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Transnational Racialisation on the Periphery: Europeans, Indians, and the Construction of Identity in the Colonial Floridas, 1513–1565

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2011

Daniel S. Murphree
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Extract

In 1565, an English sailor named John Sparke visited the colonial Floridas for the first, and probably, only time. Sparke, along with thousands of other Europeans, was in the midst of exploring, settling, and exploiting the Western Hemisphere's eastern coastline, an endeavour that escalated in intensity following the spectacular voyages of Christopher Columbus almost eighty years before. Encountering a variety of locales, objects, and peoples for the first time, the mariner made observations that reveal a great deal about the meeting of Old and New World cultures. Referring to the indigenous inhabitants of the region, Sparke wrote, ‘those people of the cape of Florida are of more savage and fierce nature, and more valiant than any of the rest [he had met in the Americas]’. Significantly, the sailor based his opinions, at least in part, on tales of native barbarity communicated to him by Spanish settlers who had begun colonising the peninsula at the dawn of the sixteenth century. According to these stories, Indians were uncivilised and ‘eaters of the flesh of men […] canibals’. Yet, Sparke remained unsure about how to evaluate the indigenous inhabitants. His confusion stemmed from conflicting assessments supplied by French colonisers who had also recently established a foothold in the Floridas.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , July 2003 , pp. 87 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2003

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References

Notes

1 The plural term ‘Floridas’ is used throughout the text in order to take account of the varied geographies of ‘Florida’ during the colonial period. At different times during the sixteenth century, Europeans used derivations of ‘Florida’ to describe specific areas such as St Augustine, or broader geographic locales such as the entire present-day southeastern United States. Unless otherwise stated, ‘Floridas’ refers to the territory immediately south of the 32o 28’ latitude surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico.

2 ‘John Sparke's Report on Florida, 2 July, 1565’ in: Quinn, David B. ed., New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 16122 (New York 1979) 365–366Google Scholar. For analysis of colonist writings and their impact on European perceptions of the Americas see Calloway, Colin G., New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (Baltimore 1997)Google Scholar; Cooke, James J., ‘France, The New World, and Colonial Expansion’ in: Galloway, Patricia K. ed., LaSalle and His Legacy: Frenchmen and Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Jackson 1982) 81–92Google Scholar; Hand, Wayland D., ‘The Effect of the Discovery on Ethnological and Folklore Studies in Europe’ in: Chiappelli, Fredi ed., First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old 1 (Berkeley 1976) 46–47Google Scholar; McAlister, Lyle N., Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492–1700 (Minneapolis 1984).Google Scholar

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12 ‘Oviedo on Juan Ponce de León's Second Voyage, 1521’ in: Quinn, New American World 1, 247.

13 Milanich, Jerald T., Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe (Gainesville 1995) 115–125.Google Scholar

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17 Ibid., 29.

18 Milanich, Florida Indians, 127–136.

19 de la Vega, Garcilaso, The Florida of the Inca: A History of the Adelantado, Hernando de Soto, Governor and Captain General of the Kingdom of Florida ]…[, trans, and ed. Vamer, John G. (Austin 1962) Book 2, Chapter 2, 234.Google Scholar

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22 For European attitudes to Native Americans and clothing see Matijasic, ‘Reflected Values’, 36–38; Weber, The Spanish Frontier, 314–315; Timothy J. Shannon, ‘Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier: Hendrick, William Johnson, and the Indian Fashion’ in: Mancall and Merrell eds, American Encounters, 352–376.

23 ‘The Official Narrative of the Expedition’, 178.

24 Garcilaso, The Florida of the Inca, Book 2, Chapter 16, 119.

25 Ibid. Book 2, Chapter 20, 133.

26 Ibid. Book 2, Chapter 28, 163–164.

27 Gannon, ‘First European Contacts’, 20; ‘Antonio de Alaminos Guides Hernández de Cordoba's Fleet to Florida, 1517’ in: Quinn, New American World 1, 243.

28 ‘Herrera's Account of the Breakup of the Narváez Expedition, 1528’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 11–13.

29 Bandelier, Fanny trans, and ed., The Journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and His Companions from Florida to the Pacific (New York 1905) 31–32Google Scholar; ‘Relation that Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca Gave of What Befell the Armament’, 23.

30 Knight of Elvas, True Relation of the Hardships Suffered by Governor Fernando de Soto & Certain Portuguese Gentlemen During the Discovery of the Province of Florida 2, trans, and ed. James A. Robertson (Deland 1932) 258–259, 312–313.

31 For assessments on how Native American skin colour became identified as ‘Red’ during the colonial period see Forbes, Jack D., Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Black Peoples (Chicago 1993) 239–264Google Scholar; Shoemaker, Nancy, ‘How Indians Got to be Red’, American Historical Review 102 (1997) 625–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Hernandez, Narratives of the Career of Hemando Soto 1, 66–67.

33 ‘The Official Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando Soto’, 160.

34 Lyon, Eugene, ‘Settlement and Survival’ in: Gannon, Michael ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville 1996) 40–46Google Scholar. For detailed assessments of French colonisation in the Floridas see Lestringant, Frank, Le Huguenot et le sauvage: L’Amérique et la controverse coloniale, en France, au temps des Guerres de Religion (1555–1589) (Paris 1990)Google Scholar, and McGrath, John T., The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane (Gainesville 2000).Google Scholar

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36 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 39.

37 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming from Florida, Sent to Rouen and then to M. D'Everon, Together with the Plan and Picture of the Fort Which the French Build There, 1564’ in: Bennett, Charles E., Laudonniere and Fort Caroline: History and Documents (Gainesville 1964) 67.Google Scholar

38 ‘Discours de l'histoire de la Floride, 1566’ in: Quinn, New American World 2,373.

39 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 27–28.

40 ‘Discours de l'histoire de la Floride, 1566’, 372–373.

41 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming from Florida’, 67.

42 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 8.

43 Ribault, Jean, The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida (facsimile reproduction of the 1563 English edition; Deland 1927) 69Google Scholar; Hoffman, Paul E., A New Way to Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast During the Sixteenth Century (Baton Rouge 1990) 206–215.Google Scholar

44 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 7, 57.

45 ‘John Sparke's Report on Florida’, 365.

46 Ribault, The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida, 69.

47 ‘Discours de l'histoire de la Floride’, 372–373.

48 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 7.

49 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming From Florida’, 67.

50 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 105–106.

51 Lyon, ‘Settlement and Survival’, 43–59.

52 ‘Of the Reasons Furnished His Majesty by Pedro Menéndez for not Allowing Florida to Fall into the Hands of Lutherans or Other Foreigners, 1567’ in: Barrientos, Bartolomé, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Founder of Florida, trans. Kerrigan, Anthony (Gainesville 1965) 27–28.Google Scholar

53 ‘Pedro Menéndez’ Letter to Philip II, Describing French in Florida and Their Relationships to Local Indians, 15 October, 1565’ in: Lyon, , The Enterprise of Florida: Pedro Menéndez de Auilés and the Spanish Conquest of 1565–1568 (Gainesville 1976) 165.Google Scholar

54 ‘Of the Adelantado's Departure from Guale to San Mateo and St. Augustine, 1567’ in: Barrientos, Pedro Menéndez de Auilés, 107.

55 ‘Bartolomé Barrientos on Pedro Menéndez’ Successful Attack on the French Colony, 1565’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 458.

56 Hernando D'Escalante Fontaneda, Memoir of D'Escalante Fontaneda Respecting Florida, Written in Spain about the Year 1775, ed. David O. True, trans. Buckingham Smith (Coral Gables 1944) 11; ‘A Description of the Land of Florida; Its Fertility’ in: Barrientos, Pedro Menéndez de Auilés, 24.

57 ‘Gonzalo Solis de Meras on the Achievements of Menèndez de Avilés in Florida’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 479.

58 ‘The Adelantado, Pedro Menéndez, Reports the Damages and Murders Caused by the Coast Indians of Florida, 1573–1574’ in: Connor, Jeannette T. trans, and ed., Colonial Records of Spanish Florida: Letters and Reports of Governors and Secular Persons (Deland 1925) 35–36Google Scholar; ‘Pedro Menèndez de Avilés Provides Detailed Plans for the Disposal of the Enslaved Florida Indians, 1573’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 589–590.Google Scholar

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