to follow him. One
day he released the bloodhounds too soon, and they soon overtook the boy
and tore him to pieces. When the youth's mother heard of the atrocity,
she burst into tears which were only silenced by the threats of her
owner to set the dogs on her. Maxwell also relates tales of the terrible
beatings that the slaves received for being caught with a book or for
trying to run away.

After the Civil War the Maxwell family was united for a short while, and
later they drifted apart to go their various ways. Henry and his parents
resided for a while longer in Lownes County, and in 1880 they came to
Titusville, with the two younger children, Solomon and Sonnie. Here
Henry secured work with a farmer for whom he worked for $12 a month. In
1894 he purchased a small orange grove and began to cultivate oranges.
Today he owns over 30 acres of orange groves and controls nearly 200
more acres. He is said to be worth around $250,000 and is Titusville's
most influential and respected colored citizen. He is married but has no
children.

[TR: Interview of Titus Bynes, including sections about Della Bess
Hilyard ("Aunt Bess") and Taylor Gilbert repeated here. References to
them deleted below.]

REFERENCES

1. Personal interview of field worker with subject

FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
American Guide, (Negro Writers' Unit)

Martin Richardson, Field Worker
Saint Augustine, Florida
November 10, 1936

CHRISTINE MITCHELL

An interesting description of the slave days just prior to the War
Between the States is given by Christine Mitchell, of Saint Augustine.

Christine was born in slavery at Saint Augustine, remaining on the
plantation until she was about 10 years old.

During her slave days she knew many of the slaves on plantations in the
Saint Augustine vicinity. Several of these plantations, she says, were
very large, and some of them had as many as 100 slaves.

The ex-slave, who is now 84 years old, recalls that at least three of
the plantations in the vicinity were owned or operated by Minorcans. She
says that the Minorcans were popularly referred to in the section as
"Turnbull's Darkies," a name they apparently resented. 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. T