LibGuides: Florida: Spanish Florida 1513-1760

Florida History Books at CF

Juan Ponce de Leon and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida by Robert H. Fuson Juan Ponce de Leon was an important figure in the history of the Spanish colonisation of what are today Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the south-eastern United States. While many people are familiar with the name Ponce de Leon, only a handful know the historical truth of what Ponce did -- and did not -- do! This is the most extensive biography to date of this important but misrepresented figure in the early colonial history of America. Written by one of America's foremost experts on 15th and 106th century exploration and discovery, this book dispels the myths about Ponce de Leon and credits him with discoveries for which he previously has not been credited. Ponce's life and legacy are examined in the context of Spain's ambitions in the New World during the 106th century.
Call Number: E125 P7 F87 2000
Ponce de Leon and the Discovery of Florida by Douglas R. Peck
Call Number: E125 P7 P44
Publication Date: 1993
The Acquisition of Florida by Liz Sonneborn When he landed on a peninsula on the North American coast in 1513, Juan Ponce de Len claimed the territory for Spain. He named the area La Florida ("the flowery land") for its immense beauty and lush vegetation. Ponce de Len's North American discovery sparked a centuries-long struggle for control of the region. As treaties and wars pushed Florida into the hands of the French, British, and Spanish empires, settlers in the area frequently found themselves in conflict with the American Indian tribes who claimed the land as their own. Finally, after an unauthorized invasion of Spanish territory and the First and Second Seminole Wars, Florida entered the Union in 1845. The Acquisition of Florida is a richly detailed account that remembers such American heroes as Andrew Jackson and Seminole chief Osceola for their roles in the complicated history of the Sunshine State.
Call Number: F314 S696 2009
ISBN: 9781604130546
Publication Date: 2009
Black Society in Spanish Florida by Jane Landers Black Society in Spanish Florida provides a vital counterweight to the better-known dynamics of the Anglo slave South. Blacks under Spanish rule in Florida lived not in cotton rows or tobacco patches but in a more complex and international world that linked the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and a powerful and diverse Indian hinterland. Here the Spanish Crown afforded sanctuary to runaway slaves, making the territory a prime destination for blacks fleeing Anglo plantations, while Castilian law (grounded in Roman law) provided many avenues out of slavery, which it deemed an unnatural condition. European-African unions were common and accepted in Florida, with families of African descent developing important community connections through marriage, concubinage, and godparent choices. Assisted by the corporate nature of Spanish society, Spain's medieval tradition of integration and assimilation, and the almost constant threat to Spanish sovereignty in Florida, multiple generations of Africans leveraged linguistic, military, diplomatic, and artisanal skills into citizenship and property rights. In this remote Spanish outpost, where they could become homesteaders, property owners, and entrepreneurs, blacks enjoyed more legal and social protection than they would again until almost two hundred years of Anglo history had passed.
Call Number: F320 N4 L36 1999
ISBN: 0252067533
Publication Date: 1999
Trade and Privateering in Spanish Florida, 1732-1763 by Joyce Elizabeth Harman rade and Privateering examines the illegal yet highly profitable and mutually beneficial trade between Spanish Florida and the English colonies on the eastern seaboard in the mid-18th century. In St. Augustine, the arrival of subsidies from Spain was erratic, causing shortages of food and supplies, so authorities ignored the restrictions on trade with foreign colonies and welcomed British goods. Likewise, the British colonists sought Spanish products from Florida, especially oranges. But when England and Spain became declared enemies in the War of Jenkins; Ear and the French and Indian Wars, this tacit trade arrangement was threatened, and the result was a rise of privateering in the region. Rather than do without Spanish goods, the English began to attack and capture Spanish vessels with their cargoes at sea. Likewise, the Spaniards resorted to privateering as a means of steadily supplying the Florida colony.
Call Number: HF3161 F7 H34
ISBN: 9780817351205
Publication Date: 2004

Librarian, Learning Resources

Ponce de Leon, 1513

"Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown.

Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast. The Spanish explorer was searching for the "Fountain of Youth," a fabled water source that was said to bring eternal youth. Ponce de Leon named the peninsula he believed to be an island "La Florida" because his discovery came during the time of the Easter feast, or Pascua Florida.

In 1521, he returned to Florida in an effort to establish a Spanish colony on the island. However, hostile Native Americans attacked his expedition soon after landing, and the party retreated to Cuba, where Ponce de Leon died from a mortal wound suffered during the battle. Successful Spanish colonization of the peninsula finally began at St. Augustine in 1565, and in 1819 the territory passed into U.S. control under the terms of the Florida Purchase Treaty between Spain and the United States."

This Day in History - History Channel

Castillo de San Marcos

"St. Augustine's most historically significant structure is the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695. The need to fortify the tiny garrison town was understood as early as 1586, when it was attacked by Sir Francis Drake, an English corsair whose fleet of twenty ships and two thousand men sacked and burned the town.

Later, in 1668, the English pirate Robert Searles assaulted and plundered the settlement. At the same time the threat of English colonization in the north had significantly increased, and Queen Mariana of Spain authorized the construction of a stone fortification. The fort was built of coquina, a type of shell stone indigenous to the area and quarried from Anastasia Island.

The Castillo has never been conquered despite attacks by English General James Oglethorpe who attempted to subdue the town in 1740. Firing from the tip of Anastasia Island, he found his cannonballs were no match for the unusual consistency of coquina which absorbed the blast rather than crumbling.

Shortly after Florida became a territory of the United States, the fort was renamed Fort Marion in honor of Revolutionary War General Francis Marion. It retained that name from 1825 to 1942, when the Castillo appellation was restored.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the fort housed Indians detained by the U.S. Government. The Castillo and Fort Matanzas have been under the auspices of the National Park Service since 1933. The fort is open to the public daily, except for Christmas."

St Augustine.com

CF Books on Florida Native Americans

Indians of Central and South Florida, 1513-1763 by John H. Hann "With this latest book, historian John Hann has completed his remarkable trifecta on Florida's Indians, adding South Florida to his previous UPF volumes on the Apalachees and Timucuans. Hann deftly weaves a diverse range of Spanish documentary sources into a comprehensive overview of the nonagricultural peoples of the southern Florida peninsula, providing readers with a wealth of much-needed information in a single volume. This book presents important documentation on the culture, religion, and political organization of the aboriginal peoples of South Florida, including some of the most politically complex groups in all of North America. . . . the first survey available of Indians of the peninsula south of Timucua and Apalachee territory, from their earliest contact with Europeans to their disappearance in the 18th century. The book will have broad appeal for residents of South Florida interested in learning about the Indians and colonial history of the areas in which they live and will be of specific interest to historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Hann discusses the peoples who occupied an area south of a line drawn roughly from the mouth of the Withlacoochee River eastward to Turtle Mound, located a little north of Cape Canaveral. He focuses on the Calusa of the southwest coast, the people of the Tampa Bay region, and the Surruque and Ais and their kin of the east coast from Turtle Mound southward through the Keys, as well as their hinterland kin from the St. Johns through the Kissimmee valleys. Using original unpublished sources that are virtually unknown to most anthropologists and archaeologists, Hann examines documents from the first periods of contact in North America. He also analyzes archaeological investigations from the last quarter century, particularly those involving the Calusa and the Tequesta living at the mouth of the Miami River. Common features among these people, he concludes, are the almost total absence of agriculture in their lives and their slight, episodic contact with Spaniards. Hann offers new insights on subjects such as the marriages and political alliances of chiefs, and his topics range from beverages and household utensils to ceremonial items, musical instruments, and fishing techniques and tools. He also presents an unparalleled compilation of information on indigenous Native American belief systems.
Publication Date: 2003
Unconquered People: Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Indians by Brent R. Weisman Who are Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Indians? Where did they come from? How and why are they different from one another, and what cultural and historical features do they share? The author explains when and how their culture was formed and how it has withstood historical challenges and survives in the face of pressures from the modern world. Focusing on key elements of ceremony and history, Weisman examines the origins and persistence of the Green Corn Dance, the importance of the clan in determining political and social relationships, and the crucial role of the Second Seminole War (1835-42) and its aftermath in stimulating cultural adaptation as the entire Indian population was forced deep into the remote wetlands of south Florida. Noting the importance of geography for understanding a people's identity, Weisman adds a travel guide to publicly accessible historic sites throughout the state that tell of the unique and deep connection between Seminole history and the geography of Florida. Illustrating the range of the Seminoles well beyond the familiar south Florida region, he explains the importance in Seminole history of the Suwannee River and the Paynes Prairie area of north-central Florida, the Withlacoochee River wetlands of central Florida, the Big Cypress region of southwest Florida, and the Pine Island Ridge of the eastern Everglades.
Call Number: E99 S28 W434 1999
A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions by John H. Hann "An intricate and detailed portrait of the Timucuan Indians during the European colonial era . . . will undoubtedly stand as the principal source regarding the land of the Timucua speakers for years to come. . . When Spanish and French explorers first landed in Florida early in the 16th century, Timucua speakers occupied more land area and were more numerous than any other aboriginal group. This is their first detailed history, a major study that places its author in the forefront of Spanish colonial historians working in the United States. The Timucua are the only native people of Florida whose language survives in literature in sufficient quality and quantity to permit significant study. Relying on previously unused documents, this account of the Timucua traces their experience from first contact with Europeans to their exile to Cuba in 1763 and their final eradication. The Timucua's contacts with various European groups, starting with Ponce de Leon's expedition. He includes a detailed presentation of their experience under the mission regimes, and covers such topics as the Europeans' descriptions of the people, their language, culture, and political structures, the derivation of their language, and the meanings of their placenames and titles. He also resolves confusion over the extent of the territory of a Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, and discusses other Florida native peoples who moved into Timucua territory as refugees during the first half of the 18th century.
Call Number: E99 T55 H36 1996
Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida by Patricia C. Griffin In the history of St. Augustine, the story of the Minorcans, who still today exert tremendous political and social influence, rivals the drama of the Jamestown or Plymouth settlements. Patricia C. Griffin describes their first twenty years in the New World, including the hardship of their arrival in British East Florida in 1768, their starvation and suffering on an indigo plantation, and their revolt and flight to sanctuary in St. Augustine. There, survivors of this devastating experience pieced back together their Mediterranean heritage. In time, they became farmers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, mariners, and fishermen. Mullet on the beach, their freedom cry, signaled the emigrants; release from plantation captivity. As the Floridas reverted to Spanish control and were later acquired by the United States, the Minorcans became the core population of St. Augustine, settling into a quarter next to the city gate and south of the old Spanish fort which is now known as the restored area.
Call Number: F319 S2 G76 1991

Florida: Spanish Florida 1513-1760

Florida History Books at CF

Librarian, Learning Resources

Ponce de Leon, 1513

Castillo de San Marcos in San Augustine

Castillo de San Marcos

Fountain of Youth and Cross, 1513, St. Augustine, Florida

Ponce de Leon

Castillo de San Marcos

Celebrating 500 Years of Florida History

CF Books on Florida Native Americans