Ruth Newell

Beneath the Palms Ruth Newell

Based primarily in post-Civil War Florida, Beneath the Palms is a fragmentary fictional work following a cast of characters who, over the course of 80 years, breathe life into the place called Florida. The country had been torn by the Civil War, but Florida had been far removed from the fighting and from the politics. Few people lived there, many of the original settlers having been killed by the Seminoles, most of whom were, in turn, slaughtered by the Army. Key West, the state's largest city sitting at the most southern tip of the peninsula, houses the thriving cigar industry. With over a hundred factories, most surrounded by villages for the Cuban workers, it becomes a terrorist target, but whether the Spaniards are behind the arson, no one knows. All but a few factories are destroyed, and many owners choose not to rebuild. Vicente Ybor, one of the industry leaders, along with several others, chooses to relocate to Tampa. Shipping magnate, Henry Plant, is encouraged and decides to extend his rail line from Jacksonville to the port city on the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, just south of Tampa, blockade runner Captain Archibald McNeill shelters confederates running from the Union and arranges transport out of the country. With his aid, Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell, recently escaped from the isolated Fort Jefferson 60 miles off Key West, arrives in Cuba where he engages in covert operations aimed at the heart of the Union. Allan Pinkerton, however, has set his own trap for the suspected saboteur.