Apalachee Province During The Mission Period

Summary

Apalachee Province, an area located between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee Rivers in northwest Florida, was the last major mission effort by the Spanish government and the Franciscan order in La Florida (1633-1704). At the height of the Apalachee Mission period, at least fourteen missions were functioning. Epidemic disease, slave raiding, Native disaffection, inattention from distant colonial officials, repartimiento labor requirements, international competition, and Queen Anne’s War account for its demise along with the wholesale collapse of the mission provinces beyond St. Augustine. This paper examines the mission system in Apalachee Province and Spain’s approach to the Indigenous populations of Florida in the seventeenth century, the factors that brought this extensive mission system to its end, and the archaeological investigations that have broadened our understanding of this little-known period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow