If the name James Joiner does not ring a bell, it should not be
a surprise. It is entirely possible that Capt. “Cappy” Joiner
might take a few moments and a tap on the shoulder to answer to
that name, and it is the one he was born with. View More images
>>His father was Captain Joiner, and the three-year-old Little
Captain soon became Cappy. The Joiner family came to Florida in
the 1700s, from the small island of Minorca off the coast of
Spain. Originally indentured to work for 10 years on a St.
Augustine rubber plantation, it took the intervention of a
Spanish priest to free the family and hundreds of others after
16 years of what was essentially slavery. But those were the
lucky immigrants. Of the group of 1500 that began the trek in
Europe, only 900 stepped ashore in the Americas. The priest
helped those who he freed to move to New Smyrna, where the
family lost their original surname and gained a new one. It is
believed that the Joiner name came from the old family
profession of carpentry. In fact, two of