[Rarebooks] FA: 1848 St. Augustine Florida history with suppressed pages

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Newly listed on Ebay-

<http://tinyurl.com/nlnlx>

This copy has the suppressed pages which almost cost the author his life!

"SKETCHES OF ST. AUGUSTINE. WITH A VIEW OF ITS HISTORY AND ADVANTAGES AS A 
RESORT FOR INVALIDS"

by R.K. Sewall. "Published for the author by George P. Putnam", in 1848.

A rather famous book on St. Augustine, Florida, its history, inhabitants, 
accommodations, and sights. The book is famous not only as a very early 
study of the city, and one of the first books to promote Florida as a 
resort destination, but because it almost got its author killed.

It went like this- on page 39/40- of the book Sewall has a few unfavorable 
things to say about St. Augustine's Minorcan population, who were descended 
from settlers from that Mediterranean land who had been lured to Florida by 
an unscrupulous farmer who basically impressed them all into servitude and 
made them work his fields. Sewall's comments on the state of the Minorcans 
in St. Augustine in 1848 may not seem all that insulting today, but he did 
comment that their male population "lack enterprise" and "most of them are 
without education", and they took it badly. An enraged mob is said to have 
chased him through the town and forced him to cut the offending pages from 
very copy of the book. The story seems to have a large element of truth, as 
almost every copy of this book you will find today lacks that page (which 
is present in this copy).

In addition to angering a substantial portion of the city's population, 
Sewall's book discusses Florida history, from the time of its settlement, 
at length, and then describes the vicinity of St. Augustine, including its 
orange and pineapple groves, its' climate, hotels and guest houses, and 
festivals, including Carnival and Sherivaree ("a most discordant concert of 
voices, horns, tin pans, and other boisterous sounds...an excessively 
annoying exhibition").

It may not sound like it, but Sewall does seem to have had a genuine 
fondness for the city. The 6 lithographed plates illustrate a variety of 
scenes, including the Bay, the Catholic Church, Fort Marion, the Military 
Burial Ground, Magnolia House, and a pineapple plant.
No reserve.

<http://tinyurl.com/nlnlx>

Ebay user id: joslinhall

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