Laconians were the very first Greek migrants to settle in America in 1767. They were promised the earth, but instead, unimaginable hardships awaited them.
Republished from an article originally posted by Vasilis Stamatakos on "Lakoniki Vivliothiki" on 11th October 2025.
The article, penned by Petros Kalonaros with the original title "The First Migrants to America were Laconians – A Laconian Migration in 1767. The Journey, their Adventures," was first published in I Foni tis Lakonias newspaper on 9th December 1946.
The Lakoniki Vivliothiki is an online platform dedicated to the history, culture, and literary heritage of Laconia. It comprises rare books, archives, photographs, and articles which illuminate the region's past and present.
The first mass migration of Greeks, and Near Eastern folk in general, to North America took place in 1767.
In 1763, the English Governor of Florida issued proclamations inviting settlers and extolling the fertility of Florida, urging anyone who wished to go and establish themselves there. Various English entrepreneurs subsequently purchased vast tracts of land in Florida, but exploiting them required labour. Other businessmen immediately appeared—in reality, they were slave traders—who undertook to bring land tillers to cultivate the land.
Among them were William Duncan and Denys Rolle, who arranged to bring indentured servants from Italy, Greece, Smyrna, and Laconia. To Laconia, they dispatched John Turnbull, a doctor by profession, but in truth, a slave trader and adventurer. Disembarking at Methoni, he set up a temporary agency and began propagating the Florida story, calling for migrants. He promised them the world: land, wages, and a good life in a marvellous climate.
Of the victims Turnbull managed to deceive, the Laconians were the majority. Many had permanently fled from Mani and Lacedaemon to Methoni, where the Turkish castle commander appeared to be rather kindly and whom the English adventurer managed to bribe in order to get permission to board his victims onto ships. News of the colonisation spread across all of Laconia, and thus many hundreds more Laconians arrived, with their wives and children, their church icons, sacred relics, and even their priests, to embark for America.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the ships could not hold them all, and so the deceitful doctor took only fifteen hundred, whom he undertook to transport to America.
The journey was long and arduous. It took four months to reach Florida, and in the meantime, many died en route from the hardships. Upon arrival in Florida, they found other unfortunate Italians, Minorcans, and Greeks from Smyrna. All were lumped together as indentured servants to cultivate sugarcane and indigo, and were housed in wretched huts. These initial settlements formed the nucleus of the city of New Smyrna, Florida, whose founders and first inhabitants were Greeks from Laconia. The name was given because the wife of the chief agent responsible for the migration was a Greek woman from Smyrna. It was in honour of this Greek woman that the town was named New Smyrna.
The sufferings and tortures endured by these Laconians in New Smyrna, Florida, were unimaginable. They were given a piece of land with compulsory yields and fixed labour based on the system of indentured servants, or rather, the American Negroes, as described in the work Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Thus, the Laconians also suffered, and their adventures and misfortunes were chronicled by various historians, including the Frenchman Essavan in his work History of Corinth (Paris 1854), our own Kyriakos Melirrytos in his Chronology (Odessa 1836), Sathas in Turkish-Occupied Greece, as well as several Florida historians, including Williams.
According to the information gathered by these historians, the notorious doctor Turnbull, who brought these Laconians to Florida, assumed the role of overseer there and was truly their beast-tamer, or rather, their torturer. In lieu of food, he gave them one pound of maize per day for each family, and now and then, an ounce or two of pork every fortnight. And work, work without respite and without complaint, for anyone who became recalcitrant was relentlessly beaten.
So great was the misery and hunger of these unfortunate Laconians that they evoked the pity of an African Negro chief, who had settled nearby and helped them with provisions. This led to that Negro being whipped to death by the brutal Turnbull.
This situation lasted for over two years, and in 1770, the year the inhabitants of Laconia were revolting against the Ottomans, the Laconians in America in turn revolted against the brutal doctor Turnbull, their tyrant, who had brought many other assistants—'correctors'—with instructions to mercilessly whip any Laconians who did not work like dogs.
Determined to escape to Havana, they invaded the stores, looted food, and then ran to the port to seize ships. But lacking organisation and a capable leader, they were all captured, and some were sentenced to death by hanging.
A short time later, some of these Laconians and others managed to escape with their families to St. Augustine, the Governor's seat. There, they presented themselves to the Attorney General and described their plight.
Meanwhile, many other Laconians also managed to escape with their families and go to the Governor's seat, St. Augustine. A trial against Turnbull followed, and justice was rendered to these first Laconian migrants to America, most of whom settled in St. Augustine and abandoned New Smyrna, which is located further south on the eastern coast of Florida towards the Atlantic, just like St. Augustine.
The Laconians continued to live there and, thanks to their diligence and industry, acquired great wealth and formed the best society in the city, as noted by the Florida historian Williams in 1837.
The town of New Smyrna gradually declined. However, it is still there; I do not know what state it is in now or if any remnants of those old Laconian migrants still exist.
The curious thing is that right on the opposite coast, in western Florida, towards the Gulf of Mexico, Tarpon Springs thrives today—another Greek colony of sailors, sponge fishermen, and divers, most of whom are islanders from Aegina, Hydra, the Dodecanese, and other maritime parts of Greece.
There, as I understand, the life of these islanders was once so purely Greek that in the past, many would stay for years and return to Greece without having learned a single word of English.
Even today, a vibrant Greek community exists in Tarpon Springs, thanks to the "Association of Aeginitans," whose president is Mr. Emmanouil from Aegina.
Is this colony of islanders merely a coincidence in that region, or do its roots stem from that ancient Laconian settlement?
PETR. P. KALONAROS
Article by Petros Kalonaros in the newspaper I Foni tis Lakonias, 9th December 1946.
Turnbull's wife was a Greek Uniate Catholic woman from Smyrna, and he named the colony New Smyrna in her honour.
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