After the hot sunshine of Arizona, it felt like we'd arrived in Alaska but really we were in Jacksonville, Florida having arrived in the middle of a
Nor’easter. This wasn't quite the weather we were expecting from the Sunshine State!
We'd decided to have some time on the beach before heading home, where, if this
summer is anything like the last we’ll be lucky if we can even see the beach through the
rain!
Our
first trip was to Fort George Island and the Kingsley Plantation situated along
the St John’s River, it was cloudy with a strong, very cold wind blowing off
the river.
The
entrance road we followed winds its way for 2 miles through maritime forest that
was once carefully tended plantation fields.
On
each side of the gate the remains and one reconstructed slave cabin built
of tabby, a type of concrete made from oyster shells
Probably
the most valuable crop grown on the plantation was indigo. One slave could plant and tend 2 acres of
plants producing about 160 pounds of indigo which converted from 1761 to today
would be worth about $2,000.00. Indigo
was also the most dangerous crop for the slaves to produce as prolonged
exposure to the disease carrying insects and the noxious fumes meant that the
life span of a slave who worked on indigo production was between 5 and 7 years.
As
most visitors to the plantation arrived by ship an avenue of royal palms guided
them from the river landing to the house.
Originally
built to take advantage of cooling breezes from the river, extra rooms, a hall
and fire places were added which made the house more difficult to keep both
cool and warm.
By
plantation standards the house isn’t a huge antebellum mansion advertising the wealth of its owner. Back then law enforcement may or may not arrive, and expected and welcome visitors
weren’t the only people who could arrive by the river, pirates could as well!
Have
fun, we are!
PS: Yes the weather did improve, dramatically!
No comments:
Post a Comment