Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians

by Jerald T. Milanich

The missions of Spanish Florida are one of American history’s best kept secrets. Between 1565 and 1763, more than 150 missions with names like San Francisco and San Antonio dotted the landscape from south Florida to the Chesapeake Bay. Drawing on archaeological and historical research, much conducted in the last 25 years, Milanich offers a vivid description of these missions and the Apalachee, Guale, and Timucua Indians who lived and labored in them. First published in 1999 by Smithsonian Institution Press, Laboring in the Fields of the Lord contends the missions were an integral part of Spain’s La Florida colony, turning a potentially hostile population into an essential labor force. Indian workers grew, harvested, ground, and transported corn that helped to feed the colony. Indians also provided labor for construction projects, including the imposing stone Castillo de San Marcos that still dominates St. Augustine today. Missions were essential to the goal of colonialism. Together, conquistadors, missionaries, and entrepreneurs went hand-in-hand to conquer the people of the Americas. Though long abandoned and destroyed, the missions are an important part of our country’s heritage. This reprint edition includes a new, updated preface by the author.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Spain

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 1999

About the author

Jerald T. Milanich is an American anthropologist and archaeologist, specializing in Native American culture in Florida. He is Curator Emeritus of Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville; Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida; and Adjunct Professor, Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Milanich holds a Ph.D in anthropology from the University of Florida.

Milanich has won several awards for his books. Milanich won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Archaeological Council in 2005 and the Dorothy Dodd Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Historical Society in 2013. He was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.

Milanich's research interests include Eastern United States archeology, pre-Columbian Southeastern U.S. native peoples, and colonial period native American-European/Anglo relations in the America. In May 1987 he was cited in a New York Times article:

Milanich is married to anthropologist Maxine Margolis, also a professor at the University of Florida. They are the parents of historian Nara Milanich, who teaches at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Josh Liller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book chronicles the history of Spanish missions in what is now the eastern United States. This primarily means the with the Guale of Coastal Georgia and the Timucua and Apalachee of North Florida, but also touches on short-lived Jesuit missions in other parts of Florida and as far north as Virginia.

Milanich starts off with a look at the historiography and archaeology of Spanish missions in the southeast. His point is that the subject has been poorly studied and, with a few exceptions like San Luis, only studied by archaeologists starting in the late 20th century.

The book then provides an overview of the Guale, Timucua, and Apalachee peoples to understand who the people were that were missionized. The third chapter recounts the various Spanish explorations like Ponce de Leon, Narvaez, De Soto, and De Luna. This chapter provides some context for people with little knowledge of early Spanish Florida, but I thought most of it was tangential to the main subject.

The fourth chapter covers Pedro Menendez beginning permanent Spanish settlement in Florida and the short-lived Jesuit missionary efforts. The remaining four chapters cover the rise and fall of the Franciscan mission system, from the late 1500s through the 1700s.

There is a Bibliography and Index, but no Citations. An Appendix listing identified mission sites would have been nice, though other than San Luis few such sites have interpretation and at least some are on private property so the omission is understandable.

Milanich is one of the best writers on the subject of Early Native Americans in Florida and he delivers here as usual. This is a good short history of the mission system.

Recommended.

[Conlon Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing history of the native populations of north central florida and their encounters with the spanish and later the british.

The Potano were a branch of the Timucua who, in the 1500s, lived where I live now. The Spanish came to St. Augustine and built a mission trail west. Their first mission west of the St. Johns River was San Francisco de Potano, built in 1606, and located a five minute walk from my back door.

The Spanish lived in peace with the Potano. The largest ranch in the western hemisphere was located on Paynes Prairie, south of Gainesville. A Potano burial mound is located on the UF Law School Campus.

The Potano died from disease, and from raids--many sponsired by the British in their attmpt to drive out the Spanish. Potano taken to South Carolina as slaves. When the Spanish left Florida after 200 years, they took the last 200 Potano as citizens of Spain to Havana to avoid capture by the British.

The history is amazing. The book is slim and fascinating.

Recommended.

[Michael]

I have learned so much from this book about the 16th and 17th centuries, "La Florida". To take but one detail, the TImucua went from a population of about 200,000 to around 1,000 in the 17th century; the Apalachee did a little better with between 8-10,000. When Juan Ponce de León traveled through this area in 1513, no one knew how much it would change in such a short time.