La Florida: The Interactive Digital Archive of the Americas is a unique collaborative initiative, combining innovative historical research with cutting-edge technology. The site offers users a multidisciplinary perspective of colonial Florida’s rich history, a history that extends far beyond what we think of as ‘Florida’ today. In the sixteenth century, the “Provinces of La Florida” extended up the entire Atlantic coastline and inland to the Mississippi River. Yet despite Spain’s claim to the region, its sovereignty over Florida was always tenuous, and often contested. For more than three centuries, competing colonial powers, free and enslaved blacks, and Native Americans interacted to shape Florida’s unique and diverse landscape.

The presentation will focus on an initiative titled, Europeans, Indians and Africans: Lost Voices from America's Oldest Parish Archive, 1594-1821, a project designed to make St. Augustine's diocesan archives accessible to a global audience. Together, these ecclesiastical records provide unparalleled insight into the daily lives of colonial St. Augustine’s multi-ethnic inhabitants, and the relationships between the settlement’s European, African and Indian residents. The collaborative two-year project is designed to engage a global audience, specialists and non-specialists alike. The project's technology partners will design and implement a user-friendly platform to make these records freely accessible for teachers, students, scholars, public and anyone with internet access.

Piecing together clues about the little-known lives of Native Americans, free and enslaved Africans, along with “conquistadors” from Spain, Portugal, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere, La Florida brings early Florida's diverse population to life through short videos, interactive maps, and a searchable population database. It weaves together the lives and events of more than three centuries of Florida's colonial past, from Juan Ponce de León's 1513 expedition to 1821, when Florida became a U.S. territory

Rachel L. Sanderson has served as Associate Director of La Florida: The Interactive Digital Archive of the Americas since its inception in 2016. She holds a BFA from the University of Tampa and a BA in History from University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. In 2017, Sanderson graduated with an MLA in Florida Studies from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. Her thesis project focused on the remarkable lives of two noble women in sixteenth-century Florida, one a young Spanish woman and one a female Indian chief. Sanderson is an expert paleographer. She has spent more than two years in Spain conducting archival work and has presented her research at several national conferences.

The event is free and opened to the public. The presentation will begin at 7:00 PM in the Flagler Room on the Flagler College Campus, 74 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084.

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