The other day, I went on a field trip to look at a local former slave plantation. I ran across information about the Bulow Plantation, a former sugar plantation that has been converted into a state park. I’ve lived in Flagler County in Florida for nearly three years now and had never heard of the Bulow Plantation, which is literally within walking distance, given I once walked that far while participating in a walk-a-thon while in college.
There isn’t much left of the original plantation. Seminole Indians burned down the sugar mill during the Second Seminole War, which lasted seven years. It seems plantation owner John Joachim Bulow got along rather well with the local Seminole tribe. He traded with them and was against them being forced west of the Mississippi River under the Indian Relocation Act of 1830. The Seminoles were good with Bulow until the Mosquito Roarer militia made the plantation their headquarters while trying to enforce relocation of the Seminoles. When the Mosquito Roarers approached, John Bulow fired a warning shot with a cannon. He was placed under house arrest and taken away to St. Augustine when the militia lost decisively in a battle with the Seminole at Dunlawton Plantation to the south.
There wasn’t much at the plantation in terms of remains. The two-story big house was lost to the fire, as were the 43 slave cabins. There were several informational placards throughout the park, including one reminding us we were basically in Jurassic Park and might run across large alligators anywhere. That would have been true for the 190+ enslaved people at Bulow Plantation as well.
The signs described life at the plantation but never anything harsh. It was as if Ron DeSantis wrote the signs, talking about the various skills utilized by the enslaved people and the technical processes used to produce sugar, indigo, and rice, all grown at Bulow Plantation.
While walking through the park was educational and somewhat eerie, I was most struck by the sign I used as the cover photo identifying twelve nearby sugar plantations. I wondered about other plantations in the area and found Florida had over 200 cotton plantations that didn’t require the water access sugar required. I have previously researched aspects of slavery in St. Augustine, thirty miles from my home, but never gave a thought about the subdivision I live in, which could have once been used as a plantation.
I thought of the names of nearby subdivisions: Plantation Bay, Plantation Estates, Plantation Club, Plantation at Leesburg, Plantation Oaks, Plantation Pines, Plantation Palms, and Plantation Reserve. I had wondered if those naming these locations were deliberately obtuse and why they thought including the name plantation was a good marketing tool. It had never crossed my mind that everywhere around me, including the space I’m writing from right now, was once a plantation.
I was able to exclude my home from being part of the twelve identified sugar plantations but have yet to be able to exclude any other type of plantation. Property appraiser records only identify owners after 1982, which was no help. I’ll do a little looking into individual plantations as I discover them, but I’m likely never to know for sure. What would I do with the knowledge if I knew? In this area, the property might be more valuable if slaves once trod these grounds. That’s something to think about.
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This psot was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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Photo credit: iStock.com