Research Symposium

BIO

I am Franco Angeles, and I am a first-year student at Florida State University. I am from Lake Placid, Florida, a little town in central Florida. I was a part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme during high school and obtained the IB Diploma in 2021. I am planning to major in Finance during my time at FSU and hope to obtain a master's degree in finance in the future. I have many hobbies that I do in my free time, such as being a violinist, practicing visual arts and 3D arts, and reading through history.

La Historia Mysteriosa de Antonio Proctor

Abstract

This project focuses on a remarkable, but largely unknown historical figure who played an instructive role at many pivotal points in Florida’s history. This remarkable historical figure is none other than Antonio Proctor. Due to little being known about him, this project attempts to answer two main questions: Who was Antonio Proctor? What can documents from Spanish Florida tell us about his life and character?
Antonio Proctor (c. 1743-1855) was born a slave in Santa Domingo. He traveled through Canada and the United States as a body servant to a British soldier during the Revolutionary War. He then became a Free Black citizen of Spanish Florida, acted as an interpreter and Indian agent for both the Spanish and American governments.
Because Antonio Proctor never learned to write, he produced no autograph personal accounts. However, primary documents offer insight into his character, his talent as a communicator, and his family life preserved in Spanish and American archives. This research focuses on transcribing and translating Spanish documents about Antonio Proctor that date to 1818.

Keywords: Florida History, Theater with a Mission, Antonio Proctor, Spanish Florida, 1818