Written for a general audience by a leading authority on Florida archaeology, Early Spanish Florida begins in 1513 with Juan Ponce de León’s arrival on the Florida peninsula and ends in 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Britain after the Seven Years’ War. Drawing on archaeological evidence and historical documents, Judith Bense explores 250 years of Spanish colonization through Spanish, Indigenous, and African perspectives. She reminds readers that Spanish Florida once stretched north into what is now South Carolina and west to the Mississippi River, with its capital at Santa Elena on present-day Parris Island, South Carolina, before the colony contracted to the areas around St. Augustine and Pensacola.
Organized chronologically, the book traces the changing strategies Spain used to claim and hold La Florida, from early exploration and violence to diplomacy, missionization, and military defense. Bense shows how Native resistance, imperial rivalry, and environmental realities shaped the colony’s history. She also examines the experiences of Africans in Spanish Florida, including those who escaped slavery in the British colonies to the north.
One of the book’s strengths is Bense’s clear explanation of why archaeology matters. Spanish records are extensive, she notes, but they are also partial and biased; only by pairing documents with archaeology can scholars build a fuller picture of the past. Richly illustrated and highly readable, the book includes suggested readings, places to visit, websites, and a useful concluding summary.
