Apalachee massacre The Apalachee massacre was a series of brutal raids by English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their Indian allies against a largely pacific population of Apalachee Indians in northern Spanish Florida that took place during Queen Anne ' s War in 1704 . Against limited Spanish and Indian resistance , a network of missions was destroyed ; most of the population either was killed or captured , fled to larger Spanish and French outposts , or voluntarily joined the English . The only major event of former Carolina Governor James Moore ' s expedition was the Battle of Ayubale , which marked the only large - scale resistance to the English raids . Significant numbers of the Apalachee , unhappy with the conditions they lived in under the Spanish , simply abandoned their towns and joined Moore ' s expedition . They were resettled near the Savannah and Ocmulgee Rivers , where conditions were only slightly better . Moore ' s raiding expedition was preceded and followed by other raiding activity that was principally conducted by English - allied Creeks . The cumulative effect of these raids , conducted between 1702 and 1709 , was to depopulate Spanish Florida beyond the immediate confines of Saint Augustine and Pensacola . Background . English and Spanish colonization efforts in southeastern North America began coming into conflict as early as the middle of the 17th century . The founding in 1670 by the English of Charles Town ( present - day Charleston , South Carolina ) in the recently established ( 1663 ) Province of Carolina heightened tensions with the Spanish in Florida . Traders , raiders , and slavers from the new province penetrated into Florida , leading to raiding and reprisal expeditions on both sides . In 1700 , Carolina ' s governor , Joseph Blake , threatened the Spanish that English claims to Pensacola , established by the Spanish in 1698 , would be enforced . Blake ' s death later that year interrupted these plans , and he was replaced in 1702 by James Moore . La Florida . The Spanish population of Florida at the time was fairly small compared to that of the nearby English colonies . Since its founding in the 16th century , the Spanish had set up a network of missions whose primary purpose was to pacify the local Indian population and convert them to Roman Catholicism . In the Apalachee Province ( roughly present - day western Florida and southwestern Georgia ) there were 14 mission communities with a total population in 1680 of about 8 , 000 . Many but not all of these communities were populated by the Apalachee ; others were inhabited by other tribes that had migrated southward to the area . By the early 18th century the Apalachee Province had become a major source of food for the principal towns of St . Augustine and Pensacola , which were situated near lands not well suited for agriculture . The native populations of Florida were not entirely happy with Spanish rule ; there had been several uprisings against the Spanish in the 17th century . The Indians were often forced to do work for the Spanish military garrisons and plantation owners , including the labor of hauling goods to St . Augustine , about away . These policies , and mistreatment by overbearing Spanish masters , led some Apalachees to flee to the English in Carolina . Spanish policy also forbade Indians the possession of musket s , which made them dependent on the Spanish for protection against the English - armed Creeks . Raids before 1704 . News that the War of the Spanish Succession ( known in North America as Queen Anne ' s War ) had widened to include England arrived in Carolina by September 1702 , and Governor Moore convinced the provincial assembly in September 1702 to fund an expedition against St . Augustine . The expedition was a failure , and there was rioting in Charles Town over the expenses incurred . One significant accomplishment of the St . Augustine expedition was the destruction of coastal Spanish mission towns in Guale Province ( present - day coastal Georgia ) . After the expedition , Florida Governor José de Zúñiga y la Cerda ordered the remaining Spanish missions in Apalachee and Timucua Province to be moved closer together for defensive purposes . Missions in Mocama Province were consolidated south of the St . Johns River , and those in Timucua were consolidated at San Francisco de Potano . In early 1703 Creeks attacked San José de Ocuya and San Francisco de Potano , also raiding either Patali or Piritiba ; it is possible that as many as 500 Indians were enslaved as a result of these raids . Ayubale . In 1703 ex - Governor Moore presented to the Carolina assembly and his replacement , Nathaniel Johnson , a plan for an expedition against the Spanish towns in Apalachee Province . He promised that , unlike the St . Augustine expedition , the colony would not have to pay for anything ; he expected its costs to be recovered by the taking of loot and slaves . On September 7 , 1703 , the Carolina assembly approved the plan , asking Moore to go " to the Assistance of the Cowetaws and other our friendly Indians , and to attacque the Appalaches . " After recruiting 50 colonists , he traveled to the upper waters of the Ocmulgee River , where he recruited 1 , 000 Creek Indians to join the expedition against their traditional enemies . On January 25 , 1704 , Moore ' s force arrived at Ayubale , one of the larger mission towns in Apalachee . While most of the Creeks raided the surrounding villages , Moore took most of the whites and 15 Creek into Ayubale itself around 7 : 00 am . The only resistance was organized by Father Angel Miranda , who retreated into the town ' s church compound , which was surrounded by a mud wall . With 26 men he successfully held the English at bay for nine hours , and only surrendered himself , his men , and 58 women and children after they ran out of arrows . According to one Spanish account , Miranda threw himself and his followers on Moore ' s mercy . He was , according to this account ( but apparently not others ; see below ) then summarily slain in cold blood by Moore ' s Indian allies , and some of his followers were then tortured and killed . Word of the attack reached San Luis de Apalachee , eight leagues ( about ) south of Ayubale , where Captain Juan Ruíz de Mexía raised a force of 400 Apalachee and 30 Spanish cavalry . This force engaged Moore ' s at Ayubale , and was decisively defeated . More than 200 Apalachees were killed or captured , three Spaniards were killed and eight were captured , with Mexía among the captured . There is evidence that as many as 50 Apalachee joined with the English against the Spanish - led forces in this encounter . Moore considered making an attack on the fort at San Luis , but his force had suffered a significant number of wounds , so he opted instead for an attempt at extortion . Some of the Spanish prisoners managed to escape , so he released Miranda , Mexía and others to go to San Luis with the hope that the San Luis garrison commander would then pay a ransom for them . However , the garrison commander refused to pay . Further raiding in Apalachee . Following the battle at Ayubale , Moore continued his march through Apalachee . One village , San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco , survived when its leader surrendered his church ' s gold ornaments and a train of supplies . Moore moved slowly , since many of the Apalachee apparently wanted to leave with the English . According to his report , most of the population of seven villages joined his march voluntarily . In Moore ' s report of the expedition he claimed to have killed more than 1 , 100 men , women , and children . He also stated that he " removed into exile " 300 and " captured as slaves " more than 4 , 300 people , mostly women and children . The only major missions to survive in Apalachee were San Luis and San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco . The Spanish at first attempted to fortify these places , but they were eventually judged to be indefensible and abandoned . The survivors were consolidated at Abosaya , east of San Francisco de Potano . James Moore did not identify by name the places his force destroyed . Historian Mark Boyd has analyzed English and Spanish sources documenting the missions and the effects of Moore ' s raid . According to his analysis , the following missions were the ones most likely to have been destroyed : Spanish authorities in St . Augustine and Pensacola mobilized their meager forces , but did not return to Ayubale until after Moore ' s force had clearly left the area . They buried the Christian dead , many of whom they reported as exhibiting evidence of torture . Despite the losses , they did not immediately abandon or consolidate the missions until further raiding took place , after which the demoralized surviving Apalachee insisted they would either retreat to Pensacola or go over to the English . Later raids . In the wake of Moore ' s raids , further raids were made into northern Florida , principally executed by the Creeks . In August 1704 , Creeks destroyed the Yustagan missions of San Pedro and San Mateo ; a year later they attacked the Apalachee at Abosaya . Further attacks against Abosaya the next month prompted the survivors to flee to St . Augustine . In the spring of 1706 , Creek raiders besieged San Francisco de Potano and attacked the La Chua ranch near Abosaya ; both of these were abandoned , and Timucua was virtually depopulated by May 1706 . According to Apalachee scholar John Hamm , between Moore ' s raids and these later ones , 2 , 000 Indians went into exile , and an unknown number were enslaved . The French governor of Mobile , Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville , wrote that raiding the Florida area resulted in the killing of 2 , 000 Apalachees and the capture 32 Spaniards , 17 of whom were burned alive . By the end of 1706 the Spanish presence in Florida had been reduced to St . Augustine and Pensacola . Consequences . Many survivors fled westward and settled near the French colonial outpost of Mobile , while others ended up near either St . Augustine or Pensacola ; Bienville reported that about 600 refugees were settled near Mobile . The Apalachees taken by Moore were resettled either along the Savannah River , or among the Creek on the Ocmulgee River . The free Apalachee refugees that settled these areas were frequently harassed by slavers ; in some cases Indians taken as slaves were freed after protests were made to Carolina authorities . The Spanish responded to the raids by encouraging privateering raids against Carolina coastal plantations . In the following years , the English colonists continued to make inroads against Spanish and French interests in Florida and on the Gulf Coast , but they were never able to capture St . Augustine , Pensacola , or Mobile , the main Spanish and French settlements . Pensacola was twice besieged by Creek forces in 1707 , apparently with English colonial support . English - supplied Indians also made incursions into French - dominated territories to the west , but English intentions to assault Mobile never got beyond the planning stages ; there was a raid on an Indian village near Mobile in 1709 . Historiography . Due in part to the somewhat fragmentary , unclear , and contradictory primary materials about these raids , historians have at times written widely varying accounts of the number of Indians that were enslaved . Although Moore claimed in his report that a large number of Apalachee were enslaved , modern historians believe that a significant number of those resettled by Moore went voluntarily , and were not actually slaves . Vernon Crane , in " The Southern Frontier , 1670 – 1732 " ( originally published in 1929 ) , uncritically accepts Moore ' s numbers , and 19th century South Carolina historian Edward McCrady only mentions 1 , 400 Apalachees being taken , of whom only 100 were slaves . Historian Allan Gallay , in a modern analysis , opines that the raids in 1704 alone resulted in the enslavement of between 2 , 000 and 4 , 000 Indians . Opinions also differ as to the long - term fate of the Indians that voluntarily went with Moore . Since a 1715 census of the Savannah River settlements counted fewer than 650 Apalachees , Allan Gallay believes that the balance were probably sold into slavery . James Covington believes that a combination of factors was to blame : in addition to active slaving against those settlements , disease , intermarriage with other tribes , and migration to other communities account for the difference .