WHY A 1540 DATE MATTERS

The year 1540 sits at an important point in the history of the Southeast.

European powers had already begun exploring the Atlantic coast and the Caribbean, but permanent European control over the interior was still far away.

That makes de Soto’s expedition an unusually early encounter.

The people of Capachequi were living in a world that had not yet been reorganized by later English settlement.

There were no British plantations in the region.