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?
No comments:
Post a Comment