Talking Back: Native Women and the Making of the Early South

A pathbreaking look at Native women of the early South who defined power and defied authority   “An artful, powerful book. . . . [A] substantial contribution to our knowledge of women in the so-called ‘forgotten centuries’ of European colonialism in the southeast.”—Malinda Maynor Lowery, author of The Lumbee Indians   “A remarkable book. Alejandra Dubcovsky pursued relentless research to uncover the histories of women previously unseen, even unnamed. As Dubcovsky shows, they had names, they had families, they had lives that mattered. The historical landscape is transformed by their presence.”—Lisa Brooks, author of Our Beloved Kin   Historian Alejandra Dubcovsky tells a story of war, slavery, loss, remembrance, and the women whose resilience and resistance transformed the colonial South. In exploring their lives she rewrites early American history, challenging the established male-centered narrative.   Dubcovsky reconstructs the lives of Native women—Timucua, Apalachee, Chacato, and Guale—to show how they made claims to protect their livelihoods, bodies, and families. Through the stories of the Native cacica who demanded her authority be recognized; the elite Spanish woman who turned her dowry and household into a source of independent power; the Floridiana who slapped a leading Native man in the town square; and the Black woman who ran a successful business at the heart of a Spanish town, Dubcovsky reveals the formidable women who claimed and used their power, shaping the history of the early South.

About the Author :
Alejandra Dubcovsky is associate professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Informed Power: Communication in the Early South. She lives in California.

Review :
Winner of the Rembert Patrick Award for a scholarly book on a Florida history topic from the Florida Historical Society Winner of the William L. Proctor Award from the Historic St. Augustine Research Institute Winner of the 2024 Mary Nickliss Prize from the Organization of American Historians Winner of the 2025 Ray Allen Billington Award, sponsored by the Organization of American Historians Winner of the Emory Elliot Book Award, sponsored by the Center and Ideas and Society, UC Riverside “An artful, powerful book. Alejandra Dubcovsky has created a substantial contribution to our knowledge of women in the so-called ‘forgotten centuries’ of European colonialism in the southeast.”—Malinda Maynor Lowery, author of The Lumbee Indians “A remarkable book. Alejandra Dubcovsky pursued relentless research to uncover the histories of women previously unseen, even unnamed. As Dubcovsky shows, they had names, they had families, they had lives that mattered. The historical landscape is transformed by their presence.”—Lisa Brooks, author of Our Beloved Kin “Phenomenal. This pathbreaking scholarship returns our attention to the Indigenous women who shaped the early south. Blending Indigenous studies and historical methodologies, Dubcovsky offers innovative accounts of Native power and survivance amidst colonial invasion.”—Elizabeth Ellis, Princeton University “Dubcovsky breathes vibrant life into documentary fragments as she expertly leads her readers through the Spanish colonial archive to rediscover the many women—be they Timucuan, Apalachee, Spanish or African—awaiting scholarly resurrection.”—Juliana Barr, Duke University “Carefully researched and evocatively written, Dubcovsky’s book centers Indigenous women in the history of the early South, offering a timely reminder that stories of war, empire, and Indigenous worlds are transformed when we attend to women’s power.”—Joshua Piker, William and Mary Quarterly