CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE: THE JACKSONVILLE EXPERIENCE

CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE: THE JACKSONVILLE EXPERIENCE

Day Five in Jacksonville nee Cowford, Florida. See, it started out as a place where the “cows” could “ford” the St. John’s River. Now it’s the largest city in terms of acreage in the United States (over 900 acres) and its metropolitan area has a population of more than one million (1.3 million in 2010). One of its most famous native sons is Oliver “Babe” Hardy, who made his first 34 films here in the early 20^th century, when Jacksonville was the center of the film industry. Of course, Jacksonville also boasts of such native/adopted daughters and sons as A. Philip Randolph, Eartha M. M. White, Anna Kingsley, Alfred I. DuPont, Henry Morrison Flagler, Elizabeth Edwards, Bob Hayes, Nancy Hogshead, Chipper Jones, Tug McGraw, Tim McGraw, Ray Charles, and, okay, if I must, Pat Boone. There is the little known fact that the African American film making industry got its start in Jacksonville in 1916. Richard Norman (white) opened Norman studios and teamed with Oscar Micheaux (Black) and the Lincoln Notion Picture Company to make movies with African Americans on both sides of the camera, geared for an African American audience. While these movies were called “race movies”, they depicted African Americans in a positive manner. Micheaux is considered “the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century.” (Wikipedia). If this information wins you a lot of money on Jeopardy, I ask for only 10 per cent.

Jacksonville also has a past, a very long past, going back to the Timucuan Age, when native Americans known as the Timucuan tribe hunted the forests and farmed the fields from the First Coast (that’s what they call the coast in Jacksonville) to Orlando. They were here, doing quite well, when the Spaniards arrived and tried to subjugate them. There had been native American civilizations in this area for at least 6000 years prior to the star-crossed arrival of the Spaniards in search of, what else, gold and silver. The Timucuans were not only great farmers and hunters, but also great artists and artisans. There is an owl totem in the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center which is the “largest wooden effigy ever recovered from an archaeological site in North or South American.” Unfortunately, they also had ongoing conflicts between various tribal branches. And this made them vulnerable to the onslaught of European fortune hunters.

But wait, what happened to the Seminoles, the most well-known Florida native Americans? They were actually very late arrivals to Florida territory. The Timucuans preceded them by centuries. The Seminoles did not show up in Florida until the late 1700’s, arriving from Georgia and Alabama – the first carpetbaggers. By the time the Seminoles arrived, the Timucuan tribe had been nearly decimated by the diseases brought to their settlements by European interlopers. So the actual, real, 100 percent native Americans of Florida are the Timucuans – how ‘bout that, “Noles?

The first Europeans to land in the area of present day Jacksonville were the Spanish. They naturally claimed all of Florida as their territory. They first came to Florida in 1513 and shortly thereafter set up missions to “convert” the native Americans. There were no Spanish settlements evident in this area in 1562, when a group of French Huguenots, seeking freedom of religion, came to the First Coast. Jean Ribault led a group of 150 settlers, who ultimately headed north and set up camp in Charlesfort (now Charleston). Ribault went back to France for supplies, but while he was gone, the settlers ran out of provisions in Charlesfort, left it, and moved south to set up a new colony on the St. Johns River, which they called Fort Caroline. Some of these French settlers did not move south, but built their own ocean craft and went back to France. However, according to the National Park Service’s rendition at the Timucuan Preserve, some of them did not make it, because they ended up being breakfast, lunch and dinner for their stronger, more cannibalistic colleagues.

The French Huguenots lasted all of twenty years in this area, but they made such an impression that our government and the Daughters of the American Revolution have seen fit to construct a “replica” of their Fort Caroline and to build a monument to Ribault. The French were not successful farmers, and the Timucuans had to bail them out repeatedly with provisions. The French were more interested in gold and silver, so the Timucuans gave them some of these precious metals too, while saving their lives with food and shelter. Ribault finally returned with provisions in 1565, but by then the French settlers had experienced three mutinies and were at war with some of the Indian tribes.

Enter the Spanish, for their second visit to this area. Pedro Menendez de Aviles had established St. Augustine 35 miles north of the French settlement, Fort Caroline. He intended to get rid of the French, and he succeeded on September 20, 1565, when his soldiers defeated the French at Fort Caroline. The French were only 200 to 250 strong at that time. The Spanish killed all of them, except about 50 women and children and a small number who fled. The Spanish renamed Fort Caroline – it became San Matteo. The French and Spanish fought again in 1568 over this fort, and it was burned to the ground. The Spanish rebuilt the fort, but left it in 1569 and moved up the St. Johns River to build Fort San Nicolas, which served to protect their settlement at St. Augustine.

The Spanish maintained missions and small settlements around Fort San Nicolas for almost two hundred years, and they busied themselves with converting the Native Americans to Catholicism and trying to live off the land. They too need assistance from the Timucuans and other Native Americans, who were better farmers and hunters. At the end of the Seven Years War in Europe and the French and Indian War, Spain got out of this part of Florida in 1763, when the Spanish gave this territory to the British. The Spanish took the remaining Timucuan tribal members with them when they left – how thoughtful. The British did not hold on to this property for long, giving back control of the area to the Spanish in 1783.

The British during their 20 year reign over this area are given credit for building plantations along the St. Johns River – wonder who worked on those plantations? That’s excluded from the history I have reviewed so far, but one can surmise that a certain ethnic group was enslaved to do the farming for cotton, indigo, rice and vegetables. The British took lumber to build ships and expand their navy. And they expanded the port on the St. Johns River. The Brits are responsible for the name “Cowford” for what is today Jacksonville. During the Revolutionary War, a number of British loyalists came south to settle in this area – the very first snowbirds.

When Spain got this land back in 1783, the Spanish were not successful in holding on to it. There were farmers from Georgia who wanted to get their hands on this fertile land. And the Spanish Empire was in decline. Then Andrew Jackson came riding into Florida on his horse, leading military raids against the native Americans, and finally, Spain said, essentially: “Take it. Adios.” Jackson became the first military governor of the Florida Territory, including this area, and he left a strong enough impression that “Cowford” was later changed to “Jacksonville”. But Jackson never stepped foot on the land where his namesake city is situated.

Spain turned over Florida to the United States in 1821. Shortly thereafter, the American settlers living on the north side of Cowford planned a town and named it Jacksonville in 1822. During the Civil War, Jacksonville shipped hogs and cattle to supply the Confederate troops. There is a very large statue of a Confederate soldier on a monument dedicated to the Confederacy in the center of downtown Jacksonville, across from the public library and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). This is definitely the Deep South – still. However, during the Civil War the Union forces took control of Jacksonville in 1862 and kept control until the end of the war. There were constant skirmishes around Jacksonville during the war, and the occupation by the Union forces did not sit well with the community. Nevertheless, the Reconstruction Age brought prosperity to Jacksonville, as this city and St. Augustine became very popular winter resorts for the wealthy. Yellow fever outbreaks in the late nineteenth century in the Jacksonville area put a big damper on the tourist travel, and the snowbirds moved further south in Florida, following the newly expanded railroad to even warmer climes.

The twentieth century in Jacksonville started with the tragic “Great Fire of 1901”, which destroyed the business district and left 10,000 homeless. Out of the ashes grew a more dynamic city, with the helpful vision of architect John Klutho and the influence of, of all things, “prairie architecture” of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the span between 1901 and 1912 13,000 new buildings were completed. This is also when the film industry grabbed its foothold in Jacksonville, and the city became known as the “Winter Film Capital of the World”.

With the buildup for World War Two, the U.S. Navy made its presence known in Jacksonville with three naval bases. As I wandered down to the ocean at Jacksonville Beach, I read a historical sign which reported on the attack by three German U-boats on the SS Gulfamerica on April 10, 1942, right off the Jacksonville Beach coast. I don’t remember reading about this in our high school history books. I never realized that the Germans came this close and actually attacked and sank a U.S. boat This boat was carrying 90,000 barrels of fuel oil and it had been equipped with weapons for defense. Do you think the Germans knew about the fuel? Jawohl, meine Damen und Herren. The seven naval armed guards that traveled with the ship, on its maiden voyage from New York to Port Arthur, Texas, were not sufficient to prevent the attack or save the ship. Nineteen crewmen died by drowning or from shellfire, as they tried to abandon the ship, as ordered by the captain. After this disaster, Governor Holland ordered a blackout of coastal areas “to prevent the silhouetting of passing ships.” (Historical sign).

The Navy still is instrumental to the economic health and welfare of Jacksonville. As we face the reality of sequestration, every day there is an article in the local paper that the Navy will remain in Jacksonville – how long, and in what numbers, remains to be seen. The Blue Angels, who are based here, are grounded by the cutbacks. This means no Blue Angels appearance at the Salinas, California Air Show this year -- or at any air shows for the foreseeable future. Oh well, at least the Congress members were able to fly out of Washington without having to wait in lines in the airport. Never has there been more of a display of “Me, me, me” than the show the Senators and Representatives have been putting on for us since the re-election of President of Obama. The only other mantra besides “me, me, me” is apparently “The poor? Who cares?” Add to that “The children? Who cares?” And “The elderly? Who cares?” Gabby Giffords is right about the cowardice of certain Congressional members, particularly on the background check vote. But their cowardice is clearly equaled by their avarice. The irony, of course, is that it is the arch conservative Tea Partyers who are slurping up everything they can from the public trough, while shutting off any faucets that used to provide public aid to the neediest in our society. Let them eat cake! Shame on you who wear a conservative cloak over your greedy, small-minded, stomach-bulging bodies.

Let’s see, Jacksonville. That’s pretty much its history. At the moment, as I visited the central city to catch the MOCA exhibit and a few of the documentary films they were showing, I noticed that the downtown is pretty rundown. Sure, it was raining hard most of the day. But it was Saturday, and there was little sign of life outside the museum. There were a few homeless men wandering around the park and huddling under the building overhangs. There was a coffee/book store that had a few patrons, but it had already closed – on Saturday! – when I went back to my car at 4:30 p.m. There was no sign of prosperity in the few blocks where I walked. This is in the shadow of the mammoth stadium built for the Jacksonville Jaguars, referred to as “the bottom feeders of the NFL” by a local sports columnist. Ouch! Come on, Jacksonville, you can do it!

How about a little stimulus money from the federal govern—oops! No can do, with the 60 majority requirement in the Senate and Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand followers in the House. Sorry. You’re just too poor to get any help. Meanwhile, a few miles away, the Other World is gathering for the TPC (Tournament Players Championship) premier PGA golf tourney at Sawgrass this week. Beaucoup bucks pouring into the area for five days. There are probably a few worthy charities that will see some of that. But I doubt that the downtown area of Jacksonville will be revitalized by the revenue from this event. Some problems need government intervention. And for that, we need government revenue. And for that, we need more taxes. Yes, I said it – more taxes. As Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman says over and over and over again in his New York Times column, you have to spend your way out of a recession. Pay down the deficit in prosperous times. Simple economics. You can’t use austerity measures to put people back to work. It has never worked, and just because a lot of wrong-headed people in Congress stamp their feet and insist on cutting, cutting, cutting, does not mean it will work. It won’t. Come out of your tanning parlor, Speaker Boehner, and see the natural light. Spend our way out of this recession. Put people back to work. The corporations are sitting on billions of dollars of cash. Let’s get some of it by taxes, and give back to the government its critical job-creating ability, since the private corporations prefer to sit on the sidelines, increase their profits and please their shareholders.

That’s the way I see it, especially after visiting another downtrodden American city in need of help from the government – now. The government money won’t work miracles, like putting the Jaguars in the Superbowl, but it just might alleviate a little pain, reduce unemployment and put life back into the Center City. That’s a start.