Sunday Favorites: The Civil War Years

The Civil War's impact on Manatee County was vastly different from other parts of the country. While the area was removed from any battle zones, the economy was decimated due to the presence of a federal blockade along the Gulf Coast and loss of slave labor.

Prior to the War Between the States, Manatee County operated on a slave economy, meaning that most of the plantation owners, farm operators, cattle runner and merchants relied on slaves to sustain their businesses. Slaves comprised one quarter of the population, according to a 2009 historical structures survey prepared for the Manatee County Planning Department, by Renker Eich Parks Architects Inc.

While slave ownership in the 1840s was primarily reserved for large plantations, like the Gamble Plantation, by the 1860s most white settlers in the county owned at least a few slaves.

Today it’s hard to imagine owning anything valued more than land in Florida, but according to the report an article written by R. Wade Wetherington published in the Florida Peninsular states: ”In 1855 the county’s slaves were valued at $425,000, whereas buildings were assessed at $97,000 and land at $144,000.“

Despite their value to the economy, slaves had very few rights, if any. White settlers were often responsible for breaking up families and viewing them as an inferior race, according to references cited in the report. In 1860, there were 601 white settlers living in Manatee County and 253 slaves, with the majority of them working from J.C. Coefield, owner of the Gamble Mansion.

Coefield ran one of two sugar plantations; the other was run by Josiah Gates. At the time, sugar was the greatest export in Manatee County with an estimated yearly output of 230,000 pounds, that was loaded on to ships from wharfs in the Manatee River and shipped to New Orleans for distribution, according to the report.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Floridians were torn over which side to support. Author Canter Jones Jr., noted in his book, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, that while the majority of state’s population did not support the south’s secession from the north, the economic livelihood was so vested in the institution of slavery that it could not justify supporting the Union.

Thus, many male residents left home to fight for the Confederacy in battles far from home. Their families, however, were left to deal with the Union Blockade.

Tampa Bay was headquarters for an armada of Union ships stationed in the area to stop any shipments from getting to the Confederate Army. One of the first seizures of a local ship occurred on Jan. 18, 1862, when Commodore William B. Eaton captured the mail delivery boat for Tampa to Manatee, a 12-ton sloop called the Mary Nevis. According to the report, the captain of the vessel escaped with a bag of mail leaving a woman and child on board.

The captain had been Archibald McNeil and the area had depended on the boat to deliver mail and supplies to and from Manatee River communities to Tampa, according to the report. McNeil, John W. Curry and James McKay were all blockade runners who played a large role in supplying the Confederate Army with three main provisions: salt, sugar and beef.

Another Civil War event that occurred along the Manatee River occurred on Snead Island, according to Lillie B. McDuffie in her book Lures of Manatee.

Joseph H. Hallet of the U.S. Kingfish, landed at the site of the Indian mounds on present-day Emerson Point Preserve and found fortified barracks that were occupied by troops. After burning the barracks, Hallet and his men captured three small boats. Hallet said of the six people present at the site, two were women. All of the people present, he said had a ”wretched and poverty stricken appearance,“ according to the county report.

On Aug. 3, 1984, black troops landed in Bradenton and occupied the town for several weeks. The Union Blockade had been recruiting slaves into their army and training them on Egmont Key and Useppa Island, near Charlotte Harbor, according to Vernon Peoples in his book Punta Gorda: In the Beginning 1865-1900. The black troop, formerly known as the 99^th United States Colored Troops, destroyed the sugar refinery at the Gamble Planation as well as Gate’s grist mill which he owned in partnership with John Curry and Ezekiel Glazier, according to the county report.

The war was officially over on May 20, 1865, but it took at least a decade for the Manatee County section to recover from its ramifications. The economy was devastated, leaving families impoverished due to lack of supplies. While the white population had doubled, the black population decreased to almost a fifth. Sugar and salt did not survive the Civil War years leaving cattle as the only remaining export.

During the reconstruction era, many families turned from farming to cattle ranching and trade with Cuba increased dramatically increasing the amount of Cuban influence in Florida.