titles. There’s also Reales Cedulas Duplicadas, only one volume of which turned up Pensacola-related material in an internet search.

Historia is an interesting section that offers detailed insight and summaries of various events deemed important. Sort of like Barcia’s Chronological History of the Continent of Florida, except more detailed and with appended documents rather than merely summaries. For example, volume 298 contains extensive primary material (Royal Orders and such) about the response to La Salle’s efforts, because that’s the time period covered by that volume. That volume alone proves that France and Spain were at each other's throats, constantly and frequently, even in the 1710s before war was declared in 1719. Hopefully I'll turn that into an article or presentation. I finished volume 298, started 436, and will finish that as well as volumes 1 and 571.

After those, I will go through the next detailed section—Correspondencia de Diversas Autoridades Volumes 2-10 and 20 have great Pensacola-related material. Volumes in Reales Cedulas Originales (23, 24, 26-29, 31, 32, 34, 41-43, 45, 47, D47, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56-59, 61, 68, 69, 77-84, 89, 93, 100, 106, 117, and 234) and General de Parte (20, 21, 26, 30, 33, 37-39, 41-44, 47, and 70) won’t take more than a few days because each volume has a useful index to make double-checking the internet searches easy. 17 other volumes-- a few each in Indios, Jesuitas, Provincias Internas, Templos y Conventos, Carceles y Presidios, Bandos, Caminos y Calzadas, and Casas de Moneda-- will take another few days. Inquisition, Indiferente Virreinal, and Marina are scanned online, but some of those scans are useless so I’ll double check and photograph as needed.

Tomorrow, though, I’m going to libraries to consult (probably photograph) guides of various AGN sections. This, coupled with the 100ish volumes I’m going through personally thanks to internet searches and previous research, should offer a reasonable guarantee of everything essential to First Spanish Pensacola. I should have 5-7 days to track down various people, go through the Maps section, and otherwise see what else I can accomplish.