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Apalachee massacre
The Apalachee massacre was a series of
Battle of Ayubale
raids by English colonists from the Province
of Carolina and their Indian allies against a Part of Queen Anne's War
largely peaceful population of Apalachee
Indians in northern Spanish Florida that took
place in 1704, during Queen Anne's War.
Against limited Spanish and Indian
resistance, a network of missions was
destroyed; most of the population either was
killed or captured, fled to larger Spanish and
French outposts, or voluntarily joined the
English.

The only major event of former Carolina

Governor James Moore's expedition was the
Battle of Ayubale, which marked the only
large-scale resistance to the English raids. Detail from a 1733 map showing the Apalachee
Significant numbers of the Apalachee, Province (roughly the eastern end of what is now
unhappy with the conditions they lived in called the Florida Panhandle). Ayubale is marked
under the Spanish, simply abandoned their "Ayavalla"; the locations of many mission villages
towns and joined Moore's expedition. They are of uncertain accuracy.
were resettled near the Savannah and
Ocmulgee Rivers, where conditions were only Date 25–26 January 1704
slightly better. Location Ayubale, Apalachee Province, Spanish
Florida
Moore's raiding expedition was preceded and
(near present-day Tallahassee, Florida,
followed by other raiding activity that was
U.S.)
principally conducted by English-allied
Creeks. The cumulative effect of these raids, Result English-Creek victory
conducted between 1702 and 1709, was to Belligerents
depopulate Spanish Florida beyond the
immediate confines of Saint Augustine and
Pro-Bourbon England
Pensacola.
Spain
Creek
Apalachee
Contents Commanders and leaders
Background Father Angel de Miranda James Moore
La Florida (killed or captured)
Juan Ruíz de
Raids before 1704
Mexía (POW)
Ayubale
Strength
Further raiding in Apalachee
30 Spanish cavalry 50 English traders
Later raids 400 Apalachee warriors 1,000 Creek warriors
Consequences Casualties and losses

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Historiography 14 Spanish casualties[1] 18 English casualties

200 warriors killed or 15 Creek casualties[1]
See also
captured[2]
References many civilians taken
Citations prisoner
Sources
This battle was the major event of the campaigns by
Further reading Moore and the Creek Indians against Spanish
Florida.

Background
English and Spanish colonization efforts in southeastern North America began coming into
conflict as early as the middle of the 17th century. The founding in 1670 by the English of
Charles Town (present-day Charleston, South Carolina) in the recently established (1663)
Province of Carolina heightened tensions with the Spanish in Florida.[3] Traders, raiders, and
slavers from the new province penetrated into Florida, leading to raiding and reprisal
expeditions on both sides.[4] In 1700, Carolina's governor, Joseph Blake, threatened the Spanish
with assertions that English claims to Pensacola, established by the Spanish in 1698, would be
enforced.[5] Blake's death later that year interrupted these plans, and he was replaced in 1702 by
James Moore.[5]

La Florida

The Spanish population of Florida at the time was fairly small compared to that of the nearby
English colonies. Since its founding in the 16th century, the Spanish had set up a network of
missions whose primary purpose was to pacify the local Indian population and convert them to
Roman Catholicism. In the Apalachee Province (roughly present-day western Florida and
southwestern Georgia) there were 14 mission communities with a total population in 1680 of
about 8,000. Many but not all of these communities were populated by the Apalachee; others
were inhabited by other tribes that had migrated southward to the area.[6] By the early 18th
century the Apalachee Province had become a major source of food for the principal towns of St.
Augustine and Pensacola, which were situated near lands not well suited for agriculture.[7]

The native populations of Florida were not entirely happy with Spanish rule; there had been
several uprisings against the Spanish in the 17th century.[8] The Indians were often forced to do
work for the Spanish military garrisons and plantation owners, including the labor of hauling
goods to St. Augustine, about 100 miles (160 km) away. These policies, and mistreatment by
overbearing Spanish masters, led some Apalachees to flee to the English in Carolina.[9] Spanish
policy also forbade Indians the possession of muskets, which made them dependent on the
Spanish for protection against the English-armed Creeks.[10]

Raids before 1704

News that the War of the Spanish Succession (known in North America as Queen Anne's War)
had widened to include England arrived in Carolina by September 1702, and Governor Moore
convinced the provincial assembly in September 1702 to fund an expedition against
St. Augustine.[11] The expedition was a failure, and there was rioting in Charles Town over the
expenses incurred.[12] One significant accomplishment of the St. Augustine expedition was the
destruction of coastal Spanish mission towns in Guale Province (present-day coastal
Georgia).[13] After the expedition, Florida Governor José de Zúñiga y la Cerda ordered the

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remaining Spanish missions in Apalachee and Timucua Province to be moved closer together
for defensive purposes.[14][15] Missions in Mocama Province were consolidated south of the St.
Johns River, and those in Timucua were consolidated at San Francisco de Potano. In early 1703
Creeks attacked San José de Ocuya and San Francisco de Potano, also raiding either Patali or
Piritiba; it is possible that as many as 500 Indians were enslaved as a result of these raids.[16]

Ayubale
In 1703 ex-Governor Moore presented to the Carolina assembly and his replacement, Nathaniel
Johnson, a plan for an expedition against the Spanish towns in Apalachee Province.[17] He
promised that, unlike the St. Augustine expedition, the colony would not have to pay for
anything; he expected its costs to be recovered by the taking of loot and slaves.[18] On
September 7, 1703, the Carolina assembly approved the plan, asking Moore to go "to the
Assistance of the Cowetaws and other our friendly Indians, and to attacque the Appalaches."[19]
After recruiting 50 colonists, he traveled to the upper waters of the Ocmulgee River, where he
recruited 1,000 Creek Indians to join the expedition against their traditional enemies.[18]

On January 25, 1704, Moore's force arrived at Ayubale, one

of the larger mission towns in Apalachee. While most of the
Creeks raided the surrounding villages, Moore took most of
the whites and 15 Creek into Ayubale itself around 7:00 am.
The only resistance was organized by Father Angel Miranda,
who retreated into the town's church compound, which was
surrounded by a mud wall. With 26 men he successfully held
the English at bay for nine hours, and only surrendered
Reconstructed church at San Luis himself, his men, and 58 women and children after they ran
de Apalachee; Ayubale's church out of arrows.[18] According to one Spanish account,
may have resembled it Miranda threw himself and his followers on Moore's mercy.
He was, according to this account (but apparently not
others; see below) then summarily slain in cold blood by
Moore's Indian allies, and some of his followers were then tortured and killed.[20]

Word of the attack reached San Luis de Apalachee, eight leagues (about 24 miles (39 km)) south
of Ayubale, where Captain Juan Ruíz de Mexía raised a force of 400 Apalachee and 30 Spanish
cavalry.[19][20] This force engaged Moore's at Ayubale, and was decisively defeated. More than
200 Apalachees were killed or captured, three Spaniards were killed and eight were captured,
with Mexía among the captured. There is evidence that as many as 50 Apalachee joined with the
English against the Spanish-led forces in this encounter.[2] Moore considered making an attack
on the fort at San Luis, but his force had suffered a significant number of wounds, so he opted
instead for an attempt at extortion. Some of the Spanish prisoners managed to escape, so he
released Miranda, Mexía and others to go to San Luis with the hope that the San Luis garrison
commander would then pay a ransom for them.[21] However, the garrison commander refused
to pay.[2]

Further raiding in Apalachee

Following the battle at Ayubale, Moore continued his march through Apalachee. One village,
San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco, survived when its leader surrendered his church's gold ornaments
and a train of supplies.[2] Moore moved slowly, since many of the Apalachee apparently wanted
to leave with the English. According to his report, most of the population of seven villages joined
his march voluntarily.[22]

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In Moore's report of the expedition he claimed to have killed more than 1,100 men, women, and
children. He also stated that he "removed into exile" 300 and "captured as slaves" more than
4,300 people, mostly women and children.[23] The only major missions to survive in Apalachee
were San Luis and San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco. The Spanish at first attempted to fortify these
places, but they were eventually judged to be indefensible and abandoned. The survivors were
consolidated at Abosaya, east of San Francisco de Potano.[24][25][26]

James Moore did not identify by name the places his force destroyed. Historian Mark Boyd has
analyzed English and Spanish sources documenting the missions and the effects of Moore's
raid. According to his analysis,[27] the following missions were the ones most likely to have been
destroyed:

La Concepción de Ayubale
San Francisco de Oconi
San Antonio de Bacqua
San Martín de Tomole
Santa Cruz y San Pedro de Alcántara de Ychuntafun

Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Pensacola mobilized their meager forces, but did not
return to Ayubale until after Moore's force had clearly left the area. They buried the Christian
dead, many of whom they reported as exhibiting evidence of torture.[21] Despite the losses, they
did not immediately abandon or consolidate the missions until further raiding took place, after
which the demoralized surviving Apalachee insisted they would either retreat to Pensacola or go
over to the English.[28]

Later raids
In the wake of Moore's raids, further raids were made into northern Florida, principally
executed by the Creeks. In August 1704, Creeks destroyed the Yustagan missions of San Pedro
and San Mateo; a year later they attacked the Apalachee at Abosaya. Further attacks against
Abosaya the next month prompted the survivors to flee to St. Augustine. In the spring of 1706,
Creek raiders besieged San Francisco de Potano and attacked the La Chua ranch near Abosaya;
both of these were abandoned, and Timucua was virtually depopulated by May 1706.[25]
According to Apalachee scholar John Hann, between Moore's raids and these later ones, 2,000
Indians went into exile, and an unknown number were enslaved.[29] The French governor of
Mobile, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, wrote that raiding the Florida area resulted in the
killing of 2,000 Apalachees and the capture of 32 Spaniards, 17 of whom were burned alive.[29]
By the end of 1706 the Spanish presence in Florida had been reduced to St. Augustine and
Pensacola.[30]

Consequences

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All of [this] I have done with the loss of 4 whites and 15 Indians, and
without one Penny charge to the Publick. Before this Expedition, we were
more afraid of the Spaniards of Apalatchee and their Indians in
Conjunction with the French of Mississippi, and their Indians, doing us
Harm by Land, than of any Forces of the Enemy by Sea. This has wholly
disabled them from attempting anything against Us by Land.

— James Moore's report[31]

Many survivors fled westward and settled near the French colonial outpost of Mobile, while
others ended up near either St. Augustine or Pensacola;[22] Bienville reported that about 600
refugees were settled near Mobile.[29] The Apalachees taken by Moore were resettled either
along the Savannah River, or among the Creek on the Ocmulgee River.[32] The free Apalachee
refugees that settled these areas were frequently harassed by slavers; in some cases Indians
taken as slaves were freed after protests were made to Carolina authorities.[33]

The Spanish responded to the raids by encouraging privateering raids against Carolina coastal
plantations. In the following years, the English colonists continued to make inroads against
Spanish and French interests in Florida and on the Gulf Coast, but they were never able to
capture St. Augustine, Pensacola, or Mobile, the main Spanish and French settlements.
Pensacola was twice besieged by Creek forces in 1707, apparently with English colonial
support.[34] English-supplied Indians also made incursions into French-dominated territories
to the west, but English intentions to assault Mobile never got beyond the planning stages; there
was a raid on an Indian village near Mobile in 1709.[35]

Historiography
Due in part to the somewhat fragmentary, unclear, and contradictory primary materials about
these raids, historians have at times written widely varying accounts of the number of Indians
that were enslaved. Although Moore claimed in his report that a large number of Apalachee
were enslaved, modern historians believe that a significant number of those resettled by Moore
went voluntarily, and were not actually slaves. Vernon Crane, in The Southern Frontier,
1670–1732 (originally published in 1929), uncritically accepts Moore's numbers,[31] and 19th
century South Carolina historian Edward McCrady only mentions 1,400 Apalachees being
taken, of whom only 100 were slaves.[36] Historian Allan Gallay, in a modern analysis, opines
that the raids in 1704 alone resulted in the enslavement of between 2,000 and 4,000
Indians.[30]

Opinions also differ as to the long-term fate of the Indians that voluntarily went with Moore.
Since a 1715 census of the Savannah River settlements counted fewer than 650 Apalachees,
Allan Gallay believes that the balance were probably sold into slavery.[30] James Covington
believes that a combination of factors was to blame: in addition to active slaving against those
settlements, disease, starvation, intermarriage with other tribes, and migration to other
communities account for the difference.[37]

See also
List of massacres in Florida

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References

Citations
1. Hoffman, p. 178 20. TePaske, p. 114
2. Covington (1972), p. 373 21. Boyd et al, p. 16
3. Arnade (1962), p. 31 22. Covington (1972), p. 374
4. Crane (1919), p. 381 23. Boyd et al, p. 13
5. Crane (1919), p. 384 24. Boyd et al, pp. 12–17,73
6. Boyd et al, p. 10 25. Hoffman, p. 180
7. Covington (1972), p. 367 26. Milanich, p. 187
8. Boyd et al, pp. 6–8 27. Boyd et al, pp. 13–14
9. Covington (1972), pp. 369–371 28. Boyd et al, pp. 17–18
10. Wright, p. 65 29. Gallay, p. 147
11. Crane (1956), p. 76 30. Gallay, p. 148
12. McCrady, pp. 382–386 31. Crane (1956), p. 80
13. Covington (1972), p. 371 32. Covington (1972), p. 376
14. Boyd et al, foreword 33. Covington (1972), pp. 377–378
15. Olexer, p. 119 34. Hoffman, p. 181
16. Hoffman, p. 177 35. Griffen, pp. 251–253
17. Crane (1956), p. 78 36. McCrady, p. 393
18. Covington (1972), p. 372 37. Covington (1972), p. 378
19. Crane (1956), p. 79

Sources
Arnade, Charles W (1962). "The English Invasion of Spanish Florida, 1700–1706". The
Florida Historical Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 41 (1, July): 29–37. JSTOR 30139893
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/30139893).
Boyd, Mark F.; Smith, Hale G.; Griffin, John W. (1999) [1951]. Here They Once Stood: the
Tragic End of the Apalachee Missions. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
ISBN 978-0-8130-1725-9. OCLC 245840026 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/245840026).
Covington, James (1972). "Apalachee Indians, 1704–1763". The Florida Historical
Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 50 (4, April): 366–384. JSTOR 30147307 (https://www.j
stor.org/stable/30147307).
Crane, Verner W. (1919). "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne's War". The American
Historical Review. 24 (3, April): 379–395. doi:10.1086/ahr/24.3.379 (https://doi.org/10.108
6%2Fahr%2F24.3.379). JSTOR 1835775 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1835775).
Crane, Verner W (1956) [1929]. The Southern Frontier, 1670–1732 (https://archive.org/detail
s/southernfrontier0000cran). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
hdl:2027/mdp.39015051125113 (https://hdl.handle.net/2027%2Fmdp.39015051125113).
ISBN 9780837193366. OCLC 631544711 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/631544711).
Gallay, Allan (2003). The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the
American South (https://archive.org/details/indianslavetrade00gall). Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-08754-3. OCLC 48013653 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48013653).
Griffen, William (1959). "Spanish Pensacola, 1700–1763". The Florida Historical Quarterly.
Florida Historical Society. 37 (Volume 37, No. 3/4, January–April): 242–262.

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JSTOR 30166288 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/30166288).

Hoffman, Paul E (2002). Florida's Frontiers. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
ISBN 978-0-253-34019-1. OCLC 248260149 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/248260149).
McCrady, Edward (1897). The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government,
1670–1719 (https://archive.org/details/historysouthcar00mccrgoog). New York: Macmillan.
p. 382 (https://archive.org/details/historysouthcar00mccrgoog/page/n352). OCLC 1748080
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1748080).
Milanich, Jerald T (1999). Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and
Southeastern Indians (https://archive.org/details/laboringinfields00mila). Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-56098-940-0. OCLC 245837104 (https://www.wo
rldcat.org/oclc/245837104).
Olexer, Barbara (2005). The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times.
Columbia, MD: Joyous. ISBN 978-0-9722740-4-3. OCLC 255476011 (https://www.worldcat.
org/oclc/255476011).
TePaske, John J (1964). The Governorship of Spanish Florida, 1700–1763 (https://archive.o
rg/details/governorshipofsp0000tepa). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. OCLC 478311
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/478311).
Wright, J. Leitch Jr (1971). Anglo-Spanish Rivalry in North America (https://archive.org/detail
s/anglospanishriva0000wrig). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
ISBN 978-0-8203-0305-5. OCLC 213106 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/213106).

Further reading
Covington, James (1968). "Migration of the Seminoles into Florida, 1700–1820". The Florida
Historical Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 46 (4, April): 340–357. JSTOR 30147280 (htt
ps://www.jstor.org/stable/30147280).
Oatis, Steven J (2004). A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the
Yamasee War, 1680–1730 (https://books.google.com/books?id=_rcFu4KjwVAC&q=%22Que
en+Anne%27s+War%22+Carolina&pg=PA42). Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN 978-0-8032-3575-5. OCLC 470278803 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/470278803).
Wasserman, Adam (2009). A People's History of Florida 1513–1876: How Africans,
Seminoles, Women, and Lower Class Whites Shaped the Sunshine State. Sarasota, FL:
self-published. ISBN 978-1-4421-6709-4. OCLC 455328777 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/
455328777).

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