A Case for Colonialism:
Canary Islanders in 18th-Century St. Augustine
Sarah M. Bennett
Paper Presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the
Florida Anthropological Society,
St. Augustine, Florida
2013
Abstract: In 2009, St. Augustine’s City Archaeologist investigated property at 325 St. George Street. Analysis of the artifactual assemblage recovered and examination of documentary evidence, suggests the presence of Canary Islanders in St. Augustine during the mid-18th century. Intended to serve as agricultural laborers in the City—a void created by the diminishing native population—Canary Islanders’ presence fulfilled social and economic needs created by the process of Spanish colonialism. The archaeological record, historic documentation, in addition to previous research establish the Canary Islander presence in St. Augustine and exhibit this process as an extension of Spanish colonialism practices.
Introduction
Colonial ventures rarely embodied a population of contained, uniform entities as historical accounts often, and as archaeological interpretations occasionally, suggest. Ethnic diversity represents one of the hallmarks of St. Augustine’s colonial history, with various European, Native American, and African groups documented in governmental and church records. Assuredly, each group—diverse within itself-- served a variety purposes within Spanish colonial society. Canary Islanders, one group often overlooked in the history of Spanish Florida, were brought to the New World in the mid-1700s to fill the labor vacuum left by a dwindling Native American population. This paper addresses Canary Islanders’ role in Spanish colonialism. By examining colonization of the Canary Islands, contextualizing colonial St. Augustine during the mid-18th century, and examining archaeological evidence recovered during excavations near colonial St. Augustine, a correlation develops which relates the colonial structure of Spanish administration to the role of Canary Islanders in their native land as well as in the St. Augustine settlement. Colonizing the Canary Islands facilitated the development of a Spanish model of colonialism to implement elsewhere while also creating a potential source of labor and a colonist population for future colonial endeavors.
The Canary Islands: A Brief History
The seven main Canary Islands rest between 62 and 310 miles from the western coast of Morocco. While knowledge of these islands existed for centuries—established through explorations by Juba II, who ruled Mauretania from 26 BC until 23 AD-- the Canary Islands and their inhabitants remained isolated. Few historical accounts mention or describe the islands after King Juba’s investigations. Following the Roman era, references to the islands disappear from recorded history for nearly one thousand years. Upon re-establishing contact in the fourteenth century, Europeans utilized the islands as an area to explore, conquer, settle, and use for colonial purposes. Subsequently, the Canary Islands became an economic enterprise (Kicza 1992), producing commodities including sugar, wine, and fruits (Crosby 1984) while also serving as a point of departure for commercial interests stationed in the Americas. Inevitably, conflict ensued between the native population and European powers. Native resistance, however, varied in degree and type among the individual islands, a theme likely reflecting the varied populations present on the islands (Mercer 1979).
Spanish conquest and colonial interests on the islands reached its zenith between 1477 and 1497. Through time, the Canary Islands transformed into a “trial laboratory for political and economic institutions Spain transferred from Europe” to the New World (Parsons 1985). Acting as an experimental platform, the Spanish transplanted patterns from the Iberian reconquista (Deagan 1990, 2003) into the developing colonial structure on the islands. A key component of this structure required native labor contributions to demonstrate submission to Spain. Those who defied the policy through acts of resistance often experienced pillaging and enslavement. Islanders who accepted Christianity and the sovereignty of Spain became free Castilian subjects. The Spanish acknowledged chiefly privileges and status and intermarriage commenced. These practices, refined and implemented among the Canary Islands, were later transferred to Spanish colonialism practices in the Caribbean and, to an extent, in La Florida.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, droughts, epidemics, volcanic eruptions, plagues of locusts, famines, poverty, high birth rates, sporadic warfare, labor shortages, and governmental trade restrictions enforced by the Spanish weakened the islands’ economy and threatened quality of life. In order to escape these conditions, Canary Islanders began to consider the New World, “a land of promise,” as their alternative (Parsons 1983). Poor country populations and illiterate peasants dominated the composition of migrants, though merchants, bureaucrats, and adventurers also relocated. Widely reputed to be reliable, hard-working, ideal colonists, the Spanish started to recruit islanders to settle frontier areas in order to create a “human barrier” against foreign threats, interests, and advances (Mercer 1980; Parsons 1983).
Colonialism in the New World: St. Augustine Missionization
As Spanish colonialism persisted on the Canary Islands, European nations continued to expand westward. Missions, a tactic of Spanish colonialism and a fixture in St. Augustine’s multiethnic population since the 16th century when Nombre de Dios was established (Deagan 2008; Gordon 2007), initially existed within traditional tribal areas. By the late 17th century, however, Native Americans loyal to the Spanish Crown began to contract around St. Augustine, forming a series of fluid peripheral communities moving near to or far from the protection of the Spanish battlements as conditions warranted (White 2002) while also allocating an ensured source of labor needed to stabilize the settlement. Examining one mission, Nuesta Señora del Rosario de la Punta, in particular facilitates a better understanding of the Canary Islanders’ presence in mid-18th century St. Augustine.
La Punta represents one of six settlements occupied by Native Americans (some of whom were Christianized) that surrounded St. Augustine during the second quarter of the 18th century. La Punta—along with comparable mission communities, including Nombre de Dios, Tolomato, and Pocotalaca-- comprised a component of St. Augustine’s comprehensive defensive system (Halbirt 2004; Sastre 2002), as well as an essential labor force necessary for the City’s survival during the tumultuous 18th century. Based on historical documents, the Yamassee were primary residents of La Punta (Boyer 2005; White 2002; Halbirt 2005), although Apalachee are also listed on government census records and in Franciscan administrative documents.
Occupation at La Punta spanned from the late 1720s until the mid-1750s when its inhabitants abandoned the site. The mission population fluctuated slightly, though its numbers generally remained between 40 and 60 persons. Captain John Palmer’s Map (1730) illustrates his recollection of his 1728 military campaign against the Yamassee and depicts the site (FIGURE 1). Additionally, the Arredondo map (1737) portrays twenty families living in the area. In 1754, the settlement is listed as one of four extant Native American mission communities on the outskirts of the city (Worth 1998:155). By 1759, only two mission communities remained (TePaske 1964:224): Tolomato and Nombre de Dios. La Punta is no longer indicated in any known census records or official documents, although the 1763 Pablo Castelló map references an “Yglesia arruinada qu la fuée del Pueblo de Indios de la Punta” (FIGURE 4). Abandonment resulted from administrative decisions made by the Spanish government, which now had control of Florida’s remaining mission populations (Kapitzke 2001:162), as well as an economic decision made by the diminishing mission community that faced working infertile land (Hoffman 2002:201). Canary Islanders arrived during the mid-1750s in order to replenish the labor shortage, to assist with agricultural advancements, and to reinforce the militia in St. Augustine (Halbirt 2005). A historical map, produced by Juan Joseph Eligio de la Puente in 1769, situates the Canary Islanders within the area examined archaeologically. De la Puente notes that the reference point (Number 24) marked on the map signifies “Other lands to which / The aforementioned [Canary] Island Families were / Also sent to live temporarily / because the former [lands] / Were those belonging to / The old Residents [being the mission population].”
Canary Islanders in St. Augustine
Utilization of Canary Islanders as a resource for meeting both agricultural and military needs in St. Augustine represents an extension of Spanish colonial practices as developed on the islands. The Spanish influenced the islands’ economy during a period already saturated with the aforementioned conditions which devastated the native population. Without political or social autonomy and the inability to restructure their economy (Mercer 191980: 7-9), islanders lacked better alternatives than to migrate to the Americas. Colonial structures introduced and demanded adherence to Spanish cultural, political, and economic systems which, essentially, delimited Canary Islander endurance. Canary Islander migration, both voluntary and forced, sustained the pre-existing utilization of human resources by the Spanish in St. Augustine. The settlement demanded military and agricultural labor in order to survive. Missionization—one component of colonialism—originally satisfied the need. As native populations declined, colonial structures seamlessly transferred responsibilities of the past mission communities onto the migrating islanders. Considered a reliable, hard-working population capable of creating a human buffer in problematic frontier areas and refreshing the diminishing labor source, the Spanish sought to transition Canary Islanders from the colonial structure on the islands into St. Augustine’s analogous configuration.
Beginning in the late 17th century, the Spanish government formulated plans to transport Canary Islanders to St. Augustine in response to administrative requirements and settlement necessities. Initially, recruitment motivations focused on holding the Florida frontier against English and French encroachment. Most recruits, therefore, were soldiers. In 1684, Governor Juan Marqués Cabrera transported fifty soldiers from the Canary Islands to St. Augustine in order to replenish the garrison’s numbers to the required 350 men. The method and purpose (Corbett 1974) of islander populations in Florida generated a type of St. Augustine resident who, instead of migrating of their own free will, fundamentally became victims of the Spanish Crown’s mercantilist defense policies.
Canary Islanders’ early militaristic purpose later shifted to intersect with the economic needs of St. Augustine. Subsequent to the collapse of Spain’s mission system in the southeast and the constriction of Spanish controlled lands east of the St. Johns River, Governor Antonio de Benavides proposed that Canary Islanders staff the recently established garrison community at San Marcos de Apalachee. For various reasons the plan failed to progress. A few years later, Governor Francisco del Moral Sanchez revived Benavides plan to alleviate lingering economic issues that plagued St. Augustine. Moral indicated that the Canary Islanders’ skill and knowledge in agricultural development designated them as ideal settlers. They could farm and initiate fur trade with the Indians while also repopulating and developing economic stability (Hoffman 2002) in the former mission provinces. Furthermore, the land (TePaske 1964) could support missionary efforts, augment the Florida economy, and continue to act as a defensive measure. Discussions concerning the development of a general agricultural program (Halbirt 2004) that would utilize Canary Islanders as a means of labor continued until 1757.
October 1757 marked the arrival of 363 Canary Islander settlers in St. Augustine. Plans for agricultural settlements were implemented; however, the land allocated for the islanders received no preparation for their settlement, which caused the area to fail. A second group, which inhabited the La Punta area, arrived in 1758. Estimates (Hoffman 2002) indicate that 664 of the 711 islanders who left the Canary Islands reached the colony, though all did not survive or remain in St. Augustine. Spanish Creoles considered the islanders foreigners like “all other civilians, Catalans . . . and German Catholics,” so they “received second-class accommodations.” Despite their intended purpose, the Islanders (Gold 1969) failed to generate agricultural stimulation; instead, they merely enlarged St. Augustine’s population. When the British exchanged Havana, captured during the Seven Year’s War, for Spanish Florida in 1763, nearly all the residents evacuated the Spanish colony, leaving the colony virtually vacant.
325 St. George Street: Investigation and Analysis
In 2009, the City of St. Augustine Archaeology Program undertook an investigation of private property at 325 St. George Street. Archaeological efforts were in response to the construction of a small structure at the rear of the property, whose size (100 square feet) triggered the City’s Archaeological Preservation Ordinance. Excavations included four shovel pits and a 1 meter x 1 meter test unit. Inspection of an Anonymous Map dating to 1765, two years after the British took control of Florida, illustrates the distribution of structures both within and outside the Line of Circumvallation (or the Rosario Line), an earthen defensive wall constructed between 1718 and 1721. Of particular interest in this study are those structures occurring south of the line, one of the areas settled by Canary Islanders. Triangulation suggests that one of the illustrated structures is near the project area. Analysis of the material assemblage approximates the period when Canary Islanders occupied the area (specifically, 1758-1763).
The types of artifacts from the project area, especially ceramics, primarily date to the 18th century, with a few artifacts occurring on either side of the period. Carl Halbirt, St. Augustine City Archaeologist, dated the European ceramic evidence from La Punta sites to a range between 1720 and 1740, whereas the material from 325 St. George Street dates from 1750 to 1760. Table 1 illustrates the types and frequencies of pottery recovered. European pottery types, including Wheildonware, Elersware, Jackfield, and a distinctive yellowish tinted Creamware, date to the 1750s and early 1760s in St. Augustine. Other English pottery types (such as Slipware, Delft, and Saltglazed Stoneware) occur during this time interval, indicating their accessibility throughout the 18th century. Other artifacts recovered from the project area include fragments of pipe bowls and stems, bottle glass, and nails. Tables 2 and 3 illustrate the ceramic frequencies between 325 St. George Street and two sites associated with La Punta. Native American pottery exceeds 90% of the overall ceramic assemblage at the La Punta sites, whereas at the Canary Islander site it comprises 34% of the total. When considering European ceramics, an inverted trend emerges. European ceramics constitute more that 65% of the total at the Canary Islander site, while Native American pottery at each La Punta site is less than 10% of the total.
Conclusion
St. Augustine has traditionally been defined by the area within the colonial downtown district. Yet beyond the town walls are archaeological deposits that offer perspectives of colonial life, especially as it relates to disenfranchised ethnic groups such as Native Americans and Canary Islanders (Gold 1969). Studying Canary Islanders in St. Augustine provides integral details to the history of a city rooted in colonialism. Though Canary Islanders likely occupied the area excavated beyond the town walls, little may be deduced regarding their role in St. Augustine society. Information relating to their colonial legacy cannot further develop without additional ethnohistorical and archaeological investigations, as well as potential ethnoarchaeological studies among descendant communities in Cuba, Texas, and Louisiana.
Despite existing limitations, the information presently available suggests that both the Canary Islands and the Islanders contributed significantly to developing the processes typical of Spanish colonialism. Within the islands, Spain formulated a colonial model applied in later New World colonial efforts while also gaining access to productive lands, a valuable labor source, and an increased number of Spanish subjects. Furthermore, the islands provided an ideal stopping point for traders as well as winds perfectly suited to push forward those travelling west. Incorporating the islanders into colonial society and transporting the population to various areas of the New World lucidly depicts the varied composition of colonial societies. Further studies of the Canary Islands and the Canary Islander population will certainly provide augmented understandings of Spanish colonialism processes and structures in addition to increased knowledge regarding the multi-faceted diversity of groups and persons who constituted the foundation of colonialism.
References
Boyer III, Willet T.
2005 Nuestra Senora Del Rosario de la Punta: Lifeways of an Eighteenth-Century Colonial Spanish Refugee Mission Community, St. Augustine, Florida. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, The University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Corbett, Theodore C.
1974 Migration to a Spanish Imperial Frontier in the 17th and 18th Century: St. Augustine. Hispanic American Historical Review 54(3): 414-423.
Crosby, Alfred W.
1984 An Ecohistory of the Canary Islands: A Precursor of European Colonialization in the New World and Australasia. Environmental Review: ER 8(3): 214-235.
Deagan, Kathleen A.
1990 Sixteenth-Century Spanish-American Colonization in the Southeastern United States and Caribbean In Columbian Consequences, Vol. 2, ed. by D. H Thomas, pp. 225-250. Smithsonian Institution Press.
2003 Colonial Origins and Colonial Transformations in Spanish America. Historical Archaeology 37(4): 3-13.
2008 Archaeology at the Fountain of Youth Park. Florida Museum of Natural History, pp. 1-30. Gainesville, FL.
Din, Gilbert C.
1988 The Canary Islanders of Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.
Gold, Robert L.
1969 Borderland Empires in Transition: The Triple-Nation Transfer of Florida. Southern Illinois University Press, London.
Gordon, Elspeth
2007 From So Precious a Watering: In Pursuit of Mission Nombre de Dios, 1565–1595. El Escribano 43: 1–65.
Halbirt, Carl
2004 La Ciudad de San Agustín: A European Fighting Presidio in Eighteenth-Century La Florida. Historical Archaeology 38(3): 33-46.
2005 “...where the sea breezes constantly blow... an ideal place for a home": The 18th Century Mission Community of Nuestra Señora del Rosario de la Punta. Paper presented at the 2005 SEAC conference, Columbia, South Carolina.
Hoffman, Paul E.
2002 Florida’s Frontiers. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Kapitzke, Robert L.
2001 Religion, Power and Politics in Colonial St. Augustine. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Kelly, Kenneth
2002 Indigenous Responses to Colonial Encounters on the West African Coast: Hueda and Dahomey from the Seventeenth through Nineteenth Century. In The Archaeology of Colonialism, ed. by C.L. Lyons and J.K. Papadopoulos, pp. 96-120. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.
Kicza, John E.
1992 Patterns in Early Spanish Overseas Expansion. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 49(2): 229-253.
Mercer, John
1979 The Canary Islanders in Western Mediterranean Politics. African Affairs 78(311): 159-176.
1980 The Canary Islanders: Their Prehistory Conquest and Survival. Rex Collings, London.
Parsons, James J.
1983 The Migration of Canary Islanders to the Americas: An Unbroken Current since Columbus. The Americas 39(4): 447-481.
1985 Review: The Canary Islands and America: Studies of a Unique Relationship. Latin American Research Review 20(2): 189-199.
Sastre, Cecile-Marie
2002 Defense-in-Depth: The Development of St. Augustine's Defensive System, 1702-1763. El Escribano 39: 87-101.
St. Augustine Historical Society
1737 Arredondo Map. St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine, FL.
1763 Pablo Castelló Map. St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine, FL.
1730 Palmer Map. St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine, FL.
TePaske, John Jay.
1964 The Governorship of Spanish Florida: 1700-1763. Duke University Press, Durkham, NC.
White, Andrea P.
2002 Living on the Periphery: A Study of an Eighteenth-Century Yamasee Mission Community in Colonial St. Augustine. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.