Spanish Florida in the 1600s: Indian Wars, Yellow Fever, and Pirates!

The History of the Americans

We are back to Spanish Florida after a long hiatus, with the story of St. Augustine, La Florida after the founding of the city and the slaughter of the Huguenots at Fort Caroline until the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos in the 1670s. The city would almost fail, and in 1607 the Spanish Crown ordered that it be shut down and that Spain withdraw from Florida all together. That order would be promptly rescinded when the English landed at Jamestown.

It is a story of courageous Catholic evangelism, Indian wars, relentless epidemics, and pirates, climaxing in the raid of the dread pirate Robert Searles in 1668. That attack would, ironically, result in a renewed commitment by the Spanish government to sustaining the city which would ensure its long-term survival as the oldest continuing town in the United States.

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Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website)

Carrie Gibson, El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America

Michael Gannon (ed), The History of Florida

Susan Richbourg Parker, “St. Augustine in the Seventeenth-Century: Capital of La Florida,” The Florida Historical Quarterly, Winter 2014

Diana Reigelsperger, “Pirate, Priest, and Slave: Spanish Florida in the 1668 Searles Raid,” The Florida Historical Quarterly, Winter 2014

List of Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings