1930s+ Lewis Turpentine Plantation 1800s African American Life, Brooksville FL

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1930s+ Lewis Turpentine Plantation 1800s African American Life, Brooksville FL:
$50.00

Brochure-Lewis. ORIGINAL 1930s+ Brochure !!! [Floridiana, Black Americana History]. RARE 1930s+ multi-fold, black and white Travel Brochure for the \"Lewis Turpentine Still and Plantation - an Old South Plantation Since Pre-Civil War Period\" near Brooksville Florida. Fully open the SIZE of the double-sided brochure is 11-1/2 x 17 inches. ... This is a historical document from the 1930s and some of the text is patronizing and racist. The brochure with its photographs is contemporary 1930s view of a Roadside Tourist attraction and a way of life before 1950 in Florida. ... Included are twelve black and white photographs, most with captions:

* Wrap-around covers show \"A phase of Old South life never before presented to the public.\" Scene shows Uncle Doug” Ambrose, born into slavery in 1860 just before the outbreak of the Civil War, sitting on an old rustic wheelbarrow near the large turpentine still.
* Children dancing to the music of a Banjo player
* Children riding in a wagon pulled by a Mule
* Workers operating the Turpentine Still and one man making a barrel
* Workers gathering raw gum in the Pine Forests
* Four ladies of the Harmony Quartet singing in front of a microphone
* Couple dancing a \"jitterbug\' or other swing dance on a small platform surrounded by children and young adults

INFORMATION From the Internet: \"The Lewis Plantation, was a tourist stop just south of Brooksville on U.S. 41 in Hernando County. After operating for a number of years merely as one of Florida’s many turpentine distilleries, its owner, Pearce Lewis, hit upon a scheme in the 1930s to tap into the booming tourist industry. After making a few adjustments to the buildings and adding a few vintage objects, Lewis rebranded the distillery as an “authentic” antebellum plantation, and invited visitors to come see what life had been like in the South before slavery was abolished. So far, this may not sound too different from most other historic plantation sites and museums, but with the Lewis Plantation there was a twist. Because Lewis already had dozens of workers, mostly African-American, operating the turpentine distillery on the site, he decided to incorporate them into the tourist attraction, so that his employees doubled as re-enactors of antebellum slavery.

For a nominal fee (fifteen cents in the early days) visitors to the Lewis Plantation could take a tour of the grounds in a mule-drawn wagon. Along the way, they could see the actual homes where the African-American employees lived, which were mostly without electricity or running water. Newspaper accounts of the tour commented cheerily on the quaintness of these scenes, noting how closely they resembled what life must have looked like in the slave quarters of the South’s antebellum plantations. Although it was something of an anachronism, the tour usually included a trip to the distillery, where the people who lived in these ramshackle houses carried out the tedious process of extracting turpentine from the sap of nearby stands of pine trees.

Along the way, the tour guide would often stop and have one of the African-American employees tell a story to the visitors. “Uncle Doug” Ambrose, born into slavery in 1860 just before the outbreak of the Civil War, was one of the more popular storytellers, and was at one time featured in the popular Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” column. The entertainment also sometimes included singing from some of the employees, some of whom were organized into a “harmony quartet.”

The Lewis Plantation had other amenities, including overnight lodging and a restaurant called “The Plantation Kitchen.” Blanche, an African-American woman who did the cooking during most of the attraction’s lifetime, was described in advertisements as being the “personality” of the kitchen, dressed as a typical antebellum African-American “mammy.” In the souvenir shop nearby, visitors could purchase tradition plantation handicrafts, as well as “pine perfume” and miniature barrels of rosin, a by-product of the turpentine distillation process.Although the Lewis Plantation did very well for a number of years, its days were numbered as the tides of history continued to shift. The labor-intensive process of extracting turpentine from pine sap gave way to other methods, and the idea of reenacting slavery as a tourist attraction was increasingly disturbing to Floridians and visitors alike. By the 1960s, the Lewis Plantation had faded away. Some of the buildings still remain at the old site, although they are overgrown with weeds. Only a handful of postcards, placards, and photographs remain to remind us of the vibrant if somewhat unusual institution that once operated there.\" (Florida Memory Internet Site - Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services).

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CONDITION. .... Sold AS IS - NO RETURNS .... SEE PICTURES to Judge Condition for Yourself..... Exceptions listed after Descriptions. ............THIS IS NOT A POSTCARD..... Minor corner and edge wear. Minor soiling and toning. Small splits at ends of fold lines. Small holes at double fold line junctions. UNCOMMON and SCARCE Brochure in Very Good condition.
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