1. Irene Coates, 2015 Windle Street, Jacksonville, Florida

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

Martin D. Richardson, Field Worker
Grandin, Florida

NEIL COKER

Interesting tales of the changes that came to the section of Florida
that is situated along the Putnam-Clay County lines are told by Neil
Coker, old former slave who lives two miles south of McRae on the road
Grandin.

Coker is the son of a slave mother and a half-Negro. His father, he
states, was Senator John Wall, who held a seat in the senate for sixteen
years. He was born in Virginia, and received his family name from an old
family bearing the same in that state. He was born, as nearly as he can
remember, about 1857.

One of Coker's first reminiscences is of the road on which he still
lives. During his childhood it was known as the 'Bellamy Road,' so
called because it was built, some 132 years ago, by a man of that name
who hailed from West Florida.

The 'Bellamy Road' was at one time the main route of traffic between
Tallahassee and St. Augustine. (Interestingly enough, the road is at
least 30 miles southwest of St. Augustine where it passes through
Grandin; the reason for cutting it in such a wide circle, Coker says was
because of the ferocity of the Seminoles in the swamps north and west of
St. Augustine.)

Wagons, carriages and stages passed along this road in the days before
the War Between the States, Coker says. In addition to these he claims
to have seen many travellers by foot, and not infrequently furtive
escaped slaves, the latter usually under cover of an appropriate
background of darkness.

The road again came into considerable use during the late days of the
War. It was during these days that the Federal troops, both whites and
Negroes, passed in seemingly endless procession on their way to or from
encounters. On one occasion the former slave recounts having seen a
procession of soldiers that took nearly two days to pass; they travelled
on horse and afoot.

Several amusing incidents are related by the ex-slave of the events of
this period. Dozens of the Negro soldiers, he says, discarded their
uniforms for the gaudier clothing that had belonged to their masters in
former days, and could be identified as soldiers as they passed only
with difficulty. Others would pause on their trip at some plantation,
ascertain the name of the 'meanest' overseer on the place, then tie him
backward on a horse