America's First Free Black Settlement

Wednesday, 9 March 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Lincolnville is the section of St. Augustine where the citizens of African descent reside. Since the end of the Civil War, segregation has slowly gotten stronger until personal prejudice is making it’s way into actual laws. These are dangerous times for people with dark complexions and they are only getting worse.

Lincolnville

The inhabitants of Lincolnville do their best to keep their neighborhood neat despite the lack of street paving or any other help from the city. There is a great sense of community here with the church serving as the heart. Preachers have a special respect here. Perhaps that is why in 1964 when another preacher named Martin Luther King came to town, folks listened.

The blacks of one of the most segregated cities in the country joined in the peaceful protest, daring to eat at white lunch counters and not fighting back as police dragged them away. Their non-violent civil disobedience in the face of violent opposition made the rest of the nation question the stupid inequality and the lack of fairness and side with the oppressed. St. Augustine was the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and helped push the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

Demonstrators in the St. Augsutine Movement

Perhaps it isn’t surprising St. Augustine would be the final stage of the struggle. This was after all where the fight for freedom had started.

I had been recording Lincolnville a bit at a time, not wanting to make the locals nervous, wondering why this white chap was nosing about. I think they had finally concluded I was just a naïve tourist, an Englishman who didn’t share his Southern American cousins attitudes towards non-whites. Today I dared to ask about, “Can anyone tell me where Fort Mose is?” Most just looked at me quizzically.

Finally an elderly gentleman pulled me aside. “Are you talking about the Fort that had colored soldiers?” (“Colored” is the politically correct term of the day.)

We introduced ourselves. His name was Obadiah Watkins. He told me he had heard old folks talk of a Fort “Mossa” when he was a kid. They said escaped slaves went there and built a fort to keep their masters from coming after them. Lot of folks said that was just a fairy tale, but he believed it and had looked for it.

"Did you find Fort Mose?” I asked.

Obadiah shook his head. “There is one spot north of town that might have been it once. Nothing there now. How did you hear of Fort Mossa?”

“It’s a matter of historical record,” I assured him.

“If it is, it ain’t public record.” He shook his head.

“Yes, I imagine here it would be shoved into a desk drawer and locked away, if not outright burnt. Luckily the Spanish took the record with them when they left.”

“I‘ll show you the spot if you tell me what you know about Fort Mossa.” Obadiah’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

Never ask a historian a question like that. I regaled him as we walked two miles north of town. Obadiah would only interrupt with eager questions.

As early as 1687, slaves running away from the British colonies up north were offered asylum in Florida by the Spanish. Besides giving the struggling outpost much needed workers, it also helped undermine the British plantations. So in 1693 the Spanish Government made it official. All they required was that the refugees swear fealty to the Spanish Crown, convert to Catholicism and serve in the militia for four years. The last stipulation meant they would have to fight their former masters if they attacked--which the former slaves would have agreed to anyway.

Despite the dangers of wilderness and slave hunters, by 1738 so many runaways had come to St. Augustine, the town decided to build a fort just outside of town for the recruits. The land around it was given to them to farm and create a settlement. At least 38 families lived at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé, better known as Fort Mose (pronounced Moh-say.) They were not segregated, but were always welcomed to come into St. Augustine, where they were viewed as the city’s first line of defense.

Fort Mose

In 1740, Georgia Governor James Oglethorpe brought 1,620 soldiers against the 100 settlers of Fort Mose. The inhabitants were able to escape to the main fort, Castillo de San Marcos in town and the British took over Fort Mose. Once their families were safe, the black militia came back with reinforcements and drove the British out. Just for spite, the Georgians burnt down Fort Mose on their way out.

Fort Mose was rebuilt, but in 1763 the fort was again abandoned. When Florida came into British hands, the inhabitants of Fort Mose, as well as the other Spanish citizens, all packed up and headed for Cuba.

Obadiah brought me to a copse of trees surrounded by marshy ground. There was no trace of the earthen bank that would have surrounded the fort. No surprise there, for earth to fill in swamps is a high commodity in this country. I do know that in 1986 archaeologists did find Fort Mose’s location. I will have to wait and see if Obadiah guessed right.

Obadiah's best guess as to the location of Fort Mose

I offered my guide some monetary compensation for his trouble but he refused it. He said my history lesson was payment enough. On the way back into town he told me how Lincolnville was founded. During the Civil War, while Florida joined the Confederacy, St. Augustine was occupied by Union troops. It was the only town in the south where the Emancipation Proclamation actually freed slaves--Obadiah being one of them. So in 1866 all those now ex-slaves started their own community and named it for the man who had freed them.

When we got back to St. Augustine I thanked Obadiah for his assistance. I wished him luck and tried to sound optimistic, for I knew the coming years will not be easy for him or his family. But they shall overcome someday.

Fort Mose Historic State Park

St. Augustine Movement

Showcase of the Gilded Age

Saturday, 27 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Perhaps the best way to beat the competition is to be your own competition! Right across the street from Henry Flagler’s Ponce de Leon Hotel is Flagler’s Alcazar Hotel. He construction on his second hotel as soon as the first was finished. I checked into the Alcazar yesterday so I could record the building as a guest.

The Alcazar Hotel as seen from the Ponce de Leon Hotel

I believe I told you last week of the Methodist Church Flagler built? That was to replace the one he bought and tore down to build this hotel. He gave the Methodists a much grander church for being such good sports.

Flagler also demolished a roller rink and filled in a creek. He bought a farm north of town so he could dig up dirt to fill in the Maria Sanchez Creek. The farm he dug up had been the site of the historic first Fort Mose, a community of free black settlers back in 1738. Flagler didn’t let expense, history or God get in his way of his schemes.

The Alcazar Hotel was opened in 1888, built with poured concrete and coquina stone just like the Ponce de Leon Hotel. It was designed by Carrère and Hastings, who also designed the Ponce de Leon. They will go on to design numerous other buildings including the New York Public Library. That famous building will not be as grand as this one.

Parlor of the Alcazar Hotel

The hotel has a three-story ballroom, steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gymnasium, a casino and the world’s largest indoor pool. Just last year they added another 40 rooms as well as electricity. Edison installed two of his direct current dynamos to light the hotel.

Alcazar's indoor swimming pool

The Alcazar attracts many wealthy patrons, including former and future American president Grover Cleveland. He came here in 1889, between his two terms in office, to check out the casino. That same year Secretary of State Thomas Bayard took a few laps in the pool. At $3.50 a night, most people could never afford to stay here.

By 1932, those heady days will be gone. What with the Great Depression and the waning tourist trade moving further down the coast, the hotel had to be closed. In 1946 Chicago publisher Otto C. Lightner bought the Alcazar Hotel do house his vast collection of Victoriana. What better place than one of the former luxury hotels of the Gilded Age? The building itself would be part of his collection. He not only had art, furniture, and glassware from the period, but glass and polished wood museum cases full of stuffed animals, minerals and artifacts that Victorians loved to collect. Lightner would later donate his Museum to the City of St. Augustine.

Bridge across the fish pond in the courtyard

I will have to visit the museum when I get back to the future. For now I am enjoying the restaurant, the gardens, the swimming pool, the Turkish bath and a couple of massages. All in the name of historical research, of course.

The Lightner Museum

More photos of the Alcazar Hotel

 

The steam room - Turkish or Russian Bath

 

The Real Discoverer of Florida

Tuesday, 2 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

I have gone from winter in St. Petersburg Russia to winter in St. Augustine, Florida. No snow here. Temperature is in the 60s (Fahrenheit) today.

St. Augustine as it looks in 1892

St. Augustine brags it is the oldest city in the United States. There are some Pueblo in New Mexico that would argue with that. It is however the oldest port in the United States. Founded in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain, St. Augustine predates the first English colony, Jamestown by 42 years!

Old City Gates of St. Augustine

In 1763, Spain traded Great Britain Florida for Havana. In 1783, after the United States took over the colonies, they gave Florida back to Spain for their support in the Revolution. Spain thanked them politely, then ignored Florida which was nothing but a burden to them. They eagerly gave Florida back in 1821.

Florida has a high rainfall. It is also mostly flat. Since there are so few valleys or dells for rain to run off to, it just spreads out and forms swamps. Most of the state is now wetlands full of alligators, snakes and mosquitoes. Is it any wonder no one was too excited about colonizing it?

The swamps also created a haven for runaways. When the US government began rounding up the peaceful Amerindians of the southeast to cart off to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) many fled to the Everglades. They joined what was left of the native population here and created the Seminole tribes. Runaway African slaves also came into the swamps and set up settlements next to the Seminole towns, paying a small tribute for the tribe’s protection. Many intermarried and became full-fledged Seminoles themselves. When the tribes began raiding farms in Georgia, the US Army rounded the renegades up and sent them to Indian Territory. Well, the ones they could catch anyway. Deep in the Everglades the Seminoles are still living and thriving. The government pretends they aren’t there.

freedom-loving Seminoles

Towns in Florida of any size were only in the northern most part of the state. The peninsula had just small communities along the east and west coasts. Florida wasn’t even made a state until 1845, making it the 27th to be admitted. Settlers have come, experimenting with cattle farming and crops like oranges and pineapples. So far the thing that grows best is alligators.

Florida Pineapple Plantation

Until recently St. Augustine was just a quaint little colonial town. Then Henry Flagler showed up. John D. Rockefeller may have started Standard Oil Company, but it was Henry Flagler that turned it into the largest oil company in the world. It currently has a monopoly on the American oil industry. Needless to say Flagler is rich. And he has a good nose for opportunity.

Flagler came to Jacksonville, Florida, a bit to the north, on the advice of his wife’s doctor. It didn’t cure Mary, and she died in 1881. Two years later Flagler married her nurse and he returned to Florida for their honeymoon. This time Flagler came to St. Augustine. He was charmed by the town, but found the hotels and transportation lacking. Rather than warning his friends to avoid the place, Flagler came back in 1885 and started building hotels and bought the local railroad which he is expanding south. Soon he extend it all the way to the hamlet of Miami.

Flagler has turned the sleepy town of St. Augustine into a boom town and can be called the founder of what will become Florida’s biggest industry--tourism!. Flagler has remade St. Augustine. He will soon become the founder of Palm Beach and one of the founding fathers of Miami. Flagler’s “discovery” of Florida is more crucial to the people here than Ponce de Leon’s! I heard someone quip they should rename St. Augustine St. Flagler.

I have come to witness the beginning of Florida’s tourist trade. Right now winter is the busiest time as wealthy folks from up north come to escape the snow. Summer is hot and humid and June to November marks both the rainy season and hurricane season. It will take Disney World in the late 20th century to lure tourists down to Florida in the sweltering months.

While other temporal anthropologists are working in factories or living in bronze-age mud hovels, I get to stay at a posh resort. I almost feel guilty.

The Ponce de Leon, Flagler's first hotel, built in 1888
I'm staying here, 2nd floor on the right

The Ponce de Leon Hotel's lobby