Monthly Archives: February 2024
Florida’s first African-American statewide official: Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
Florida History Podcast :Florida’s first statewide African-American official, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs. Johnathan Clarkson Gibbs served as the first black statewide official . The above linked podcast from 2021 discusses his career and legacy.
Coral Springs planning Everglades access ecotourism pitch
As reported earlier in the week in Coral Springs Talk the City of Coral Springs is moving forward with its play to create a “destination” in the city around the Everglades. This is from the City’s Annual Report: “To take advantage of the Everglades, the city plans to research options and develop a long-rangestrategy to […]
Reviews and Blurbs for the New Book Lincoln’s Ghost: Our Haunted Presidency
“Even a president as down to earth as Harry Truman sometimes wondered if the White House was haunted. Is it? In Lincoln’s Ghost, Robert Buccellato goes searching for the answer. Along the way he brings to life the many strange, weird, and paranormal things our commanders in chief and their families have encountered. Combining rigorous […]
Andrew Jackson and my latest book
The book features accounts of many historical figures on the Native American, Free African-American, US, Spanish and British sides. During the course of the work I will offer opinions on many of these figures. However, one person looms largest over this entire narrative – Andrew Jackson. In my own lifetime (I turn 50 later this […]
Jeffersonian Florida – Video 2: West Florida and the Jeffersonians
We look at the progression toward hostilities and an American annexation of West Florida in this video.
Atlantic Ridge Preserve State Park
Atlantic Ridge Preserve State Park is in Martin County and is generally accessible only by foot.
On the battle over Confederate Monuments : Florida’s 20th Century History
The recent discussion of Confederate Monuments in the legislature brought me back to thinking about how embedded this culture is within Florida. And how for many years it was aided by intellectual elites in the north who pushed a “lost cause” narrative as a means of “national reconciliation.” In fact, many of these themes go […]
Black History Month: Slaves role in the defense of Florida during the American Revolution
This is an excerpt from my book Florida and the American Revolution Most of the fortifications that were erected both in Pensacola and St Augustine were built largely by slave labor. While in Pensacola this was not an odd sight, in St Augustine where many free blacks had been armed (unlike on the rest of […]
McKinley’s Ghost and a Bull Moose
The following is an excerpt from my new book Lincoln’s Ghost: Our Haunted Presidency. In the darkness of a modest rented single room John Flammang Schrank, a Bavarian-born saloonkeeper was awakened with a terrible fright. Rising high above him was the pale and slowly decaying corpse or spirit of a former President. Trying desperately to […]
Florida and the Civil Rights fights in Congress
The Southern Manifesto (1956) from Florida. According to the official US House of Representatives site: ” Howard Smith of Virginia, chairman of the House Rules Committee, introduced theSouthern Manifesto in a speech on the House Floor. Formally titled the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” it was signed by 82 Representatives and 19 Senators—roughly one-fifth of the membership of Congress […]
The Florida Squeeze 