One of the great secrets of American history, more than 150 Spanish mission churches once dotted the landscape between modern Miami and the Chesapeake Bay. Built between the 1560s and 1760s, the missions were concentrated in what is now northern Florida and southern Georgia, but until recently their existence - and their influence on the region's native groups - has remained virtually undetected. Their wood and thatch buildings burned or rotted away, and sweeping epidemics gradually wiped out the entire populations of the Timucua, Guale, and Apalachee Indians. Drawing upon archaeological and historical research conducted during the last twenty years, archaeologist Jerald T. Milanich contends that the southeastern mission system, conceived as a way to save souls while converting a potentially hostile population into an essential labor force, was central to the Spanish colonial enterprise.

Often played down in favour of the larger competition for empire between England and France, the influence of the Spanish in English Carolina and the English in Spanish Florida created a rivalry that shaped the early history of colonial south-east America. This study is the first to tell the full story of this rivalry.

To many, the idea that women must work outside the home is a given. The days of the “stay-at-home-mom” seem to be gone. However, Jan Voerman—father, grandfather, and seasoned pastor—asks mothers to reflect upon how dropping their child off at daycare amidst tears and cries can negatively impact them in the future. He asks them to recall in comparison the joy and contentment that little face shows when he or she can be home in the presence of the most important person in their life: their mother. The time is brief that Christian mothers have to lead their little ones to Jesus and to raise them to respect God and their fellow human beings. Pastor Voerman recognizes the toll on mothers, their children, the church, and even society at large, when mothers must juggle the dual professions of home and career. His concern for mothers and families is based on the work of social science experts, personal observation, and on the very words of mothers who themselves feel torn in the struggle to be a superhero on all fronts.