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

MILANICH JERALD T (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999

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.

 

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jerald T. Milanich is curator in archaeology for the Florida Museum of Natural History and author of many books on Florida history and archaeology, including Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities: A New York Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Florida (UPF, 2005) and Florida Indians: From Ancient Times to the Present (UPF, 2002).

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press (February 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560989408
• ISBN-13: 978-1560989400
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very readable history of Southeastern Spanish missions., August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians (Hardcover)

Few Americans realize that the Spanish colonization effort in the Southeast was as strong in its day as the better-known Southwestern efforts, so heralded in books and movies. Milanich, an arcaheologist, combines his science and that of historians to tell an intriguing tale of priests, soldiers, colonists and Native Americans. He knows his subject and he knows how to write a jolly good tale. Andi Reynolds

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Please give me a glass of water, August 18, 2003

By 

Jessie R. Smith Jr. "Redlegs" (Pineville, La United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians (Hardcover)

If you enjoy reading facts then this is the book for you, HOWEVER (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) I found it to be dry. It is a history book in the genre I research. Somehow it could be made more interesting. I do not claim to be an expert by any means, but I own over 3,000 books and this one is definitely hard to read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed History of Spanish Florida, August 20, 2011

By 

Catamaran'78 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians (Paperback)

This is not a day by day retelling of the DeSoto onslaught across the southeast, or a tale of other conquistadors. Yet, the author does cover DeSoto, Narvaez and other early explorers, and their greed, cruelty, failures and impact in the book. He also presents unheard of points, like was the Powhatan Chief who was the grandfather of Pocahontas an Indian who spoke and wrote Spanish and had met the King of Spain? Did you know that Spain sent missionaries up the James River almost 50 years before Jamestown was founded? Just some of the tantalizing bits of history mentioned in the book. The author provides the present known history of Spanish settlements in and around Florida from the 1500's through the 18th century. He provides details you will not find easily elsewhere, and makes it into a book interesting for anyone with curiosity about the story behind the early Spanish period. This history, today, is most hinted at by a visit to St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marcos. The description of the antagonism between the religious and military authorities of Spain in Florida, the 'saving of many souls' but the loss of even more lives due to disease, labor and conflicts, and the relation of the Church to the natives are covered well. The dependence of the Spanish on Indians for labor and food, the high death rate from disease of both natives and Europeans are also well done. The book concludes by covering the emptying of most of modern day Florida, down to the Keys and west to Pensacola, by rampaging English armed and abetted Creek slave traders, who slaughtered and pillaged Spanish (Catholic) and non-Spanish native Indian villages, while capturing Indian prisoners to be sold into slavery in the British port of Charles-town. The author also has carefully noted the locations and details of mission archeological sites, and how and when and for what reasons they were built. Well worth a read for those interested in the period.