Dr. John E Worth

During the 1940s and 1950s, both US and Cuban archaeologists noted striking similarities between decorated pottery of the Glades region of Florida and that of central Cuba. In explaining these similarities, Cuban archaeologist Rene Herrera Fritot went farthest in suggesting an Antillean origin for peoples of the Glades region. This chapter revisits the question on the basis of improved descriptions and chronologies of cultural phenomena in both areas. With current archaeological evidence, the Glades tradition and the Cantabria tradition are separated in time by two centuries at minimum. When viewed in the proper temporal context, therefore, ceramic traditions from South Florida and Cuba appear to have essentially nothing in common, providing no reason to posit any degree of direct or sustained cultural contact across the Florida Straits during the Glades tradition time frame.

Missions have long been recognized as a fundamental aspect of the colonial experience in Spanish Florida. However, missions were the primary mechanism by which Florida became the first European-Indian colonial society in southeastern North America. This pivotal role evolved over time and is discussed in three broad phases. Under this three-phase model, Spanish missionaries first entered the indigenous landscape as a footnote to exploratory ventures by the military, having little interaction with the indigenous tribes. By the latter part of the century and extending into the early eighteenth century, the success of the Franciscan order led to a second phase in which indigenous tribes were converted in whole or in part to Christianity, missions were constructed, and both subsistence and spiritual support were provided to the native populations. In the third phase, this support largely vanished as European politics whittled away and then destroyed the mission system. The Southeastern Indians largely became wards of the Spanish state, dependent on the Spanish for subsistence and military protection.

The Emanuel Point Shipwreck helped to persuade the University of West Florida to begin a program of maritime archaeology. Those students ultimately continued the survey of Pensacola Bay, finding another Luna shipwreck near the first one and then, recently, a third sister ship in the fleet. Above the shipwrecks on the Emanuel Point Bluff, remnants of the settlement site have also been found, creating an unparalleled opportunity to study the maritime and terrestrial components of that forgotten chapter and bring its remains to light.

Excerpt:
On June 11, 1559, the fleet of Tristán de Luna set sail from Veracruz, Mexico, with 1,500 colonists destined for the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Following orders from King Phillip II and Viceroy of New Spain Luís de Velasco, and building on intelligence gathered from previous failed expeditions to southeastern North America, Luna’s expedition had specific objectives. It was to establish a first colony at Pensacola Bay in western Florida, march inland to settle a second colony at the native province of Coosa in what is now northwestern Georgia, and travel to the Atlantic coast to found a third colony at Port Royal Sound, which is in southeastern South Carolina. Not only would these outposts impede anticipated French intrusions along the margins of the Spanish colonial empire, but they also would provide an overland route to the Atlantic from Mexico, avoiding the treacherous Bahama Channel off south Florida. 1 Had the expedition succeeded in annexing Florida as an extension of New Spain (Mexico), the colonial history of southeastern North America would have turned out very differently.