A Special Event Feb. 28
Madeleine
Leaving their homesteads behind, Natives, African Floridians and
British loyalists came to Spanish Florida 50 years before Wakulla was
incorporated in 19843.
"Those Who Camp at a Distance: Seminoles and William Augustus Bowles
on the Florida Borderlands" is the subject of a special presentation
on Thursday, Jan. 28 at the St. Marks Yacht Club.
The event is made possible with funding from the Florida Humanities
Council and is cosponsored by the Wakulla Historical Society.
Professor Andrew Frank is an award-winning history professor at FSU,
and the author of "Creeks and Southerners" and editor of The Early
Republic: People and Perspectives among others.
Dr. Frank and Dr. Madeleine Carr collaborated on the current exhibit
on display at Fuerte San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park,
"William Augustus Bowles: Portrait of a Scoundrel?" The exhibit will
be on display at the fort in St. Marks through the end of May.
The St. Marks Waterfronts Partnership is making a special effort to
learn more about this area after Spain regained control at the end of
the American Revolution. This is the second in a series of three
events.
"Very little is known about Wakulla County prior to the U.S. gaining
control," said Carr. The entire area, according to her, was up for
grabs and Bowles made a concerted effort to gain St. Marks's strategic
port for the Muskogee nation.
That Bowles initially succeeded, Carr explained, had a lot to do with
the lax Spanish laws and a failure to maintain an adequate command at
the fort. "But that he failed says a lot about the intentions of the
U.S.A. to expand into the Native hunting grounds in the Spanish
borderlands."