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Spanish missions in Georgia facts for kids

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St Aug Nombre de Dios missions plaque02
A plaque showing the locations of a third of the missions between 1565 and 1763

The Spanish missions in Georgia comprised a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholics in order to spread the Christian doctrine among the Guale and various Timucua peoples in southeastern Georgia.

Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout Spanish Florida in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent its colonization by other countries, in particular, England and France. Spanish Florida originally included much of what is now the Southeastern United States, although Spain never exercised long-term effective control over more than the northern part of what is now the State of Florida from present-day St. Augustine to the area around Tallahassee, southeastern Georgia, and some coastal settlements, such as Pensacola, Florida. A few short-lived missions were established in other locations, including Mission Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina, around the Florida peninsula, and in the interior of Georgia and Alabama.

Peoples of the missions

The missions of what is now southeastern Georgia originally served Guale speakers and one or more chiefdoms of Timucua speakers. The Spanish divided Spanish Florida in regions they called "provinces", based mainly on the language or dialect spoken by the inhabitants. Provinces in Spanish records grew and contracted over time, and were sometimes referred to by different names. At the time of the first recorded European visits to the Georgia coast, the Guale people lived north of the Altamaha River on the present-day Georgia Sea Islands and adjacent coast north to St. Catherines Sound. (There is no record of people living at that time in the area north of St. Catherines Sound to the Savannah River.) South of the Guale were various Timucua peoples. The coast from the Altamaha River to St. Augustine was originally called "San Pedro". By the middle of the 17th century, that province became known as "Mocama", and was later subsumed into Guale Province. Within San Pedro Province were several provinces corresponding to sub-groups of the Timucua. On the mainland south of the Altamaha River down to the Satilla River were the Cascangue and Icafui people. While some sources list these as separate tribes, due to some confusion in Spanish records, both groups spoke the Icafi (or Itafi) dialect of the Timucua language and were otherwise closely related. The Yufera people, who spoke their own dialect of Timucuan, lived inland of the Cascangue/Icafui and on the mainland west of Cumberland Island (which the Spanish called San Pedro Island). The Ibi (or Yui), who also spoke the Icafi dialect of the Timucua language, lived west of the Yufera, from the portion of the Satilla River that runs north-south to the Okefenokee Swamp, and south of the east-west trending upper reaches of the Satilla River down to near the St. Marys River. A group speaking the Oconi (or Ocone) dialect of Timucua may have lived on the margin of the Okefenokee Swamp. Those Ocone appear to have been distinct from the Hitchiti-speaking Oconee, who lived on the Oconee River and later, the Chattahoochee River. The Tacatacuru chiefdom, whose people spoke the Mocama dialect of Tumucuan, was centered on Cumberland Island, but extended north to St. Simons Island and south to Fort George Island in Florida. The people of the Arapaha chiefdom, on the Alapaha River in interior southern Georgia, spoke the "Timucua proper" dialect of Timucuan. Later in the 17th century, Yamassee people, under pressure from other native groups allied with the English of the Province of Carolina, pushed into Guale Province, and some of them joined the Spanish missions.

Missions

Missions in Spanish Florida were initially organized around the existing native political groupings. Typically, five to ten towns or villages would be associated in a chiefdom, with one of the towns serving as the seat of the chief. Two or more of the chiefdoms might be allied, sometimes with one of the chiefs acting as a paramount chief over other chiefdoms. Mission stations of two types were established by Spanish missionaries. Doctrinas were stations with a resident missionary, usually in the chief town of a chiefdom. A doctrina typically included a church, a residence for the missionary, and a kitchen. Visitas were stations with a cross and some sort of rudimentary chapel, often open-air, in outlying villages, which were visited by a missionary, but had no resident missionary. Churches at doctrinas typically had wood posts supporting a roof of thatch over a clay floor. Plank and wattle and daub walls often enclosed at least part of the church. While missionaries conducted some services at visitas, converted residents of visita villages would go to the doctrina on important feast days. In 1620, 32 doctrinas in Spanish Florida served more than 200 towns and villages. Native populations declined throughout the mission period in Spanish Florida. By the 1630s, all of the surviving residents of outlying villages in Mocama Province had been relocated to the principal town of a chiefdom, and the visitas were abandoned. Spanish soldiers were sometimes stationed at missions to protect them from pirates and from English and French raids. The missionaries reported that the soldiers interferred with their work by acting inappropriately with the natives. Converted natives received a Christian name at baptism, and adopted at least some Christian customs. Many also learned Spanish.

Retreat

The establishment of an English colony at Charles Town in 1670 eventually resulted in severe disruption to the missions in Spanish Florida. The English traded firearms and other manufactured goods in exchange for skins to the Muscogee and Yamassee peoples, who in turn began attacking the missions of Spanish Florida. In 1680, a Muscogee war party attacked the mission of Santiago de Ocone on Jekyll Island, but was repelled. A party of 300 warriers led by English officers attacked the mission town of Santa Catalina on St. Catherines Island, but six Spanish soldiers and 16 Guale musketeers successfully defended the mission. Following the attacks, the governor of Spanish Florida ordered a withdrawal from the northern part of Guale Province, including the native residents of the mission towns. The Guale did not want to leave, and many fled into the woods, some even joining the raiding Muscogee and Yamassee. By 1684 most of the northern Guale had gone over to the English side. At the same time, pirates began raiding the remaining Spanish missions along the Georgia coast. The Spanish were unable to protect the missions from the English, their native allies, and the pirates. By 1686, all of the Spanish missions north of the St. Marys River had been abandoned.

The people of Santa Isabel de Utinahica were moved to St. Simons Island in the middle of the 17th century. The declining Oconi population was bolstered by moving other Timucua people from southern Georgia to the mission. The mission of Santa María de los Angeles de Arapaje was listed in the 1630s in the Arapaha chiefdom. Some time between 1630 and 1655 the Oconi and Ibihica missions were merged. The Spanish later ordered the combined Ibi and Oconi to move to the coast. When they refused, the Spanish destroyed the town. Timucua people living around the Alapaha, Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers may have been moved south to missions along the mission road in northern Florida that connected St. Augustine and Apalachee Province.

San Pedro de Mocama last appeared in Spanish records in 1655. Guales and Yamassees moving south along the coast may have pushed the Timucuan Mocamas to move south soon after that date, perhaps to Amelia Island.

Yamassee people were forced out of Tama Province by raids conducted by Westo, and settled in or near mission towns.

San Pedro do Mocama mission apeared on Spanish lists until 1659. The mission of San Phelipe (or Felipe) de Athulteca was established by 1675. The original inhabitants of Cumberland Island had probably been evacuated by then, and the island reinhabited by heathens. Mission San Pedro de Potohiriba (possibly an alternate form of Puturibe) was established in western Timucua Province by 1657, probably serving Yamassee. In 1605 there were 300 Christians in San Pedro Province (partly in Florida), with 308 being confirmed in 1606 by Bishop Altamirano. The Guale mission of Nuestra Señora Guadalupe de Tolomato was moved to near St. Augustine in 1658. The Salamototo mission was moved to the site of an old Saturiwa town in 1658. No mention of Guale in Spanish records after 1735.

Just 70 Mocamas were reported as living at two missions in 1675, San Buenaventura de Guadalquini and San Juan del Puerto on the St. Johns River in present-day Florida.

Missions in 1675

  • San Felipe, Cumberland Island, Guale
  • San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, St. Simons Island, Timucua
  • Santo Domingo de Asaho, St. Simons Island, Guale

Native peoples to the north of Guale Province, armed and encouraged by the English in the Province of Carolina, attacked the missions at Guadalquini and Santa Catalina in 1680. Another attack on missions in Georgia occurred in 1684. As a result, all of the Spanish missions in Gulae were withdrawn, and by 1685 there were no missions remaining north of the St. Marys River. Residents of the mission towns, as well as unconverted Yamassees, who often established towns near the missions, were scattered. Some were resettled in missions closer to St. Augustine, some retreated into the woods, some were captured and sold as slaves in Charleston, and some joined the native allies of the English.

The attacks on the missions in 1680 were carried out by about 300 Chichimeco, Uchise, and Chiluque warriors, aided by English instructors (likely helping with the provision and maintenance of firearms). The force initially attacked the town of Colon on St. Simons Island, which was inhabited by heathen (un-Christianized) natives, killing some of the inhabitants. Spanish and Mocamas from the nearby mission of San Buenaventura de Guadalquini went the aid of Colon, and drove the attackers away. The same group attacked the mission of Santa Catalina de Guale on St. Catherines Island a few days later.

Pirates attacked St. Augustine in 1683. After that attack failed the pirates sacked several missions and other towns along the coast north of St. Augustine, mainly in present-day Florida, but including the mission of San Phelipe on Cumberland Island. The Spanish government began planning to move the remaining missions along the Georgia coast closer to St. Augustine. Before the missions could be moved, pirates returned to the area in 1684. Learning of the pirates' presence, most of the people of Guadalquini moved to the mainland, taking most of their food stores with them, and left ten men under a sub-chief to defend the town. When the pirates arrived at Guadalquini, the defending force retreated to the woods. The pirates burned the church and convent (priest's house) and left. The mission was then moved to a site on the north side of the St. Johns River (in present-day Florida), which was named Santa Cruz de Guadalquini.

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