Statues and memorials to Confederate figures – Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis. Stonewall Jackson and others – have come tumbling down at the hands of protesters or removed and put in storage by governmental agencies at a rapid pace since protests over racial injustice began in late May.
As for the most prominent Jew in the Confederacy, Judah P. Benjamin, his name remains attached to a state park in Ellenton, probably better known for the outlet mall there. The park is officially named the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park and there appears to be no clamor for a name change.
A historic marker at the park shows Benjamin was only briefly a visitor at the plantation mansion, then owned by Capt. Archibald McNeill, a Confederate blockade runner, as Benjamin eluded federal forces in May 1865 – a month after the fall of the Confederacy. The state park is about a mile west of I-75 at 3708 U.S. 301 and features the restored antebellum mansion of a sugar cane plantation built in the 1840s by Robert Gamble. Attached to the mansion is a plaque stating that Benjamin stayed there before escaping to England.
The park includes the mansion and a visitor’s center, both closed due to COVID-19, and a picnic pavilion. The pavilion and the grounds of the park are open on a limited basis and admission is free. On the site is also the headquarters of the Florida Division United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).
In 1925, the mansion and grounds were purchased by the Judah P. Benjamin chapter of the UDC and donated to the state as a memorial to Benjamin. The 16-acre park is part of what once was a sugar cane plantation of about 3,500 acres, worked by hundreds of slaves.
According to the American Battlefield Trust website, Benjamin was born a Sephardic Jew in the British West Indies in 1811 and moved to South Carolina in 1821. At age 14 he entered Yale, but two years later, at age 16, he moved to New Orleans and married, receiving two female slaves as part of the wedding dowry. He became a lawyer and in the 1840s bought a sugar plantation in Louisiana and owned 140 slaves. At age 42 he was elected a U.S. Senator from Louisiana. When the Civil War broke out his friend Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, appointed him at various times to three Cabinet positions, first as Attorney General, then Secretary of War and finally Secretary of State, a position he still held when Davis and other Cabinet members fled days before the war ended to avoid charges of treason.
While not as famous as Lee, Davis or Jackson, some history buffs dubbed Benjamin “the brains of the Confederacy.” Since Floyd’s killing, the JTA news service has run stories on efforts by Jews to do away with tributes to Benjamin. One case started several years ago when a curious congregant examined the names of 175 prominent Jews, including Benjamin, etched into windows of the religious school at a large synagogue in northern California. After learning Benjamin’s history, the congregant lobbied to have the name removed, as well as names of actor Dustin Hoffman and “the singing rabbi” Shlomo Carlebach, both accused of harassment and assault by several women, in Carlebach’s case posthumously. Congregational leaders taped over those names and now plan to spend $7,500 for new windows without those names.
In Charlotte, N.C., congregants from two synagogues are supporting efforts to get the city to remove a stone memorial to Benjamin. The memorial, presented to the city by the UDC in 1948, notes Benjamin’s brief stay nearby while fleeing from union forces. Despite their opposition at the time, the names of two synagogues were carved into the monument, apparently to show Benjamin’s Jewish heritage. Presidents of those synagogues are again seeking removal of the memorial, which JTA notes, is “precisely next to the recent Black Lives Matter art installations.”
Benjamin, Davis and others were in Charlotte in mid-April 1865 when they learned of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Days later, the group’s members parted ways in north Georgia and Benjamin was secreted to Brooksville, then Tampa, then the sugar cane plantation in Ellenton.
Soon after Benjamin’s arrival at the plantation, federal troops approached and Benjamin fled to the home of another man, staying about a month while plans to get him out of the country were completed. He eventually sailed from Sarasota aboard a 16-foot boat, winding up in Nassau. He then sailed to England, had a successful law career and died in 1884 at age 73.
The actions by Jewish groups in California and North Carolina to remove memorials to Benjamin prompted the Jewish Press to inquire if any similar efforts by Jews or others were under way here concerning the state park in Manatee County. The short answer appears to be no, with the exception of a Black artist in Sarasota who recently wrote in the Tampa Bay Times about memorials to Benjamin in Sarasota that seemed to mysteriously disappear (see related story, at right). The artist, John Sims, known for burning Confederate flags every Memorial Day, made passing mention of the park in Ellenton, suggesting something be done about the memorial at the park.
A Jewish Press email to the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee received a response from Jessi Sheslow, director of community relations for the federation. “The national uproar over Confederate monuments is quite the movement. However, here in Sarasota-Manatee I’m not hearing anything about the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate memorial – within the Jewish community or otherwise,” she said.
A similar email inquiry to the Black Lives Matter chapter in Manatee County was made, with no response.
The state park is in the jurisdiction of District 73 State Rep. Tommy Gregory, who when asked if he knew of any move to change the park’s name, replied, “Well I never heard of that man, so I guess that tells you I don’t know anything about renaming the park.”
Kevin Kiser, manager at the state park, was asked if there were any protests about the park’s name. He said no one had complained to him and that all questions about it should be directed to the state Department of Environmental Service, which oversees state parks.
In response to questions to the agency, DEP Press Secretary Weesam Khoury would not say specifically if a name change was in the works for this particular park.
“Florida Parks Service is committed to providing resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources, and the agency strives to do this in a positive and appropriate manner,” she wrote in an email exchange with the Jewish Press. “Currently, our agency is reevaluating strategies to ensure respectful interpretation of Florida’s unique history. This includes interpretive strategies and new designations such as those provided for in House Bill 1213, as well as appropriate re-designations as part of this process.”
House Bill 1213, approved unanimously in the House and Senate, requires accountability among state schools for how it teaches students about the Holocaust. It also requires lessons be taught about the Ocoee Election Day Riots of 1920 – where the Black community near Orlando was burned to the ground and 56 Blacks died after a white mob was angered over attempts by Blacks to vote. The bill also called on the DEP to explore renaming opportunities for a state park, or a portion within a state park, to honor the victims of the riots.
When asked if the state response meant the park in Ellenton may be renamed to honor the Ocoee riot victims, Khoury replied: “To clarify, what we are stating is that, outside of the specific provisions of this bill, the Department will be embarking on a similar reevaluation of strategies to ensure the respectful interpretation of Florida’s unique history at all parks.”
In other words, apparently all state parks are being evaluated for possible name changes. Khoury later emailed that it is an ongoing internal departmental review.
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For more information about the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, visit www.floridastateparks.org.
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