This week in Christian history: Anne Bradstreet dies, missionary goes to China, Huguenot massacre in Florida

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, September 15, 2019

French Protestants massacred in Florida — Sept. 20, 1565

The sixteenth century French colonial settlement Fort Caroline, which was located near modern day Jacksonville, Florida. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of what is considered the first battle between European powers in North America, which resulted in a massacre of French Protestants, known as Huguenots.

The battle involved Catholic Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capturing a Huguenot settlement located near present day Jacksonville, Florida. Over 130 Protestants were killed, with about 40 escaping.

“Most of those killed were massacred on the order of Aviles, who allegedly had the slain hanged on trees beside the inscription ‘Not as Frenchmen, but as heretics,’” noted History.com.

“The decisive French defeat encouraged France to refocus its colonial efforts in America far to the north, in what is now Quebec and Nova Scotia in Canada.”