Timeline of Greek Migration

In 1768, Scottish physician and entrepreneur Dr. Andrew Turnbull recruited roughly 1,400 indentured servants—primarily from the island of Minorca, but also including about 500 Greeks from regions such as Smyrna (modern Izmir), Crete, and the Mani peninsula of the Peloponnese, along with smaller numbers of Italians and others. The group sailed to British East Florida (then recently acquired from Spain) and established an indigo, sugar, and cotton plantation at what is now New Smyrna Beach, about 75 miles south of St. Augustine. Turnbull envisioned a profitable agricultural enterprise that would supply Britain with valuable dyes and crops, offering the workers land and freedom after seven years of service.

Life in the colony quickly turned tragic. Harsh working conditions, insect-borne diseases (including malaria and scurvy), food shortages, Indian raids, and alleged mistreatment by overseers led to an extremely high death rate—more than half the colonists perished within the first decade. By early 1777, with Turnbull away in England, a small group of survivors walked to St. Augustine to appeal directly to Governor Patrick Tonyn, a political rival of Turnbull. Sympathetic to their plight (and needing manpower amid tensions leading to the American Revolution), Tonyn liberated the remaining settlers, declared their indentures void, and allowed them to settle permanently in St. Augustine. In May and June of 1777, nearly 600 survivors—Greeks, Minorcans, and others—relocated there, where they were granted refuge, integrated into the community, and eventually freed from their contracts. Many descendants of these early colonists, particularly the larger Minorcan group, still live in the St. Augustine area today.

The Greek survivors of New Smyrna played a foundational role in establishing the first Greek Orthodox presence in what is now the United States. In St. Augustine, they used a modest building known as the Avero House as a chapel and place of worship—the site is now preserved as the St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, a national historic landmark dedicated to their memory. While the Greeks formed a smaller portion of the overall colony compared to the Minorcans, their arrival marked the earliest documented Greek Orthodox community in North America.

In the closing decades of the 18th century, one of the earliest documented Greeks to establish roots in what would become the United States was Michel Dragon (born Michalis Dracos in Athens, 1739). Arriving in Spanish-controlled New Orleans, Dragon served as a lieutenant in the Spanish Army during the American Revolutionary period, participating in Bernardo de Gálvez’s campaigns against British forces in the Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast (1779–1781). These military efforts supported the Patriot side indirectly by securing Spanish Louisiana for the anti-British alliance. After the war, Dragon transitioned into a prosperous life as a merchant and planter. By the 1790s he was a respected figure in the city’s French Quarter, owning property and building connections in the vibrant, multi-ethnic port.

Around 1799, another Greek immigrant arrived in New Orleans: Andrea Dimitry (born Andrea Drussakis Dimitry on the island of Hydra in 1775). A merchant by trade, Dimitry quickly connected with the established Greek community, befriending the wealthy Michel Dragon. That same year, on October 29, 1799, Dimitry married Dragon’s daughter Marianne Celeste Dragon in a Catholic ceremony at St. Louis Cathedral. This union—often cited in Greek-American histories as the first known marriage between Greeks in America—linked two Greek-born men through family ties and helped anchor a small but notable Greek presence in the city. The couple settled nearby in the French Quarter and raised ten children together, blending Greek heritage with the Creole culture of Louisiana.

Their family achieved lasting prominence in 19th-century New Orleans and beyond. Most notably, their son Alexander Dimitry (1805–1883) rose to national distinction as an educator and diplomat. He became Louisiana’s first state superintendent of public instruction and later served as United States Minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua (1859–1861). The Dimitry-Dragon lineage illustrates how early Greek immigrants, even in small numbers, integrated into American society through commerce, military service, and intermarriage, contributing to the multicultural fabric of places like New Orleans well before the large-scale Greek migrations of the late 19th century. Their story is preserved in parish records, city directories, military rolls, and family genealogies.