This episode is the third to explore Hernando de Soto’s invasion of the American southeast from 1539-1542.  Our goal, as always, is to make history fun and interesting, even when it is also brutal and ugly!

Hernando de Soto and his army spent the winter of 1539-40 in the center of Apalachee territory, now downtown Tallahassee. During 1540, the entrada explored Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, east Tennessee in the Knoxville area, and Alabama, finally coming to blows with the great chief Tascalusa in an epic and very bloody battle somewhere between Mobile and Selma. At the end of this episode, Soto is nominally victorious, but he is on the brink of losing everything.

Selected references for this episode

David Ewing Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas

Final Report of the United States: De Soto Expedition Commission