Being the oldest colony in Americas, the settling of Florida is exceptional to put it mildly. Originally settled by Catholic Spanish explorers in the mid 16th c, nearly a half century before Jamestown, it remained Spanish for over two centuries. Beginning in the 18th c the original "underground railroad" headed from the Carolinas and Georgia towards the South into Florida before railroads were even invented. The Spanish recognized levels of citizenship to all races providing that they were Catholic and men's militia service.
During brief period of a couple decades during the third quarter of eighteenth century, the two colonies of East and West Florida were ceded over to British control who created and maintained an almost complete dominance on the trade with southeastern tribes. After the close of the American Revolution, it was ceded back to Spain at which point many Spanish Catholics returned until both colonies were finally ceded to the US in 1821 as a result of the Adams-Onis treaty.
By the time Florida becomes an US territory, it's partially populated by a few diamond handed Spanish planters, largely by Natives and maroons, or free blacks incorporated into indigenous lifeways. Seeing both of those peoples as PNG, we fought three major wars to re-enslave or remove these populations. The second Seminole war was our longest and costliest war until GWOT. The first major wave of Americans into Florida probably came towards the end of the Seminole wars in the mid century. They were mostly Georgians, but from other southern States as well; the original crackers set the tone. All you need to know about crackers is in Milfort's Memoirs, chapter 35.
https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/mlfrt5.html#anchor78693
The next push wouldn't start until the Edwardian period where Florida was pushed as a visitors paradise and Flagler's railroad moves in bringing more commerce in the form of agrarian pursuits, a well as industry in the form of engineering throughout the 20th c. Tourism and engineering is still the dominate reason for people choosing relocation there. It's always been very diverse ethnically, very liberal compared to most former Anglo colonies, and indeed still extremely Spanish.
