The end of a culture

After disease and exploiters of labor had taken their toll, East Florida natives faced another serious problem. They were targets of the English and their Indian allies, who attacked Spanish missions in South Georgia and Florida. Captives from these raids could be sold as laborers for the Carolinas and the West Indies.

By 1707, slave raiding had destroyed much of the Spanish mission system and killed, dispersed, or enslaved Timucuans and other native people, including North Florida's Appalachee. Four years later, the entire peninsula down to the Florida Keys had been raided and looted, with 10,000 - 12,000 natives taken as slaves.

The numbers of Florida's native people declined through the 1700s. They began to intermarry with members of other tribes. Scholars note that the only descendants of Florida's original inhabitants to keep their ethnic identity were the few Appalachee who fled west to Louisiana.

By the early 1760s, Florida's native population had shrunk to almost nothing. As the Spanish gave way to Great Britain, they took a few Timucua speakers along to Cuba. The last remnants of a culture soon dispersed through their new homeland.

The Seminoles move in
As Florida's natives disappeared, other people from the Southeast came to fill the vacuum. By the mid-1700s, Timucuan villages and fields had been abandoned, and the Creeks were moving in from the north due to pressure from white settlers in their region. After they left their homelands, the Creeks became known as "yat' siminoli" (the unconquered people), a term that later became Seminoles. In time, they would become important players in the region, building a strong society, pushing back against white settlers, and replacing Florida's native people in the public mind.

 

Comments or Questions?
Email the

VolusiaHistory.com is a partnership between the
Volusia County Historic Preservation Board
and the Volusia County Government