Florida before air-conditioning was still somehow considered paradise by a lot of people, including “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote a book on it! Join me as I discuss her 1873 travelogue “Palmetto Leaves” with Florida Institute of Technology professor Debbie Lelekis.

Like a piece of embroidery, it has two sides to it. One side all ragtag and thrums without order or position, and the other showing flowers and arabesques and brilliant coloring. Both these sides exist.

Further Reading

Episode Transcript

Christopher Nank: What inspired people to start moving to Florida? After all, it wasn’t always strip malls, resorts, theme, parks, and golf courses. Florida was pretty rough before all that development: hot, swampy, seemingly inhospitable to human habitation. But some people saw its raw beauty and its potential as a marketable paradise. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whom you might know as the author of the classic novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was an early champion. Today, I’ll discuss Stowe’s lesser known work promoting Florida tourism and relocation, “Palmetto Leaves,” with Debbie Lelekis, associate professor of English at Florida Institute of Technology. I’m Christopher Nank. Join us for this episode of Florida Book Club.

CN: I’m here with Debbie Lelekis, associate professor of English at Florida Institute of Technology and author of the 2015 book “American Literature, Lynching, and the Spectator in the Crowd: Spectacular Violence.” Dr. Lelekis examines literary depictions of the witnessing and reporting of racial violence and the notion of community in 19th and early 20th century American fiction in her work. And we will be discussing the notion of community here today with her as we look at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1873… is it a memoir, a travel guide? Anyway, her 1873 book called “Palmetto Leaves,” one of the first efforts to champion Florida as a place to visit or relocate to. So welcome to Florida Book Club. I wanted to start by saying, most people know Harriet Beecher Stowe from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the pre-Civil War novel that really galvanized people against slavery. At least that’s how it’s popularly remembered. But it’s the book that most people have heard of. But why do you think “Palmetto Leaves” is important to the history and development of Florida specifically? Like what would, what would we get out of it in that regard?

Debbie Lelekis: Like you said, it is something that people know of her, they know her name, they associate with “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” whether they have read the text or not. And so sometimes people are surprised to know that she had anything to do with Florida. In fact, I’m here recording in the library and just before I came upstairs, I was talking to one of the librarians about what your project is and she had no idea that Harriet Beecher Stowe had anything to do with Florida. So I think just as a curiosity, I think that that draws people’s attention when they hear “Stowe? Florida? I want to know more about that.” Um, and then once you start actually reading some of her sketches, I think that people find her descriptions fascinating. Whether they see in those sketches, something that they can relate to, or just even the novelty of how her tone and how she’s talking to sort of these potential tourists from the North and what things people might have wanted to know what that time period that might have interested them in Florida. And so I think that that’s interesting for us as current residents or tourists or snowbirds of Florida to see how other people saw Florida during that time period, before the boom of tourism and what we know today.

CN: Hey, look, I’m a sucker for landscape and nature descriptions. So I loved reading this book, too. And that’s something that I’m curious about. What was this area of Florida like where she was, Mandarin, this… city is probably pretty generous, town, settlement, community in the northern part of the state… What was it like at the time of the book’s publication?

DL: Right. So even going back a little bit before that, so we have to remember Florida didn’t even become a state until 1845. Right. Um, and then, so then a couple of decades later is when we’re talking about Stowe coming to Florida. So to give you a sense, Florida, if we consider the 1870 census, Florida was counted about 187,748 residents. So yeah, that makes Florida at the time it was the least populated state in the region. So this is the kind of Florida that Stowe is finding as she comes. In some parts of the state, you could travel miles without seeing another person. So Florida was sort of this vast frontier containing small groups of people from all sorts of different origins and social classes. And I think, you know, we tend to think about the vast frontier of the West, right, going West across the United States, the Mountain West and California and the Pacific Ocean, but Florida was also a frontier in its own sense. And so this is the kind of Florida that Stowe encounters. Before the Civil War people traveling to the state, the number was relatively small. Most people came like for health reasons or for adventure, of course, hunting drew people here, seeing exotic things like alligators, the whole fountain of youth myth associated with St. Augustine. So there were some people drawn, but it was in much smaller numbers before the Civil War. So that was changing by the era that Stowe was coming, and she really helped to draw in this influx of visitors because they were reading about these sketches that she was writing about her observations of Florida.

CN: Yeah. I keep forgetting, it’s easy to lose sight of now the fountain of youth, how that might, you know, which seems like just like a historical curiosity now. So how did Stowe discover Mandarin, this community that she lived in, and what drew her to the state?

DL: So her reasons for coming to the state were a little bit more complex than just your average person coming here for adventure, for health. She began to seriously consider North Florida as a winter residence after visiting her son, Frederick. By 1866, she had already helped her son rent some land to provide work opportunities, actually for freed slaves. And so she visited in March and April of 1867. And the area that she fell in love with, though, was Mandarin. And so her initial idea, she talked to her brother, Charles Beecher. She wanted to establish a church along the St. John’s River. He didn’t actually agree to be a clergyman in that proposed church, but he also did come to Florida, though. He settled in a different area along the St. Marks River, about 20 miles from Tallahassee. And then Stowe of course, famously bought her cottage on land, overlooking the St. John’s River in Mandarin. And interestingly, her house became one of the most photographed residences in the community. At the time when she was living there, steamboats would go by and people would want to catch a glimpse of where, you know, where she lived and hoping to see her. People became more aggressive as time went on and it sort of ironically became, I think an annoyance to her and to her family that people started to once a dock was built, people would actually come and try to come up to her house and try to see her, talk to her. There was even a story about somebody ripping a branch off of a tree in front of her cottage. So it’s interesting how she, her celebrity because everybody knew of her from her writing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” people wanted to see her. And so some people were drawn, you know, drawn in just because of her. And then, then from that, her writings in “Palmetto Leaves” attracted people to the state itself. And they asked her for advice about where to buy land and advice about living in Florida.

CN: Wow. Yeah. That’s nuts. She was a legit celebrity in a way that few writers are anymore.

DL: Yeah. I can’t imagine. I’ve seen the area where her cottage was and such, and I can’t imagine people just coming up and just literally walking up boldly, walking up to her cottage and wanting to catch a glimpse of her and talk to her. That’s wild. We think of that as in modern celebrities getting accosted by paparazzi and such, but she really lived that. So even though Florida was not even that populated at the time, ironically her getting people interested in Florida brought those people to come and seek her out, too.

CN: And you alluded to that a lot of the content in the book was published previously to its publication as a book.

DL: Yeah. She began writing about Florida first, um, so she came down to Mandarin, and then in 1869 she began to write some articles for magazines. First one was for one called Hearth and Home. And then later she was writing for Christian Union, which was a magazine that one of her other brothers, Henry Ward Beecher, had bought and transformed. So she begins with those sketches and these articles in magazine form. And a lot of those sketches get collected into what became “Palmetto Leaves.” So in 1873, the book collection was published, but by 1881, she had actually written over 50 pieces on Florida. So “Palmetto Leaves” is one collection of that, and that was the one that we’re most familiar with. But if we look at all of these different articles in some of the periodicals, it totals over 50.

CN: Wow. I’m curious, too, what effect or influence and what was its reception when it was first published? Because as you say, did it have a tangible effect or influence on people like tourists or visitors, people relocating to the state?

DL: Yeah, it did. “Palmetto Leaves” became really an overnight bestseller, which might seem unusual to us now because so many people have forgotten about it and really only think about “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” but it really was a bestseller. And a year after the publication of the book, the number of tourists coming to the state nearly tripled. So just some of the historical resources about that say about tripled of the amount of tourists. So she had, that has to be, you know, in some part, an effect of her writing that really interested people and made people want to come and see this land that she writes about. They wanted to experience it for themselves. “Palmetto Leaves” became during that time period what a lot of people think was probably the first unsolicited promotional writing about Florida and getting northern tourists to come to the state.

CN: Yeah, that was actually going to be my next question. How many people had really written about the state and those kind of terms?

DL: I think that her voice was unique in this creation, because there had been some other, and we can talk later about, a few other books around the same time, that were published and even a little bit before. But her writing was unique partly in the form, because as you alluded to in the beginning, what is this? Is this a memoir? Travel writing? She alludes to letters. So sometimes she’s like responding to letters that she says that she’s received. So it’s kind of this interesting mix, which is different than some of the other writing that came out around that time period, but also in the narrative voice that she creates is different. She speaks in “Palmetto Leaves” uniquely as herself and other people writing about Florida during this time period. It’s usually done through a more, uh, if it’s a fictional account, it’s like a male adolescent voice as the narrator. So there’s some examples of that. And because of that, I think the focus a lot of times is on like adventure and hunting and fishing, whereas her book it’s herself. And so that was the draw. People were interested to know what she had to say about Florida and her observations.

CN: Right. In lieu of that, like, you’re talking about at the time, contemporaneously to its publication. What would contemporary readers today, what does it have to offer to them?

DL: I think that contemporary readers, first of all, they might be interested to kind of probe and see what the text is all about, because people are so unaware that she had anything to do with Florida and stirring up tourism, the tourism boom. So just that in of itself, I think might draw people to it. But then the text itself, I think that people might be interested in how depictions of Florida have changed over time, because she doesn’t just talk about Florida as a paradise. There are parts of her sketches where she does describe some of the lushness, but there are also things that are, she has sections that are very practical. She talks about like the weather and things to expect if you decide to come and stay in Florida. And so I think seeing a depiction of Florida and kind of showing how it’s been portrayed in ways that people aren’t maybe as familiar with. So in her depictions, we have everything from a frontier land to tourist destination. So we can kind of see that depiction of how Florida has changed over time. So it might surprise people to not just see Florida depicted in the way that we do in our contemporary culture. So I think that would be a draw for contemporary readers to see that history.

CN:Yeah. As I said, not just landscapes, but I like historical windows, too. Again, I’m speaking to my tastes. But yeah, I found that, like you’re saying, the book, I guess I called it contradictions. It seems to be full of it, but she has this quote near the beginning talking about how visitors are sometimes disappointed by it. And then she says, “Like a piece of embroidery, it has two sides to it. One side, all ragtag and thrums without order or position, and the other showing flowers and arabesques and brilliant coloring. Both these sides exist.” And I thought that really set a tone for, not just the rest of the book, but I think a lot of people view Florida that way now, today, in a sense.

DL: Yeah. That’s one of my favorite quotes actually from the piece, and when I gave a conference presentation on Stowe in Florida literature, and I use part of that as my title. “Florida as tapestry,” alluding to that embroidery quote, because I think that does really sort of encapsulate what she’s doing and the sketches, too. There are plenty of sketches where it makes you really long for or this this beautiful place that she’s describing and want to experience it yourself. I could see where northern tourists reading, some of her sketches would be really intrigued and want to come see that for themselves. But then there are other sketches where she talks about things, like you said, that people might find disappointing. So she gives like some realistic depictions of Florida. So that sort of both sides of the tapestry, I think that encapsulates how she wants to depict “Palmetto Leaves,” and that was unique, that was different than what other people had done and maybe what other people have done since. So I think that idea, too, that she urges for readers to, I think there’s one point where she says to “accept certain deficiencies,” is the language she uses. That’s necessary in order for you to be able to be successful in Florida, to come to Florida and not be too disappointed and want to turn back. So that notion that Florida is not just one thing, it’s not just a land of paradise, but there are things that come with that, tradeoffs that come with that that you have to be aware of. And so I think that that is also part of her unique qualities in this text, is that she does show both sides of the tapestry.

CN: Yeah, it’s not a typical chamber of commerce sort of ad that is like relentlessly positive. I remember some of these descriptions about like, the swamps or jungles by springtime and this is good: “…lying over a foul sink of the blackest mud, a layer of moccasins where foot of man cares not to tread.” You know, that’s not very flattering I suppose. But I mean then, not long after that, she says, “Language can not do justice to the radiance, the brightness, the celestial calm and glory of these spring days.” You know, basically the same season, same place, which I was really struck by.

DL: And I like, too, how there are some sections where she begins a lot of times with a letter, saying, “I got a letter where someone asked about this,” or, “I overheard someone making this observation.” And then she sort of responds to that. There’s one whole section where she’s talking about flowers and she begins that section by saying that she overhears someone who’s dressed, a lady that’s dressed very finely and she is complaining that she’s like, “I thought Florida was supposed to be the land of flowers. I haven’t seen any.” And she asked the woman, “Well, have you actually gone for walks like out in the wilderness?” And she’s like, “Well, of course not. I’m a lady.” And it’s kind of her way of saying you have to get out there and see Florida. It’s not going to just be this paradise set forth in front of you. You have to go and actually experience real Florida. And so I think in that way, again, that’s sort of a unique take that wasn’t necessarily what other people were doing at the time.

CN: Yeah. You compare it to present day promotional videos and publications, and you don’t see a whole lot of equivocation like that. There’s also like sections here where, like I noted, she seemed to encourage bringing in non-native and invasive plants to sort of remake and do things like that. But she also has the section where I remember she was really angered about people sport hunting gators like, there’s a scene where she was really galled by this juvenile alligator that had been shot and killed. And it’s, it’s interesting to juxtapose that with some of the very prescriptive things she puts up for like trying to remake the environment, too, which, again, to me, as I was reading it seemed sort of at odds, I guess. But maybe that’s a current sensibility about the environment that they may not have had in the 1870s.

DL: Yeah. I don’t think she was intending for it to be contradictory, but I think that the sections where she’s really passionate about the environment and animals in particular, I think are some of the most interesting and strongest sections. She talks really passionately about birds. And that’s an example that really did have real-world impact. Her making people aware of that, sort of exposing that, especially during the time period when she’s living, the killing of birds for their feathers for things like ladies’ hats and such was really popular. And so she really did a good job of, I think, exposing that and how horrible that was, and how, if that keeps going on, we’re going to lose countless species of birds because of this. And so she draws attention to that issue and it had actual real world implications. I think it was by 1901 that there was actually legislation in Florida to protect some of these birds. So even though some of that might have taken a while, she got the ball rolling on some of these issues, bringing people’s attention to it, that Florida wasn’t just a place to come and take things and just do whatever you wanted. That you had to think about the implications of that behavior, over-hunting and over-fishing and all of these things are going to have real-world consequences. And so she brought that attention, I think, through some of her sketches.

CN: Yeah. You see that sort of replay in the in the mid 20th century when alligators were hunted almost to extinction and they needed an act, an endangered species act to bring them back to what they are now, too. That seems to be a weird trend. A final question to wrap up this part. Would you consider this a work of environmentalism in a way, or could you read it in that tradition?

DL: I think you could. I think you might have to focus on certain parts. But certainly I think that’s certainly in there. That that’s something that you could, you could get out of it, and that might be another thing that might be attractive to more contemporary to focus on that angle of it.

CN: The ecology of the state?

DL: And of course, her impact it crosses lots of different arenas. I mean, she has an impact, obviously, on tourism. She spurs on this influx of tourists to the state, which was during a time of economic depression in the 1870s. So that was certainly beneficial for the economy. Like I said, she brought issues relating to agriculture and preservation of animals. She brings those things up. But also just economically, too. Part of what her book does is catalogs the history of the citrus production in the state, too. She has a lot to say about that, and as well as her being interested in it herself and trying out a little bit of citrus interest industry herself, but sort of preserving the history of that. And that was one of the things, too, besides tourism, that was important economically for the state. So the citrus industry, you know, helps to transform property values and that increased property values and that money was available then for schools. She was instrumental in wanting to make sure that education was available, especially to these freed slaves. So education and religious education, as well. All these things. So it sort of all builds upon each other, her influences, these in different areas all connected back to some of the things that she had to say in “Palmetto Leaves.”

CN: Now I know that you also study other forgotten or obscure books from this period in Florida. Are there any ones that you would particularly recommend or are worth checking out for interested readers that maybe don’t have the name brand cachet of being written by Harriet Beecher Stowe?

DL: Right. I think I would probably say that some of the adventure-type stories of the mid 19th century might be one step for people to start with. The one that comes to mind most readily is Francis Robert Goulding’s “The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast.” That one actually predates Stowe’s work. So it’s 1853. So I think it’s one of the earliest, possibly one of the earliest. There was an unpublished manuscript that was also kind of similar to Goulding’s book called “A Trip to Florida for Health and Sport” by Cyrus Parker Condit. And that was actually discovered fairly recently by a librarian at Rollins College and published. So that was thought to be around circa 1855. So both of those are mid 19th century books featuring boys, that male adolescent voice as their narrator, but lots of fun adventure going on in there, particularly with “The Young Marooners.” There are some really fun scenes. One of my favorite scenes from that, just to give people like a little taste of it, is a scene, there’s lots of things with animals and one where there’s a group of children and the one girl in the group and her younger brother are eight. They encounter a bear and what she does to kind of scare it away. It’s pretty humorous, no spoilers, but there’s lots of encounters with different animals in the Florida wilderness. And of course this whole marooned aspect to it, I think, is a fun angle. So those books are fun to look at from that time period.

DL: There are other writers like Kirk Munroe with his book “Wakulla: A Story of Adventure in Florida.” That’s a little bit later, that’s in 1886. So I think some of those sort of adventure-type stories, just kind of chronicling the experiences of usually these young narrators and their encounters in the wilderness. There’s usually featured different like hunting and fishing trips, and then sort of their antics that happen along the way. So those are quite different than Stowe’s work, but I think equally important to sort of in the history of Florida literature.

CN: Yeah. Before it became what we know it today, so a much, much different place. All right! Well, Debbie Lelekis, thank you for coming on and talking to us. And welcome! You’re now an official member of the Florida Book Club.

DL: All right. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It was fun.

CN: Thanks for attending this meeting of the Florida Book Club. Join us again next time when we discuss “Condoms and Hot Tubs Don’t Mix.” — sounds interesting, huh? — with co-editors Jennie Jarvis and Leslie Salas. If you have any comments, suggestions, rebuttals, or thoughts to share, let us hear from you, and remember to support your local independent bookstores and public libraries. “Palmetto Leaves” is available through Bookshop and there are links on our website. See you at the next meeting.

Last updated on February 6, 2021