"Facilitating Frontier Trade: Supply Logistics at Fort San Marcos de Apalache, a Spanish Outpost in the Borderlands of La Florida, 1677-1796" 

Summary

By the end of the eighteenth-century, the boundaries of Spain’s La Florida territory were informally defined by a series of outposts ranging west from St. Augustine to Pensacola. These outposts were strategically placed in order to secure supplies and regulate trade while maintaining Spanish-Indian relations in the territorial borderlands. Within these borderlands lay the fortified port of San Marcos de Apalache, initially established in 1677 in order to monitor the shipment of supplies from Havana to St. Augustine and serve as a center for promoting Spanish-Apalache trade. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of colonial frontier studies and their application to the La Florida borderlands while utilizing the archaeological collection associated with Fort San Marcos, in conjunction with a detailed primary document analysis, to examine the logistics of supplying the outpost and determine its role in facilitating Spanish-Indian trade.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bleeding Heart: The Spanish Colonies and their Legacy   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 19