More on my visit to oldest city in the nation

Mission Nombre De Dios

I'm back from my quick trip to Atlantic City (no, I didn't win any money), and I got my computer back from the shop, so it's time to continue my posts on my trip to the Amelia Island Book Festival in February.

I left off when I was still in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. One of the historic sites I visited there was the Mission Nombre De Dios. On this site, on Sept. 8, 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed with a band of settlers to found St. Augustine, the first permanent Christian settlement in the U.S.

A huge cross marks the site where Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales offered the first Mass in the Nation's first parish. The Spanish pioneers named this landing site Nombre de Dios -- Name of God -- and founded the first Mission in the United States.

Six hundred -year-old tree

Another interesting attraction in St. Augustine is a magnificent live oak. Anyone who knows me knows my fascination with old trees, and this one is considered to be one of the most remarkable trees in North America.

It's hard to see the size with just a photo, but the tree is said to be well over 600 years old, and was thus standing to witness the history of Juan Ponce de Leon discovering Saint Augustine's famed Fountain of Youth in 1513 -- a mere 600 feet from where the tree stands.

The Senator - live oak tree.

Unfortunately, the tree now stands in the parking lot of a Howard Johnson's Hotel, but at least it's still there for everyone to enjoy. It is also interesting to note that there is a palm tree adjoining the oak tree. Imagine the history and the hurricanes this tree has seen!

I'll be doing more on the Fountain of Youth later this week, and then continuing with my travels to the beautiful Southern city of Savannah, Georgia.

I had such a great time on my trip, I hope I can remember everything I wanted to share! Until next time!

Jessica James

Country's treasures stored in rural Virginia

Rokeby, where all of the documents
of the United States were stored in 1814.

I'm interrupting my posts on my trip to the Amelia Island Book Festival, because I volunteered at a great event over the weekend, and want to share.

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the Mosby Heritage Area Association sponsored a two-part event that featured a talk on the United States flag and a tour of the historic home, Rokeby.

The Library at Rokeby.

The afternoon began with Marc Leepson, author and historian speaking on The Star-Spangled Banner at the Carriage House at Oatlands Plantation. Following his talk, we went to Rokeby where the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution were stored for safekeeping in 1814 during the British occupation of Washington. The hallowed documents were kept in a still-intact vaulted room in the cellar.

Rokeby was originally built in the Georgian style of architecture. It was started in 1757 and completed in 1760 by Charles Binns II, who was the first clerk of the court for the newly formed Loundoun County, Virginia.

Painting of Washington in
the foyer at Rokeby.

Walking in the front door was like taking a step back in time. Upon entering, the first thing my eyes were drawn to was the large painting of George Washington, which the owner told me had hung at the Smithsonian. To the left of the entrance foyer were the library and study; to the right, the parlor and dining room. All of the rooms have fireplaces, and the owners have beautiful artwork hanging everywhere.

In the basement was a stone cooking fireplace, which is unusual as the kitchen was often in a separate building in those days because of the danger of fire.


Of course, the most interesting feature of the home was the large brick vault with two small windows. At one time there were iron bars on those windows and an iron door, but these were removed during the Civil War.

When the British planned on attacking Washington in August 1814, Stephen Pleasonton, a clerk of the Department of State had the archives of the United States moved to Leesburg to the then-vacant house of William Binns, grandson of Charles Binns II.

The documents were put int the vault and guarded by the Rev. Littlejohn, a Collector of Revenue for Loudoun County.

Who knew that all of the treasures of our country were once stored in a basement in rural Virginia? Many thanks to Rokeby's owners and the Mosby Heritage Area for this great program. It was a wonderful treat!

Jessica James

Visiting the "Castillo" in St. Augustine

Sallyport - the only way
in or out of the Fort.

Continuing my posts on my trip to Amelia Island for the Amelia Island Book Festival, I spent two days in St. Augustine and squeezed as much as I possibly could into those two days!

One can't go to St. Augustine without seeing "the fort." It is a huge, looming structure that is one of the most extraordinary places in the United States.

Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos sarted in 1672, making it one of the oldest standing structures in North America. This fortress served six different flags, survived hurricanes and withstood bombardments and sieges. Though it has undergone a lot of changes over the years, it reportedly appears much as it did when it was completed in 1756.

Re-enactment of cannon firing.

The Castillo (castle) was initially built by the Spanish to protect their empire in America. The fortress construction uses a "bastion" system with a star-like outline which eliminates blind spots for the guards on the sentry boxes. It also allows increased firepower by allowing multiple cannons to fire on the same target with a crossfire effect.

The fort is open to the public and is great fun to explore. Operated by the National Park Service, you can wander through the different casemates (rooms) that were used for food storage and military supplies such as gunpowder and cannonballs. All of these were constructed between 1738 and 1756, a time of almost constant warfare between Spain and England. The walls were raised to 35 feet during this time.

The courtyard of the Fort.

One of the most interesting parts of the fort I thought, was the courtyard, from which all the other rooms are entered. The courtyard was called "the place of arms" and was where soldiers would assemble and drill.

It was also here that the inhabitants of St. Augustine would live when the town was attacked. In 1702, the town was attacked by the English and about 1,500 townspeople and soldiers were packed inside the Castillo for 51 days!

I find it so interesting to walk through old structures like this. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we think of buildings that were around during the Civil War as old here in Gettysburg To think this fort was around before our country was even founded is mindboggling!

The Fort was pretty crowded when I went my first afternoon in St. Augustine, but when I went early the next morning I had the whole place to myself. It was great to walk around and try to imagine all of the people who had stood on that exact same spot.

One other interesting fact about the Fort, it was constructed of a rather rare form of limestone called coquina, a Spanish word meaning "tiny shell." This provided an unexpected feature of the fort. A cannon ball fired at more solid materials, such as granite or brick would shatter the wall into flying shards. Cannon balls fired at the walls of the Castillo burrowed their way into the rock and stuck there.

Next week I'll talk about my trip to the Fountain of Youth and some other sites in St. Augustine.

Jessica James

A look at the "oldest city in the nation"

Gateway to St. Augustine

Finally I am getting back to sharing details of my trip to Amelia Island that I took in February to be a Featured Author at the Amelia Island Book Festival. In a previous post, I left off when I was on my way to St. Augustine to spend a night there before heading to Savannah.

If you've never been to St. Augustine, put it on your bucket list! What a great city to visit if you enjoy history - and shopping! Hard to imagine, but "The Nation's Oldest City" celebrated its 400th birthday back in 1965!

For a little background, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain arrived off the coast of Florida, on August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. Eleven days later, he and his 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy with banners flying and trumpets sounding. He hastily fortified the fledgling village and named it St. Augustine. (This was 50 years before the English landed at Jamestown and 55 years before the Pilgrams landed at Plymouth).

Being from the Civil War town of Gettysburg, I tend to think of our buildings as "old" when they date back to the 1800s. In St. Augustine, there are structures that are more than 200 years older!

I had set my GPS to the address of a bookstore (Lion and Mermaid Bookstore) in St. Augustine where I was delivering an order of my historical fiction novels, when I found myself on a narrow cobblestone street (VERY narrow). I decided it would be better to find my hotel, park my Jeep, and carry the box to the bookstore.

View from balcony of Mantazas Bay.

My room at the Hilton was beautiful, and had a balcony that overlooked the Mantazas Bay and "the Fort," the Castillo de San Marcos -- which I will write about and post in a couple of days. (By the way, Mantazas means "slaughter" in Spanish. The bay was so named after the Spanish killed hundreds of French Huguenots who would not convert from Protestant to Catholic, and then threw their bodies into the bay).

After getting settled in my room, I set out on foot to explore and ended up walking more than five miles that first day. Toward the end of the afternoon, I decided there was too much to see in such a short time so I bought a ticket for a trolley tour and got a 70 minute ride to the top historic spots. The next day, I walked to the places that I wanted to get a closeer look at, which included the Fort and a 600-year-old live oak.

I'll talk about them more in a future post.

Jessica James

It's Read an Ebook Week

For those of you who have made the change from printed books to e-books, there are some great deals to be found this week over at Smashwords. They are running a "Read an Ebook" campaign, and authors have discounted their books - and in some cases - made them free for one week.

I have discounted my award-winning historical fiction novel Noble Cause by 25 percent and made From the Heart: Love Letters and Stories from the Civil War, free.

You can find the Civil War romance Noble Cause here.

You can find From the Heart: Love Letters and Stories from the Civil War here.

Jessica James

More on Kingsley Plantation

View driving into Kingsley Plantation.

I still haven't covered my visit to St. Augustine or Savannah during my journey as a featured historical fiction author to the Amelia Island Book Festival (I'm working on it!), but found some more information on Kingsley Plantation that I wanted to share.

Fort George Island where the plantation is located is made up of 1,000 acres that used to be covered with crops. Agriculture use ended around 1900, and since then the fields have reverted back to forest.

On this plantation, slaves were assigned according to the task system. A task was a specified amount of work required for each slave to finish daily. When the task was finished, slaves used whatever remained of the day to hunt, fish, garden or tend to other personal needs.

The slave quarters that you pass on the way into the plantation served as the home for 60 to 80 men, women and children. Each home had a fireplace for a kitchen and a room for sleeping.

Semi-circle of slaves cabins. The tree
in background is pictured in an old
photo of the slaves quarters.

The slave quarters at Kingsley are laid out in a unique way. Instead of a straight line like I've seen at other plantations, the houses form a semi-circle. This pattern is similar to village design in some areas of West Africa.

The buildings that remain are not all the same size, the reason being that the larger ones at the end of the row were given to the "driver" and his family for the extra responsibility of managing work assignments. The other large cabins were either shared for community activities such as cooking, or were given to skilled slave craftsmen as a show of status.

By the 1790s, Sea Island cotton was the main cash crop at Kingsley. This cotton grew best on the islands along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and north Florida. Its strong fibers are long and silky, making it very valuable.

The cotton plants grew as high as seven feet, and the cotton was picked daily from late July to December.

Main house at Kingsley.

The plantation house at Kingsley dates to 1798, and is the oldest plantation house still standing in the state of Florida. The house was designed so that windows on all sides of the rooms would allow breezes to cross-ventilate.

I discovered that when Kingsley and his African wife Anna moved their two sons and 50 of his freed slaves to Haiti in 1837, their two daughters remained in Jacksonville, married to wealthy white men. There are descendants still living in Florida today.

I will continue my posts on St. Augustine and Savannah next week!

Jessica James

A love story from the days of slavery

(Continuing my blog post about my trip to the Amelia Island Book Festival and the sidetrips I took on the way and the way back).

I will have to break my St. Augustine trip into a couple of posts because there was so much to see! When I left Amelia Island, I decided to take a detour to see Kingsley Plantation because there was such a unique backstory to it. It is located on Fort George Island (didn't realize that it was located on an island, until I was leaving), and is said to be the best example of an 1800s sea island cotton plantation in Florida.

I honestly felt like I was in a mystical land as I was driving down the long, tree-lined drive. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and everything sparkled and looked magical. I kept thinking to myself, "Where am I?" because I definitely wasn't in Pennsylvania anymore!

Remains of slave cabins.

The historic park includes a plantation house, kitchen house, barn, and the ruins of 25 of the original slave cabins. According to a Park Service brochure, during Florida’s plantation period (1763-1865), Fort George Island was owned by several plantation owners. However, the property was named after Zephaniah Kingsley, who operated the plantation from 1813-1839.

Closeup of tabby made up of oyster shells.

I pulled over as soon as I saw the slave cabins, which are made of tabby (an oyster shell concrete) and stand in a semi-circle about a 1/5 of a mile from the plantation home. It was amazing to walk among them and think of all of those who had lived there a century and more ago. The large tree you see in the picture above is actually shown in a photo with slave children playing beneath it.

The Main House.

The main house was built using slave labor in 1798,during the days when Florida was still a Spanish colony. In 1814, it was purchased by Zephania Kingsley and his African wife, Anta (Anna) Madgigine Jai. He had first come to Florida in 1803 and purchased her as a slave in Cuba in 1806. The two fell in love, however, and Kingsley set Anta and her children free in 1811. Even though he continued to own slaves, Kingsley became a major proponent for the rights of free blacks in America.

Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States in 1821 and the Kingsleys found themselves facing major changes in the laws affecting African Americans. By 1830, Kingsley realized there was no immediate hope of changing laws in the United States. He freed 50 of his slaves and took them to Haiti where he established a free settlement. He died in 1843, but Anta (Anna) lived until the 1870s and eventually returned to Florida to live out her last days. Many of their descendants still survive today.

Turtle

I arrived at the plantation early in the morning, so was the only one wandering the grounds. It was really nice to have peace and quiet, and be able to soak in the history of the land. I also got to see a nesting turtle which really surprised me!

After leaving the plantation, I was driving along a road with water to my left and noticed my GPS was telling me to turn left in half a mile. I thought it had gotten me severely lost, but when I turned left, there sat a ferry to take me across the water.

I was now on my way to St. Augustine!

(To be continued)