Anglo -Spanish Rivalry and the Development of the Colonial Southeast, 1670--1720

W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2006 Anglo -Spanish rivalry and the development of the colonial Southeast, 1670--1720 Timothy Paul Grady College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Grady, Timothy Paul, "Anglo -Spanish rivalry and the development of the colonial Southeast, 1670--1720" (2006). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623497. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-1sah-fk17 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANGLO-SPANISH RIVALRY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLONIAL SOUTHEAST, 1670-1720 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Timothy Paul Grady 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Tikaothy Paul Grady Approved by the Committee, May 2006 James Axtell, Chair Kris E. Lane James P. Whittenburg Eirlys M. Barker Thomas Nelson Community College 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this dissertation first to my wife, Claudia. Without her support, encouragement, and patience, there would have been no way that completing the long, hard process of research and writing would have been possible. Secondly, I would like to dedicate it to my parents, Pat and Spence Farley. From the very beginning they believed in me, and supported me in my decision to embark upon this long and difficult journey. To all three, I would simply like to say “Thank you!” iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgements v Abstract vi Map of the Southeast 2 Map of Florida Indians 3 Introduction 4 Chapter 1. From Europe to Charleston: Anglo-Spanish Rivalries 15 and the Beginning of the Colonial Southeast Chapter 2. A Three-sided Straggle: The Florida-Carolina Straggle 79 and Indian Interactions through the 1680s Chapter 3. An Uneasy Peace: Negotiations and Confrontations 129 across the Carolina-Florida Frontier through 1700 Chapter 4. Carolina Ascendant: The Invasion and Destruction of 180 Spanish Florida’s influence in the Southeast, 1700-1703 Chapter 5. Fading Power and One Last Gasp: The Waning of Spanish 228 Influence and the Beginnings of English Ascendancy in the Colonial Southeast Epilogue 271 Bibliography 274 Vita 284 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer would like to express his sincere appreciation to Professors James Axtell and Kris Lane for their guidance, advice, and criticisms throughout this project. Each has provided invaluable insights and thoughtful comments that have vastly improved the final result. The author is also indebted to Professors James Whittenburg and Eirlys Barker for their careful reading and critiques of the manuscript. The writer would also like to thank the entire staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department of Swem Library at the College of William & Mary. Their heroic efforts to obtain various sources assisted greatly in minimizing the time and travel that would have, otherwise, been necessary. In addition, the author would like to express gratitude for the assistance of James Cusick, curator of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History in Gainesville, and the staff of that library, as well as those of the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation for the efforts of my crack editorial staff, Claudia, Spence, and Mom. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This study investigates the role played by the rivalry between English Carolina and Spanish Florida in the history of the colonial Southeast from the mid-seventeenth century through the 1720s. It contends that, from standpoint of the local inhabitants, Native American and European, both the perceived and the actual threat that Spanish Florida and Carolina posed to one another was the dominant concern and motivation of the actions of both dining the roughly fifty-year period from the founding of Charleston to the final events of the Yamassee War. At the local level, government officials, Indian traders, Franciscan missionaries, the various Indian tribes, runaway slaves, and all others living in this borderland region contended daily with the rivalry between Carolina and Spanish Florida. Only with the resolution of this threat could Carolina and thus the British emerge as the dominant colonial power in the Southeast. The dissertation seeks to reanalyze the events of this period within the framework of this rivalry and to do so by blending comprehensive research in the available documentary evidence available for both South Carolina and Spanish Florida. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ANGLO-SPANISH RIVALRY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLONIAL SOUTHEAST, 1670-1720 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Map of the Southeast, 1715 NORTH Cataw bas CAROLINA ^/OVER-HILL Ch e r o k e e s Ml DOLE CHEROKEES Lo w e r C h e r o k e e s SOUTH Tugaloox CAROLINA (Lo w e r . C h e r o k e e ) FortMoore CBridsh)^ Chickasaws uy Upper i «= Charles Town (British) Cr e e k s /;# aligo (Tamjum \ AMASEES Fort Toulouse _ .Coweta Royal (British) . (Oc h e s e ; V ? . C h o c t a w s (French) £ Lo w e r Cr e e k ) GUALE LOUISIANA (disputed between Atlantic Mobile Spun and Britain) Ocean Fort Saint Louis Saint Asgustme (French) Eon San Marcos ensacola (Spanish) (Spanish) New Orleans Fort San Marcos (French) de Apalachee FLORIDA (Spanish) Gulfof Mexico X Indian settiement • Colonial ceedement * Colonial ibrt M i l e s Map reprinted from Steven J. Oatis, A Colonial Complex: South Carolina’s Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680-1730 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 Map of Florida Indians Map reprinted courtesy of M. C. Bob Leonard, “Tribal Areas at the Time of European Exploration,” The Floridians, May 25,2006, <http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/archl/indian/indmap.gif> (May 25, 2006). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 - Introduction - The Anglo-Spanish Rivalry and the Emergence of the Colonial Southeast In 1565 the Spanish established a colony in Florida at St. Augustine to protect their more valuable colonies in the Caribbean and South America from any potential European rivals. Florida served primarily as a military buffer between the Spanish Americas and other European colonies to the north. In addition, it acted as an important defensive bastion protecting the treasure fleets bearing the riches of the Americas to Spain. Because the Spanish population in La Florida remained small, the extension of Spanish influence in the region was accomplished primarily through a chain of Franciscan missions. These missions encompassed tens of thousands of Indian converts and extended from the coastal islands of modem Georgia to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Through its heyday in the mid-seventeenth century, the Spanish presence in the Southeast went unchallenged by other Europeans and the missionaries, soldiers, and traders ranging across Florida from St. Augustine exercised enormous influence among the natives. During the seventeenth century, however, England repeatedly defied Spain’s claim to the region. Spanish officials in St. Augustine took careful note of the English efforts at Roanoke in the 1580s and the 1607 establishment of the colony at Jamestown. With the founding of Charleston in 1670 in retrospect, Spanish dominance in the region was doomed, though for a period of almost fifty years the issue remained in doubt as Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 effort, Spain was never able to bring the necessary force to bear against Carolina in repeated efforts to destroy the colony. The Carolinians, on the other hand, never successfully conquered St. Augustine, despite a persistent and slowly successful campaign of raids and invasions aimed at countering Spanish influence among the natives. For both colonies, the central factor guiding their actions was the presence of a local European rival for the good will and alliances of the powerful native tribes in the region. Given the extreme efforts, the expenditures, and the political and military maneuverings of the rival colonies, it is clear that the contest between Spanish Florida

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