In the history of St. Augustine, the story of the Minorcans, who still today exert tremendous political and social influence, rivals the drama of the Jamestown or Plymouth settlements. Patricia C. Griffin describes their first twenty years in the New World, including the hardship of their arrival in British East Florida in 1768, their starvation and suffering on an indigo plantation, and their revolt and flight to sanctuary in St. Augustine.There, survivors of this devastating experience pieced back together their Mediterranean heritage. In time, they became farmers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, mariners, and fishermen. “Mullet on the beach,” their freedom cry, signaled the emigrants’ release from plantation captivity. As the Floridas reverted to Spanish control and were later acquired by the United States, the Minorcans became the core population of St. Augustine, settling into a quarter next to the city gate and south of the old Spanish fort which is now known as the restored area.Griffin brings alive this remarkable colonial venture through her use of documentary sources, archaeological evidence, and topographical and climatic data. Students of Florida history and the Spanish borderlands, specialists in migration studies, ethnohistorians, and the general reader will value this solidly researched study of a folk community’s struggle and triumph in the New World.

Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768-1788 (Florida Sand Dollar Books)

History

Griffin, Patricia C.

Americas

University Press of Florida

In the history of St. Augustine, the story of the Minorcans, who still today exert tremendous political and social influence, rivals the drama of the Jamestown or Plymouth settlements. Patricia C. Griffin describes their first twenty years in the New World, including the hardship of their arrival in British East Florida in 1768, their starvation and suffering on an indigo plantation, and their revolt and flight to sanctuary in St. Augustine.
There, survivors of this devastating experience pieced back together their Mediterranean heritage. In time, they became farmers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, mariners, and fishermen. “Mullet on the beach,” their freedom cry, signaled the emigrants’ release from plantation captivity. As the Floridas reverted to Spanish control and were later acquired by the United States, the Minorcans became the core population of St. Augustine, settling into a quarter next to the city gate and south of the old Spanish fort which is now known as the restored area.
Griffin brings alive this remarkable colonial venture through her use of documentary sources, archaeological evidence, and topographical and climatic data. Students of Florida history and the Spanish borderlands, specialists in migration studies, ethnohistorians, and the general reader will value this solidly researched study of a folk community’s struggle and triumph in the New World.

"An extremely important work. . . . John has brought his unprecedented knowledge of the archaeology together with his anthropological and ecological insights, to provide the most thorough synthesis of the predrainage aboriginal use of this area.  Now that Congress has mandated the restoration of the Everglades . . . this book will provide researchers as well as the general public with an understanding of what the Everglades were like prior to drainage and how humans utilized this natural wonder."--Randolph J. Widmer, University of Houston Originally prepared as a report for the National Park Service in 1988, Griffin's work places the human occupation of the Everglades within the context of South Florida's unique natural environmental systems. He documents, for the first time, the little known but relatively extensive precolumbian occupation of the interior portion of the region and surveys the material culture of the Glades area. He also provides an account of the evolution of the region's climate and landscape and a history of previous archaeological research in the area and fuses ecological and material evidence into a discussion of the sequence and distribution of cultures, social organization, and lifeways of the Everglades inhabitants.Milanich and Miller have transformed Griffin's report into an accessible, comprehensive overview of Everglades archaeology for specialists and the general public. Management plans have been removed, maps redrawn, and updates added. The result is a synthesis of the archaeology of a region that is taking center stage as various state and federal agencies cooperate to restore the health of this important ecosystem, one of the nation's most renowned natural areas and one that has been designated a World Heritage Site and a Wetland of International Importance.  This book will make a key work in Florida archaeology more readily available as a springboard for future research and will also, at last, allow John Griffin's contribution to south Florida archaeology to be more widely appreciated. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series  

Archaeology of the Everglades (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series)

Griffin, John W.

The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida’s long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary.The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists’ sketches of the area prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike.The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.

Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768–1788 (Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series)

Library Press at UF

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Griffin, Patricia C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Griffin, Patricia C.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Griffin, Patricia C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768-1788 (Florida Sand Dollar Books)

Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768-1788 (Florida Sand Dollar Books)

Archaeology of the Everglades (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series)

Mullet on the Beach: The Minorcans of Florida, 1768–1788 (Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series)