Robert Stafford Of Cumberland Island

Robert Stafford of Cumberland Island offers a rare glimpse into the life and times of a nineteenth-century planter on one of Georgia's Sea Islands. Born poor, Robert Stafford (1790-1877) became the leading planter on his native Cumberland Island. Specializing in the highly valued long staple variety of cotton, he claimed among his assets more than 8,000 acres and 350 slaves. Mary R. Bullard recounts Stafford's life in the context of how events from the Federalist period to the Civil War to Reconstruction affected Sea Island planters. As she discusses Stafford's associations with other planters, his business dealings (which included banking and railroad investments), and the day-to-day operation of his plantation, Bullard also imparts a wealth of information about cotton farming methods, plantation life and material culture, and the geography and natural history of Cumberland Island. Stafford's career was fairly typical for his time and place; his personal life was not. He never married, but fathered six children by Elizabeth Bernardey, a mulatto slave nurse. Bullard's discussion of Stafford's decision to move his family to Groton, Connecticut--and freedom--before the Civil War illuminates the complex interplay between southern notions of personal honor, the staunch independent-mindedness of Sea Island planters, and the practice and theory of racial separation. In her afterword to the Brown Thrasher edition, Bullard presents recently uncovered information about a second extralegal family of Robert Stafford as well as additional information about Elizabeth Bernardey's children and the trust funds Stafford provided for them.

Cumberland Island is a national treasure. The largest of the Sea Islands along the Georgia coast, it is a history-filled place of astounding natural beauty. With a thoroughness unmatched by any previous account, Cumberland Island: A History chronicles five centuries of change to the landscape and its people from the days of the first Native Americans through the late-twentieth-century struggles between developers and conservationists. Author Mary Bullard, widely regarded as the person most knowledgeable about Cumberland Island, is a descendant of the Carnegie family, Cumberland's last owners before it was acquired by the federal government in 1972 and designated a National Seashore. Bullard's discussion of the Carnegie era on Cumberland is notable for its intimate glimpse into how the family's feelings toward the island bore upon Cumberland's destiny. Bullard draws on more than twenty years of research and travels about the island to describe how water, wind, and the cycles of nature continue to shape it and also how humans have imprinted themselves on the face of Cumberland across time--from the Timuca, Guale, and Mocamo Indians to the subsequent appearances of Spanish, French, African, British, and American inhabitants. The result is an engaging narrative in which discussions about tidal marshes, sea turtles, and wild horses are mixed with accounts of how the island functioned as a center for indigo, rice, cotton, fishing, and timber. Even frequent visitors and former residents will learn something new from Bullard's account of Cumberland Island.

Men are creatures of the time in which they live and take their color from the conditions that surround them, as the chameleon does from the grass or leaves in which it hides.from Master Robert Life is unpredictable. Like a hurricane that descends without warning, it wreaks havoc, destroys fields and property, and brings peril to those in its wake. An event over which we have no control can dramatically affect our lives. Amos and Amelia, surrogate children of Robert Stafford, a wealthy planter from Cumberland Island, Georgia, grow from youth into adulthood during the Civil War. Master Robert is eccentric. He has Northern sympathies yet lives in the South, marries his mulatto slave, sires six children, and creates a peculiar society. His slaves have more freedom than those on any plantation in the South. The ominous and precipitous events of the war threaten his plantation and his life. Amos and Amelia, pulled like a riptide into this maelstrom, witness the evacuation of Fernandina, the largest naval invasion in US history, the burning of Master Roberts cotton shed, carry a message to a blockade runner, celebrate Jonkonnu, a slave holiday, and grieve at their mothers funeral. Master Robert captures the life and spirit of plantation society during the Civil War. It is refreshing to see several current movies and books such as Mrs. Lincolns Dressmaker, Lee Daniels The Butler, and Master Robert all imparting the perspective of the slave or former slave. In the case of Master Robert we get the opportunity to see life on a plantation through the eyes and ears of slave twins, Amos and Amelia. Mary Smith, Past President, Texas Social Studies Supervisors Assocaition, member of the Texas Council for the Social Studies abd currently an educational concusltant.

Rich in history, wildlife, and beautiful coastal landscapes, Georgia's Cumberland Island attracts many an island tourist and nature lover. The island's well-preserved marshes, tidal creeks, and dune fields provide this hidden oasis with a rare natural charm. The area is also home to a wide variety of animal species, including loggerhead turtles, bob cats, manatees, and alligators, just to name a few. Though Cumberland is best known for being the nation's largest wilderness island, its history-dating back to the 16th century-also includes a period of use as a mission by the Franciscans. Among its historic sites are the magnificent ruins of Dungeness, the house built by the Carnegie family during the latter part of the 19th century, as well as the romantic Greyfield Inn. This pictorial history of Cumberland Island illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped the area's cultural and natural history. The island's rare solitude and beauty, which have resulted from conservation and preservation efforts in the area, are captured in this carefully detailed book for all lovers of nature and history to enjoy. Though the island permits only very limited human traffic, these images allow the reader to appreciate the Cumberland landscape-laced with wild animals, pirate coves, English forts, and an African-American "settlement"-from afar.

Dilsaver, Professor of Geography at the University of South Alabama, is the author or editor of several books about national parkland and natural history, including America's National Parks. Published in association with the Center for American PlacesTag: The controversial history of how a vacation island for the wealthy became a national seashore, and how that designation is threatened today