By: Alan Aptheker

In the 1870s and 1880s, Harriet Beecher Stowe and her family vacationed in what is now North Mandarin, on their St. Johns River estate. While living there after the Civil War, Stowe wrote Palmetto Leaves, arguably an eloquent piece of promotional literature directed at Florida's potential Northern investors at the time. The book was published in 1873 and describes Northeast Florida and its residents.  In 1870, Stowe created an integrated school in Mandarin for children and adults. This predated the national movement toward integration by more than a half century.