I represent James Willing. I was once a resident of West Florida during the British period. I tried my hand at being a merchant and military contractor for the army at Pensacola, but my business failed. I turned to the American cause and went back to Pennsylvania. The next time I visited the colony it was as an enemy, sent by the American Continental Congress. In February 1778, I brought a raiding party down the Mississippi; we attacked, plundered and dstroyed every British plantation and holding we found along the way. We certainly took our share of the booty, too, stealing goods and even enslaved people to sell in New Orleans. This was the first taste the British colonists of West Florida had really gotten of the American Revolution, and it quickly brought home how weak and unprepared their defenses really were.
Sources: 12, 35, 40