The History of the Americans

This episode is a “sidebar,” in this case way, way, way, off the timeline. The title of the episode is also the title of a speech given by Woodrow Wilson on July 4, 1907.  The occasion was the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia that year, staged to recognize the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown Colony. Wilson’s text in fact travels a long way from its title. The speech is actually about adopting the principles of the Declaration, as Wilson defines them, to regulating a new development, the multinational corporation. The speech is also a window into American politics just over half way between the signing of the Declaration and the present day, when we were fundamentally reconsidering the role of the federal government in our economic and civil lives. You will also see that more than a decade before the Russian Revolution even progressive American politicians were worried about socialism. https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References and other resources for this episode Woodrow Wilson, “The Author and Signers of the Declaration of Independence” Woodrow Wilson (Wikipedia) Progressive Era (Wikipedia)

The title of today’s episode is Pedro Menendez, the Founding of St. Augustine and the Slaughter of the Huguenots:  The Other Side of the Story.  If you listened to last week’s episode, which involved the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed French people at the hands of the Spanish, you are probably thinking “wait, how could there be another side to that story?”  That would be a fair question.  In this episode, we take a look at a recently unearthed Spanish account of those ugly days in September 1565, layered like a fine lasagna with commentary and perhaps a little snark! #VastEarlyAmerica https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Reference for this episode Gonzalo Solís de Merás (Author), David Arbesú (Translator), Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Conquest of Florida: A New Manuscript

This episode looks at the first Protestant attempt to settle the lands now encompassed by the United States, the French expeditions to Parris Island, South Carolina, and the coast near Jacksonville, Florida. Philip II of Spain was determined to secure the Atlantic coast of La Florida to prevent privateers lurking there from attacking his treasure fleets, and to stop the Protestants from spreading their apostasy in the New World, so he sent an expedition to massacre them. Along the way we consider the very earliest glimmer of republican government, at least in the European intellectual tradition, in the New World. #VastEarlyAmerica https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Selected references for this episode Lucy L. Wenhold, “Translation of Manrique de Rojas’ Report on French Settlement in Florida, 1564” Charles E. Bennett, “Fort Caroline, Cradle of American Freedom,” The Florida Historical Quarterly, July 1956. T. Frederick Davis, “Fort Caroline,” The Florida Historical Society Quarterly, October 1933. Theodor de Bry, Images of North America Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site (Wikipedia)

In this eclectic episode we round up various minor Spanish incursions into today’s United States, including the “discovery” of San Diego, the origin of the name “California,” the murder of some friars at — this is no surprise — Tampa Bay, and Tristan de Luna’s failed expedition to establish a colony at Pensacola. We also wonder why the Spanish were always launching these big expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season, and get a taste of marine archeology. Enjoy! https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Selected references for this episode Caleb Curren, “Archeological Data Indicates that the University of West Florida’s “Luna Colony” is Actually a Native Village” Pensacola New Journal, “Luna’s colony unearthed in Pensacola” Roger C. Smith, “The Emanuel Point Ship: a 16th-century Vessel of Spanish Colonization” Della A. Scott-Ireton, “An Examination of the Luna Colonization Fleet” Charles W. Arnade, “Tristan de Luna and Ochuse (Pensacola Bay) 1559” Luis Cáncer (Wikipedia) Harry Kelsey, Discovering Cabrillo

Our 25th episode is a Sidebar, “Taking Stock.” I talk about the origins of the podcast, and how its approach to history fits in with today’s trends in scholarship, including the “Atlantic World” and #VastEarlyAmerica. Oh, and I rant about the weaponization of history for partisan political purposes, and the many reasons why we should all avoid doing that. I hope you find it interesting! Selected references for this episode Karin Wulff, “Vast Early America” Thomas Benjamin, The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their Shared History, 1400–1900 

In this episode we conclude the story of the Coronado Entrada into the American Southwest. By the spring of 1540, a few hundred Spaniards, a few free and enslaved Blacks, perhaps a thousand Indios Amigos – literally, friendly and free Indians – hundreds of horses, and herds of cattle, sheep, and pigs, were making their way up the west coast of Mexico aiming for supposed riches of Arizona and New Mexico, all on the basis of a massive intelligence failure. There were no Seven Cities of Gold, but Coronado and his men would be the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon and they would name Texas, which ain’t nothing.  Selected references for this episode Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 F. S. Dellenbaugh, “The True Route of Coronado’s March” Tiguex War Coronado’s Expedition, Legends of America Hawikuh and the Zuni-Cibola Complex New Mexico

We are now in late May 1539, almost exactly 482 years ago as I write this. Friar Marcos is alone with a bunch of Indios Amigos – literally, friendly Indians who had not been enslaved — somewhere in Arizona, possibly in the Salt River Valley east of modern Phoenix.   He has just learned that his guide and advance man Esteban, has died rather gruesomely along with a bunch of his Indian escorts at the hands of the angry chief of Cibola, the “city” purported to be the gateway to the Seven Cities of Gold.  By his own somewhat suspect account, Fray Marcos has a decision to make – does he soldier on to lay eyes on Cibola himself, knowing that if he dies his mission will have been a complete failure, insofar as there will be no European to report on the territory?  Or does he head back to Culiacan, on the west coast of Mexico, where Coronado is waiting for him, and base his report on the tales told by Indians, either at Esteban’s direction or otherwise?  Selected references for this episode Robert Goodwin, Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 F. S. Dellenbaugh, “The True Route of Coronado’s March” George J. Undreiner, “Fray Marcos de Niza and His Journey to Cibola”

This episode welcomes back our old friend from the Cabeza de Vaca saga, Esteban, and the advance scouting work he led, with a drunken friar, for the Coronado expedition into the American southwest. #VastEarlyAmerica Selected references for this episode Robert Goodwin, Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca George Parker Winship, The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542 Bartolomé de las Casas

Back in April 2021, as we traveled the Florida Keys for a vacation much-deserved by my wife, who has been working very hard, and not-at-all deserved by me, I read a good part of Samuel Bawlf’s book “The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580.”  This was part of my advance reading for Drake’s exploration of the west coast of the United States on, well, a secret mission for Queen Elizabeth I of England.  The book includes a prelude chapter that I thought so good, and so evocative of the tradition of privateering in exactly the part of the country in which I was vacationing, that I am going to read it aloud. Herewith, a pirate’s story, with another remarkable story of survival in the New World toward the end. Selected references for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Toohey, “The Long, Forgotten Walk of David Ingram” Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation

In this episode, we follow the Soto expedition in the American south from the aftermath of the battle of Mabila to the “discovery” of the Mississippi River with more than the usual number of qualifiers, Soto’s anticlimactic death, the first true exploration of northeastern Texas, a journey past the site of New Orleans, the ultimate escape of almost half the expeditionaries and, as promised, a short review of the weird recommendations of the Federal government’s De Soto Expedition Commission. Enjoy! Selected references for this episode David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission Quigualtam (Wikipedia) Luis de Moscoso Alvarado (Wikipedia) Rex W. Strickland, “Moscoso’s Journey through Texas,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1942.