The Florida Reader

As the first part of the North American continent to be explored and settled, Florida offers a long and diverse history. The Florida Reader brings together a selection of writings from that history and the state's rich mix of cultures: Timucua, Spanish, French, British, Seminole, Cuban, Black, Southern, Northeastern, Midwestern, Conch, and Cracker.

Editors Maurice O'Sullivan and Jack C. Lane trace a common theme in these writings: the way each author has envisioned paradise. From Jean Ribaut's Edenic description of "this incomparable land" in 1562 to T.D. Allman's search for the essence of Miami in 1987, all who have written about America's southern frontier have carried to La Florida, the land of flowers, the hope of a new and better life.

For the past four and a half centuries writers have viewed Florida as either a paradise offering unlimited possibilities of effortless gain or a lovely and fecund garden requiring effort and discipline to harvest its riches. These two views of Eden appear throughout these works, each of which provides what historians call a "primary source," an observer of Florida life during a specific historical period.