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William Bartram And The Ghost Plantations Of British East Florida (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R782
Discovery Miles 7 820
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William Bartram And The Ghost Plantations Of British East Florida (Hardcover)
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William Bartram denied their existence; history buried their
stories. In his famous and influential book Travels, the naturalist
William Bartram described the St. Johns riverfront in east Florida
as an idyllic, untouched paradise. Bartram's account was based on a
journey he took down the river in 1774. Or was it? Historians have
relied upon the integrity of the information in William Bartram's
Travels for centuries, often concluding from it that the British
(the colonial power from 1763 to 1783) had not engaged in
large-scale land development in Florida. However, the
well-documented truth is that the St. Johns riverfront was not in a
state of unspoiled nature in 1774; it was instead the scene of
drained wetlands and ambitious agricultural developments including
numerous successful farms and plantations. Unsuccessful settlements
could also be found, William Bartram's own foundered venture among
them. Evidence for the existence of these settlements can still be
found in archives in the United Kingdom and in the family papers of
the descendants of British East Florida settlers and absentee
landowners. So why did Bartram choose to erase them from history?
Was his insistence on a pristine paradise in Travels based on an
early expedition that he and his father, the botanist John Bartram,
conducted in 1764-65? Was his distaste for development a result of
bitterness and shame over his own failed settlement? Daniel Schafer
explores all of these questions in this intriguing book,
reconstructing the sights and colorful stories of the St. Johns
riverfront that Bartram rejected in favor of an illusory
wilderness. At last, the full story of William Bartram's famous
journey and the histories of the plantations he "ghosted" are
uncovered in this eminently readable, highly informative, and
extremely entertaining volume.
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