New 18th Century Rendezvous

My name is PcolaJack. I live near Century, Florida which is about 40 miles north of Pensacola Florida. I am the President of the Board of Trustees of The Teaspoon Foundation a Florida non-profit and a 501-c3.

On February 2009, the Foundation will once again hold The Teaspoon Heritage Festival in Century Florida. We are seeking “Reenactors” who can portray in a unique 18th Century Rendezvous. We are especially interested in reenactors of African or Amerindian Heritage, but all are welcome. Recent historical discoveries indicate that the practice of “Rendezvous” was a frontier trading practice for more than 100 years prior to the Great American Expansion Era of 1820 to 1840 and that the practice centered on settlements of African Slaves who escaped from Colonial British Plantations on the American Eastern Seaboard and fled to two areas of Spanish North Florida.

Those two areas are Ft. Mose, one Spanish League North of St. Augustine, Florida; and Teaspoon, some 40 miles North of Pensacola, Florida.

Most especially they fled to NW Florida in response to a proclamation by the King of Spain in 1693 that gave freedom to any slave willing to come to Florida and the fact that NW Florida was much further away from the slave-raiding British than St. Augustine.

The African slaves were well known for their expertise at producing Pine-Pitch, a key to waterproofing the sailing ships of the time. Without pine pitch, the great navies of the world could not exist (leaking and rotting ships); thus the trade with the escaped slaves for pine pitch was of high interest to both the Spanish and French. Both sponsored “Rendezvous” to trade with the Blacks and their Amerindian consorts in the regions north of Pensacola FL and north of Mobile AL.

The Teaspoon Heritage Festival celebrates this practice of Rendezvous-to-Trade with a multi-cultural Heritage Festival that is held the last weekend in February of every year. This coming year, The Teaspoon Heritage Festival will be held on February 28th. It is our desire to develop this Festival into one of the Great Reenactment Rendezvous, but with a distinct earlier-era and multi-cultural nature.

If you have a reenactment group or wish to form one, please contact me, PcolaJack at pcolajack@earthlink.net or call my cell at 850-554-7665. I can send you a copy of The Teaspoon Code in a PDF format. The Teaspoon Code gives the sources of research and information. BTW, Pensacola is celebrating its 450th Anniversary during 2009, and there is a rumor that the King of Spain will visit there.

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