History's Highlight

Oldest city? London weighed in

200 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

On the eve of Jamestown's 400th anniversary in 2007, the London Daily Telegraph caught wind of an age-old dispute with St. Augustine.

Old enemies fight again over town's 400th birthday
By Francis Harris, London Daily Telegraph, in St Augustine 18 February 2006

 It is not easy to organise the anniversary of a major historic event anywhere in the world without causing offence. In modern America, it's close to impossible.

Even so, organisers behind next year's 400th birthday celebration for England's first permanent settlement in North America did their best.

They assembled an African American forum, so that no offence was caused to black people. They had, after all, been brought here as slaves.

They created an American Indian forum to underline the important role played by the native community. They had, after all, lost North America.

But in all likelihood no one suggested creating a Spanish forum, which may have been a mistake.

In Florida, the heirs of Spain's first permanent settlement in North America have been watching with rising irritation as Jamestown gears up for next year's party.

Particularly galling, says St Augustine's mayor, George Gardner, was the suggestion that Jamestown's big day was "America's 400th anniversary." His town, he points out, is 441 years old.

"No one is disputing Jamestown's place in American history," Mr. Gardner said from his flamboyantly Hispanic town hall. "We don't dispute that Jamestown is the earliest English settlement. But it was 42 years too late to claim that America started there."

Facing a confrontation, Jamestown's defenders might quietly have sought peace by looking for a deal to accommodate Florida's Spanish sensibilities. Instead, they fired back at the old enemy with something akin to English hauteur.

"I understand their reasoning," said America's 400th Anniversary spokesman, Kevin Crossett. "However Jamestown planted the seeds of free enterprise, representative government and cultural diversity."

But the heirs of the conquistadors do contest Jamestown's claim to have been the original American home of that most inclusive of modern ideas, "cultural diversity." Which is where the historians begin to despair. Because both colonial settlements were routinely awash with the blood of every culture.

St Augustine's Spanish founders had barely drawn breath in the New World before they massacred 300 French Protestants because they worshiped God the wrong way.

The English also shed blood. Only 14 years after they arrived, the Indians launched surprise attacks and murdered 350 people, around a quarter of Virginia's white population. The settlers agreed to make "peace" and murdered 250 Indians at the celebration bash.

Editorial in same edition: 

   Youngsters squabble

A civil war is raging between St Augustine, Florida, and Jamestown, Virginia, over which is America's oldest city. St Augustine was founded first, in 1565, as an outpost of the Spanish empire.

Jamestown, by contrast, calls itself the "first permanent English settlement", where the seeds of free enterprise and cultural diversity were planted. Its 2007 anniversary celebrations are billed as "America's 400th birthday."

On the face of it, our sympathies should lie with Jamestown, named after a British monarch and indelibly associated with Pocahontas. But how can a city that disappeared in the 18th century be described as "permanent"? And the reference to cultural diversity is a bit rich when one considers that Jamestown's leaders enslaved blacks and poisoned Indians.

As for St Augustine, its heritage is looking rather less obsolete now that so many Hispanic ingredients are being tipped into the melting pot. And it was loyal to the Crown during the revolution.

We see no reason to take sides. Americans, after all, believe passionately in competition. We shall retreat to a safe distance and watch them slug it out.

St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - dramatic accounts of famous people and events in St. Augustine's history - in booklets designed for quick reads before bed. 

Information here.