Mission San Pedro de Mocama was a Spanish colonial

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

mission on

Cumberland Island Cumberland Island, in the southeastern United States, is the largest of the Sea Islands of Georgia. The long-staple Sea Island cotton was first grown here by a local family, the Millers, who helped Eli Whitney develop the cotton gin. With its ...

, on the coast of the present-day U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, from the late 16th century through the mid-17th century. It was built to serve the

Tacatacuru Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Tim ...

, a

Mocama The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Thei ...

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The v ...

people.

History

San Pedro de Mocama was part of the missions system of

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...

, a territory of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...

. It was built c.1580 to serve the

peoples, a chiefdom of the

. San Pedro was one of the earliest and most prominent missions of Spanish Florida, and its church was as big as the colonial one in

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

. Together with Mission San Juan del Puerto on Fort George Island (in the mouth of the St. Johns River, Florida), it was one of the principal missions of what the Spanish came to know as the Mocama Province. San Pedro de Mocama, protected by an associated fort, was for a time at the northern extent of Spanish power, serving as a bulwark against the

Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 1 ...

people to the north. Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de de Puturibato was also built from 1595–1597 on Cumberland Island.

Tacatacuru peoples

The Tacatacuru were part of a Timucua group known as the

. The Mocama spoke a dialect of Timucuan also known as Mocama and lived in the coastal areas of southern Georgia and northern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. Mission San Pedro was built at the south end of Cumberland Island, near the main village of the Tacatacuru. By 1595 some of the Tacatacuru−Mocama living near the mission were fluent in Spanish. Some had learned to read and write in a combination of Spanish, Latin, and the system of writing the

Timucua language Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the ...

devised by Father Francisco Pareja, who worked at the San Juan del Puetro mission, located at the mouth of the St. Johns River at present-day Fort George Island. He wrote a

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adul ...

in Spanish and Timucuan that was printed in 1612. The Tacatacuru were severely affected by disease and warfare through the 17th century. Mission San Pedro de Mocama was abandoned in 1660. Pressure from other tribes led the Tacatacuru to abandon Cumberland Island by 1675.

Notes

References

* {{missions-by-country Spanish missions in Georgia (U.S. state) Native American history of Georgia (U.S. state) Spanish Florida Timucua 1587 establishments in New Spain Cumberland Island

History

Tacatacuru peoples

See also

Notes

References