Parker kicks off HSARI lecture series at Flagler College

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL (02/04/2014)(readMedia)-- Unfree workers in Carolina began escaping for Spanish Florida soon after the founding of the 1670 English colony in the hopes of finding freedom.

On Feb. 18, Executive Director of the Saint Augustine Historical Society Susan Parker will discuss the plight of white indentured servants who were the first to run away as part of the Historic St. Augustine Research Institute speaker series.

"Indentured workers created paths and patterns for escape which would be replicated for more than a century ultimately by more black laborers than white workers," said Parker.

Parker previously served as a historian and preservation consultant with the Florida Department of State. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in colonial history and a B.A. in Spanish from Florida State University. She has taught at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, and the University of North Florida.

The Historic St. Augustine Research Institute is a collaborative project of Flagler College and the University of Florida, supported by the St. Augustine Foundation, Inc. Its purpose is to encourage, coordinate and disseminate active academic research related to the history, archaeology and historical architecture of St. Augustine, Florida, and to apply this research in support of historic preservation in the city.

This year's HSARI series is entitled "St. Augustine's Forgotten People." Lectures are free and open to the public and are held at 7 p.m. in the Flagler Room of Ponce de Leon Hall, 74 King St., St. Augustine.

For more info, call 904-829-8481.

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Flagler College is an independent, four-year, comprehensive baccalaureate college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 29 majors, 34 minors and two pre-professional programs, the largest majors being business, education and communication. Small by intent, Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review regularly feature Flagler as a college that offers quality education at a relatively low cost. A Flagler education is less than half the cost of similar private colleges, and competitive with many state universities. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for its historic beauty. The centerpiece of the campus is the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, a grand resort built in 1888 by Henry M. Flagler, industrialist, railroad pioneer and co-founder of Standard Oil. The Ponce has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu.