Constructing Floridians

Florida Book Awards, Silver Medal for Florida Nonfiction Florida Historical Society Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award "Compelling stories of people whose ideas about themselves changed as they struggled to understand new people and circumstances. . . . A rich tale of cross-cultural divisions and mutual disappointments."--Journal of Southern History "Through an examination of Spanish, French, and English written accounts, Murphree contends that despite their differences, Florida’s European colonists all developed common attitudes towards the region’s native populations."--Florida Historical Quarterly "Race and racism simply did not arrive to the shores of Florida. Instead, this volume demonstrates how racism emerged out of the frustrations and failures of the Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Britons to control the land and people of Florida."--Andrew K. Frank, author of Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier

Constructing Floridians explores the ways racial identities developed in peninsular Florida and beyond during the 300 years before the founding of the United States. Daniel Murphree shows how the peoples of Spain, France, and Great Britain and half a dozen Florida tribes--the Guale, Calusa, Timucuans, Apalachees, Creeks, and Seminoles--created understandings of one another and themselves. Murphree argues that the Europeans, frustrated by their inability to "tame" the peninsula, blamed the natives for their problems and that barriers between the Europeans and the Indians hardened over time. His focus on race and identity opens up a rare perspective on the story of Florida's past.