In 1867, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin settled in a small cottage in Mandarin, Florida, overlooking the St. Johns River.nbsp; She had promised her Boston publisher another novelnbsp; but was so taken with northeast Florida that she produced instead a series of sketches of the land and the people which she submitted in 1872nbsp; under the title Palmetto Leaves. Stowe describes life in Florida in the latter half of the 19th century--"a tumble-down, wild, panicky kind of life--this general happy-go-luckiness which Florida inculcates." Her idyllic sketches of picnicking, sailing, and river touring expeditions and simple stories of events and people in this tropical "winter summer" landnbsp; became the first unsolicited promotional writing to interest northern tourists in Florida.