This caused many
of them, she claims, to drop or change their names to Spanish or
American surnames.
Christine moved to Fernandina a few years after her freedom, and there
lived near the southern tip of Amelia Island, where Negro ex-slaves
lived in a small settlement all their own. This settlement still exists,
although many of its former residents are either dead or have moved
away.
Christine describes the little Amelia Island community as practically
self-sustaining, its residents raising their own food, meats, and other
commodities. Fishing was a favorite vocation with them, and some of then
established themselves as small merchants of sea foods.
Several of the families of Amelia Island, according to the ex-slave,
were large ones, and her own relatives, the Drummonds, were among the
largest of these.
Christine Mitchell regards herself as one of the oldest remaining
ex-slaves in the Saint Augustine section, and is very well known in the
neighborhood of her home at St. Francis and Oneida Streets.
REFERENCES
1. Interview with subject, Christine Drummond Mitchell, Oneida street
corner Saint Francis, Saint Augustine, Florida
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
American Guide, (Negro Unit)
Martin Richardson, Field Worker
Palatka, Florida
January 13, 1937
LINDSEY MOORE
AN EX-SLAVE WHO WAS RESOURCEFUL
In a little blacksmith shop at 1114 Madison Street, Palatka, is a busy
little horse-shoer who was born in slavery eighty-seven years ago.
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