Bound by Faith, Freed by Courage: The Menorcan Journey to St. Augustine
May 02, 2025 In 1768, a Scottish man named Dr. Andrew Turnbull traveled to the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean to entice people of little means to board his ship bound for Florida to work on his indigo plantation that was to be built. Turnbull promised the Menorcans a small parcel of land in exchange for their labor for nine years. Dr. Turnbull lived in England and was friends with the current governor of the East Florida Colony, James Grant. Grant had given Turnbull (records state anywhere from 60,000-100,000) acres of wild Florida scrub, located along the coast about 70 miles south of St. Augustine in what is now New Smyrna. These large grants of land resulted from the Proclamation of 1763, which occurred when Great Britain was gifted Florida after the end of the Seven Years' War. Turnbull recruited 1404 people from the islands to travel to America. Those people had no idea of the work involved in cultivating a land that no crop had ever grown. They must also ...