Bulow Plantation Ruins

History of the Bulow Plantation Ruins

Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park, located in Flagler Beach, Florida, is a Florida State Park that preserves the remnants of a once-thriving antebellum plantation. The site features the coquina-built ruins of a large sugar mill and other traces of the plantation complex. In its prime, Bulow was the largest plantation in East Florida, producing sugar, cotton, rice, and indigo through the forced labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans.

The Bulow Family and the Establishment of Bulowville

The story of Bulowville began in 1812, when Bahamian farmer James Russell arrived in Florida aboard the schooner Perseverance. He traded the vessel to the Spanish government in exchange for approximately 6,000 acres of fertile land in the area, where he established a plantation he named Good Retreat. Russell’s endeavor, however, was brief as he died just three years later in 1815.

Following his death, Russell’s heirs sold the property to Charles Wilhelm Bulow from Charleston, South Carolina. Bulow was born in 1779, the second son of Joachim Von Bulow, a German immigrant who came to Charleston to establish the Lutheran Church in the United States. Joachim Von Bulow operated large warehouses stocked with provisions and supplies, which he sold to the South Carolina Revolutionary forces. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his property was never confiscated during the war, allowing him to expand his fortune.

The Bulow family went on to acquire extensive holdings, including the renowned Savannah Plantation near Charleston. The eldest son, John Joachim, inherited the family’s considerable wealth, including extensive plantation lands and numerous enslaved laborers. He later became a prominent and prosperous cotton merchant in his own right. Being the younger son, Charles Wilhelm could not inherit, so he went into the cotton business with his brother until 1820, when he established the 4,675-acre plantation at Bulow Creek in Florida.

Bringing with him around 300 enslaved laborers, Bulow transformed the property into a model plantation, which became known as Bulowville. He used 1,500 acres to grow sugarcane, 1,000 for cotton, and smaller plots for indigo and rice. The main house was surrounded by a semicircle of 46 cabins to house the enslaved Africans. Yet his own time there was also short-lived; Bulow died in 1823 at the age of 44 and was laid to rest in the Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine.

The Hospitable and Sadistic John Joachim Bulow

His only son, John Joachim Bulow (not to be confused with Charles Wilhelm’s brother of the same name), inherited the estate and, under his direction, the plantation prospered like no other. Educated in Paris, he was described as handsome, spirited, and fond of good company. John Joachim was well known for his hospitality, having built a large two-story mansion in which he entertained many guests. He used to travel up and down the Halifax River on an eight-oared barge as far as Jupiter Inlet, with his guns, nets, tents, and cooks.

In 1831, the famed naturalist and artist John James Audubon visited Bulowville and later praised his host for offering “the most hospitable and welcome treatment that could possibly be afforded.” Audubon referred to John Joachim as “the generous Bulow,” and the two were described as having a good drinking and hunting camaraderie, likely enjoying a refined and leisurely social life. Bulow also provided Audubon with assistance for his work. In one instance, enslaved people paddled Audubon up the Halifax River to hunt pelicans.

Other accounts, though, described John Joachim as a drunken and unstable individual. He was known to have tortured the enslaved people on his plantation, murdering four of them in his rages. In an interview with Archeology Magazine, archaeologist James Davidson of the University of Florida said, “You just don’t know what he’s going to do.” The life of an enslaved African at most other plantations was also terrible, but it was predictable. “It’s the unpredictability of Bulow that makes it more terrifying.” 

Destruction of the Plantation

The wealth and comfort that Bulowville offered the white settlers came to a sudden end in December 1835, with the outbreak of the Second Seminole War. In late 1835, Major Benjamin A. Putnam was dispatched from St. Augustine with a detachment of militia to safeguard the plantations along Florida’s eastern frontier. He established his headquarters at Bulowville, but upon entering the property on December 28, 1835, his troops were met with open resistance from John Joachim, who reportedly fired a four-pound cannon in protest of the military’s presence.

Bulow was placed under house arrest, where he remained until January 23, 1836, when Putnam’s forces and the remaining plantation residents retreated to St. Augustine amid escalating hostilities. Shortly thereafter, Seminole warriors burned and destroyed the Bulow plantation, leaving it in ruins.

Inheritance and Preservation

John Joachim Bulow later traveled to Paris, and while some accounts claim he died there the following year at age 27, official records suggest otherwise. On April 1, 1836, he appeared before a Justice of the Peace to document the losses he suffered due to the army’s occupation. However, just over a month later, the Florida Herald of Charleston reported that Bulow had died in St. Augustine on May 7, 1836. Some accounts say he died of a wasting disease, possibly cirrhosis. Although there is no headstone, his grave is located next to his father’s in the Huguenot Cemetery. He left no heirs, and the estate ultimately passed to his sister, Emily Ann Bulow Bucknor, of New York.

Around 1858, Charles Bulow Bucknor, son of Emily Ann Bucknor and heir to the Bulow plantation, submitted a claim to Congress seeking $83,475 in damages for the destruction of the estate during the Seminole War. Although both the House and Senate passed the bill, they did so in different sessions, and the measure ultimately expired without resolution.

Decades later, in 1893, the Bulow heirs hired John Wedderburn of the Examiner Bureau of Claims to reopen the case and file a new claim against the United States government and the Seminole Indians. This effort also proved unsuccessful, and the case was dismissed in 1906 after being deemed abandoned for non-prosecution.

The Florida Park Service acquired the former Bulow Plantation ruins in 1945, and the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Today, approximately 150 acres of the former plantation remain preserved as Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park, a lasting reminder of the dramatic rise and fall of East Florida’s early sugar plantations.

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