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FSC Professors' book sheds new light on 
women in antebellum Florida

LAKELAND, Fla. (June 29, 2004) - FSC professors Dr. James M. Denham and Dr. Keith L. Huneycutt have published a book, "Echoes from a Distant Frontier: The Brown Sisters' Correspondence from Antebellum Florida" (University of South Carolina Press 2004). 

"Echoes from a Distant Frontier" is an annotated selection of the correspondence of Corinna and Ellen Brown, two single women in their twenties, who left a comfortable New England home in 1835 for the Florida frontier. Within a month of their arrival on the shores of the St. Johns, the frontier erupted in Indian war. The Browns witnessed the terror and carnage firsthand, and their letters paint a vivid picture of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). Their correspondence also contains astute observations about everyday life in a time, place and society for which a very limited record remains. The twenty-first volume in the USC Press's acclaimed Women's Diaries and Letters of the South Series, this book offers a unique glimpse of Florida's antebellum frontier as seen through women's eyes. 

Denham, FSC history professor and director of the Center for Florida History at the college, has also written "A Rogue's Paradise: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861," and co-edited "Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: The Florida Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams" and "Florida Sheriffs: A History, 1821-1945." He has been with FSC since 1991.

Huneycutt, chair of FSC's English department, has published articles in Military History of the West and Florida Historical Quarterly. Huneycutt has taught at FSC since 1987. 


About Florida Southern College

Founded in 1885, Florida Southern College is a private, comprehensive United Methodist college with a liberal arts core. The college maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 38 undergraduate majors and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, and nursing. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, provides strong student/faculty mentorship programs, boasts 24 NCAA Division II national championships, and is ranked by U. S. News and World Report as one of the top ten Southern Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelors. Located on scenic Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern is the home of the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

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