Race defining Florida

The book “Constructing Floridians” by Daniel Murphee solely focused on European’s first contact with the natives in Florida. Race was the important issue in our reading. The Europeans saw the natives in Florida to be hostile barbarians and uncivilized but that was in their own perspective. The different religion, style of dress, language, appearance, and sexual practices that the natives have was just a shock towards the Europeans.  The colonizers wanted to civilized the natives. Well, civilize the natives like them. The Europeans tried to convert all of the natives to Christianity, give them a different style of clothing and change their sexual practices. By doing so the European ways was now dominant and Florida thus redefining race in Florida. Florida, which was once defined by native ways of living, was now converted to the European way, which is still present today.