Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at
GAMBLE
PLANTATION
Historic State Park
Story by Sue Erwin
Photographs by Christine Cunningham
Confederate Major
Robert Gamble
Walking through the white double doors
of the Gamble Plantation and entering
the hollow hallway leading to the parlor
immediately sweeps visitors away from the conveniences of
modern society, and transforms them to thinking about a way
of life and an economic system before the Civil War.
Looking for a peek into Old
Florida? Built in the mid-1800s
the Gamble Plantation is a great
place to start looking, considering it is
the oldest building in Manatee
County and the only surviving
antebellum period mansion in Florida.
Gamble Plantation Historic State
Park in Ellenton preserves the
mansion of an antebellum sugar
plantation. Following the Second
Seminole War (1836-1842), which
removed many Indians from Florida
opening the area for settlement,
Congress passed the Armed
34 GASPARILLA ISLAND November/December 2017
Occupation Act. The Act invited men
who possessed firearms to come to
Florida and cultivate a minimum of
five acres, build a permanent structure
and protect the homestead for
five years.
At that time, the United States
government would offer settlers 160
acre of land. The intent was
obvious – to pressure the Seminoles
to leave.
The mild climate and fertile soil
attracted men of sufficient means to
engage in large-scale cultivation of
sugarcane and its manufacture into
sugar.
Ranger Jesse Toney