Florida's frontiers / Paul E. Hoffman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoffman, Paul E., 1943-

Series:

History of the trans-Appalachian frontier

A history of the trans-Appalachian frontier

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human geography.

Ethnic relations.

Florida--History--To 1821.

Florida.

History.

Florida--History--1821-1865.

Florida--Ethnic relations.

Frontier and pioneer life--Florida.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Human geography--Florida.

Physical Description:

xvi, 470 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2002]

Summary:

Florida has had many frontiers. Imagination, greed, missionary zeal, disease, war, and diplomacy have shaped its historical boundaries. Bodies of water, soil, flora and fauna, the patterns of Native American occupation, and waves of colonization have defined Florida's frontiers. Paul E. Hoffman tells the story of those frontiers and how the land and the people shaped them during the three centuries from 1562 to 1860.

Emigrants to the American Southeast ca. 1550 found better natural and human resources on the piedmont and on the western side of Florida's central ridge, while La Florida's coasts and coastal plains proved far less inviting. But natural environment was only one important factor in the settlement of the area. The Spaniards, the British, the Seminole and Miccosukee, the Spaniards once again, and finally Americans constructed their frontiers in interaction with indigenous people, the vestiges of earlier frontiers, and international events. The near-completion of the range and township surveys by 1860 and the deportation of most of the Seminole and Miccosukee mark the end of the Florida frontier, though frontier-like conditions persisted in many parts of the state into the early twentieth century.

For this major new study of Florida's frontier heritage, Hoffman has drawn from a broad range of secondary works and from his research in Spanish archival sources of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Florida's Frontiers presents an important chapter in the history of the United States and will be a welcomed addition to the history of the Sunshine State.

Contents:

The secrets of the land

Discovering the secrets

The Spanish tidewater frontier, first phase, 1562-1586

The tidewater frontier, second phase, 1586-1608

The inland frontier, 1609-1650

Death, rebellion, a new accommodation, and new defenses: La Florida's frontiers, 1650-1680

The first contests with the English, 1680-1702

The military frontier, at last, 1702-1763

New tidewater frontiers, 1763-1790

The American frontier envelops east Florida, 1790-1821

The American frontiers, 1821-1860.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [429]-456) and index.

ISBN:

0253340195

OCLC:

47013080