Customer Reviews

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

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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

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.

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.