Not all were so lucky. In the South, blacks were seen as easy targets, and planters often ignored their claims of freedom. Many British officers and Loyalists considered them to be spoils of war. When Britain ceded Florida to Spain, many of the freedmen, who had been transported there from the United States, were left behind when the British pulled out. However, the Spanish both offered freedom and the right to bear arms to blacks who would convert to Catholicism and encouraged slaves to escape to Florida.