Claim OwnershipThe Other States of America: History Podcast
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© ERIC YANIS
Description
American History is far more complicated than a yearlong High School class could ever teach you. This podcast will tell you the rest of that story, focusing on colonies you've never heard of, that may be at your front door, like New Netherland and New Sweden, New France, the Haudenosaunee and the lampooned "Articles of Confederation," that serve as footnotes in the history presented to you. Join Eric Yanis, a NYS Certified Social Studies and SWD teacher, as he guides you through the history left out of the textbook.
114 Episodes
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The tale of the Province of Carolana is a story full of more myths and dreams than realities. A story full of twists and turns in England, Virginia and Barbados. Carolana led the way to Carolina, but caused intrigue in Florida, Louisiana and strangely put to bed over land in the Mohawk Valley of New York.
Spanish Florida is nearly abandoned until clandestine information of the English settlement of Jamestown is spirited away to Spain. The Floridanos were now to hunt down the English, and extend Spanish influence up the coast, to areas where they had previously been violently ejected.
Pocahontas’ peace falls apart and two devastating wars follow. As the Powhatan struggle to maintain their way of life and territory in the face of massive population loss. The colony of Virginia is booming. The Paramount Chiefdom is pressed to a breaking point, the effect of which has consequences echoing through time to the modern day.
Chief Powhatan and the settlers of Jamestown find themselves in a conflict only Pocahontas can end. The peace that follows however, will create greater challenges for the Powhatan that are only realized in hindsight. The Peace of Pocahontas will not hold for long.
The Great Chief Powhatan reigned over a Paramount Chiefdom of perhaps 22,000 people. Then suddenly a group of strangers arrive and settle within Powhatan’s domain, they have desirable goods to trade, but are otherwise a difficult bunch to assimilate. This is the story of Pocahontas, John Smith and Jamestown, as can best be told from the point of view of Chief Powhatan the Great Werowances of Werowances, often overshadowed by his misunderstood daughter.
In the land of Tsenacomoco, a young man named Wahunsenacawh inherits six chiefdoms, he and his brothers will go on to create the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom, consisting of 30 or more villages, each with its own traditions and folk-ways.
With the English Empire on the rise the Spanish consolidate their holdings in Florida and prepare for the worst, but the largest threat will prove to come from mother nature and the neighboring Natives. All of this is happening as the founding generation of Saint Augustine passes on.
The full story of Roanoke begins years before the foundation of the infamously “lost” colony of Roanoke, and involves the takeover of Newfoundland and Privateers in the Caribbean. This episode is the story of the first colony of Roanoke, the colony that set into motion many of the factors that led to the disappearance of the next colony, making it very clear where the lost colonists could seek safe haven in times of distress…
Pedro Menendez, the true founder of Spanish Florida has died leading to a number of governors in rapid succession, all the while the natives reduce the colony down to a single settlement. With recovery in sight, Sir Francis Drake attacks Saint Augustine with overwhelming force…
In 1567 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés left Florida for Spain, having planted Spaniards at twelve or so sites from the Miami area to modern day Tennessee. The hero of our last two episodes, his attention will be divided from this point on, as Spanish Florida endures the return of the French and the rath of Chief Carlos, Chief Felipe, Chief Saturiwa and the cunning Paquiquineo.
In the wake of 40 years of failure, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, an Admiral, not a Conquistador, is the first Spaniard to successfully settle Florida. Now he will try to rapidly expand Spanish Florida, all the while fighting the great Timucua Chief Saturiwa, putting down constant mutinies, and hunting down Chief Carlos II of the Calusa, who sacrifices shipwrecked Spaniards to an Idol.
French Hugeonots have made a secret colony in the land the Spanish call Florida and claim as their own. The King of Spain calls upon Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to oust the French and finally create a Spanish settlement in Florida, a feat many have tried and most have died undertaking, all ending in massive failure. Menendez will now have to quickly raise a fleet, gather colonists and race the French Fleet, led by rival Jean Ribault, to Florida. Menendez will carry out a Holy War in the New World, the effects of which reverberate outward to us today.
Tristán de Luna y Arellano is ordered by the Viceroy of New Spain to construct a series of forts and settlements from the Gulf, to the Mound Builders at Coosa, to Santa Elena in modern day South Carolina. With 1500 settlers, only an act of God could derail, De Luna's plans. For more information on the archeological finds related to De Luna see this wonderful podcast: https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/calamity-at-pensacola/
Hernando De Soto came to so-called Spanish Florida on orders to plant settlements and build fortifications along the coast. Instead he chased rumors of golden empires into the interior of North America, all for nothing. In late 1540, De Soto had the option to travel to Pensacola, where his boats awaited, but decided to set out in the direction of the setting sun in search of possibilities…
Hernando De Soto invades the Mississippians Chiefdoms of the South in search of gold, forgoing his orders to build a seaside colony. He begins a period of time known in the archaeological records as the Mississippian Shatter Zone, and fights the deadliest battle on American soil until the U.S. Civil War.
Hernando de Soto returns to Spain as one of the richest men in the Empire, from his share of the spoils toppling the Incan Empire. Now he seeks to sail to the New World once more to conquer the Natives of the land the Spanish call Florida convinced the venture will make him the richest man in the world.
From Florida to Mexico, a large force under Narváez lands at, or near, Tampa Bay in 1528, a few survivors appear in Mexico 8 years later. Along the way they were conquerors, castaways, beggars, shamans, surgeons, unwilling cult leaders and slaves. The primary account by De Vaca is a true story of transformation, or perhaps just an elaborate resume.
A judge named Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón meets a man from the land of Chicora who fills his head with tales of gold, pearls, domesticated deer and men with tails who only eat raw fish. De Ayllón brings the man to the King of Spain, and according to the historian Peter Martyr captivates the attention of the restless masses, 600 of whom will go with de Ayllón to the American South East.
Suggested Reading (full works cited will be presented in the season 4 endnotes episode)
Peter Martyr “Decades of the New World”
A SPANISH SETTLEMENT IN CAROLINA, 1526.By J. G. Johnson, M. A.
Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón's Doomed Colonyof San Miguel de GualdapeBy Douglas T. Peck
Juan Ponce de León is more famous today for the myths that surround him rather than the man that he was. Living in a brutal time, hot on the heels of the Reconquista and the voyages of Christopher Columbus, de León will leave a mark on the island of Puerto Rico and plant the seed for Spanish Florida. A life of high risk, high reward, violent behavior that will not make de León a modern man, but will make him a household name in the modern world.
Before the Age of Exploration the Mississippian Chiefdoms in North America vied for influence, cultivated vast stretches of land, created Hierarchies and elevated their leaders to sem-divine figures honored with massive earthen mounds. The Chiefdoms of Etowah and Coosa in modern day North-Western Georgia, had influence and reputation from the gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, and are a source of pride for the Muskogean peoples today.
Image Sources:
Maps and Artwork: The Superb Herb Roe, Creative Commons.
Images: Georgia Department of Natural Resources https://gastateparks.org/etowahindianmounds
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Excellent story telling. Great at exposing our poor education and myths about our origin story. Appreciate the revealing of our lack of altruistic ideas, and homogeneous thinking. Few historical articles mention various European religions and even atheist that existed. Tolerance is not part of our foundation.
What an excellent podcast! Eric Yanis is lively, off the wall and charismatic and it shows with his wonderful details of these so called "forgotten colonies/tribes of America". He is a passionate man, expanding on something that no doubt greatly enlightens his fellow countrymen and to foreigners such as myself, open up a world as alien to myself as the pashas of the Ottoman Empire. I am waiting for his take on Russian Alaska with trepidation... the New Amsterdam and New Sweden series were THAT good...and the fact he snuck in Portuguese America... epic!