Mauricio de Zúñiga
| Mauricio de Zúñiga | |
|---|---|
| (1st) 9th Spanish Governor of West Florida | |
|
In office July 1812 – April 1813 |
|
| Preceded by | Francisco San Maxent |
| Succeeded by | Mateo González Manrique |
| (2nd) 12th Spanish Governor of West Florida | |
|
In office March 1816 – 15 Sep 1816 |
|
| Preceded by | José de Soto |
| Succeeded by | Francisco San Maxent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18th century El Prat de Llobregat, in Baix Llobregat (Barcelona Province, Catalonia, Spain) |
| Died | 1816 |
| Profession | Military and Administrator (governor of Florida) |
Mauricio de Zuñiga (? - 1816) was a Spanish military officer who served as governor of West Florida from 1812 to 1813, and again in 1816.
Mauricio de Zuniga was born in the 18th century, probably in El Prat de Llobregat, in Baix Llobregat (Barcelona Province, Catalonia, Spain). As a youth, he joined the Spanish army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In July 1812, Zúñiga was appointed governor of West Florida, and moved to its capital, Pensacola. He served in that office till April 1813.
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British Royal Marines established what became known as the Negro Fort on Prospect Bluff along the Spanish side of the Apalachicola River. The garrison initially included around 1,000 Britons and several hundred African-Americans. Shortly after the end of the war in 1815, the British withdrew from the post and left the black population in occupation. Over the next few years the fort became a colony for escaped slaves from Pensacola, St. Augustine, and Georgia.
After Zuñiga resumed the governorship of West Florida in March 1816, Andrew Jackson, commander of the Southern Military Division of the United States, wrote him and demanded that the Spanish authorities immediately intervene to destroy or remove the denizens of the fort and the surrounding community of escaped slaves and Indians. Although Zúñiga did not have enough troops to deploy and drive them out, he did send Captain Sebastián Pintado to investigate the matter and recover any runaway slaves who belonged to the Spanish.
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Wikipedia