In 1670, Charleston was founded by Barbadian colonizers which triggered a chain of events that would eventually lead to the destruction of the Florida missions. While the Spaniards’ primary settlement strategy was the establishment of missions among the Indians, English settlers employed a system of plantations whose labor force was drawn predominantly from African slaves. They engaged native populations primarily as trading partners and military allies.

In 1687, escaped slaves from Carolina arrived in Spanish St. Augustine, and the Carolinians promptly demanded the return of their “property.” In 1693, Charles II offered sanctuary to Carolinian slaves, and declared that escaped slaves would be free subjects of the Spanish Crown if they rendered obedience to the King and accepted Catholicism. The Spaniards’ policy weakened the English threat to the north, while increasing the population of their own settlements. It also created an extremely tense situation in Carolina since, by the beginning of the 18th century, whites were outnumbered by blacks, and slave owners were in constant fear of slave uprisings.

The outbreak of Queen Anne’s War in 1701 prompted open English hostility towards the Spaniards. Their 1702 attack on St. Augustine largely destroyed the town, but they were never able to capture the Castillo where most of the town’s residents took refuge. Following the raid on St. Augustine, the English set their sights on the missions as a way of weakening the entire Spanish enterprise in the Southeast. Between 1702 and 1704 the missions of Spanish Florida were destroyed and most of the mission Indians annihilated. Since it was heavily fortified, Mission San Luis was one of the last missions left standing. The Spaniards and their Apalachee allies evacuated the women and children, and then burned Mission San Luis on July 31, 1704, two days before the English strike force reached it.