The Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, also known as the Gamble Mansion or Gamble Plantation, is a

Florida State Park There are 175 state parks and 9 state trails in the U.S. state of Florida which encompass more than , providing recreational opportunities for both residents and tourists. Almost half of the state parks have an associated local 501(c)(3) non-pr ...

, located in

Ellenton, Florida Ellenton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,129 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bradenton–Sarasota–Venice Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...

, on 37th Avenue East and

US 301 U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic States. It runs from Biddles Corner, Delaware at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, Mar ...

. It is home to the Florida Division

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

(UDC). The park consists of the

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

mansion developed by its first owner, Major Robert Gamble; a 40,000-gallon cistern to provide the household with fresh water; and of the former sugarcane

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

. At its peak, the forced-labor farm included 3,500 acres, and Gamble likely enslaved more than 200 people to work the property and process the sugarcane. The mansion was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as the Robert Gamble House on August 12, 1970. Its columns and two-foot-thick walls are constructed of

tabby A tabby is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a distinctive 'M'-shaped marking on its forehead; stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, and around its legs and tail; and (differing by tabby type), characteristic striped, ...

, a regional material developed as a substitute for brick. The park also includes the restored wood-frame, two-story, Victorian-style Patten House, built in 1872 for owner George Patten. In 1925, the mansion and grounds were purchased by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and donated to the state as a memorial to

Judah P. Benjamin Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a United States senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English ba ...

, who served in three Cabinet positions under Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. He stayed at the plantation in May 1865, before fleeing from the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

forces and sailing to England, where he had a second career. The Gamble Mansion serves as home to the Florida Division UDC. In 1937, the UDC installed a

memorial plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

to Benjamin at the mansion. Also on the grounds is the Confederate Veterans Memorial Monument, erected October 10, 1937. In 2002, the State of Florida acquired the property that holds the ruins of the plantation's sugar mill, one of the South's largest, and added it to the historic park complex. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the Gamble Mansion on its list, ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places''.

History

The coastal area was inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, who left huge shell middens as evidence of their reliance on seafood. Historic tribes in this area included the

Tocobaga Tocobaga (occasionally Tocopaca) was the name of a chiefdom, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century. The chiefdom was centered around the northern end of Old Tampa Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that extends between the present-da ...

, Creek,

Yamasee The Yamasees (also spelled Yamassees or Yemassees) were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamas ...

, and

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

. (The Creek and Seminole were relative latecomers, after their lands farther north were taken by

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

settlers.) At the close of the

Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...

in 1842, the United States opened the Florida frontier to settlement by European Americans. Major Robert Gamble Jr. (b. 1813 in Virginia), who had served in the war, received 160 acres for homesteading, and arrived at the Manatee River site in 1844.Thomas Tryon, "A new chapter in the history of Gamble Mansion"
''Herald Tribune'', 10 January 2010, accessed 24 July 2011 Other sugar planters from

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and established

slave states In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...

soon joined him along the rich Manatee River valley on the western coast of today's central Florida. The sugar planters enslaved many people to clear the lands; plant, harvest and process sugarcane; and build the plantation houses, mills, and outbuildings. By 1845, a dozen

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

along the riverfront were producing for the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

market. The planters shipped their commodity crops downriver and across the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

to the international

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

. The Gamble Mansion was built principally by enslaved people, both laborers and artisans, using local materials over the course of five to six years. The mansion is an outstanding example of

construction in the Doric Revivalist vernacular architectural style. The mansion's columns and two-foot-thick walls are made of

, a unique type of concrete first used by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

settlers on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast and

Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States. Numbering over 100, they are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Caroli ...

as an alternative to

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

bricks, which could not be produced due to a lack of clay in the coastal soil. Techniques for making tabby were brought to Florida by European-American planters and the

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

people they enslaved. The workers created the material by mixing lime (extracted by burning crushed oyster shells), more crushed oyster shells, sand, and water. The mixture was poured into molds for hardening, and the finished product was used in the same manner as bricks. Ample supplies of oyster shells were found in middens present on the sites of former Native American coastal villages. Covered cistern, Gamble Plantation

Next to the house is a covered, 40,000-gallon cistern with a wood-shake roof, which Gamble had built to supply the household's fresh water needs. Fish were kept in the cistern to eat insects and help keep the water clean. Gamble lived in the mansion and used it as the headquarters of his extensive sugar plantation. By 1850, he had hired an overseer, 30-year-old David Lanner from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. That year on the US Census, Gamble declared his real estate to be worth $19,000."1850 United States Federal Census Record for Robert Gamble"
''Ancestry.com'', accessed 24 July 2011 He enslaved a total of 62 people."1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules Record for Robert Gamble"
Ancestry.com, accessed 24 July 2011 From starting with 160 acres, he rapidly acquired 3,500 acres. In addition to the mansion, he directed the construction of numerous outbuildings and slave quarters (also constructed of tabby), and the

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

from which sugar and molasses were shipped by schooner and steamboat. Likely more than 200 slaves lived and worked at the plantation at its productive peak. However, due to a declining sugar market and debts, Gamble had to sell the property in 1856. The Gamble Mansion is the only surviving plantation house in peninsular Florida. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the mansion was occupied by Captain Archibald McNeill, a famous Confederate blockade runner.

, Confederate Secretary of State, took refuge here during May 1865 while making his escape from Federal troops following defeat of the Confederacy. He had been accused of having arranged for U.S. President

Lincoln's assassination On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was Assassination, assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play ''Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. S ...

in April 1865, and feared being unable to get a fair trial after the war. McNeill aided Benjamin in escaping to

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

. From there, Judah Benjamin sailed to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, arriving with almost no resources. He went on to establish a distinguished second legal career in London, where in 1872 he was selected as

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

. The Gamble sugar mill, one of the antebellum era's largest, was destroyed by

raiders in 1864. The brick

ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

are located one-half mile to the north on State Road 683. The State of Florida acquired the mill property in 2002; it has cleared overgrown vegetation at the site to make the mill ruins visible, while protecting them with a fence.Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park
, Official Website, accessed 23 July 2011 Gamble Plantation SP Patten House01

In 1895, the postbellum owner, George Patten's youngest son Dudley Patten, built a wooden, two-story vernacular Victorian style house for his young family. (Patten's wife, Ada Melville Turner Patten is said to have demanded a modern home after the couple who were married in 1891, had been living for several years in the old mansion with Patten's widowed mother.) The state has restored the Patten House, which is also part of the plantation park complex. But, in 2014, termite and water damage proved to cause concern for visitor's safety, so the house was closed to the public. Talk of demolition caused community members to stand for renovation, which was approved and begun in 2016. By December 2017, the contractors realized damage was more extensive than once believed, and asked the State of Florida for more money. The decision was made, once more, to demolish the home. Fortunately, the community outcry once more appears to have saved the home from this permanent solution to a temporary problem. The Patten House was nominated and has been selected as one of Florida's 11 to Save for 2018 by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. The announcement was made on May 17, 2018. The 11 to Save program is designed to increase the public's awareness of the urgent need to save Florida's historic resources, and to empower local preservationists and preservation groups in their efforts to preserve Florida's history. Tabby is a less permanent construction material than brick; and by 1902, the house and columns were deteriorating badly. In 1923 the Judah P. Benjamin Chapter of the

(UDC) began to raise money to rescue the home from destruction. By 1925 they had bought the house and 16 acres; they donated the property to the state for preservation as a memorial to Judah Benjamin. The state completed restoration of the house in 1927. The UDC arranged in 1937 for the installation of a memorial plaque to honor the service of Judah Philip Benjamin to the Confederacy. He served as Attorney General,

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

, and Secretary of State to President Jefferson Davis. Today, the mansion is furnished in the style of a successful mid-19th century plantation home. In January 2010, Janet Snyder Matthews, an historian at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and the former associate director of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, led a working seminar at the plantation. Her goal was for students to develop scholarly documentation on the plantation and its occupants, with a goal of upgrading the plantation's historic designation to reflect its significance, perhaps to that of a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

Recreational activities

The park is open from 8 a.m. to sundown, 365 days per year, and guided tours of Gamble Mansion are available.

Gallery

File:Gamble_Plantation_Placard.JPG, Gamble Mansion, state historical plaque File:Gamble_Plantation_Mansion_Front_Right_View.JPG, Gamble Mansion, side view with 40,000-gal. covered cistern File:Covered cistern.jpg, Covered cistern, Gamble Mansion File:Covered cistern interior.jpg, Covered cistern (interior), Gamble Mansion File:Gamble_Plantation_Sugar_Rollers.JPG, Sugar rollers, Gamble Mansion File:Portrait of Major Robert Gamble, Gamble Plantation.jpg, Portrait of Major Robert Gamble, Gamble Mansion File:Gamble_Plantation_Judah.P.Benjamin_Photo.JPG, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State File:Gamble_Plantation_Judah.P.Benjamin_Memorial.JPG, Judah P. Benjamin, UDC Memorial plaque File:Slave quarters site, Gamble Plantation.jpg, Approximate site of the slave quarters, Gamble Plantation File:Tabby Columns.jpg, Tabby Columns, Gamble Mansion File:Kitchen hearth, Gamble Plantation.jpg, Kitchen hearth, Gamble Mansion File:Kitchen items, Gamble Plantation.jpg, Kitchen items, Gamble Mansion

References

External links

Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park
a
Florida State ParksFlorida Division United Daughters of the Confederacy
* {{authority control State parks of Florida Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Manatee County, Florida Sugar plantations in Florida Museums in Manatee County, Florida Historic house museums in Florida African-American history of Florida Protected areas established in 1925 Parks in Manatee County, Florida Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida Houses in Manatee County, Florida Tabby buildings Plantation houses in Florida Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Florida Slave cabins and quarters in the United States History of slavery in Florida

History

Recreational activities

Gallery

See also

References

External links