In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

19 Proverbial Spanish wisdom admonishes betrothed couples in rhythm and rhyme, Antes de casar, ten casa de morar (Before marrying, have a house to live in). The residents of Spanish Florida developed ways to address this universal concern through combining the laws of the Spanish empire with local realities in the colonial period. In St. Augustine, brides, not grooms, often were the source of the homes for the new family. In part, the reliance on females for homes was a pragmatic response to the number of landless men. In the last quarter of the seventeenth century, men began arriving in Florida from Iberia and from Spain’s colonies to serve as soldiers . While the new military arrivals could offer a prospective wife a soldier ’s pay and perhaps money to acquire movable goods, they could not bring land for a home. The founding settlers’ “utopia of mutual hopes” for La Florida, where commoners would embrace land and profit and nobles would develop agricultural enterprises and acquire vassals, did not come to be. When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed at the place he would name St. Augustine in September 1565, he was guided and bound by a contract with King Philip II of Spain, signed on March 15, that apportioned among the king, Menéndez, and his investors the gold and silver, precious stones, pearls, and profits from mines that were to be had in La Florida, an area that included much of North America. The supporting cast of soldier-settlers and craftsmen expected to gain their riches from the acquisition of a parcel of land. No profit would accrue to the black slaves, of course. La Florida did not become a producing region for either Spain’s economic benefit or for the colony’s investors, but its proximity to the Gulf Stream offered an asset that Spain could not risk losing to the control of anIn My Mother’s House Dowry Property and Female Inheritance Patterns in Spanish Florida Susan Richbourg Parker 20 Susan Richbourg Parker other nation. Near St. Augustine, the Gulf Stream turned sharply eastward, and the natural propulsion of the current carried Spanish galleons away from the Americas and out into the Atlantic Ocean toward Europe. This route made St. Augustine the last chance for Spain’s fleets to get assistance with navigational problems or aid when enemy vessels threatened. When 1602 hearings questioned Florida’s benefit to the empire in light of its meager production, justification for maintaining the colony was put forth in the larger context of the colony’s role in providing security to the fleets and therefore to Spain’s economy. Spain needed Florida as a military outpost to protect the sea lanes. Spain’s forays into Mexico and Peru yielded developments that made the Gulf Stream truly a river of silver. Large-scale silver mining provided cargo for the annual fleet of ships that passed by the Florida peninsula on the fast ocean current to Europe. Silver production, which far surpassed that of gold, reached its greatest heights between 1550 and 1570, and St. Augustine was established during the latter years of that period. The continued existence of Florida as a Spanish colony became an expense to the Crown starting in 1570 with a decree that a regular annual royal subsidy would be paid from one of the king’s American treasuries; the first payment was made in 1571. The Spanish Crown could not renounce the costs of Florida without risking the loss of the colony and its protection of the fleets from the Indies. Yet in 1763, Spain would lose Florida as part of the larger imperial chess game of war and territory. Thus the Euro-American residents of La Florida would receive most of their support from the military payroll or situado (subsidy). Although Florida had some farms and cattle ranches, the majority of Euro-American property owners held real estate as family home sites within the walls of St. Augustine, the colony’s capital city, or nearby areas. Home sites in St. Augustine were not “units of production,” as they were elsewhere in North America, but residences with gardens and some food animals. Families did not rely on their home sites to sustain them or provide purchasing power; instead, the home sites augmented the military salaries and supplies provided by the Spanish Crown to support the soldiers. The focus of real property practices was to ensure living space for families, especially in a town where husbands were...

Share