Early Florida
The
First Floridians
The
Timucua and the Apalachee
People
of Southeastern Florida
People
of Southwestern Florida
La
Florida
Ponce
de León in Florida
Narváez
in Florida
Cabeza
de Vaca
The
Conquistadors
The
Travels of De Soto
De
Luna's Attempt to Settle Florida
The
French in Florida
Founding
of St. Augustine
The
French Are Defeated
Menéndez
Rules La Florida
Early
Days in St. Augustine
Settlements
and Missions
Spain
Loses Its Hold on Florida
The First Floridians
People have lived in Florida for a long time.
The earliest human artifacts that archaeologists
have found in Florida date from almost 10,000
years ago. Early native Floridians were nomads.
They drifted throughout the region, moving with
the seasons and following their food supplies.
Using weapons made of stones, bones, and ivory,
they hunted the giant mastodons and mammoths as
well as smaller animals.
In time, Native Americans learned
to grow their own food. They began to build permanent
homes and villages near rivers, lakes, or along
the sea. They established a system of trade and
religious and political centers.
When European explorers
first came to Florida in the 1500s, Native Americans
had developed a way of life that was suited to
their environment. Abundant resources combined
with a mild climate made it possible for the people
to live off the land.
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The Timucua and the Apalachee
The Timucua (tim.uh.KOO.uh)
and the Apalachee (a.puh.LAT.chee) were both farming
peoples who settled in villages. These peoples farmed
the rich lands of North Florida, growing corn, beans,
pumpkins, and vegetables. The farmers first cleared
the land by burning the brush. They used hoes to
prepare the soil. They used pointed wooden tools,
called dibble sticks, to make a hole in the ground.
Then they planted the seeds in the hole. The Timucua
and the Apalachee were also skilled hunters. They
used clubs, spears, and bows and arrows to kill
their game. They used pine wood for their slim,
fast canoes.
The Apalachee built mounds and used them as religious
and political centers. The mounds at Lake Jackson
Archaeological Site near Tallahassee were built
by ancestors of the Apalachee.
The Timucua lived in large circular houses with
palm-thatched roofs. Frequently, they built a wall
of tall wooden poles around their villages for protection
against attack.
Like most Native Americans, the Timucua had no written
language. A Spanish priest, Francisco Pareja (pah.RAY.uh),
traveled to the Timucuan villages in the 1590s.
Father Pareja wrote down the language as it sounded
to him. His work provides one of the first records
of the language of a people in North America.
French explorer Jean Ribault (ZHOHN .ree.BOH) who
encountered Timucua people in the 1560s described
them as "gentle, curious, and of a good nature."
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People of Southeastern
Florida
The Ais, Jeagas, and Tequesta
were among the Native American peoples who lived
along Florida's Atlantic coast. The Ais lived near
the Indian and St. Lucie Rivers. They fished in
the rivers and in the Atlantic Ocean. These Native
Americans were the first to clash with Juan Ponce
de León's soldiers during his first expedition to
Florida.
The Jeagas (YAY.gah) inhabited present-day Palm
Beach County. Jonathan Dickson, who survived a shipwreck
on the coast near Jeaga land in 1698, described
them as "fierce and bloody." The Jeagas depended
on the sea for food.
The Tequesta (teh.KES.ta)
lived in southern Florida from Pompano Beach to
the Florida Keys. Their main village was located
near the mouth of the Miami River where it flows
into Biscayne Bay. They did not grow crops, but
they did gather berries, palm nuts, and other wild
fruits. They also hunted and fished in the rivers
and ocean.
People of Southwestern
Florida
The Calusa inhabited the area
from Tampa Bay south to Cape Sable and east to Lake
Okeechobee. They were the largest and most powerful
Native American group in southern Florida.
The Calusa built many mounds in the Charlotte
Harbor area. Parts of Calusa mounds remain on many
shores across their former range, including at Marco,
Punta Rassa, and Sanibel. Over many years, the Calusa
built an artificial island, now called Mound Key,
near modern-day Fort Myers Beach. Like the Tequesta,
the Calusa did not grow crops. They fished, hunted,
and gathered plants, fruits, and nuts.
The Tocobaga lived in small villages in the Tampa
Bay area. They fished, hunted, and gathered wild
plants and nuts. Many other Native American groups
lived in the Tampa Bay area.
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La Florida
The first Europeans to explore and settle what
is today the United States were Spanish explorers.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de León sailed with three ships
from Puerto Rico to investigate rumors of a land
to the north. He landed near present-day Melbourne
on the peninsula's east coast. Ponce de León found
a land full of blooming wildflowers and fragrant
plants. He named the land, which he thought was
a large island, "La Florida" since it was Easter.
This religious holiday is known as Pascua Florida
or "Flowery Easter" in Spain.
Ponce de León in Florida
After clashing with Timucua
and Ais, Ponce de León sailed south to the Keys
discovering the Gulf Stream. Rounding the tip of
Florida, he landed in the Charlotte Harbor area
on the Gulf coast. After a brief battle with the
Calusa, Ponce de León returned to Puerto Rico.
King Ferdinand of Spain was very pleased with
Ponce de León's adventures. The king appointed Ponce
de León as the governor of Florida and asked him
to set up a colony there.
In 1521, Ponce de León returned to Florida with
200 settlers. He hoped to establish a settlement
near the area where he had clashed with the Calusa.
Again his soldiers were attacked by the Calusa.
Many Spaniards were killed, and Ponce de León was
seriously injured by an arrow. He died a few days
later in Havana, Cuba.
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Narváez in Florida
Spain spent many years trying to conquer and
settle the region. The lands that the Spaniards
called La Florida stretched north from the Florida
peninsula to Canada and west to Mexico, then called
the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez (PAHN.fee.loh day nar.VAH.ays)
tried to plant a colony on the Florida peninsula.
Landing in the Tampa Bay area with about 400 soldiers
and settlers, Narváez ordered his ships to meet
him farther north along the coast. He then marched
inland with 300 soldiers and 40 horses. Suddenly,
the Apalachee attacked the expedition.
Cabeza de Vaca
The Spanish soldiers tried to fight off the
attacks. Running out of food and unable to find
his ships, Narváez realized that their only chance
at survival was to try to reach Mexico by sailing
across the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish killed their
own horses and used the hides to build boats. They
used their shirts and trousers to build sails. Their
escape plan might have worked if Mexico had been
as close as they thought.
Sailing from near present-day St. Marks, the Spaniards
began their voyage. Not long afterwards, all but
two boats sank at sea with their crews, including
Narváez. Eventually, the two remaining boats wrecked
off the coast of Texas at Galveston Island. The
Spaniards were enslaved by Native Americans and
began to die one by one, until there were just four.
Eight difficult years later, these four survivors
made it on foot to Mexico. One of the survivors,
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (AHLovahr NOOonyays cahoBAYosah
day VAHocah), wrote a book describing his amazing
adventures in Florida and Texas. The book, called
La Relación, published in 1542, became a best seller.
Cabeza de Vaca wrote that his reputation as a medicine
man able to cure the sick helped him survive:
"The cure was by making the sign of the cross..
[We prayed that] God in His mercy made well those
we were trying to cure. Afterwards, they treated
us well and gave us food, hides, and other things.."
Another survivor was the enslaved African Estevanico.
Later, he helped lead expeditions into the American
Southwest. He was captured and killed in a Zuni
village in New Mexico.
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The Conquistadors
Many expeditions followed. The men who led these
expeditions were called conquistadors, or conquerors.
They came to the Americas
"to serve God and his Majesty, to give light
to those men who were in darkness and to grow rich
as all men desire to do."
Hérnan Cortés was a conquistador who invaded and
conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico. Spanish explorer
Francisco Pizarro defeated the Inca Empire and claimed
most of South America for Spain.
The Travels of De Soto
The governor of Cuba, Hernando
de Soto, wished to match the feats of Pizarro and
Cortés. He received the king's permission to explore
and settle Florida. After leaving the leadership
of Cuba's government in the hands of his wife, de
Soto began his travels. De Soto and his group of
600 soldiers and 12 priests landed in Tampa Bay
in May 1539. Like Narváez, he marched north.
De Soto set up a winter camp
in present-day Tallahassee. For the next four years,
de Soto's soldiers traveled 4,000 miles exploring
parts of 10 present-day states. De Soto died from
a fever along the banks of the Mississippi River
in 1542. Eventually, his soldiers sailed down the
Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico until they
reached a Spanish settlement in Mexico. Only 311
had survived. Although de Soto's mission was regarded
as a failure, the expedition brought back valuable
information about the waterways and landscape of
the region.
De Luna's Attempt to
Settle Florida
Years passed before the next
Spanish effort to settle Florida. Spain planned
to establish a colony on the Gulf coast. Then, the
expedition would establish an overland route to
the Atlantic. The expedition's leader was Tristán
de Luna y Arellano. Unlike previous expeditions
that had sailed from the Caribbean islands, de Luna
sailed from Veracruz, Mexico. He landed in Pensacola
Bay in the summer of 1559. Almost immediately, a
devastating hurricane struck the area, killing many
and destroying much of de Luna's fleet and the expedition's
supplies. After many hardships, de Luna returned
to Mexico.
The French in Florida
France had also noticed Florida's strategic
location. Spanish treasure ships, loaded with silver
from Central America, sailed the Gulf Stream along
Florida's Atlantic coast on their way to Spain.
If the French could settle Florida, they could capture
the rich cargo of the Spanish ships. In 1562, Jean
Ribault sailed to the St. Johns River near present-day
Jacksonville. He claimed Florida for France and
built a stone monument as proof of the French claim
to the land. René de Laudonniere (lohodonoyair)
led a second expedition into the area in 1564. They
wanted to establish a colony for Huguenots, or French
Protestants. Because of persecution under Catholic
King Louis XIV, many Huguenots were fleeing from
France. They wanted to build a colony where they
could worship freely.
With the help of Timucuans, the French built a triangle-shaped
garrison, or military fort, along the St. Johns
River. The colonists named the outpost Fort Caroline.
Almost immediately, the colonists faced problems.
There was not enough food and many did not like
their leader. Some colonists stole boats and set
sail in hopes of seizing Spanish treasure ships.
The growing threat from the French spurred the Spanish
to take action.
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Founding of St. Augustine
The king of Spain, Felipe
II, believed that the French were trespassing on
Spanish land. The idea that Protestants had built
a colony in Florida angered him. The king decided
to put an end to the French colony.
The king ordered his finest admiral, Pedro Menéndez
de Avilés (muhoNENodez dayoah veeoLES), to drive
out the French. He appointed Menéndez governor of
Florida and told him to set up a permanent settlement
there. Menéndez sailed with 500 soldiers, 200 sailors,
and 100 settlers and landed in the Timucuan village
of Seloy.
On September 8, 1565, Menéndez founded the settlement
of San Agustín (Saint Augustine). Menéndez celebrated
a mass giving thanks to God for a safe journey and
invited the Timucua to share the food of the colonists.
This feast of Thanksgiving was celebrated 56 years
before the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving. St. Augustine
became the oldest permanent European settlement
in the United States.
The French Are Defeated
Meanwhile, Ribault had sailed
south to attack St. Augustine, but a sudden storm
pushed the French ships past St. Augustine's harbor.
Many of the ships crashed south of the harbor on
the Atlantic coast.
Realizing that the French had left Fort Caroline
unprotected. Menéndez seized the opportunity to
attack. Menéndez captured the fort and ordered all
French to be put "to the knife" except for women,
children, and Roman Catholics. Menéndez renamed
the fort San Mateo, which is now Jacksonville.
Menéndez then searched for the shipwrecked survivors.
He found them 15 miles to the south of St. Augustine.
Menéndez put the prisoners to death, again sparing
only the women, children, and Catholics. From that
time, this site location was known as Matanzas,
the Spanish word for "slaughter."
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Menéndez Rules La Florida
Over the next decade, Menéndez
ruled the eastern part of the United States as governor
of La Florida. In addition to St. Augustine, Menéndez
founded another settlement, Santa Elena, at present-day
Parris Island, South Carolina, and named it the
capital of La Florida.
Menéndez also began to set up Catholic missions.
The first, Nombre de Dios (Name of God) was located
a few miles north of St. Augustine. Other missions
and forts soon followed. These included San Mateo
(modern-day Jacksonville), Tequesta (present-day
Miami), Santa Lucía (St. Lucie County), San Antón
(Mount Key near Ft. Myers Beach), and Tocobaga (Tampa).
Menéndez also founded missions in Georgia, the Carolinas,
and Virginia. Shortly before his death in 1574,
Menéndez wrote a letter from Spain to his nephew
stating that
"After the salvation of my soul, there is nothing
in this world I want more than to be in Florida,
to end my days saving souls."
Early Days in
St. Augustine
As the northernmost garrison
of Spain's empire in the Americas, St. Augustine
was very important to the Spanish treasure fleets.
The garrison provided protection and the "last stop"
for the ships that sailed from the Americas to Spain.
Colonization in Florida grew very slowly, however.
Through most of the first Spanish period (1565-1763),
Florida had to depend on financial help sent from
the government in Mexico City.
Colonization was also slowed by the English. English
pirates seized the Spanish treasure ships and staged
attacks on St. Augustine. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake
looted and burned St. Augustine to the ground. In
1668, the English pirate Robert Searles plundered
the settlement. Protection was needed and Queen
Mariana of Spain approved construction of an enormous
stone fort. Completed in 1695, the new fort was
named Castillo de San Marcos. When British forces
attacked St. Augustine in 1702 and 1740, the town's
residents took refuge inside the walls of the Castillo.
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Settlements and Missions
In 1698, Spanish colonists established a settlement
in Pensacola. Like St. Augustine, Pensacola was
also the target of raid and attacks, by French forces
as well as British.
Two miles north of St. Augustine, the Spanish built
a fort and settlement in 1738 for runaway slaves
from the British colonies. They were freed and given
self-rule. The small village was called Ft. Mosé,
and it became the first free African settlement
in North America.
By the mid-1600s, the Franciscan missionaries had
established 31 missions in present-day Florida and
five along Georgia's coastal islands. Approximately
26,000 Christian Native Americans lived either in
or nearby these missions. In each mission, a handful
of priests taught religion, arts and crafts, farming,
cattle raising, and reading and writing to Timucuans
and Apalachees.
Spain Loses Its Hold on Florida
These successful missions
would have a tragic end. Between 1702 and 1704,
the English governor of South Carolina, James Moore,
sent forces to attack and burn the missions. Thousands
of Apalachees and Timucuans were captured and sold
as slaves. A few escaped and others moved to St.
Augustine.
Spain entered the Seven Years' War (in North America
it was called the French and Indian War) on the
side of France. In 1762, the British captured the
city of Havana in Cuba. When the peace treaty was
signed, Spain was forced to give up Florida to the
British in exchange for Havana. Back to Top |
