Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum

48 King Street, Saint Augustine, Florida

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

The Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum is historically known as the Government House since 1598. It has been used to accommodate administrative headquarters for both Spanish periods and Britain. It is currently  managed by the University of Florida "to ensure long-term preservation and interpretation of state-owned historic properties in St. Augustine while facilitating an educational program at the University of Florida..." For more information, please visit, University of Florida, Historic St. Augustine. 

                                                 Artifact I:

Timucuan pottery and tools

Cooking pots, shells, stone tools, and beads left behind by different Timucuan tribes. Timucuans refers to the language group that lived in the Northeast and North Central portions of Florida. These were organized into many loosely related chiefdoms speaking different dialects of the Timucuan language. The earliest recorded evidence of their presence dates from around 3000 BC. 

Artifact II:

Gold toothpick, earrings, silver reales, gold escudos

Spanish colonial coins and gold were made in the Americas to control tax and shipping. Other items such as jewelry, ornaments, and religious objects were made by artisans to ship back to Spain. 

Exterior I:

Exterior II:

In Conversation:

Timucuan food

Source: Florida Museum

The Timucua hunted a mixture of animals and fish and smoked them to preserve for longer. They also cultivated corn, beans, and squash. The local chiefdom in the St. Augustine region was named after its chief, Seloy. It used to be located on what is now the Fountain of Youth Park. 

Manuel Riso

Source: Florida Museum

Manuel Riso was an indigenous Timucua man born in 1662. Records show he lived on Mision Nombre de Dios in 1759, the current-day Fountain of Youth Park. He left his native land and moved to Cuba when the Spanish left St. Augustine in 1763. 

ENG 202 Connection:

"Tell him it's all lies, what the priests say. It's all lies about the devil...Not the way the priests talk..."

-The Surrounded, (192), D'Arcy Mcnickle

Throughout the novel, the concepts of religion and conversion are spread throughout many chapters and characters. However, in this quote, Archilde is trying to convince Narcisse and Mike that the priests are lying to them about the idea of the devil, and what it causes to people. Archilde does not believe the devil will harm him in any way but has to convince Narcisse and Mike that the devil is not real to calm their anxieties. Similar to this situation, religion was used to instill fear and anxiety into the native populations to convert them and make them more controllable. 

Creative Component:

This collage contains pictures and artifacts found at the Governor's House Museum that were not shown above. This collection focuses on the Timucua people and their way of life that is often forgotten or ignored. The archaeological findings are the closest indicators of their way of life as the images are often created by colonizers who often blended different indigenous cultures together.