Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, FL

 

March 11, 2021

The Castillo de San Marcos is a 320 year old stone fort.  The stone is made of coquina: a local rock composed of shell.  Coquina made the Castillo cannon-proof--the natural air pockets acting like a sponge and absorbing the shock of the cannonballs.  Its design made it impenetrable to enemies.  There was no area of the exterior walls that was hidden from the guards above.  Their enemies were also unable to dig their way inside, because they hit water within a few feet and the base of the walls was far too thick.  Enemies were also unable to starve St. Augustine if citizens resided in the Castillo, because they could hide their herds in the lower sections of the outer walls.  This amazing fortress was crucial to the Spanish and British as they colonized Florida.  As the colonial era came to a close, the fort was used by the U.S. army.  Because of the Castillo's rich and long history, different people groups had their own perspectives and experiences in this space.  From it, we can learn much about the Europeans who came to St. Augustine, the Native tribes and other tribes that were relocated here, and both the African slaves and black freedmen.    

Click here to access the National Park Foundation website where I obtained this information and where you can read further about this site.

Artifact 1: Escape Door

The old plans for the Castillo included an outer escape door at the back wall.  Though it was filled in later, we can still see the key stone and the outline of the doorway where the door once was.

Artifact 2: Prison Cell Window

For a time, Osceola and his warriors were imprisoned in the Castillo.  Though there is much speculation about where the event actually occurred, some believe that the 20 warriors which escaped went through this window.  Inside the walls, this window was several feet off the ground and--though the picture is deceiving--around 20 feet off the ground on the outside.  The warriors starved themselves until they were skinny enough to slip through the thin opening.  This was an important event, because most of the Seminoles that live today trace their heritage back to the 20 warriors who escaped.

Photos of the Exterior and Complex Grounds:

(image source link: https://www.visitstaugustine.com/event/national-park-week-castillo )

Photos in Conversation with this Site:

It was during the Second Seminole War that Osceola was imprisoned in the Castillo--then called Fort Marion.  This war was a series of skirmishes from 1835 to 1842 between the US military and Florida Native tribes.  It began with the passage of the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson which would force Florida Natives out of their ancient homeland.  When chiefs around Florida submitted to removal from Florida and agreed to the Treaty of Payne's Landing, a young native named Osceola rose up in opposition.  Osceola acted as chief of the Seminoles--which was a mix-matched group of Florida tribes--and led the fight against the US.  In 1837, he agreed to parley with a US general at Fort Marion under truce, but was imprisoned upon arrival.

Imprisoned in the fort with Osceola was another important Seminole figure, Coacoochee--or Wild Cat.  Wild Cat led the infamous flight from Fort Marion with his friend Talmus Hadjo.  After escaping with 20 other warriors, Wild Cat became a symbol of hope to the Seminoles.  Sadly, many were still relocated to Oklahoma, but several hundred escaped to the Everglades.  

(image source link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osceola and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cat_(Seminole) )

Creative Response:

This is a Prismacolor pencil sketch of the Castillo de San Marcos.  During our tour of the fort, I learned that the Castillo was once plastered white with red accents.  My drawing is a depiction of what it may have looked like before the plaster was worn away.  Today, you can still see traces of white and red on the coquina walls.

ENG 202 Connection:

"'You have least to complain of.  You lose your sons, but these people have lost a way of life, and with it their pride, their dignity, their strength.'"

"At that point he paused and once more addressed himself to Archilde, for whom this story was intended.  'Perhaps this talk of fighting and men dying means little to you.  It is a little thing now, but when it was happening it seemed big.  You will die easily, but if you had lived then you might have died fighting to live.'"

-D'Arcy McNickle, The Surrounded (p. 59 & 72)

In both quotations, the speakers express the pain and loss indigenous peoples experienced at the hands of colonizers and captors.  Their words are heavy and hopeless--counting the loss of "a way of life" equal to the loss of sons.  The Castillo shares the same heaviness.  Though we do not often talk about the dark history of the fort, many native groups were incarcerated there.  Out of "mercy," American generals did not murder indigenous tribes.  Instead, they imprisoned them and attempted to "civilize" them.  It was a process of assimilation and the erasure of native culture.  Many--such as Osceola's warriors--died fighting to really live.  

Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum, St. Augustine, FL

 

March 4, 2021

The Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum stands today where many Spanish and British colonial government houses have stood.  The first was completed in 1598 for the Spanish governor of Florida.  It served both as his home and the government building of the capital, St. Augustine.  The building that stands today became a courthouse after Spain gave Florida to the United States in 1821.  It later became a post office and customs house for ships entering the harbor in 1937.  Besides the location, the only remnants of the colonial Governors' houses are the old coquina stone walls.  Though they do not know how old the stone walls are, they could have been from the First Spanish Period.  The St. Augustine Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission--established to "direct research, acquire, construct, restore, and preserve with funds appropriated by the state"--took ownership of the building in 1959 and it no longer served as a post office or government building.  In 1989, the building was put under jurisdiction of the University of Florida, where they still use it as a library to access, curate, and catalogue 980 boxes of archeological research done by the Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission.  The University of Florida's mission at the Government House is "to ensure long-term preservation and interpretation of state-owned historic properties in St. Augustine while facilitating an educational program at the University of Florida... responsive to the state's needs for professionals in historic preservation, archaeology, cultural resource management, cultural tourism, and museum administration and...[to] help meet needs of St. Augustine and the state through educational internships and programs."

Click Here to access the Governor's House website where I obtained this information and where you can read further about this fascinating site.

Artifact 1: Religious Medallions, Rosary Beads, and Crosses

In this display case are religious medallions, rosary beads and crosses, amulets, sharp instruments for self-inflicted penitence, and burial shroud pins.  The Government House has hundreds of interesting artifacts from the Spanish colonial period that illustrate what life was like in St. Augustine.  For the Spaniards, Catholicism was a crucial aspect of their identity.  One of their main objectives in colonizing the new world was the conversion of native peoples to Catholicism.

Artifact 2: Spanish Treasure

They also had Spanish coins and jewelry in the collection.  These were often made in the Americas to be shipped off to Spain.  They show how the Natives' lives became entwined with the Spanish way of life.  The Spanish traded beads, precious metals, and other ornamental items with them.  Natives also gathered precious metals the Spanish lost or left behind to create ornamentation and utilitarian objects.

Photos of Exterior

Photos in conversation with this site:

This photo belongs to the University of Florida, and captures the Governor's house in 1764.  Elsbeth Gordon was the creator of this image.  Though it looks like a photograph, it must have been a watercolor or ink illustration since it was created in the 18th century.

(image source link: http://staugustine.ufl.edu/govHouse-photos.html )

This photo belongs to the St. Augustine Historical Society, and captures the Government house 100 years later, in 1864.  A photographer in the Union Army--named Samuel A. Cooley--took this photo.

(image source link: http://staugustine.ufl.edu/govHouse-photos.html )

Creative Component

This phrase was displayed in bold letters over an exhibit on the Governor's House first floor.  It stuck out to me and I felt it fully captured the mission of the Government House in St. Augustine's community.  I made a collage out of the types of artifacts the Government House preserves and collects for future generations.  I included a map of colonial Florida, a postcard, a colonial-era letter, an old illustration of St. Augustine, and an old photograph of the plaza.  

ENG 202 Connection:

"'Why he had gone to live with the Indians Max could not explain, except to say that he wanted a free life and they had it... Some men went to the Indians because they were lazy, physically and morally, and saw in these simple people a chance to satisfy all their appetites with a minimum of effort.  But Max hardly belonged to that class... It was not laziness, and it was not romanticism.  He never thought the Indians were 'noble' or children of a lost paradise.  While it was true that the old life was much cleaner than the present existence, it was still hard for a white man to stomach..."

-D'Arcy McNickle, The Surrounded (p. 41-42)

This passage is a bleak portrayal of Native/European relations during the age of exploration.  Similarly, the Spanish coins and jewelry (Artifact 2) give us a physical representation of cultural exchange in St. Augustine between the Spanish and indigenous peoples.  Both sides were wary of each other and both came with misconceptions.  Combining a personal narrative like McNickle's with physical evidence gives us a more complete understanding of this complex dynamic.

Tolomato Cemetery, St. Augustine, FL

 

February 25, 2021

The Tolomato Cemetery is the burial ground for over 1,000 St. Augustine figures.  In this one small location, the history of St. Augustine unfolds.  It was closed in 1884, for fear that the bodies of yellow fever victims would spread the awful disease.  Though they fought on opposite sides of the field, both Union and Confederate soldiers rest peacefully together on these tranquil grounds.  This special ground also holds both clergy and laymen--the final resting place of beloved bishops and revolutionary heroes.  Among these are Governor Enrique White (Second Spanish Period governor), Bishop Agustin Verot (first bishop of St. Augustine), and General Georges Biassou (leader of a 1791 slave uprising which sparked the Haitian Revolution).  The cemetery is filled with Minorcan family names as well.  The men, women, and children buried here represent The First Spanish Period, British Period, Second Spanish Period, Florida's Territorial Period, and Florida's early Statehood Period.  The Tolomato History Preservation Association (TCPA) knows many of the burial plots because of the Cathedral Basilica's parish death records.  However, the Tolomato cemetery still holds many mysteries yet to be uncovered.  The TCPA's mission is to "preserve and protect the site and to interpret its rich history to the public...to provide regular access to the Cemetery, to introduce visitors to this fascinating part of St. Augustine's past and to make the Cemetery an even more beautiful part of modern St. Augustine."

Click here to access the Tolomato Cemetery website where I obtained this information and where you can read further about this fascinating site.

Artifact 1: Vault of Elizabeth Forrester

This vault is special to the TCPA, because they boast it as the oldest surviving marked burial in Florida.  A 16 year-old girl named Elizabeth Forrester was buried here in 1798.  At this time, clothes were priceless to early St. Augustinians, because sheep did not survive and cotton would not grow here.  Thus, cloth was imported and very expensive.  A time of great poverty, soldiers residing in the Castillo--who were paid nearly nothing for their labor--resorted to grave looting.  After Elizabeth's burial, two soldiers opened the vault and stole her clothes to sell at the black market.  They were soon found out, and her clothes returned.  The looting led to the construction of a fence around the cemetery.

USCT Markers

These headstones mark the resting places of two Civil War soldiers.  These solders were freedmen and part of the United States Colored Troops.  They fought on the Union side of the war.  Though the first pictured marker is very difficult to read now, the TCPA says that the soldier had a Minorcan last name.  He could either have been a Minorcan descendent himself, or the freed slave of a Minorcan family.  Often slaves who were loyal to a family were given the family last name when they were freed.  As for Hector Adams, they know he was a freed slave, but its is unlikely his last name was taken from previous masters.  Adams was a common last name for a freedman to take.  The parish records stated that Hector was baptized on his deathbed.

Exterior Photos of Cemetery

Photos in Conversation with this Site:

This is a photograph of the 21st United States Colored Infantry.  Both of the USCT Civil War soldiers buried in the Tolomato Cemetery were part of this infantry.  It is known for an incident regarding the civil rights of black soldiers during the Civil War.  The 21st Infantry was made up of emancipated slaves from Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.  At the time, white Union soldiers were paid $13 a month, while colored solders were paid $7.  Led by Sergeant William Walker--a 23 year-old freed slave of the 3rd Infantry--a group of 21st Infantry soldiers marched to the commanding officer's tent to protest their unequal pay.  They stacked their weapons and uniforms, refusing to serve in the military until they were paid fairly.  However, these actions were viewed as mutinous.  Walker was put on trial for inciting a mutiny and insubordination.  He was executed on February 29, 1864 by a firing squad.  Even as they fought to end slavery, their "deliverers" did not treat them fairly.  Click here for more information about The Court Martial of William Walker and here for more information about the 21st USCI.

(image source link: https://diaryofahistorian.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/harry-flowers-and-the-21st-united-states-colored-infantry/ )

This image depicts Timucua Natives treating the sick who had caught yellow fever.  This epidemic killed almost half of their population in the 1610s.  Many of the Timucuans who are buried at the Tolomato Cemetery died of yellow fever, along with Europeans who caught the disease.  Yellow fever would plague St. Augustine for centuries to come.

(image and information source link: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/staugustine/timeline/disease-disaster/ )

Creative Component

I used watercolor, white acrylic, and black water-based markers to make this painting.  As we were listening to the Tolomato Cemetery guide, I looked around at all of the masked faces gazing at these graves of yellow fever victims.  It was an eerie moment.  The little white flowers covering the cemetery grounds also caught my attention.  They are known as Pusley or "Florida Snow."  Though beautiful, these blossoms are associated with snow and winter.  Snow symbolizes death, suffering, and hardship--a very fitting adornment for the graves of the young people buried here.  But snow also symbolizes stillness.  This moment was still, solemn, and reflective for me.  I could empathize with the fear and hysteria these people must have felt as a strange illness ravaged the land.  But I also felt blessed to live in a time of modern medicine, where we do not have to experience the suffering these people endured.

ENG 202 Connection:

"That was the missionary priest, as his own book revealed him--a man of prodigious labors, a priest of gifted insight and broad sympathy, and a pathfinder.  Max Leon could think of him in all these ways.  And now that the priest lay dead, he could ask himself what it signified.  Blasphemous thought, but Max could not rid his mind of it.  What good had been accomplished?  What evil?... [Father] Grepilloux had shown the way over the mountains and the world had followed at his heels.  Life and industry filled the valley from one end to the other.  But was that enough?  The question came unbidden and Max worried with it against his will.  Practical man though he was, he asked himself whether people and farms and railroads answered the question.  As for the Indians who had been taught to understand sin, certainly they offered no satisfaction.  Instead one had to ask of them--were they saved or were they destroyed?  Bringing the outside world to them was not exactly like bringing heaven to them.  These questions appalled him; and that they should fill his head now, with the priest lying in his coffin, was near-sacrilege..."

-D'Arcy McNickle, The Surrounded (p. 138-139)

In this poignant scene, Archilde's father stands at the graveside of his departed friend and priest--and he cannot help but wonder what he truly accomplished in this life.  As I walked throughout the Tolomato Cemetary--ground that once belonged to the Timucua Natives--I was reminded of this passage.  Those who knew the priests that converted natives of the New World must have been filled with similar questions.  As they laid Father Felix Varela or Bishop Agustin Verot to rest, did they wonder, what are the consequences of what has been accomplished here?  What good?  What evil?