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<TITLE TYPE="245">The Florida Historical Quarterly <NUM>volume 64 issue 2</NUM></TITLE>
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<DATE>October, 1985</DATE>
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<BIBL><TITLE TYPE="main">The Florida Historical Quarterly<NUM>Volume 64 Issue 2</NUM></TITLE>
<TITLE TYPE="other">The Florida Historical Society Quarterly</TITLE>
<PUBLISHER>Florida Historical Society</PUBLISHER>
<PUBPLACE>St. Augustine, Florida</PUBPLACE>
<DATE>October 1985</DATE>
<EXTENT></EXTENT></BIBL>
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<TEXT>
<FRONT><DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:1"><HEAD>Contents:</HEAD>
<ITEM>LIST OF BOOK REVIEWS</ITEM>
<ITEM>A SECOND CHANCE: CARY NICHOLAS AND FRONTIER FLORIDA by Dennis Golladay</ITEM>
<ITEM>A GREAT STIRRING IN THE LAND: TALLAHASSEE AND LEON COUNTY IN 1860 by William Warren Rogers</ITEM>
<ITEM>BLACK REACTION TO SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN POST-RECONSTRUCTION FLORIDA by Wali R. Kharif</ITEM>
<ITEM>A SWISS SETTLER IN EAST FLORIDA: A LETTER OF FRANCIS PHILIP FATIO edited by William Scott Willis</ITEM>
<ITEM>BOOK REVIEWS</ITEM>
<ITEM>BOOK NOTES</ITEM>
<ITEM>HISTORY NEWS</ITEM>
<ITEM>ANNUAL MEETING</ITEM></DIV1></FRONT>
<BODY><DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:2" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>LIST OF BOOK REVIEWS</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>LIST OF BOOK REVIEWS</HEAD>
<P>GOVERNOR LEROY COLLINS OF FLORIDA: SPOKESMAN FOR THE NEW SOUTH,
by Tom Wagy
reviewed by Manning J. Dauer</P>
<P>HE-COON: THE BOB SIKES STORY, edited by Bobbye Sikes Wicke
reviewed by D. R. "Billy" Matthews</P>
<P>THE MIAMI RIOT OF 1980: CROSSING THE BOUNDS, by Bruce Porter and
Marvin Dunn
reviewed by Robert P. Ingalls</P>
<P>MODERN FLORIDA GOVERNMENT, by Anne E. Kelley
reviewed by Allen Morris</P>
<P>RAILS `NEATH THE PALMS, by Robert W. Mann
reviewed by Herbert J. Doherty, Jr.</P>
<P>GEORGE WASHINGTON, A BIOGRAPHY, by John R. Alden
reviewed by Aubrey C. Land</P>
<P>THE PAPERS OF HENRY CLAY, VOLUME 8, CANDIDATE, COMPROMISER,
WHIG, MARCH 5, 1829-DECEMBER 31, 1836, edited by Robert Seager II
reviewed by Edwin A. Miles</P>
<P>NO CHARIOT LET DOWN: CHARLESTON'S FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR ON THE
EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR, edited by Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roark
reviewed by Theodore Hemmingway</P>
<P>A WOMAN DOCTOR'S CIVIL WAR: ESTHER HILL HAWKS' DIARY, edited by
Gerald Schwartz
reviewed by Joe M. Richardson</P>
<P>LAST TRAIN SOUTH: THE FLIGHT OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT
FROM RICHMOND, by James C. Clark
reviewed by William Warren Rogers</P>
<P>THE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON PAPERS, VOLUME 13: 1914-1915, edited by
Louis R. Harlan and Raymond W. Smock
reviewed by Thomas D. Clark</P>
<P>THE GREENING OF THE SOUTH: THE RECOVERY OF LAND AND FOREST, by
Thomas D. Clark
reviewed by Linda Vance</P>
<P>THE NEW DEAL AND THE SOUTH, edited by James C. Cobb and Michael V.
Namorato
reviewed by Thomas S. Morgan</P>
<P>RUNNING SCARED: SILVER IN MISSISSIPPI, by James W. Silver
reviewed by Numan V. Bartley</P>
<P>AMBIVALENT LEGACY: A LEGAL HISTORY OF THE SOUTH, edited by David J.
Bodenhamer and James W. Ely, Jr.
reviewed by John W. Johnson</P>
<P>SWAMP WATER AND WIREGRASS: HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF COASTAL GEORGIA, by George A. Rogers and R. Frank Saunders, Jr.
reviewed by Kenneth Coleman
<PB N="129"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:3" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>A SECOND CHANCE: CARY NICHOLAS AND FRONTIER FLORIDA by Dennis Golladay</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>A SECOND CHANCE: CARY NICHOLAS AND FRONTIER FLORIDA by Dennis Golladay</HEAD>
<P>On the morning of July 17, 1821, the inhabitants of Pensacola
gathered around the town's public square to witness the
ceremony marking the transfer of the Floridas from Spanish to
American control. Among the new American residents in the
crowd was Cary Nicholas, a thirty-four-year-old transplanted
Kentuckian who, like so many others, saw in the territory the
prospect for a new start in a life too full of disappointments and
failures.</P>
<P>To the casual observer, however, disappointment and failure
should never have been the pattern of Nicholas's life. Born into
a distinguished Virginia family on October 26, 1786, he was
blessed with the familial and political connections which should
have assured his place among southern gentry.1 His grandfather, Robert Carter Nicholas, had served as Virginia's trea
surer from 1766 to 1776, and had generally been recognized as
one of the state's most important, if rather reluctant, revolutionary leaders. His father, George Nicholas, who moved to Ken
tucky in 1788, had been an early hero in the War for Independence, a frequent member of the Virginia House of Delegates,
a leading Federalist spokesman in Virginia's ratification convention, and the chief architect of Kentucky's 1792 constitution.
Uncles scattered throughout Virginia, Maryland, and New York
achieved distinction as Jeffersonian Republican lieutenants on
the state and national levels, serving as governors, federal senators, and cabinet officers. Building from such an impressive</P>
<P>Dennis Golladay is professor of history and chairman of the Department
of Liberal Arts, Pensacola Junior College. He wishes to thank Peter King
for his assistance and Pensacola Junior College for a leave which helped
fund the research.</P>
<P>1. Samuel Smith to [Wilson Cary Nicholas], November 6, 1806, Edgehill-Randolph Additional Papers, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville
[hereinafter cited as ERA]. Although named after his uncle, Wilson Cary
Nicholas, he was addressed throughout his life as Cary.
<PB N="130">
base, Cary Nicholas could have been expected to assume a natural position as a political leader in his own right.2</P>
<P>Initially, the patterns of Cary Nicholas's life developed as
expected. Following his father's death in 1799, he returned to
Virginia to live in the household of his uncle, Wilson Cary
Nicholas, where he received the same guidance and education
as his cousins. Later, he was sent to Richmond to study law
under the tutelage of another uncle, Philip Norborne Nicholas.3</P>
<P>Then cracks began to appear in the pattern. In the spring
of 1807, bored with the study of law and restless under the
control of his uncles, Nicholas sought their permission to return
to Lexington, Kentucky, to establish his own law practice. His
uncles, however, feared that their twenty-year-old nephew
would be taking "a rash and precipitate step." His mother had
died the previous year, and he would have no family guidance
in his first faltering years of practice. Because his father's estate
had been encumbered with over _ 22,000 of debts, he had virtually no inheritance to rely upon, and they also fretted that he
might come under the influence of his elder brother Robert
who was already displaying signs of dissipation. Cary was so
earnest in his pleas, however, that they reluctantly agreed to
allow him to try his hand.4</P>
<P>Unfortunately, Cary managed to live up to everyone's worst
fears. In his first and only case at the August 1807 session of
the Bourbon County court, he could not muster the nerve to
address the court, and the case had to be turned over to another
attorney. Living in his married sister's home in Lexington, he
idled away his time reading novels, drinking, and gambling in
the "public houses" of the town. Friends still tried to rescue him</P>
<P>2. For information on the Nicholases and their connections, see Dennis Golladay, "The Nicholas Family of Virginia, 1722-1820," (Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1973).</P>
<P>3. Wilson Cary Nicholas to Samuel Smith, August 21, October 8, November
12, 1799, ERA; Joshua Fry to Wilson Cary Nicholas, February 17, 1802,
A. W. Moore to Wilson Cary Nicholas, [May] 1802, Philip Norborne
Nicholas to Wilson Cary Nicholas, July 19, 1806, Wilson Cary Nicholas
Papers, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville [hereinafter cited as
WCN].</P>
<P>4.  Cary Nicholas to Wilson Cary Nicholas, March 7, 1807, Samuel Smith to
[Wilson Gary Nicholas], November 6, 1806, James Morrison to Wilson Cary
Nicholas, February 8, 1807 [Account of Debts of George Nicholas Estate,
1799], ERA; Philip Norborne Nicholas to Wilson Cary Nicholas, July 19,
1806, WCN.
<PB N="131">
from his dissipated life, arguing that with his Virginia education,
he could quickly rise to the top of the legal profession if he only
showed a little ambition and effort, but Cary responded that
such an effort was not worth his trouble. "I am too much displeased to write on this subject with temper," concluded James
Morrison, an old family friend and guardian of Cary's younger
sisters, "and can only say never had a young man fairer prospects."5</P>
<P>Apparently, Cary saw no "fair prospects" in a profession
which required of him exactly those qualities he did not possess-independence, initiative, discipline, and tenacity. Instead,
he embraced the old dictum of errant sons of the gentry: when
all else fails, fall back upon influence. One of his maternal uncles, Robert Smith, was Jefferson's secretary of the navy, so why
not seek a naval appointment as a commissioned officer? Such
an appointment would befit a young gentleman without demanding the self-generating energy necessary in law, or farming, or commerce. But unconvinced of his nephew's steadiness,
Smith would not cooperate by delivering a naval commission for
Cary as he had just done for Cary's younger brother George.6</P>
<P>Luckily, circumstances and influence combined to bring relief to the indolent young man and his exasperated relatives.
Following the Leopard-Chesapeake affair in June 1807, President
Jefferson convinced Congress to increase the size of the regular
army from fewer than 3,000 men to approximately 10,000. An
Act of April 12, 1808, authorized the creation of eight additional
regiments, a move which opened a timely opportunity for young
men seeking military commissions as the answer to personal
failings and misfortunes. The circumstance having arrived, relatives and friends used their influence to procure a commission
for Cary and "save him from ruin & disgrace." On May 3, 1808,
he received his commission as a first lieutenant in the Seventh
Infantry Regiment while his elder brother Robert was named a
captain in the same unit.7</P>
<P>5.   Morrison to Wilson Cary Nicholas, July 4, October 11, 1807, ERA; ibid.,
September 2, October 10, 1807, WCN.</P>
<P>6.  Morrison to Wilson Cary Nicholas, October 11, 26, 1807, ERA; Edward
William Callahan, ed., List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of
the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900 (New York, 1901), 405.</P>
<P>7.  Dumas Malone, Jefferson the President: Second Term, 1805-1809 (Boston,
1974), 516-19; Richmond Enquirer, August 9, 1808; Francis Bernard
<PB N="132">
Despite all the good intentions, the army did not prove to be
Nicholas's salvation, and he liked it no better than any other
pursuit he had temporarily followed. Army life on frontier
posts, border towns, and seaports was characterized by the boredom of routine, and a young bachelor's companions were most
likely the very gamblers and drunkards that well-meaning
friends had hoped he could avoid. Promotions and interesting
duty were rare and infrequent, and although one had at least a
steady though low income, peacetime army routine could not
satisfy the itch for movement-any kind of movement-which
seemed to afflict Nicholas. In the waning days of 1810, he flirted
with the idea of abandoning the army in favor of practicing law
either in his hometown of Lexington or in New Orleans, but a
promotion to captain on March 1, 1811, persuaded him to remain a soldier a bit longer, and he was still in the army when
the United States declared war against Great Britain in 1812.8</P>
<P>One might expect that the war would have provided a young
officer such as Nicholas a splendid opportunity for combat experience, glory, and promotion, but the dissolute Kentuckian
managed only the last. Through happenstance or design, he
avoided involvement in any of the major campaigns or battles
of the war but nonetheless received an appointment as assistant
adjutant general for the New Orleans District in April 1813.
Despite the convenient location of his office, he missed the Battle of New Orleans because he was nursing an accidental but
severe ankle injury which had reduced him to "crutchery" and
partially crippled him for life. After the war ended, he was promoted to the rank of major of the Fourteenth Infantry but
seems to have spent most of his time on furlough at a Kentucky
resort springs, ostensibly to restore his health. When Congress
decided to reduce and reorganize the post-war military establishment, Nicholas tried to retain his commission, but the only
letters of endorsement he could forward were lukewarm at best,</P>
<P>Heitman, ed., Historical Register of the United States Army from its Organization September 29, to March 2, 1903, 2 vols. (Washington, 1903), I, 746;
Morrison to Wilson Cary Nicholas, September 9, 1813, WCN; B[uckner]
Thruston to the Secretary of War [Henry Dearborn], April 16, 1808, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General 1805-1821, microcopy
M566, Roll No. 3, 10-23-1, National Archives, Washington [hereinafter
cited as NA].</P>
<P>8. Morrison to Wilson Cary Nicholas, January 12, 1811. WCN; Heitman, ed.,
Historical Register, I, 746.
<PB N="133">
and on June 15, 1815, he was officially discharged from the
army.9</P>
<P>Whatever a military life might have done for Nicholas, it
apparently did nothing to change his character as relatives and
friends had once hoped. James Morrison still referred to him
as a gambler and drunkard who would never again "tred the
paths of honor and respectability." Unable to settle down to
civilian life and with no reliable source of income, Nicholas
merely drifted through the Southwest as a frontier ne'er-dowell. Fortunately, circumstances once again gave him a reprieve.
A vacancy in the army's paymaster department had been created
by the death of the battalion paymaster for the New Orleans
District, and Nicholas successfully lobbied to replace him. He
received his new appointment on February 17, 1817, with the
privileges and salary of an infantry major.10 From the skimpy
evidence available, Nicholas seems to have approached his new
position with the same lack of attentiveness and responsibility
which had always characterized his previous efforts, but he did
take advantage of the chief asset the post offered, renewed contact with men of influence. The command of the Southern Divi
sion of the army had been held by Andrew Jackson since the
1815 reorganization, and the general was well known for his
willingness to reward loyal subordinates. Although never admitted to the inner circles of Jackson's closest friends, Nicholas
nonetheless won Jackson's respect and became an intimate with
the general's cronies throughout the Southern Division.11</P>
<P>9. Cary Nicholas to [the Adjutant General], May 24, 1813, Cary Nicholas to
Gen. Thomas Flournoy, January 16, 1814, Cary Nicholas to Adjt. & lnspr.
Genl. Office, February 19, 1815, Thomas Todd to [Adjutant General],
March 15, 1815, and Joseph H. Hawkins to [Alexander] J. Dallas, March
21, 1815, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 18051821, M566, 10-23-1, 1813/N-Pi, 1814/Mos-O, 1815/Mo-O, NA.</P>
<P>10. Morrison to Wilson Cary Nicholas, February 14, 1814, WCN; ibid., May
29, 1814, February 16, 1817, ERA; Lewis Sanders to [Wilson Cary
Nicholas], June 26, 1814, WCN; [Richard M.] Johnson and Thomas
Fletcher to George Graham, n.d., Letters Received by the Office of the
Adjutant General, 1805-1821, M566, 10-23-1, 1814/Mos-O, NA; A Statement of the Officers Affected by the Act of 15th May 1820, Letters Received by the Secretary of War, Unregistered Series, 1789-1860, M222,
10-33-3, 1820/N-Y, P-1820, NA.</P>
<P>11. Andrew Jackson to John C. Calhoun, September 15, October 14,
November 25, 30, 1820, in Robert L. Meriwhether, W. Edwin Hemphill,
and Clyde N. Wilson, eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, 14 vols. (Columbia,
1959-1984), V, 355, 373, 395, 451, 459-62. Nicholas was still being hounded
<PB N="134">
In the fall of 1820, however, Nicholas decided to resign his
post as soon as his accounts could be settled, and he was honorably discharged on June 1, 1821. His second departure from
the army was once again caused by necessity rather than whim.
By 1820 Congress was clearly concerned about the expense of
an army which it deemed too large for a peacetime establishment, and it had determined to reduce the size of the army to
save money. The reduction plan debated in Congress envisioned
not only the elimination of the Southern Division (and thereby
Jackson's command), but also the discharge of officers rated as
either "clearly inferior" or "mediocrities." While no one may
have been so unkind as to rate Nicholas as inferior, few in strict
conscience could have rated him as more than mediocre in "intelligence, habits, and military skills," the qualities listed as most
vital for retention in the reduced army.12</P>
<P>Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Nicholas decided to
make plans for a new position before his old one was officially
eliminated. A number of positions as Indian agents were opening among the recently subdued tribes of the region, and
Nicholas asked Jackson to recommend his appointment as agent
to the Choctaws. Jackson already had another nominee in mind,
but he did recommend Nicholas as a second choice, averring
that he knew "of no man who would discharge the duties of this
station with more fidelity." Nicholas did not get the position, but
more than ever he saw Jackson as his key to the future.13</P>
<P>That future, Nicholas decided, lay in the Floridas. Portions
of West Florida had been seized illegally by American settlers as
early as 1810-1811 on the pretext that the land lay within the</P>
<P>by the treasury for discrepancies in his paymaster's accounts as late as 1826,
Stephen Pleasanton to Cary Nicholas, April 10, 1826, and to Henry Hitchcock, April 10, 1826, Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, Record
Group 206, Letters on Debts and Suits, Letterbook No. 7, NA.</P>
<P>12. Rembert W. Patrick, Aristocrat in Uniform: General Duncan L. Clinch (Gainesville, 1963), 48; Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American
Empire (New York, 1977), 400,402; Heitman, ed., Historical Register, I, 746.</P>
<P>13. Jackson to Calhoun, November 30, 1820, Meriwhether, Hemphill, and Wilson, eds., Papers of John C. Calhoun, V, 461. Nicholas's older brother Robert,
who had resigned his army commission a year earlier, successfully sought
a position as agent to the Chickasaws. He resigned the post in July 1823
under a cloud of embezzlement, and the government later prosecuted him
for using over $35,000 of the stolen funds to purchase a Mississippi steamboat. Ibid., V, 314, 617; VI, 634, 729; VIII, 148-49, 178, 260-61; IX, 113,
497.
<PB N="135">
boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, and in February 1819,
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had negotiated with
Spain the surrender of the remainder of the Floridas in the
Adams-On_s Treaty. Jackson, who had twice invaded the
Floridas, once in 1814 and again in 1818, was appointed governor of the new territory when it passed into American hands in
1821. Initially reluctant to accept the position despite the upcoming termination of his military career, Jackson was per
suaded to change his mind by friends who would benefit from
the offices and appointments they believed within his power to
bestow. One of these friends was Cary Nicholas who had decided to establish a newspaper in the small town of Pensacola
where Jackson would locate the temporary capital of the territory.14</P>
<P>The thirty-four-year-old Nicholas did not cut a very imposing figure when he arrived in Pensacola in the spring of 1821.
Still a bachelor, and destined to remain one all his life, he most
likely featured the typical physical traits of all the Nicholas
males-short, fat, and balding. He still walked with a limp from
his ankle injury of earlier years and was sometimes forced to
rely upon a cane. An animated man, he was once depicted as "a
brilliant talker and noted wit," although in the Southwest that
could probably have been translated as fast-talking con artist.
Like the rest of his kinsmen, he was "fond of changing," the
trait that lay behind his move to Pensacola.15</P>
<P>Why Nicholas decided on Pensacola is easy to understand.
Not only would the town be the center of Jackson's influence
and many of Nicholas's acquaintances, but most Americans expected Pensacola to become a boom town and a financial
bonanza. Never all that important or large during the colonial
era, Pensacola boasted a fine harbor, and speculators could envision it first rivalling and then outstripping New Orleans as the
premier port of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a town of chance</P>
<P>14. Remini, Andrew Jackson, 400; Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., Richard Keith Call,
Southern Unionist (Gainesville,, 1961), 18; William F. Keller, The Nation's
Advocate; Henry Marie Brackenridge and Young America (Pittsburgh, 1956),
253-54.</P>
<P>15. Hugh Blair Grigsby, The Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, 2 vols.
(Richmond, 1890), I, 79; Robert Wickliffe [Sketch of the Life of George
Nicholas], typescript, WCN; Sarah Nicholas to Jane Nicholas Randolph,
January 14, 1819, ERA.
<PB N="136">
with the prospect of large, fast gains for minimal investment,
exactly the new, raw, undeveloped site of potential that made a
gambler's pulse quicken.16</P>
<P>Why Nicholas chose to become a newspaper publisher is a
bit more puzzling. He had absolutely no experience with publishing, printing, or writing and only the most casual knowledge
of operating a business. Pensacola, however, had no newspaper
or printing shop. In a town that was to become a seat of government, the sole printer could expect a monopoly on the printing
of official documents and notices instead of having to rely exclusively on the revenues generated by subscriptions and adver
tising. Not only would this arrangement provide a steady,
guaranteed income, Nicholas believed, but the publisher would
be in the center of all important activity within the communitypolitical and economic. That meant a situation ripe for advance
ment and exploitation for a man with the proper connections
in the right places, and in Pensacola, one could not have a more
proper connection than Andrew Jackson.</P>
<P>Fortunately for Nicholas, he did not have to enter the newspaper publishing business alone. He formed a partnership with
an experienced printer, twenty-seven-year-old George Brooke
Tunstall of Nashville. Like Nicholas, Tunstall was Virginia-born
but western-raised. He had learned the printing trade in the
Nashville offices of his uncle Thomas Todd and had been copublisher of the Nashville Whig from 1817 until he began his
association with Nicholas in 1821. Best of all, as a Nashville
resident, Tunstall was well acquainted with Andrew Jackson and
his entourage.17 Nicholas and Tunstall established their business
in a rented building fronting the north side of the public square,</P>
<P>16. David Yancey Thomas, A History of Military Government in Newly Acquired
Territory of the United States (New York, 1904; reprinted., 1967), 62; Jackson
to John Donelson, July 3, 1821, in John Spencer Bassett, ed., Correspondence
of Andrew Jackson, 7 vols. (Washington, 1926-1935), III, 88; affidavit of
John Donelson, Jr., January 13, 1820, in ibid., III, 6.</P>
<P>17. James Owen Knauss, Territorial Florida Journalism (DeLand, 1926), 67;
Douglas C. McMurtrie, "The Beginnings of Printing in Florida," Florida
Historical Quarterly, XXIII (October 1944), 73-76; Clarence S. Brigham,
History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, 2 vols. (Worcester, MA, 1947), II, 1066; General Andrew Jackson in account Current with
Jas. Jackson and Company, March 17, 1819, in Bassett, ed., Correspondence
of Andrew Jackson, II, 412-14; Jackson to James Forbes, June 11, 1821,
United States State Department Territorial Papers, Florida, 1777-1824,
M116, 10-17-2, NA.
<PB N="137">
waiting for several months until the printing press they had
ordered from Philadelphia in April finally arrived in August.
The first edition of their paper, the Pensacola Floridian appeared on Saturday, August 18, 1821.18</P>
<P>Yearly subscriptions for the weekly newspaper, whose sheets
were dominated by advertising, were set at five dollars in advance. The ads may well have been the paper's most important
service for the typical citizen. Not only could one read of ship
arrivals and departures, goods for sale at local stores, taverns
with accommodations and drink, opening of lawyers' offices,
and real estate bargains, but he could also learn of the plays to
be presented at the theatre, the latest works to be found at W.
Hassell Hunt's bookstore, and the opening of a new school for
Pensacola's youth. Following the practice of most small newspapers of the day, the Floridian might feature "a dearth of news"
at times, but it never was lacking for advertisements.19</P>
<P>Perhaps just as important to local citizens as the advertisements were the official government decrees and ordinances
printed in the paper. As expected, Nicholas and Tunstall had
been appointed by Jackson as the first official printers of the
territory, and much of their newspaper's space was devoted to
this important duty. In addition to the newspaper coverage,
their print shop also turned out official broadsides and publications of territorial laws. Because Florida was a bilingual society
de facto if not de jure-many of these official columns and
printings appeared in both Spanish and English.20</P>
<P>The firm of Nicholas and Tunstall voluntarily took on yet a
third major role in the columns of the Floridian, that of self-annointed prophets, publicists, and promoters for the future of
West Florida in general and Pensacola in particular. The very
first issue of the paper castigated J. G. Forbes's Sketches Historical
and Topographical of the Floridas for what the editors saw as ludicrously-inaccurate descriptions of Pensacola. The third issue
carried a copy of a petition for the establishment of a branch of</P>
<P>18. Pensacola Floridian, August 18, 182 1, April 6, 1822; James Parton, The Life
of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. (New York, 1860), II, 603. See the map of Pensacola contained in John Lee Williams, A View of West Florida (Philadelphia,
1827).</P>
<P>19.  Pensacola Floridian, August 18, September 8, 1821, February 4, April 6,
1822; Knauss, Territorial Florida Journalism, 20-21.</P>
<P>20. McMurtrie, "The Beginnings of Printing in Florida," 73-76. Also see extant
issues of the Floridian, 1821-1823.
<PB N="138">
the Bank of the United States in the town which they asserted
"must soon assume the first rank among the commercial cities
of the South." In subsequent issues, the editors endorsed the
views of "A Satisfied Emigrant" who claimed that "Nature has
done more for this city than any other on this continent" and
argued that with a clever bit of canal construction, Pensacola
would become the major deposit for the produce of interior
America and the greatest port on the Gulf of Mexico. Even
though Nicholas would agree with critics that Pensacola had its
problems, he denied charges that it had a sickly climate, poor
soil, and worthless harbor during the hurricane season. As for
the people, he responded to one critic: "we do not consider
there are more idiots in Pensacola than in other towns of the
same population."21</P>
<P>In addition to these public duties of a small town newspaper,
Nicholas and Tunstall could not forget the call of personal advancement. In a territory governed by a former military officer
with near-dictatorial powers, prudence dictated that those interested in obtaining positions of power and pecuniary rewards
support him openly and enthusiastically, especially when that
figure was the temperamental Andrew Jackson. From the beginning of publication, therefore, the Floridian adopted a pro
Jackson stance which was maintained well after Jackson's brief
stay of eleven weeks in Pensacola.</P>
<P>A prime example was the position the Floridian followed in
the feud which developed between the new governor, Andrew
Jackson, and the former Spanish governor, Don Jos_ Callava,
who had remained in Pensacola to wrap up unsettled affairs.
When Callava refused to hand over to Jackson documents relating to the claims of Mercedes Vidal against the powerful mer
chant John Innerarity, Jackson had the Spanish agent arrested
and the papers seized. Callava was incensed over this highhanded treatment, but Jackson's wrath reached even higher
levels when Callava's allies prevailed upon Judge Eligius
Fromentin, a French-born former Jesuit priest and Monroe appointee, to issue a writ of habeus corpus for Callava's release,
even though Fromentin did not have proper jurisdiction over
the matter. True to character, Jackson ignored the writ and</P>
<P>21. Pensacola Floridian, August 18, September 1, December 10, 17, 1821, August 3, 10, 1822.
<PB N="139">
gave the judge a tongue-lashing lecture on the proper outlines
of judicial duty.22</P>
<P>Initially, the editors of the Floridian stated that they would
do no more than print the facts of the incident which they felt
exonerated the conduct of Jackson, but they did offer to print
any statements that Callava or his friends wished to submit.
However, in a town as small as Pensacola with more than its fair
share of mercurial, explosive personalities, refraining from partisanship was neither possible nor always wise. Through Sep
tember and October, the paper carried numerous articles, letters, and documents relating to the Callava affair and the Vidal
Innerarity suit. Without fail, Jackson's decisions were supported.23</P>
<P>Even after Jackson left Pensacola early in October 1821 for
Nashville, the ripples from the feud refused to calm. The Floridian continued to feature material exonerating Jackson and
blasting Callava, Fromentin, and their associates. Jackson himself seemed especially bitter about Judge Fromentin, and as if
on cue, Nicholas went after the besieged judge so vigorously
that one correspondent wrote Jackson that Fromentin "rarely
crawls out of his shell-the lashing given him by Nicholas a few
weeks since I think has put him down forever, even in Pensacola." One trusts that the lashing was verbal rather than phys
ical, although neither would have been out of place in a rather
rough town caught in a period of transition.24</P>
<P>Still, with all the excitement in the bustling little town and
the various services a pioneer paper could offer, the Floridian
found survival difficult. With virtually no decent communication or transportation lines established overland, contact with
the rest of the nation could be maintained only over long, timeconsuming water routes. Most supplies a printer needed had to</P>
<P>22.  Marquis James, The Life of Andrew Jackson (Indianapolis, 1938) 321-27;
Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson (New York, 1966), 88-89; Keller, The
Nation's Advocate, 271-8 1.</P>
<P>23.  Pensacola Floridian, September 1, 15, 22, 29, October 15, 1821.</P>
<P>24.  Jackson to Richard Keith Call, November 15, 1821, in Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, III, 131; George Walton to Jackson, December 10,
1821, in Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the United States:
Territory of Florida, 26 vols. (Washington, 1934-1962) XXII, 298-99. In late
December 1821, Nicholas joined other Jackson men in Pensacola in a successful petition to President Monroe to replace Fromentin with Henry
Marie Brackenridge.
<PB N="140">
come from the northeast or middle Atlantic states, and they
seldom arrived on time and sometimes not at all. In February
and again in July of 1822, the editors had to suspend publication
for several weeks because they had no paper. Nicholas explained
that the Floridian, like most "infant establishments," was very
poor and could not keep a large stock of supplies on hand because everything had to be paid for in cash.25</P>
<P>The Floridian suffered a severe setback, in June 1822 when
George Tunstall left the paper and dissolved his partnership
with Nicholas. Not the result of any falling out between the
partners, Tunstall's decision was simply the conclusion of his
having struck it rich in another endeavor, his impending marriage to the daughter of a prosperous planter in Baldwin
County, Alabama. Bachelor Nicholas "rejoice[d] at the brightening fortunes of his friend . . . about to light him, into the highest
and happiest walks of life," but he had to face the sobering fact
that the man with all the knowledge of the printing trade had
left.26</P>
<P>Gamely, Nicholas reorganized the business as C. Nicholas &
Co. and tried to carry on. But troubles multiplied rapidly, and
Nicholas's days as a publisher and printer were numbered. Soon
after Tunstall left, Nicholas had to suspend publication temporarily for lack of supplies, and then just as he recovered and
the press began to turn out weekly editions again, he was hit by
the final, devastating blow-an outbreak of yellow fever in Pensacola. The very utterance of the name of the disease struck fear
in the hearts of southern coastal dwellers, and Nicholas had
always done his best to ridicule and allay those fears in the columns of the Floridian by stressing the salubrious climate and
generally healthy conditions of Pensacola.27</P>
<P>But on August 17, 1822, the usually optimistic editor had to
admit that the dreaded disease had indeed made its appearance
and was responsible for at least five of the eight deaths in the
town the preceding week. Still, he cautioned against panic and
tried to be optimistic. The five who had died from the fever, he
wrote, were susceptible to the disease because of other factors</P>
<P>25. Pensacola Floridian, March 4, July 20, 1820.</P>
<P>26. Ibid., June 22, July 20, 1822. Tunstall was married on July 4, 1822, and
settled in Baldwin County to raise a family and live the life of a planter at
his farm Montgomery Hill where he died on July 28, 1842. Nicholas, as
with all his brothers save one, remained a bachelor all his life.</P>
<P>27. Ibid., September 1, 1821, June 22, July 20, August 3, 17, 1822.
<PB N="141">
which had weakened their bodies: the consumption of green
fruit, overexposure to the sun, alcoholism, or contraction of the
disease in other places. It was obvious to Nicholas that if one
avoided such factors, he would have nothing to worry about. "It
is utterly inconceivable, how any infection can rage here, as long
as our bay contains salt, and the Gulph stream breeze continues
in its daily luxurious office," he wrote, adding, "we suspect that
the greatest danger attends those who are most apprehensivefear, is the greatest possible, predisposing cause to fever-and
we implore all that are so affected-to relieve us from the
danger of their longer continuance amongst us."28</P>
<P>Despite Nicholas's chiding, fear was exactly the proper response for Pensacolians in the late summer of 1822 as the yellow
fever "raged with great fury" through the town, killing scores
of inhabitants and sending most of the rest fleeing inland. Showing more good sense than journalistic consistency, Nicholas shut
down the Floridian and fled with them. He survived "the dreadful calamity," but Nicholas & Co. did not. Decreasing revenue
from a drastically reduced population convinced him to sell the
Floridian in March 1823 to John Fitzgerald, who struggled with
the paper until the end of the following August when it came
under the control of a very aggressive group of partners headed
by William F. Steele, the United States District Attorney for
West Florida, and Samuel Fry, a local attorney and member of
the territorial Legislative Council.29</P>
<P>28. Ibid., August 17, 1822. When a young army officer arrived in Pensacola
in November 1822. the first sight which greeted him was the corpse of a
victim of the yellow fever stretched out at the foot of Palafox Street. The
sickening sight confirmed the rumor he had heard in Philadelphia that
yellow fever had been racking the town since August. See George A.
McCall, Letters From the Frontier; Written During a Period of Thirty Years' Service
in the Army of the United States (Philadelphia, 1868; facsimile. ed., Gainesville,
1974), 12-13. According to Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., the epidemic was a
major factor in reducing the population of the town from about 3,0004,000 in the fall of 1821 to about 1,000-1,250 a little over a year later. See
his "Ante Bellum Pensacola: 1821-1860," Florida Historical Quarterly,
XXXVII (January-April 1959), 342-43, 351.</P>
<P>29. Jackson to Walton, November 20, 1822. in Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., "Andrew Jackson vs. the Spanish Governor," Florida Historical Quarterly,
XXXIV (July 1955), 24-29; Pensacola Floridian, March 8, 1823; Pensacola
Gazette and West Florida Advertiser, March 13, 1824; Brackenridge to John
Quincy Adams, March 10, 1824, Henry de Grand Pr_ to Adams, March
18, 1824, John Lee Williams to Adams, April 1, 1824, Department of State
Ms. Territorial Papers, XI, Florida 1823-1824, NA; In re Samuel Fry, Escambia County Court Records, File No. 1824-251, Escambia County Courthouse, Pensacola.
<PB N="142">
Fortunately, Nicholas had not put all his eggs in the Floridian
basket. A major reason for coming to Pensacola had been the
opportunity for appointment to government offices, an opportunity made realistic by his association with Andrew Jackson.
Because Nicholas was not a member of Jackson's inner circle,
he could not expect the premier appointments, but he did not
have to wait long for lesser ones to fall his way. Nicholas and
Tunstall had been appointed the first official printers in the
Floridas even before the arrival of their printing press, and soon
thereafter Nicholas was named as Pensacola's first postmaster,
a typical appointment for a small town newspaper editor. When
Nicholas sold the Floridian in March 1823, he also relinquished
the postmaster's position to Robert Mitchell.30</P>
<P>Another post consigned to Nicholas was that of an associate
justice of the Escambia County Court. Not among the original
five justices appointed by Jackson, he received his seat on the
court sometime in the late fall or early winter of 1821 as a replacement for a justice who had died. Reverting to old patterns,
Nicholas approached his judicial duties rather haphazardly,
causing his fellow justices to complain in June 1822 that he had
"sat but two or three terms." Since the court met monthly for a
period of one to two weeks, hearing all civil and criminal cases
for a county which at the moment stretched from the Suwanee
River to the Alabama border in the west, one can understand
why the other justices were so upset with Nicholas.31</P>
<P>Although offices such as these did not carry the power and
income associated with higher posts, they did place Nicholas
among the area's local leadership elite and brought a type of
prestige he had never enjoyed before. When two prospective
school-masters sought endorsements for their new private
school from "gentlemen of high respectability," the name of
Major Nicholas was included, along with those of General Edmund P. Gaines, Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, and Judge John V.
Garnier. What all this reveals is that Nicholas had accomplished</P>
<P>30. Pensacola Floridian, September 8, 1821, March 8, 29, 1823.</P>
<P>31. Herbert J. Doherty, Jr., "The Governorship of Andrew Jackson," Florida
Historical Quarterly, XXXIII (July 1954), 12-13; National Intelligencer, September 13, 1821; Memorial to the President from Escambia County Court
Justices, June 25, 1822, in Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, XXII, 480-81. The
first mention of Nicholas as a justice appears on a December 26, 1821,
petition to President Monroe to replace Eligius Fromentin as the United
States judge in Pensacola with Henry M. Brackenridge, see ibid., XXII,
315-18.
<PB N="143">
almost everthing he had set out to do except become wealthy.
Jackson and his closest friends complained bitterly when President Monroe had failed to award offices to most of the gover
nor's nominees, but given this circumstance, Nicholas fared
well.32</P>
<P>Just how well became evident in the late summer of 1823.
In July the territorial Legislative Council had enacted legislation
"to regulate the counties and establish Inferior Courts in the
Territory of Florida." Escambia County was given a new eastern
boundary to the Choctawhatchee River, and Cary Nicholas was
appointed by Governor William P. DuVal-a Jackson man-to
be the first county judge of the re-created county court. In most
respects, the appointment was astounding, essentially because
Nicholas had so little solid experience with the law. His days as
a law student had occurred seventeen years earlier, and his initial attempt to establish a law practice in Kentucky had ended
in miserable, humiliating failure in 1807. As an associate justice
of the earlier Escambia County Court, he had neglected his
duties, and although he had announced the opening of a Pensacola law practice in July 1822, evidence suggests that once
again the practice never got off the ground. Still, the new editor
of the Floridian held that Nicholas's selection enjoyed "the unlimited confidence of the whole county. His firmness, his integ
rity, and the excellence of his understanding, give him the most
indisputable claims to the respect of all who know him."
Fitzgerald admitted that much time had passed since Nicholas's
"midnight lamp shed its light upon the folios of the law," but
given his thorough training, he should be able to recollect what
he needed to know.33</P>
<P>This purely political appointment with little regard for judicial qualifications was Nicholas's reward for his loyalty to the
Jackson men who played a dominant role in Florida politics
after the general himself had quit the territory. Foremost among
these was Richard Keith Call, a former army captain and a
Jackson protog_, who served on the territorial Legislative Council in 1822 and 1823 and as Florida's non-voting delegate to</P>
<P>32. Pensacola Floridian, February 4, 1822; Doherty, Richard Keith Call, 18.</P>
<P>33.   Pensacola Floridian, July 20, 1822, August 9, 23, 1823; Charles D. Farris,
"The Courts of Territorial Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly, XIX (April
1941), 346-67.
<PB N="144">
Congress from 1823 to 1825. Nicholas had guessed correctly
that Call would emerge as the strongest figure among the
squabbling Jacksonians, and he aligned himself with Call's faction-later called the land office gang or Nucleus-from the
earliest skirmishes. Call's greatest rival during the territorial
period was Joseph M. White, a lawyer who succeeded Call as
Florida's congressional delegate in 1826 despite any earlier association with Jackson or his crowd. In an 1822 Floridian editorial,
Nicholas had publicly objected to White's appointment to the
first Legislative Council because White was an outsider who had
never lived in Florida, and he maintained his opposition to the
White faction through his association with Call for the remainder of his life.34</P>
<P>That life, however, was not to be spent in Pensacola. Spurning his judicial appointment, Nicholas apparently departed in
October 1823, entrusting his financial affairs and all claims
against him in West Florida to the new postmaster, Robert
Mitchell. When the new Escambia County Court met for its initial term that same month, its first judge was George Bowie, not
Cary Nicholas.35</P>
<P>Nicholas's reasons for leaving Pensacola are not all that difficult to understand. Because a county judge depended on fees
for services rather than a fixed salary, the post was not financially attractive, especially in a town that had not fulfilled expec
tations for rapid growth. Pensacola had proven to be a great
disappointment to those who had gambled on quick rewards in
a boom town. Reinforcing this disappointment was the fact that
Pensacola was about to lose its political significance as well. A
commission chosen by Governor DuVal to find a more central
location for a permanent capital had selected a site at Tallahassee</P>
<P>34. Robert Butler to Andrew Jackson, June 9, 1831 in Bassett, ed., Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. IV, 293-94: Doherty, Richard Keith Call, 6-8, 12-16;
Pensacola Floridian, June 8, 1822; Carter, ed, Territorial Papers, XXII, 28788, 317-18. When Nicholas was brought to court in 1822 and 1823 for
failure to pay debts, he used Call as his attorney and surety to handle the
cases and settle the debts. See Escambia County Court Records, File Nos.
106, 2409, 2414.</P>
<P>35. Pensacola Floridian, November 8, 1823; Brackenridge to Adams, March 10,
1824, and Benjamin D. Wright to William F. Steel;, March 12, 1824, Department of State Ms. Territorial Papers, XI, Florida 1823-1824, NA. After
serving one term, Bowie was succeeded by Benjamin D. Wright for the
February and October 1824 terms, see ibid.; Pensacola Gazette and West
Florida Advertiser, October 9, 1824.
<PB N="145">
in October 1823, and in March of the following year, DuVal
announced that the November session of the Legislative Council
would be held there. Suddenly Tallahassee replaced Pensacola
in the affection of speculators, and hopes for a territorial El
Dorado shifted to the site of the new capital. When Governor
DuVal and Secretary George Walton left Pensacola in June to
establish executive offices in Tallahassee, it was clear that Pensacola would be relegated to a minor role in the territory.36</P>
<P>Nicholas did not want to remain in a town that had fizzled
economically and had lost its political importance. He did not
go directly from Pensacola to Tallahassee in the late fall of 1823
for the simple reason that the latter existed only as a designated
spot on a map, but when the Legislative Council held its first
session in the new capital in November 1824, Nicholas was there
to receive his political due. It came on December 30 when he
was appointed as the first presiding judge of the new Leon
County Court, a position similar to the one he had rejected
earlier in Escambia County. This time Nicholas accepted the
post, although only on a temporary basis. He presided over the
February 1825 session of the court, but in November he presented to that same court his commission from Acting Governor
George Walton as its newly-appointed clerk. Rather than a demotion, the appointment probably came at Nicholas's request
because the county clerk was paid a regular salary while the
county judge was compensated from fees for his services. For
once Nicholas hedged his bets, strayed from his gambler's mentality, and took the safer, more assured course. When a Superior
Court was created for the Middle District encompassing the area
around Tallahassee, he accepted the clerking duties for that
court as well.37</P>
<P>In Tallahassee Nicholas continued the convivial life for
which he was noted although his Kentucky reputation as a
drunkard and gambler seemed well behind him. At a public
dinner replete with standard political toasts, it was Nicholastrue to form-who saluted "The Ladies of Tallahassee." While</P>
<P>36. Keller, The Nation's Advocate, 308-09; Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser, March 13, June 26, 1824.</P>
<P>37. Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser, November 13, 1824, February
5, 1825; Leon County Deed Record Book A and Leon County Court
Minutes, March 14, 1825, to September 19, 1833, Leon County Courthouse, Tallahassee; Farris, "The Courts of Territorial Florida," 346-67.
<PB N="146">
other members of the Florida Institute of Agriculture Antiquities and Science suggested serious projects for study and dis
cussion, Nicholas seemed most concerned about plans for the
group's anniversary dinner and celebration.38</P>
<P>Nicholas had come to Tallahassee, however, primarily to increase his slender estate. With that view in mind, he dabbled
almost in amateurish fashion-in land speculation. The first
public auction of lots in Tallahassee was held on April 5, 1825,
and although Nicholas had little clear capital of his own, he
nonetheless purchased several lots on terms of credit. Unable to
make payments on schedule, he solicited the aid of Augustus B.
Woodward, the treasurer of Leon County, in forming a partnership as joint owners of the lots in 1826. Still unable to come up
with the necessary funds, he was eventually forced to turn over
all the lots save one to Woodward and other creditors.39</P>
<P>As a speculator even on a small scale, Nicholas proved a total
failure. Deed books and land records reveal that he never owned
the large quantity of lands necessary to make speculation pay,
and an 1825 census taken for tax purposes shows him owning
only one slave. When he died in Tallahassee on April 20, 1829,
at the age of forty-three, the Leon County Court estimated the
value of his estate at $2,346.67, and nearly half that amount had
only recently come his way as the result of a sale of some contested Kentucky land to a younger brother.40</P>
<P>Unlike earlier generations of his family, Cary Nicholas made
no major impact on the society of his day. No monuments were</P>
<P>38. Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser, February 26, 1825; Tallahassee
Florida Intelligencer, October 6, 1826.</P>
<P>39. Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser, January 8, 1825; Leon County
Deed Book A, 1, 176; Leon County Court Minutes, March 14, 1825, to
September 19, 1833; Leon County Chancery Order Book No. 1, 9.
Nicholas's handling of the purchase, payments, and disposal of the lots was
questionable to say the least. He attempted to sell one of the jointly owned
lots without Woodward's consent and even at that failed to note the transfer
to the buyer on the back of the land certificate. When the buyer in turn
attempted to resell the lot, his claim's as well as Woodward's were invalidated because of Nicholas's machinations. The sources and information on
Nicholas's real estate gambits were uncovered by my colleague Peter W.
King who graciously shared them with me.</P>
<P>40. Dorothy Dodd, "The Florida Census of 1825." Florida Historical Quarterly,
XXII (July 1943), 34-40; Leon County Miscellaneous Proceedings, 27;
Leon County Deed Book A, 499-500; Tallahassee Florida Advocate, April
25, June 13, 1829.
<PB N="147">
erected to his memory; no space in history texts was given to his
accomplishments for the simple reason that he had none worth
recording. Even the announcements of his death in Florida
newspapers were cursory at best despite his roles as an early
territorial editor and office holder. Yet his life in territorial
Florida merits examination if for no other reason than as an
example of a personality type lured and nurtured by the American frontier.41</P>
<P>41.   Tallahassee Florida Advocate, April 25, 1829; Key West Register and Commercial Advertiser, April 30, 1829; Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser,
May 12, 1829. One reason for the lack of newspaper space given to his life
may have been the fact that the papers in Tallahassee and Pensacola were
strong advocates of the White faction which Nicholas had always opposed.
<PB N="148"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:4" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>A GREAT STIRRING IN THE LAND: TALLAHASSEE AND LEON COUNTY IN 1860 by William Warren Rogers</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>A GREAT STIRRING IN THE LAND: TALLAHASSEE AND LEON COUNTY IN 1860 by William Warren Rogers</HEAD>
<P>ON the eve of the Civil War Tallahassee and Leon County
were the center of Florida's economic, political, and social
life. Tallahasseans read about themselves in their two weekly,
and decidedly political, newspapers: the strongly Democratic
Floridian and Journal (circulation 1,500) and the Whiggish
Florida Sentinel (circulation 1,000).1 As a national force the
Whigs had disintegrated, but the Florida Sentinel retained the
party's principles. Local people kept further informed by talking
among themselves. Conversations ranging from philosophical
discussions to plain gossip were held on street corners, at stores,
at churches, and at meetings of clubs and fraternal orders such
as Jackson Lodge, No. 1, the state's oldest masonic organization.2</P>
<P>A look at who the Leon countians were, where they came
from, and what they did reveals both the predictable and the
unexpected. Tallahassee ranked fourth in the state in population (Pensacola was number one), but Leon with 12,343 people
was Florida's most populous county. There were 3,194 whites,
sixty free persons of color, and 9,089 slaves. Within Tallahassee
the racial division was almost equal. Out of a total of 1,932 there
were 997 whites, forty-six free persons of color, and 889 slaves.3</P>
<P>Native-born Floridians made up a majority of the white population. Georgia was second, and all of the states of the future</P>
<P>William Warren Rogers is professor of history, Florida State University.</P>
<P>1. Manuscript returns of the Eighth U. S. Census, 1860, Leon County,
Florida, Social Statistics, n.p. [hereinafter cited as Manuscript census, with
appropriate schedule]. Unless otherwise designated, all totals are compiled
from this census. For the broader picture, see Thomas Sentell Graham,
"Ante-Bellum Tallahassee Newspapers, 1845-1861," (master's thesis,
Florida State University, 1967), 1-93; John Kilgore, "Leon County's Newspapers," Tallahassee Historical Society Annual, IV (1939), 68-79.</P>
<P>2. The only history of Tallahassee before the Civil War (it deals peripherally
with Leon County) is Bertram H. Groene, Ante-Bellum Tallahassee (Tallahassee, 1971).</P>
<P>3. U. S. Bureau of Census, Eighth Census of the United States, Florida, Schedule
1, Free Population (Washington, 1864), 51-53, 55.
<PB N="149">
Confederacy were represented. The only Midwesterners were
from Indiana, while the border states of Missouri, Kentucky,
Maryland, and Delaware furnished a few settlers. Immigrants
had also moved in from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and
Maine. The largest number of foreign-born were from Germany, England, Ireland, and France.</P>
<P>The population also included people from Italy, Denmark,
Scotland, the West Indies, Canada, Nova Scotia, East India,
Prussia, the Kingdom of Saxony, and Holland. Six other citizens
also listed Europe as their place of origin without specifying a
particular country.4</P>
<P>Tallahassee was established in 1824 on the site of an old
Indian village and was specifically created to be the capital of
the Territory of Florida. Incorporated in 1825, Tallahassee was
also designated as the seat of government for Leon County in
1828. The provincial capital lay outside the routes of most
travellers to the South and was not often visited. Yet by 1860
the town and county were prosperous. There was a great stirring in the land. A visitor from South Carolina noted the "busi
ness men, merchants and planters, bringing with them all the
wealth, luxury and taste of many years gathering up. Style predominates to a great extent. . . . You wonder at seeing all this in
the bosom of a country not yet developed, and scarcely known
to the world."5</P>
<P>Tallahassee's greatest importance was as a trading center for
the rich agricultural area of Leon County and Middle Florida.
St. Marks, eighteen miles south on the Gulf of Mexico, was the
town's port. Because agriculture dominated the economy, farming and directly related occupations were the chief means of
livelihood. Leon County led the state in the amount of farm
land, the value of livestock, the production of corn, and the
number of bales of cotton ginned. The total cash value of Leon's
farm products made it number one in Florida.6</P>
<P>4.  Manuscript census, Free Population, n.p. Exact page references are provided only for specific citations.</P>
<P>5.  William Warren Rogers, ed., "Florida On the Eve of the Civil War as Seen
by a Southern Reporter," Florida Historical Quarterly. XXXIX (October
1960), 152.</P>
<P>6. U. S. Bureau of Census, Agriculture of the United States in 1860 (Washingron.
1864), 18-19.
<PB N="150">
Farming engaged almost the entire slave population. Among
the whites, 300 men, thirteen of whom lived in Tallahassee,
listed themselves as farmers. John H. Rhodes, the census taker
in 1860, recorded that one such yeoman was a combination
blacksmith-farmer, another was a butcher-farmer, while a third
was a gardener. In addition, one resident said that he was a hog
raiser, and another man was a hay raiser. Fifteen citizens were
farm laborers.</P>
<P>There are no accepted definitions for the words planter and
plantation. Yet on a plantation the basic work force was slave
labor, and agricultural production was its reason for being. A
planter was a person who owned sufficient land to require its
cultivation by slaves. In turn, the management of his bondsmen
occupied the majority of the owner's time and concentration.
The number of slaves and acres necessary to put one in the
planter class varied from one location to another. In the society
of Tallahassee and Leon County, it was the planter who occupied the top rung of wealth, power, and social prestige.7</P>
<P>Fifteen planters lived in Tallahassee, but the majority,
ninety-one, resided in the county. Generally, their holdings lay
on a line parallel with Tallahassee and stretched northward to
the Georgia boundary. To the south and southwest the land was
not well suited to plantation agriculture. The owners, including
one physician-planter and one planter-merchant, utilized foremen and managers. These overseers, the key men in determining a plantation's success, numbered seventy-eight in Leon
County.</P>
<P>Some owners who qualified as planters preferred to call
themselves farmers. The aristocratic Thomas Brown was such a
man. He had migrated from Virginia to Leon County in 1827
and brought 140 slaves with him. Throughout an active life, he
owned hotels, operated a race track, sat in the legislature, and
served as Florida's second governor (1848-1853). Seventy-four
years old in 1860, Brown described himself as a "retired farmer ."8</P>
<P>7.  Interview with John Hebron Moore, December 3, 1984. See Julia Floyd
Smith, Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida 1821-1860 (Gainesville, 1973), 122-52; Larry E. Rivers, "Slavery in Microcosm: Leon County,
1824-1860," Journal of Negro History, XLVI (Fall 1981), 235-45.</P>
<P>8. Manuscript census, Free Population, 56; Mary D. Lewis, "Thomas Brown,"
Apalachee, I (1944), 90-95; Elizabeth F. Smith, Tom Brown's Tallahassee Days,
1825-1850 (Crawfordville, 1971), n.p.
<PB N="151">
Benjamin Chaires, Sr., whose property (and that of his family) lay east of Tallahassee near Lake Lafayette, was an ar
chetypal planter. Neither the county's largest landowner nor its
smallest, Chaires in 1860 ran a largely self-sufficient operation.
He owned 1,000 improved acres and 1,500 more that were unimproved. The cash value of his plantation was $20,000, while
his farm implements and machinery were worth $650. He had
four horses, twenty-five mules, thirty milk cows, sixty other cattle, twenty-five sheep, and 120 swine. The livestock had a valuation of $4,235. Chaires used ten tons of home-grown hay to
help feed his livestock. He harvested 300 bushels of rye, 200
bushels of peas and beans, ten bushels of Irish potatoes, 1,500
bushels of sweet potatoes, and 2,500 bushels of corn. Cotton was
the main money crop, and 160 bales were ginned. Most of the
labor was performed by sixty-six slaves.9</P>
<P>Besides the men and women who worked the land, a number
of people were directly dependent upon agriculture. They included a cotton weigher, a cotton buyer, a cotton broker, and
three commission merchants. The list was extended by the presence of nine blacksmiths, a horse trader, two livery stable keep
ers (particularly P. B. Brokaw's Livery And Sale Stables), two
ditchers, a harness maker, seven carriage makers, and a wheelwright.</P>
<P>There was little industrial activity in Tallahassee and Leon
County at the time. In combination their total manufacturing
output in 1860 was valued at $28,900. The chief industries were
the Tallahassee Railroad Company, an investment of $30,000,
and the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad Company, worth
$50,000.10 Operations such as the railroads, machine shops, and
foundries employed eighty-one workers. Another thirty-two
men, less specialized in their occupations, were classified as
laborers. More skilled were eight engineers, a civil engineer, a
mold maker, two molders, eight machinist, six mechanics, a</P>
<P>9. Manuscript census, Agriculture, 2-3; Manuscript census, Slave Population,
5-6. For the Chaires family, see Mary Louise Ellis, "Benjamin Chaires:
Territorial Florida's Man For All Seasons," Florida State Historical Journal,
I (1983-1984), 39-49.</P>
<P>10.  Manuscript census, Industry, 2. Besides their technical and maintenance
staffs, the railroads also employed office personnel such as an agent and a
treasurer. See George W. Pettengill, Jr., The Story of Florida Railroads 18341903 (Boston, 1952), 11-15, 24-26; Dorothy Dodd, "The Tallahassee Railroad and the Town of St. Marks," Apalachee, IV (1950-1956), 1-12.
<PB N="152">
superintendent of machines, a master machinist, and a master
car shop man. The combined work force, ranging from the
unskilled to craftsmen, was 142.</P>
<P>If there was no large scale manufacturing, local interests
were served by a thriving cottage industry and a variety of speciality shops and enterprises. Cottage industries included two
silversmiths, two shoemakers, two watchmakers, two gunsmiths,
a cooper, numerous seamstresses and washwomen, a mattress
maker, and nine millers. Joseph Weber was the leader among
seven tailors, and in 1860 his firm produced 300 items of clothing valued at $2,000.11 John Cardy, owner of the Fulton Foun
dry, kept castings for saw mills and gins on hand. He also built
to order steam engines from six to thirty-five horsepower.12
Those whose income depended upon special services included
two hotel keepers, a billiard parlor operator, two printers, a
baker, a jeweler, a bookbinder, a ferryman, and a daguerreotypist.</P>
<P>An on-going series of building projects-residences, stores,
churches-demonstrated several levels of craftsmanship. There
were twenty-three carpenters and another three men who were
classified as "boss carpenters." James Shine was the local brick
manufacturer, and there were five brick masons. Thirteen painters put the finishing touches on structures that were usually
designed by the owners, although there was one architect. The
more intricate inside work was done by three cabinet makers.
Despite the use of brick (there was even a marble cutter), the
basic building material was wood. To supply the need there was
a hewer, as well as four shingle getters. The seven suppliers of
wood were known variously as lumbermen, lumber getters, and
timber getters. One hedged by declaring that he was also a farmer.</P>
<P>Scattered across the county, but concentrated in Tallahassee,
were a number of general or dry goods stores and businesses.
The result was that thirty-four men held the position of clerk.
There was also a clerk in the State Bank of Florida (chartered
by the General Assembly in 1851). Because a number of merchants were self-employed, they outnumbered the clerks; there
were forty-six town merchants and three in the country. Among</P>
<P>11. Manuscript census, Industry, 2.</P>
<P>12. Tallahassee Floridian and Journal, August 18, 1860.
<PB N="153">
the better-known stores were J. M. Calloway, "Grocer & Commission Merchant"; Alex Gallie, "Dealer in Dry Goods, Provisions"; "D. C. Wilson & Son"; "Geo. W. Scott & Co."; and "A.
F. Hayward, Staple Goods."13 Keeping up with the flow of business and providing an accounting were nine bookkeepers.</P>
<P>A separate and somewhat amorphous category was that of
"agent." Representing out-of-town financial institutions, two
men are listed in the census as bank agents. Four others are also
described as agents and one is listed as a "trader." No person
gave his primary occupation as that of slave trader, although
some agents and commission merchants added the euphemism
"auctioneer" to their title and openly advertised the sale of
slaves. R. H. Berry, Edward M. West, and R. A. Shine, Jr., each
advertised himself as an "Auctioneer and Commission Merchant." Occasionally, slaves were auctioned off at bankruptcy
sales held in front of the courthouse.</P>
<P>The holding of public office was an exclusively male category
of employment. There were city officers, clerks of court, deputy
clerks, a post office clerk, a mail rider, a tax collector, a supreme
court judge, sheriff, secretary of state, and state treasurer. Because land transactions were so important there was a
United States Land Office Register, a state land agent, and a
Swamp Land Agent. There was also an independent surveyor.</P>
<P>The professions-law, medicine, teaching, and the ministry-did not lack for adherents. Tallahassee's position as state
capital caused a large number of lawyers to settle within its confines. There were twenty lawyers in town and five more out in
the country. Some lawyers were in practice for themselves and
others formed powerful firms with political ties. Among the
latter were M. D. Papy and Hugh Archer, D. P. Hogue and A.
Perry Amaker, and Wilkinson Call and T. W. Brevard, Jr.</P>
<P>Fifteen of the region's thirty-two doctors lived in Tallahassee
and seventeen in the county. Although not all actively practiced
medicine, a number did. There were two dentists, one for urban
and one for rural patients. Among the doctors were Stuart
White, George Badger, and partners J. B. Taylor and J. S.
Bond.14 Filling prescriptions for the doctors, as well as selling a</P>
<P>13.  Ibid., January 28, 1860.</P>
<P>14. Henry E. Palmer, "Physicians of Early Tallahassee and Vicinity," Apalachee,
I (1944), 29-46; Groene, Ante-Bellum Tallahassee, 51-58.
<PB N="154">
variety of patent medicines, were four druggists. J. R. Gregory
& Co. drew a large patronage, but the largest drug firm was that
of D. H. Ames and Matthew Lively.</P>
<P>The number of teachers totaled fourteen (nine were in Tallahassee). Although the region was not an educational center,
its record was better than the census figures indicated-only
two young men were classified as students. In 1857 the General
Assembly designated Tallahassee as the locale for a seminary of
learning. Earlier, in 1851, provision had been made for two
such institutions, one on either side of the Suwannee River. The
West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee was divided into a male
department (four teachers, eighty students) and a female department (three teachers, seventy-five students). Each had its
own campus and administration. In addition, there were fourteen "common" schools. These were one-teacher schools with a
combined enrollment of 400 pupils. None of the schools had an
endowment, although the seminaries each received $1,700 from
public funds and $4,500 from "other sources." The common
schools' combined county appropriations were $500, but they
managed to raise $2,400 from tuition and other means.15</P>
<P>By 1860 Tallahassee had lost much of its reputation for violence and lawlessness. The stigma had been justly earned in
earlier decades. John S. Tappan, the stern temperance leader
from New England, visited Tallahassee in 1841, and pronounced the recent yellow fever epidemic a blessing because it
killed so many "Gamblers & Blacklegs of the place." According
to Tappan, "A year ago you could not walk the Streets without
being armed to the teeth."16 Now, there were only a few saloons,
and even bowling and tenpin alleys were outlawed. While there
were county and municipal law enforcement officials, they were
not overworked. In 1860 only three criminals were convicted,</P>
<P>15. Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 1850-1851
(Tallahassee, 1851), 97-101; ibid., 1856 (Tallahassee, 1856), 28-29; Manuscript census, Social Statistics. See also William G. Dodd, "Early Education
in Tallahassee and the West Florida Seminary, Now Florida State University," Florida Historical Quarterly, XXVII (July 1948), 1-27, and (October
1948), 157-80.</P>
<P>16. John S. Tappan, "Tallahassee and St. Marks in 1841; A Letter of John S.
Tappan," Florida Historical Quarterly, XXIV (October 1945), 108-12. See
also James Michael Denham, "An Upper Class Institution: Dueling in Territorial Middle Florida During the Early 1830s," Apalachee, IX (1980-1983),
29-40.
<PB N="155">
and the local jail housed only four inmates.17 A number of citizens ascribed the law-abiding tendencies to the influence of the
church.</P>
<P>Perhaps they were correct. Town and county had two Presbyterian, one Roman Catholic, thirteen Methodist, two Epis
copal, seven Missionary Baptist, and two United Baptist
churches. Although church membership totals are missing, the
buildings, taken together, could accommodate 1,300 people.18</P>
<P>Several of the churches had more black members than white.
Usually services were held for slaves on Sunday afternoons, with
white preachers supervising the sermons of black ministers.
Even at church services, whites reasoned, a gathering of blacks
opened the possibility of plotting a slave insurrection. Sometimes, as in Tallahassee's Presbyterian church, slave pews were
built in the balcony, and services were conducted simultaneously
for both races. The style of the church buildings varied widely,
although cumulatively, the structures were valued at $41,900.19</P>
<P>The style of preaching was no less varied. Some men of
the cloth were uneducated and proud of it. Such a pastor
claimed to have received a call to preach that was irresistable.
Whatever he lacked in oratorical polish was made up for in
sincerity and fervor. Some denominations, such as the Presbyterians, stressed an educated clergy, and the typical Calvinist
minister was trained in theology.</P>
<P>Ministers were usually men of influence in the community.
Yet that was relative depending on the size and influence of the
congregation. An aristocratic South Carolinian, the Reverend
Francis Huger Rutledge, preached at St. John's Episcopal
church in Tallahassee from 1845 to 1851. At that time he was
elected bishop of the Diocese of Florida but continued to live in
Tallahassee. Bishop Rutledge was a graduate of Yale University
and owned real estate valued at $25,000 and a personal estate
of $82,000. His secular possessions contrasted sharply with those</P>
<P>17.   Manuscript census, Social Statistics.</P>
<P>18. Ibid. See also W. T. Cash, "History of Trinity Methodist Church,"
Apalachee, II (1946), 46-58; Norman Edward Booth, "Tallahassee Trinity's
Ante-Bellum Times, 1824-1861," (master's thesis, Florida State University,
1971); Mary Margaret Prichard Rhodes, "From Mission Bells to Cathedral
Chimes," Apalachee, IX (1980-1983), 67-88; Jack Dalton, "A History of
Florida Baptists," (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1952); Groene, AnteBellum Tallahassee, 119-29.</P>
<P>19.  Manuscript census, Social Statistics.
<PB N="156">
of a thirty-two-year-old Baptist preacher named Farneth Norris,
whose real estate came to $50 and his personal estate to $100.
The Reverend E. F. Gates offered an even more dramatic comparison. At the age of thirty-four, Methodist preacher Gates
had no personal or real estate whatsoever.20</P>
<P>A small part of Leon County's population lived in a twilight
zone. These were the sixty people (thirty-four females, twenty-
six males) legally classified as free persons of color. They were
not slaves, but neither did they possess the rights and privileges
of white citizens. Always occuping an anomalous position, they
became a source of increasing concern for the white population
as the Civil War approached. A free black was hardly the role
model slaveowners wanted their chattels to emulate. Free blacks
were automatically excluded from the professions and occupations that would have earned them much beyond marginal in
comes. Yet despite their limitations, free blacks manage to cope.
Beyond defining blacks as males and females, slaves and free
persons, the census differentiated according to skin pigmentation. If a person were of mixed racial descent, he or she was still
a black but was designated as a mulatto. The tendency throughout the South was for a high percentage of free persons to be
mulattos. The division, however, was almost equal in Leon
County.</P>
<P>Most free blacks worked as laborers but there were several
gradations of their labor. Georgia-born Jack Hall (sixty-four
years old) was the only free black officially cited as a "farm
laborer." Nonetheless, he had real estate valued at $800 and a
personal estate of $200. Robert Ponder (forty-seven years old),
another Georgian, was an overseer on the plantation where he
lived.21</P>
<P>Two free blacks, Starling Jones (forty-nine years old) and
Jason Heart (fifty years old), found that their skills as carpenters
were in steady demand. The important job of freighting and
hauling was performed by two draymen, both of them free.</P>
<P>20. Manuscript census, Free Population, 11, 31. See Carl Stauffer, God Willing:
A History of St. John's Episcopal Church 1829-1979 (Tallahassee, 1984), 73-75,
81; Joseph D. Cushman, Jr., A Goodly Heritage The Episcopal Church in Florida
1821-1892 (Gainesville, 1965), 24, 27-34.</P>
<P>21. Manuscript census, Free Population, 24, 46. See also Garvin Russell, "The
Free Negro in Florida Before the Civil War," Florida Historical Quarterly,
XLVI (July 1967), 1-17; Julie Anne Lisenby, "The Free Negro in Antebellum Florida," (master's thesis, Florida State University, 1967).
<PB N="157">
Payton Brown, a forty-two-year-old Virginian, and fifty-year-old
William Chavis, a native of Georgia, earned more money than
many whites.22</P>
<P>While several white music teachers lived in the area, only
one resident was described as a "musician." That person was
James T. Selby, a free black. Born in France, Selby was of mixed
blood. By whatever means, he was in Leon County by 1842 at
which time he bought a lot in Tallahassee. Between then and
1860 when he was sixty-four, Selby married a young woman of
mixed blood named Cynthia. They had three children. It seems
improbable that Selby earned a livelihood as a musician, but any
other work that he performed remains unknown. Yet he was a
good provider, and after his death, Cynthia Selby was able to
purchase 360 acres of land in 1863 and pay cash for it.23</P>
<P>The female population of the area was divided almost
equally with that of the male citizens, yet little is known of the
role that women played. By the time the white women of Tallahassee and Leon County reached maturity, most were married
and busily engaged in the demanding tasks of caring for their
homes and raising their families. The pattern was so accepted
by 1860 that census taker Rhodes did not bother to report what
most white women were doing. A woman was merely assigned
a number; everyone knew what her status was. In only two instances were women listed as housekeepers, and that was be
cause they were not married or the heads of households.</P>
<P>Most women who were black or of mixed descent were
slaves. As private property they were subject to the arbitrary will
of their masters. There were important exceptions to these
stereotypes. It was not uncommon for single women or widows,
white and black, to support themselves, or for married women
of both races to earn money with their own labor. Such women
received pay or income as washwomen (exclusively blacks),
teachers (whites only), farmers, and seamstresses (both races).</P>
<P>All of the area's fourteen washwomen listed as living within
the limits of Tallahassee were either black or mulatto. Lucinda
Rosberry, forty-four-years-old, and her daughter Julia, eighteen, worked as washwomen; William, her sixteen-year-old son,</P>
<P>22.  Manuscript census, Free Population, 19, 21, 24-25.</P>
<P>23. Leon County Deed Book G, 424-25; H, 45-46; N, Part 1, 271-72, on file at
the Leon County Courthouse, Tallahassee. See also Manuscript census,
Free Population, 29.
<PB N="158">
was a brick mason.24 Other combinations of mother and daughter washwomen were Malinda Norris and her daughter, Eliza,
and Harriet Hudson and her mother, Eliza (all mulattoes). Both
Malinda and Harriet had personal estates valued at $1,000.
Georgia-born Jane Christian (black) still washed and ironed
clothes at sixty-five, and her two daughters, Susan (sixteen) and
Sarah (fourteen), were similarly employed.25 One free mulatto
couple, Mary and Robert Jones, natives of Georgia, combined
their incomes and earned a good living. He was a laborer, but
she was the major wage earner as a washwoman. Her real estate
came to $1,000 and her personal estate to $100. Other washwomen included Sally Robinson, Hanah Baker, and Katie Jones.26</P>
<P>The South's social restraints precluded white women from
earning money by laundering clothes for other people. Although the typical white woman worked long hours washing
and ironing for her family, performing similar labors for others
would have been demeaning and unacceptable. No black women
earned money by working for whites as domestics Tallahassee,
and there were only two such women in the county. Both were
Caucasian and were listed respectively as a servant and as a
domestic.27</P>
<P>Two free black women shared an avocation dominated by
white women. In the town and county there were thirty-seven
seamstresses. Lidia Stout, a forty-two-year-old Florida-born free
black had $600 worth of real estate and a personal estate of
$500, Mary Owens (nineteen), was the other black seamstress.28
Another five white women engaged in more sophisticated and
renumerative crafts involving cloth. Two called themselves
tailoresses, two others made manteaus (loose cloaks or coats),
and one worked as a spinner and weaver.</P>
<P>Some women owned land as a result of inheritance, purchase, or both, and were successful planters. Two who directed
more modest agricultural ventures adopted the title farmeress.
Dorothy O'Cane, a fifty-nine-year-old mulatto, was an unusual
member of the planter class. The native of South Carolina had
real estate valued at $2,000 and a personal estate worth $12,000.</P>
<P>24.  Manuscript census, Free Population, 22.</P>
<P>25. Ibid., 26-27.</P>
<P>26. Ibid., 21, 23, 25.</P>
<P>27. Ibid., 23, 47. The two women were Martha Jackson, forty-one, and
Elizabeth Henderson, twenty-eight.</P>
<P>28. Ibid., 24, 38.
<PB N="159">
She owned ten slaves (five females and five males). Her land
covered 400 acres, 160 of them improved, and she produced
eighteen bales of cotton and 700 bushels of corn. She had a
horse, three mules, six milk cows, four other head of cattle, and
thirty hogs. Besides cotton, she raised Irish potatoes, sweet
potatoes, and produced butter, syrup, and meat.29</P>
<P>The law that forbade teaching blacks to read and write made
axiomatic the exclusion of black teachers of either sex. Yet in
the broad field of education women were more numerous than
men. The common schools for whites were usually segregated
by sex, and that of Mrs. L. E. Grant was typical. The term began
October 1, and ended June 30. By various combinations of
music, guitar, drawing and painting, waxwork, embroidery, and
French the young women were charged $25.00, $30.00, or
$40.00. Each student also paid $2.00 in incidental expenses. As
Mrs. Grant explained, "This embraces Fuel and Servant's attention upon the School Room."30</P>
<P>After the Civil War many southern women-often they were
widows-operated boarding houses and hotels. This was a relatively uncommon activity in the antebellum period. In 1860 Tallahassee had only one boarding house managed by a woman.
Ever the faithful recorder, census taker Rhodes included three
practitioners of the world's oldest profession. Each of the young
women shared a common address and acknowledged that her
business was "one of pleasure." They were sixteen, twenty, and
twenty-eight respectively. The oldest and most solvent had
$1,500 worth of real estate and a personal estate of $200.31</P>
<P>What gave the surface appearance of an uncomplicated
agrarian society was in fact a highly complicated one. Shadings,
nuances, a pecking order of privilege-all were part of the intricate mosiac formed from a bi-racial society in a time of both
tension and prosperity. Given the expanding economy of Tallahassee and Leon County, the populace had much cause for
optimism. At every hand there was evidence of improved roads
and newly-laid rail connections, good crops and high prices,
institutional and educational progress. Population, business,
professional services-all were expanding. It was true that the</P>
<P>29. Ibid., 26; Manuscript census, Slave Population, 34; Manuscript census, Agriculture, 5.</P>
<P>30. Tallahassee Floridian and Journal, June 30, 1860.</P>
<P>31. Manuscript census, Free Population, 13.
<PB N="160">
nation was being torn asunder by political divisions, but the
people of Leon County and Tallahassee were more concerned
with affairs at home and the daily demands of making a living.
Yet it was unthinkable in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln and the
Republican party could win control of the White House.
It was further true that the burden of slavey seemed heavier
than ever. The peculiar institution was so deeply entrenched
that to abandon it seemed impossible. The two races were dependent upon each other, as the curse of human bondage re
fused to relax its grip. For every free person in Leon County
there were three who were slaves. Surely, though, the whites
believed, it could all be worked out in the future. For the time
being, the only world they knew was that of 1860.
<PB N="161"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:5" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>BLACK REACTION TO SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN POST-RECONSTRUCTION FLORIDA by Wali R. Kharif</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>BLACK REACTION TO SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN POST-RECONSTRUCTION FLORIDA by Wali R. Kharif</HEAD>
<P>EQUALITY of protection under the laws, as guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
implies that in the administration of criminal justice no person,
by reason of his race or color, shall be subjected for the same
offense to any greater or different punishment than that to
which persons of another race or color are subjected.1 It also
suggests that all citizens are entitled to protection of their civil
rights and against discriminatory practices based upon race,
color, creed, or religion. Unfortunately, in October 1883 when
the United States Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Acts
of 1875 unconstitutional, the legislative framework requiring
states to provide for civil rights in public places of accommodation and transportation was dismantled. It further had the effect
of nullifying the civil rights act passed by Florida lawmakers in
1873.2</P>
<P>Legal segregation was not an overnight development in postReconstruction Florida. Lawmakers cautiously approached the
establishment of de jure segregation. But once the movement
had begun it spread rapidly into every sector of social life within
the state. Segregation was established in the regular schools,
schools for the deaf and blind, for juvenile delinquents, and in
colleges. It was provided for in the prisons-the convict lease
and prison system-and the local jails. It was required on the
railroads, streetcars, electric cars, at the ticket offices, and in
waiting rooms.3 During this period of Democratic supremacy</P>
<P>Wali R. Kharif is instructor of history and political science, Southern Georgia College, Douglas, Georgia.</P>
<P>1.  American Law Reports, 2d, XXXVIII (New York, 1977), 332-39.</P>
<P>2. Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 1873 (Tallahassee, 1873), 25-26.</P>
<P>3. Ibid., 1887-1915. See also Pauli Murray, ed., State Laws on Race and Color
(Cincinnati, 1950), 77-88. Blacks and whites were also prohibited from
cohabiting and intermarrying, and where not otherwise segregated they
were discriminated against.
<PB N="162">
blacks were also disfranchised and omitted from juries, and they
continued to be victims of violence and intimidation. In response to this adversity black Floridians established their own
social and cultural institutions. But they also fought back against
disfranchisement, racial discrimination, and segregation in
other ways. They filed counter suits in the courts, staged protests and boycotts, encouraged some emigration, and established
black communities.</P>
<P>Some of the earliest protests were against disfranchisement
of black voters who had been dropped from voter registration
lists after being convicted of petty crimes.4 In October 1878 several hundred Jefferson County blacks converged on the court
house in Monticello unsuccessfully requesting to have their
names restored to rolls.5 Similar actions occurred in Leon,
Gadsden, Escambia, and Madison counties where thousands
were declared ineligible to vote between 1876 and 1888.6</P>
<P>While the earliest protests were in response to disfranchisement, the outcries in opposition to segregation on public accom
modations received greatest attention. During the early 1870s it
was not unusual to find blacks and whites travelling in the same
train cars.7 But by 1880 there was strong opposition to mixing
the races on common carriers. In April 1882, Bishop Daniel A.
Payne, then seventy-one years old and the nationally known
senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was
ejected from a train in Florida when he refused to ride in the
car set aside for blacks. The bishop was forced "to carry his
baggage several miles in the heat of the day."8 By 1886 the</P>
<P>4.  Jesse Jefferson Jackson, "Republicans and Florida Elections and Election
Cases," (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 1974), 28.</P>
<P>5. Monticello Constitution, as cited in Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, October 15,
1878.</P>
<P>6.  Jackson, "Republicans and Florida Elections," 27-28, 39, 43-44, 325. Voter
disfranchisement continued in the years following constitutional revision
in Florida. There is no indication, however, that black protests continued
during these later years. For further examination of voter disfranchisements and chastisements, calls by Democrats for member turnouts, and
further Democratic party attempts to justify the demise of black voters,
refer to Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, May 21, September 3, November 12,
19, 1878, September 26, October 10, 1882, November 20, 1888.</P>
<P>7.  Jacksonville Daily Florida Union, March 16, 1876.</P>
<P>8. Huntsville (Alabama) Gazette, April 29, 1882; Stanley P. Hirshson, Farewell
to the Bloody Shirt: Northern Republicans and the Southern Negro, 1877-1893
(Bloomington, 1962), 101-02; Elizabeth Caldwell Beatty, "The Political Response of Black Americans, 1876-1896," (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 1976), 58.
<PB N="163">
practice had become widespread enough that black ministers,
headed by Bishop Payne, met in Jacksonville and protested the
discrimination against blacks in the railroad cars. They resolved
that as far as possible they would use their influence to discourage black excursions and all travelling not absolutely necessary
on railroads which made distinctions.9</P>
<P>In spite of the black response during the following years
additional Jim Crow laws were enacted to regulate public transportation. During the first decade of the twentieth century
blacks responded by staging organized boycotts. In 1901 two
boycotts were sponsored in Jacksonville following that city's passage of an ordinance providing for racial separation on the trol
ley cars. 10 In further response black hackmen of the Coachmen's
Union initiated an emergency system to provide a satisfactory
alternative to streetcars, often accepting a loss in profit to help
the boycotters. 11 The boycott crippled the transit system and was
so effective "that after a few months the city authorities ceased
enforcing the ordinance and quietly asked the Negro ministers
to spread the word to their congregations."12</P>
<P>The victory in Jacksonville was short-lived. Between 1901
and 1905 increased emphasis was placed on enforcement of
segregation laws. During the Jacksonville mayoral election of
1905 Mayor George M. Nolan was criticized by the opposition
for his failure to enforce the ordinance.13 Further pressure was
added by enactment of streetcar segregation laws throughout
the South and the eventual passage of such a measure by the
Florida legislature in 1905. 14 Blacks organized resistance to the
new thrust to segregate the streetcars. Separate boycotts occurred in Jacksonville and Pensacola.15 Blacks in Jacksonville</P>
<P>9. New Orleans The Weekly Pelican, January 1, 1887.</P>
<P>10.  August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, "Negro Boycotts of Segregated Streetcars in Florida, 1901-1905," South Atlantic Quarterly, LXIX (Autumn 1970),
525. The first black response was to send a group of prominent blacks to
the mayor urging a veto of the ordinance. These representatives included
Dr. James S. Hills, principal of the Florida Baptist Academy, Nathaniel
Collier, Edward W. Robinson, Reverend James Johnson, Reverend John
T. Marks, and the elderly Reconstruction legislator and author (Carpet-Bag
Rule in Florida) John Wallace.</P>
<P>11. Ibid., 526.</P>
<P>12. Ibid., 527.</P>
<P>13.  Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, May 3, 16, 20, 30, June 6, 7, 21, 1905.</P>
<P>14. Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 1905, 99.</P>
<P>15.  Meier and Rudwick, "Negro Boycotts," 529.
<PB N="164">
walked, rode bicycles, and again were assisted by black hackmen
who reduced their fares from a quarter to a dime and gave
priority to serving blacks at the reduced price over white
patrons at the regular price. On one occasion Jacksonville police
arrested Andrew Black "for ordering a white couple out of his
hack because he preferred picking up two Negroes waiting for
a ride. When the whites became indignant, Black parked the
carriage in front of a nearby stable, unhitched the horses, and
walked away."16 In Pensacola blacks began organizing a protest
immediately after the streetcar segregation bill was introduced.17</P>
<P>A committee was selected to go to Tallahassee and urge the
legislature to reject the proposal. In addition streetcars were
boycotted in much the same manner as in Jacksonville. Notwithstanding black protest, the bill was quickly enacted. Ulti
mately, the issue was taken to the courts where the state law was
declared unconstitutional in the case of Florida v Andrew Patterson. 18 However, the cities of Jacksonville and Pensacola hurriedly
passed streetcar segregation ordinances.19 These ordinances
were tested in the courts and held to be constitutional by the
Supreme Court of Florida. 20 In the shadow of these decisions
black protest against segregated streetcars dwindled and eventually faded out. There were reportedly no protests in 1909 when
the Florida legislature enacted a constitutionally-sound streetcar
segregation law.21</P>
<P>Black Floridians not only protested against injustices and
boycotted segregated facilities, they also brought their cases before the Florida courts. As early as 1873 black Tallahasseans
filed suit against the operator of a skating rink for denying
them entry because of race. Ironically, black Justice of the Peace
J. W. Toer dismissed the suit on the ground that the rink was</P>
<P>16. Ibid.; Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, July 24, 25, 1905,</P>
<P>17.  Pensacola Journal, April 7, 1905; Tampa Morning Tribune, April 7, 1905.
The bill providing for segregated streetcars was introduced by J. Campbell
Avery, a Pensacola resident. This had the impact of further infuriating
blacks in that city.</P>
<P>18. Florida v Andrew Patterson, Florida Reports, L (1905), 127-33.</P>
<P>19.  Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, October 18, 1905; Pensacola Journal, August 23, 24, 25, September 28, 1905.</P>
<P>20. Patterson v Taylor, Southern Reporter, XL (1906), 493-97; L. B. Croom v Fred
Shad, ibid., 497-99.</P>
<P>21. Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 1909, 339-40.
<PB N="165">
private property which its operator could use as he pleased.22</P>
<P>Blacks also petitioned the courts to restore their voting rights.
In the case of the State of Florida, Ex Rel Charles Scott v Board of
County Commissioners of Jeff erson County, the state supreme court
refused to issue a writ of mandamus on the contention that no
specific person had been denied the addition of his name to the
voting rolls.23 In the State of Florida, Ex Rel Richard Jordan v T.
E. Buckman, Jordan sought to have his voting rights restored
and argued that he had been purged from the rolls for larceny
prior to the 1880 election. The Supreme Court of Florida ruled
that under Section 4 of Article XIV of the Constitution of 1868
larceny was grounds for disfranchisement and passed judgement against the plaintiff.24</P>
<P>Blacks also initiated legal actions to end discriminatory selection of juries.25 On March 20, 1906, I. W. Montgomery, a Duval
County resident, was convicted of embezzlement in the Criminal
Court of Record. He appealed his conviction to the state supreme court challenging the array of jurors. Montgomery con
tended that the sheriff of Duval County "did summon only
white men to serve as jurors for and during the said week of
said court, and did fail and refuse to select any colored men of
African descent to serve on the jury as aforesaid, thus discriminating against all colored men of African descent."26 He
went on to present evidence that within Duval County at the
time of juror summons "many thousand colored men of African
descent of approved integrity, fair character, and sound judgment and intelligence and fully qualified for jury duty" were
well known to the sheriff.27 Additional evidence showed that</P>
<P>22.   Jerrell Shofner, Nor is it Over Yet: Florida in the Era of Reconstruction, 18631877 (Gainesville, 1974), 291.</P>
<P>23. State of Florida, Ex Rel Charles Scott v Board of County Commissioners of Jefferson
County, Florida Reports, XVII (1880), 705-22.</P>
<P>24. State of Florida, Ex Rel Richard Jordan v T. E. Buckman, Florida Reports, XVIII
(1881), 267-70.</P>
<P>25. Prior to exclusion from juries black jurors and witnesses were oftentimes
targets of abuse. In one instance a black witness against a white man was
assaulted with a club by the man he testified against, see Jackson, "Republicans and Florida Elections," 152. In another case, black jurors trying
Lieutenant Governor Hull for election tampering were assaulted and
jeered on the streets for finding the Democrat innocent. This latter situation is addressed in the Jacksonville Florida Union, as reported in the Tal
lahassee Weekly Floridian, June 3, 1879.</P>
<P>26.    Montgomery v State, Southern Reporter, XLII (1907), 895.</P>
<P>27. Ibid.
<PB N="166">
"for many years . . . when special venires are issued and served
. . . the sheriff . . . refuse[d] to select any names of persons of
the African race."28 In its January 23, 1907, opinion, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled unanimously in Montgomery's
favor, reversed the criminal court judgment, and ordered a new
trial at the cost of the county.29</P>
<P>The jury selection for the new trial followed a discriminatory
pattern much like that at the earlier trial. The difference was
that six of the jurors' names were drawn from the jury box and
the other six were selected by the sheriff. Again no black jurors
were among the jurors.30 For the second time Montgomery appealed his case to the state supreme court. The court ruled in a
split decision in favor of Montgomery, reversed the lower court
judgement, and remanded the case. In its decision the Florida
Supreme Court held that "an allegation that the `refusal of the
sheriff to select any men of African race to serve on the jury is
on account of their race, color, and previous condition of servitude' is a sufficient charge of discrimination to entitle defen
dant to prove it."31 The state supreme court held to this position
in its March 11, 1913, decision in the case of Harry Bonaparte v
State of Florida. 32 On June 27, 1916, the state supreme court
finally reversed itself in the case of Charles H. Haynes v State of
Florida. Haynes was convicted of first degree murder by an allwhite jury in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court. He ap
pealed to the Florida Supreme Court and used the same defense
as Montgomery and Bonaparte. However, the court ruled unanimously against him. The opinion read in part that "the evidence
adduced did not support the allegation . . . that in selecting persons for jury duty the officers `discriminated against Negroes of
African descent because of their race, color, or privious condition of servitude' . . . or show any unlawful discrimination in the
selection of jurors of which the accused may complain."33</P>
<P>28. Ibid.</P>
<P>29.  Ibid., 897.</P>
<P>30.   Montgomery v State, 2d., Southern Reporter, XLV (1908), 880.</P>
<P>31.  Ibid., 882.</P>
<P>32.   Bonaparte's case was identical to Montgomery's, Both sought relief from
convictions of embezzlement in the Criminal Court of Record of Duval
County and used the same defenses. See Bonaparte v State, Southern Reporter,
LXI (1913), 633-38.</P>
<P>33.  Haynes v State, Southern Reporter, LXXII (1916), 180-84.
<PB N="167">
Legal action was sometimes an effective mechanism for challenging white supremacy, but with white judges and juries there
were limitations to the extent of any changes made in the behalf
of blacks. Against the odds blacks seriously considered emigration as a viable response to racial turmoil. While the number of
blacks that actually emigrated from the state was small, many
considered emigration as a practical alternative for resolving
racial conflict. Some even viewed it as an acceptable means for
a family or small colony to leave Florida and start all over somewhere else.34 A Palm Beach black in applying for departure
stated that, "I desire to know what are the sawable timbers of
Liberia as I desire to take with me a mill and fixtures for sawing
timber. One hundred and thirty-six good families want to go
with me. They comprise men of all trades, including experienced farmers. Our object is to form a settlement of our own,
and thus lead to success in Liberia."35 While all along some blacks
had left the state, from 1871 to 1910 exactly 100, mostly
families, emigrated to Liberia.36 Forty emigrants were from
Alachua County, fourteen from Duval, six out of Escambia, five
from Madison County, three Jefferson County residents, and
one each from Brevard and Marion counties. Another twentysix were from the state at large.37 Table One shows the number
of black emigrants to Africa by year and the city or residence
where known.</P>
<P>The number of blacks who left Florida as colonists to Liberia
was small, but not negligible since emigration entailed a financial
burden and further required the severing of family and social
ties, and the establishing of new roots in a foreign country.
Those leaving, no doubt, felt strongly that conditions abroad
had to be better than those within the United States. The two
most cited reasons for leaving the country were subordination
to whites and job shortages.38 The Jacksonville paper referred</P>
<P>34.   Jacksonville Daily Florida Union, November 4, 1876.</P>
<P>35. American Colonization Society, Annual Report of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States, LXXII (Washington, 1889),
5. Microfilm in the Robert Manning Strozier Library, Florida State University, Tallahassee.</P>
<P>36.  Ibid., LIV (1871)-XCIII (1910). Prior to its demise in 1910, the Society
assisted approximately 16,500 blacks nationwide to emigrate to Liberia and
Sierra Leone.</P>
<P>37. Ibid., LVII (1874), LXII (1879), LXX (1887)-LXV (1892), LXXIX (1896).</P>
<P>38.  Ibid., LXI (1877), 9.
<PB N="168">
to Liberia as "a Paradise for the Negro."39</P>
<P>Some blacks who shunned the prospects of emigrating,
favorably considered relocating in territorial North America.
Will Clemens of Jacksonville, a frequent contributor to the New
York Freeman, cited economic exploitation, political oppression,
and social degradation as the main reasons why some blacks
wished to leave Florida.40 Leon County blacks held a meeting in
1879 to discuss the feasibility of establishing a colony in Kansas
or some other western state or territory. Four reasons were
given for their desire to leave: unnecessary violence; intimidation and murder of blacks; the absence of governmental protec
tion of their property and of individual rights; and economic
abuse of the black worker.41</P>
<P>[TABLE 1]
FLORIDA BLACK EMIGRANTS TO LIBERIA</P>
<P>Source: American Colonization Society, Annual Report of the American Society for
Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States, LV (Washington,
1872), 10; LVII (1874), 9; LX (1876), 6; LXII (1879), 7; LXXI (1889),
6; LXXII (1890), 3;. LXXIII (1891), 4; LXXIV (1892), 4; LXXV
(1893), 4; LXXIX (1897), 3.</P>
<P>Most black Floridians were content to remain in the state
and make the best of their circumstances. Nevertheless, many</P>
<P>39. Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, January 16, 1890.</P>
<P>40. Martin Dann, The Black Press, 1827-1890: The Quest for National Identity
(New York, 1971), 285-86.</P>
<P>41. Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, October 28, 1879.
<PB N="169">
of these resolved to establish their own residential neighborhoods within Florida cities. Large numbers moved into the de
veloping cities and the established urban centers.42 Substantial
numbers later migrated to central, southern, and southwestern
Florida. While churches sprang up and served as symbols of
spiritual hope and aspiration, there still was the need for physical protection, Black communities developed, in part, as protec
tion from sometimes hostile white majorities. Inadvertently,
such organization perpetrated black social, political, and
economic awareness. It also served to create a social structure
where the dream of justice and equality could be established
among peers.</P>
<P>In 1882 Frenchtown was a developing black community in
the northwestern section of Tallahassee.43 Residential development was also on the rise among blacks in Appalachicola where
more blacks than whites were constructing houses.44 In 1887 a
black community was emerging west of Coconut Grove in Dade
County .45 Six years later, housing booms were occurring in East
Jacksonville and St. Petersburg, thriving black population centers.46 On Florida's Atlantic coast communities also sprang up in
the newly developing towns and cities. Pompano Beach, Dania,
Hallandale and points south each had its designated black quarters. These sections varied in size but generally were small. For
example, the black community in Fort Pierce was comprised of
a couple of houses isolated from the dominant white segments
of the city. 47 In 1904 Fort Lauderdale's quarter consisted of
seven houses and two stores.48</P>
<P>Discrimination and segregation contributed to the
emergence of Black Town, also called "OverTown," in Miami.
Black Town was located in Miami's northwest section and expanded in a northwesterly direction. It comprised about fifteen</P>
<P>42.  U. S. Bureau of Census, Ninth Census of the United States, Florida
(Washington, 1871), 18-19, 97-99. In this census, towns of 2,500 and more
were classified as urban centers.</P>
<P>43.   Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, October 28, 1879.</P>
<P>44.   Jacksonville Daily Florida Union, May 24, 1882.</P>
<P>45.   Miami Herald, May 6, 1973.</P>
<P>46.   Jacksonville Evening Telegram, July 27, 1893.</P>
<P>47. Martin County Historical Society, The History of Martin County (Hutchinson
Island, 1975), 176; Kyle S. VanLandingham, Pictorial History of Saint Lucie
County, 1865-1910 (Fort Pierce, 1976), 38; Bill McGoun, Hallandale (Boynton Beach, 1976), 45.</P>
<P>48. Bill McGoun, A Biographic History of Broward County (Miami, 1972), 34.
<PB N="170">
per cent of the city's original area. Blacks owned most of the
business district which ran a stretch of one-half mile. At the turn
of the century the business district included a grocery and general mechandise store, an ice cream parlor, pharmacy, funeral
house, clubhouses, rooming places, soft drink plant, professional offices, and numerous food and entertainment establish
ments.49 The Reverend S. W. Brown, formerly of South
Carolina, owned and managed the Colored Town Bargain
Store; Henry Reeves of the Bahamas published the Miami Times;
Kelsey Pharr was proprietor of the funeral home and developer
of the community's first cemetery; Richard Toomey was the
first black lawyer in South Florida and established his office in
Colored Town; and Dana A. Dorsey was the recognized leader
of the neighborhood, owning extensive land, business, and related holdings.50 Between 1904 and 1915 there were no fewer
than six doctors and three practical nurses in Black Town.51</P>
<P>Most black sections of established towns never became very
large and were enclosed by white residential developments.
Blacks were not legally restricted from living in white neighborhoods until the early twentieth century. Nevertheless, they were
excluded in fact from the developing white areas.52 Such a practice was more by custom than anything else, but black prefer
ence in some instances cannot be overruled. The fact that black
communities were generally surrounded by white ones limited
their expansion. Consequently, new ones began to appear.53 Unfortunately, wherever it was located black housing was often
inadequate. Relatively few blacks could afford to buy or build
their own homes, or to pay the high rents requested by white
absentee property owners. In St. Petersburg and Miami this accounted for the modest rent housing lived in by most blacks. A
large percentage of the available housing was substandard by
every definition. Some lived in run-down shanties and shacks.</P>
<P>49. Paul S. George, "Colored Town: Miami's Black Community, 1896-1930,"
Florida Historical Quarterly, LVI (April 1978), 432.</P>
<P>50. Ibid., 435, 438.</P>
<P>51. John Gordon DuPuis, History of Early Medicine . . . in Dade County (Miami,
1954), 17, 77. The doctors were S. M. Frazier, W. B. Sawyer, J. A. Butler,
W. A. Chapman, and Dr. Culp and Dr. Holly. The practical nurses were
Hattie Brooks, Fannie Goodwin, and Bertha Turner.</P>
<P>52. Karl H. Grismer, The Story of St. Petersburg: The History of Lower Pinellas
Peninsula and the Sunshine City (St. Petersburg, 1948), 189.</P>
<P>53. Ibid.; George, "Colored Town," 435, 438, 440.
<PB N="171">
Few had plumbing, and almost none were painted.54 A few managed to buy homes and properties.55 These owners placed em
phasis on beautifying and increasing the value and appearance
of their holdings.56 In St. Petersburg, William Tanner was reported to have made "quite an addition to his neat home on
Ninth Street." J. S. Tanner had "his neat cottage," also located
on Ninth Street, "ceiled last week." G. B. McDaniel had "an
addition put on his neat cottage on 10th Street," and Grant G.
Gray was "having his neat cottage on Ninth Street painted."57</P>
<P>In an attempt to protect the neighborhood from white outbursts and criticisms, black community members took it upon
themselves to confront internal social ills such as idleness. One
anonymous critic wrote: "I am kicking on the young healthy
Negroes loafing on the streets of our beautiful little city. They
are the fellows that keep us that are trying to elevate ourselves
down at the door of poverty. We ask the good people of this
place to give them grass to cut on the streets if nothing more."58
They also provided positive publicity for community successes.59
In part it was exclusion from white society that stimulated
the emergence of black communities. Blacks in most communities owned the business districts which could run a stretch
of one-half mile as in Miami, a few blocks in St. Petersburg, or
only a couple of houses in Fort Pierce. These business districts
contained grocery and general merchandise stores, ice cream
parlors, pharmacies, funeral homes, clubhouses, rooming
places, soft drink stands, food and entertainment establishments, and professional offices.60</P>
<P>Churches, schools, and social halls were the primary forums
within the black community. Social activities such as minstrel
shows, bazaars, festivals, parades, athletic contests, and excursions were planned and organized in these institutions. Secret
fraternal organizations and orders, civic, business, self-help, and
political gatherings used them to hold meetings. As a rule, most
prominent blacks came from these institutions. Among them</P>
<P>54.   Grismer, Story of St. Petersburg, 189.</P>
<P>55.   St. Petersburg Times, November 8, 1902.</P>
<P>56. Ibid.</P>
<P>57.  Ibid., November 29, 1902.</P>
<P>58.  Ibid., July 5, 1902.</P>
<P>59.  Ibid., September 20, 1902.</P>
<P>60.  George, "Colored Town," 438-39
<PB N="172">
were clergymen, doctors, dentists, lawyers, school teachers, and
principals.61</P>
<P>Black communities organized for self-help and protection.
The merchants, social activists, and politicians joined together
to fight against impoverished conditions, congestion, and the
associated disease and crime in the cities. These poor and inadequate conditions included unpaved roads, insufficient light
ing, uncleared wilderness areas, poor wages, unfair labor practices, lack of sanitary facilities, poor quality schools, and low
quantity and quality housing. In Miami several organizations
were established to deal with these kinds of social problems.
These included the Colored Board of Trade which was founded
in 1916; the North Miami Improvement Association, established
in 1917; Negro Uplift Association of Dade County organized in
1919; and the Civic League of Colored Town.62</P>
<P>In spite of the institutions and community awareness that
developed in the black sections of established towns, it must not
be forgotten that city administration was in the hands of the
whites. However, Florida had at least one black incorporated
city during the latter part of the nineteenth century and that
city still exists today. The town of Eatonville was first settled in
1883 by a small group of blacks who had fled from Maitland
and areas north in response to the pressuring of local blacks to
move to another area.63 On August 14, 1887, twenty-seven registered voters met in the public hall of the town and voted unanimously to incorporate. As a result Eatonville became an all
black chartered community. The city had its own city government and provided public services to residents.64 The establish
ment of the town of Eatonville gave blacks the opportunity to
govern their affairs. Little has been written about this historic
community. It is known, however, that the town faced similar
problems as those confronted by the black inhabitants of white</P><P>61. Howard N. Rabinowitz, Race Relations in the Urban South, 1865-1890 (New
York, 1978), 90.</P>
<P>62.  Jerrell H. Shofner, "Florida and the Black Migration," Florida Historical
Quarterly, LVII (January 1979), 271-80.</P>
<P>63. Glatting-Lopez and Associates, A Comprehensive Plan for Eatonville, Florida
(Winter Park, 1978), 3. The town was named for Josiah Eaton, a white
Floridian who had established Maitland. Eaton offered to sell blacks a large
parcel of land one mile to the west of Maitland for settlement. Joseph
Clarke bought the land and later sold it to any blacks wishing to settle there.</P>
<P>64.  Ibid., 3-4.
<PB N="173">
controlled cities. County services were poor, expansion was limited, and white injustices were perpetrated against those who
ventured outside of the town's boundaries.65</P>
<P>Blacks reacted against segregation practices in a number of
different ways. They establishd their own social and cultural
institutions within established white-controlled cities; protested
against disfranchisement, racial segregation and discrimination;
filed suits in the courts; sponsored boycotts of unfair transporters; encouraged emigration; and established black com
munities. While this is not an exhaustive study of the types and
means of the black reaction, it does show that blacks in Florida
actively fought against white supremacy in the state. Though in
many ways the fight was a losing one, there were several
noteworthy successes.</P>
<P>65.   Ibid., 4; Adley Associates, Inc., Eatonville, Florida: A General Development
Plan (Sarasota, 1973), 4.
<PB N="174"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:6" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>A SWISS SETTLER IN EAST FLORIDA: A LETTER OF FRANCIS PHILIP FATIO edited by William Scott Willis</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>A SWISS SETTLER IN EAST FLORIDA: A LETTER OF FRANCIS PHILIP FATIO edited by William Scott Willis</HEAD>
<P>A LETTER written by Francis Philip Fatio, who settled in East
Florida in 1771 and remained there until his death in 1811,
was recently discovered among some papers in a desk given to
The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the
State of Florida for use in the Ximenez-Fatio House in St. Augustine. Written by Fatio from New Switzerland, his plantation
on the St. Johns River, to his wife in St. Augustine, the letter is
dated October 18, 1800. It provides not only intimate glimpses
of life on an East Florida plantation during the Second Spanish
Period and information on the crops being grown, but also some
personal perceptions of the troubled years following the American Revolution, in par titular the rebellion in East Florida in
1795 and the threat of invasion by William Augustus Bowles,
self-styled director-general of the State of Muskogee, and his
followers in 1800.</P>
<P>Mr. Fatio was seventy-six years old when he wrote this letter.1
Born in Vevey, Switzerland in 1724, he was the second son of a
prominent and prosperous family whose Swiss ancestors dated
back to the sixteenth century. After initially studying law, Fatio
decided upon a military career. Joining the Swiss Troops in
service to the king of Sardinia, he fought with the Sardinian
forces allied with England against France in the War of the
Austrian Succession. While on leave in Nice, the young officer
met Marie Madeleine Crispell, and they were married in 1748.
Leaving the military service, Fatio bought property near Nice</P>
<P>William Scott Willis is professor of French, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. He thanks The National Society of Colonial Dames of
America in the State of Florida for permission to publish his translation of
the document.</P>
<P>1. Three books written by descendants of F. P. Fatio contain detailed information about the Fatio family: Susan L'Engle, Notes of my family and Recollections
of my early life (New York, 1888); Gertrude L'Engle, A Collection of Letters,
Information and Data on Our Family, 2 vols. (Jacksonville, 1951); and Margaret Seton Fleming Biddle, Hibernia: The Unreturning Tide (New York,
1947).
<PB N="175">
which contained "sweet orange trees . . . lime trees . . . choice
fruit trees . . . olive trees . . . and vineyards." He also took pride
in its system of irrigation: "a large well supplied with water and
a pump worked with a wheel to fill a large stone cistern or basin,
from which the rows of orange trees are watered in the summer
by canals running alongside."2 This early experience in cultivating the soil was undoubtedly of benefit to Fatio when he settled
his Florida plantations some twenty years later.</P>
<P>Leaving his property near Nice in the care of an overseer,
Fatio moved to Geneva in 1756 with his wife and young son.
Five years later, he took his family to London where they spent
the next ten years. It was then that the reports being circulated
by the British about the advantages of settling in their newlyacquired Florida province began to fire his imagination. He
formed a partnership with four others to acquire land there
which he agreed to manage. In 1771 Fatio chartered a ship and
set sail from England with his wife, their five children ranging
in age from nineteen to three, and their household possessions.3
Arriving in St. Augustine, Fatio prospered, both as merchant
and planter. It is reported he was soon able to keep a vessel
"constantly plying between the New and Old World, carrying
the products of the one and bringing back comforts and luxuries
from the other."4 A grant of 400 acres near Mill Cove on the
south side of the St. Johns River was obtained by an agent for
the partners. This tract (known today as the Fort Caroline Club
Estates), together with some 350 adjoining acres which Fatio
later purchased, was named Newcastle.5</P>
<P>It was here that William Bartram visited in 1774: "stop't at
Monr. Facio's who has a very large Indigo Plantation, on a high</P>
<P>2. Power of attorney written by Fatio and published in G. L'Engle, Collection
of Letters, I, 22.</P>
<P>3. All the children (Louis, Francis Philip, Jr., Louisa, Sophia, and Philip)
reached adulthood. They and their descendants continued to play a prominent role in Florida history. Many still live in Florida, although none bear
the name of Fatio. Fatio's great-grandson, Francis Philip Fleming, served
as governor of Florida from 1889 to 1893 and was the president of the
Florida Historical Society from 1906 until his death in 1908.</P>
<P>4. S. L'Engle, Notes of my family, 10.</P>
<P>5. Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey, Spanish Land
Grants in Florida, 5 vols. (Tallahassee, 1940-1941): III, Confirmed claim F
12. The New Castle plantation (named after Neufch_tel in Switzerland)
included several small islands, one of which still bears the name. There is
also New Castle Creek which flowed through the Fatio property.
<PB N="176">
Hill on Et. side of the River. This very civil gentleman showed
me his improvements. his Garden is very neat & contains a
greater variety than any other in the Coliny, he has a variety of
European Grapes imported from the Streight, Olives, Figs,
Pomgranates, Filberts, Oranges, Lemons, a variety of garden
flowers, from Europe etc. we dined with him, then continued
up the River. . . ."6</P>
<P>Fatio also obtained a land grant of 10,000 acres on the east
side of the St. Johns, with a river front of twelve miles, which
he named New Switzerland (site of the present town of Switzerland). Located about thirty miles north of St. Augustine, this
became the country residence of the family, and it was here that
Fatio spent most of his time as planter.7</P>
<P>When the American Revolution broke out, East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and became a haven for the
Loyalists forced out of the colonies to the north. Fatio shared
their hope that the British would not give up the province. To
help make sure this would not happen, he wrote in 1782 a
lengthy report, significant for its commentaries on forest conservation as well as for its emotional appeal, entitled "Considera
tions on the Importance of the Province of East Florida to the
Empire (on the supposition that it will be deprived of its Southern Colonies) by its Situation, its produce in Naval Stores, Ship
lumber, & the Asylum it may afford the Wretched & Distressed
Loyalists."8 When the province was retroceded to Spain in 1783,
Fatio was among the few who decided to remain. All his children
and virtually all his property were here; he was too deeply
rooted in the East Florida soil to leave. Thus his interests and
those of the Spanish government became one. By 1785 the
Spanish governor would recommend him in these terms: "Since
the beginning of His Majesty's rule he has exerted himself enthusiastically in the Spanish interest, not only by words but by
deeds, supplying the ordinary rations to the detachments
stationed on the banks of the St. Johns River, to say nothing of
other effects of benefit to the royal service made necessary by
the lack of money with which to procure them. He, as well as</P>
<P>6. William Bartram, "Travels in Georgia and Florida, 1773-74: A Report to
Dr. John Fothergill" American Philosophical Society Transactions (Philadelphia, 1943), 145.</P>
<P>7. Spanish Land Grants in Florida, III, Confirmed claim F 13.</P>
<P>8. G. L'Engle, Collections of Letters, I, 188-89.
<PB N="177">
his son, Lewis, continue to carry out to my satisfaction the commission which I entrusted to them of exercising primary juris
diction in quarrels originating among British subjects."9</P>
<P>Mr. Fatio saw clearly the potential, as well as the danger,
inherent in the conditions then in existence in East Florida. In
a document entitled "Description of East Florida," remarkable
for its candor and prophetic vision, he informed the Spanish
government in March 1785 that the evacuation of the English
had caused the province to become a desert guarded by Spanish
troops, that the few Spanish subjects who had come were not
tillers of the soil, that the government should encourage more
settlement and undertake the revival of maritime trade in order
to export the wood of all kinds available, as well as tar, rosin,
and turpentine. He warned that troops from the new American
republic could easily invade the back country of the Spanish
provinces and that the Indians would renew their pillages if
strong measures were not taken. 10 That conditions quickly worsened is evident in the letter the governor sent to the Cond_ de
G_lvez, captain-general of the province, shortly thereafter.
Speaking again of Fatio and his son Lewis, he wrote: "I must
add here that, considering the usefulness and worth of these
men, I have thought it proper to place a guard consisting of a
sergeant and eight men on Fatio's hacienda (the only one left in
the province) on the St. Johns River, in the hope that their
industry and intelligence will serve as an inspiration to others to
imitate them."11</P>
<P>The Spanish decided somewhat belatedly in 1790 to offer
land grants to new settlers without requiring them to become
Catholics. A few of those who came however, primarily from
Georgia, soon got the notion of taking over the province and
making it into an independent Republic of Florida. Some of
their actions are alluded to in Fatio's letter which follows. The</P>
<P>9.  Vicente Manuel de Z_spedes to Bernardo de G_lvez, February 28, 1785,
East Florida Papers, reel 16, bundle 40 [hereinafter cited as EFP, with
appropriate reel and bundle numbers], microfilm in Library of Congress,
Washington, and the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, University of
Florida, Gainesville. See John W. Caughey, ed., East Florida, 1783-1785. A
File of Documents Assembled and Many of Them Translated by Joseph Byrne Lockey
(Berkeley, 1949), 461-62.</P>
<P>10. This document was forwarded by Z_spedes to Cond_ de G_lvez under date
of March 18, 1795, EFP, reel 16, bundle 40; Caughey, East Florida, 479-82.</P>
<P>11.  Caughey, East Florida, 572.
<PB N="178">
letter is written in French, the language Mr. Fatio and his wife
commonly used in writing to each other.</P>
<P>Addressed to:</P>
<P>Mrs. Fatio         care of Davy
St. Augustin       New Switzerland
October 18, 1800 Saturday</P>
<P>My dearly beloved Marion,</P>
<P>I intended to write you yesterday and send my letter this
morning replying to your sweet letter of the 15th and 16th.
After dinner we saw a boat with two sails coming up that turned
out to be Patron Estacholy,12 who was carrying provisions to the
detachment at Picolata.13 From him we learned that on the 15th
the troops of the King, commanded by Capt. Castilla,14 had set
out with our Militia Dragoons under the command of Capt.
Macqueen,15 Atkinson, 16 Hall,17 etc. in order to go to St. Marys18</P>
<P>12. Probably Domingo Estacholy, master of the schooner Santa Catalina, which
was used to transport ammunition to the St. Johns battery, or his father,
Francisco Estacholy, skipper of the post office canoes of the St. Johns and
St. Mars rivers, who had moved to San Vicente Ferrer from St. Augustine
in 1789. See White to Juan McQueen, September 12, 1801, EFP, reel 85,
bundle 201 F 16; Spanish Land Grants in Florida, IV, Confirmed claim K 21;
1793 Census Return, St. Augustine, EFP, reel 148, bundle 323 A.</P>
<P>13. Fort on the east bank of the St. Johns just west of St. Augustine.</P>
<P>14. Manuel Castilla, captain in the Spanish troops garrisoned in St. Augustine,
had been appointed commander of the joint troops in the expedition
against Bowles by Governor White. See White to Castilla, EFP, reel 55,
bundle 135 E 11. A list of Spanish officers by rank and name appears in
Morales to White, April 9, 1801, EFP, reel 67, bundle 160 D 13.</P>
<P>15.  John McQueen was then commander of the militia on the St. Johns and
St. Marys rivers. See the correspondence exchanged in 1800 between Governor White and McQueen, EFP, reel 53, bundle 135 E 11. For information
on McQueen, see Walter Charlton Hartridge, ed., The Letters of Don Juan
McQueen to his Family: Written from Spanish East Florida 1791-1807 (Columbia, SC, 1943), xxi-xxxiv, 1-84.</P>
<P>16. Andrew Atkinson settled in Florida following the royal order in 1790. He
was active in a number of military expeditions against the Georgia rebel
invaders between 1793 and 1796. Las Casas, governor general in Cuba,
recommended in 1795 that both Atkinson and McQueen be accorded recognition for their outstanding efforts. See Las Casas to Camp Alange, Ar
chivo General de Indias, Santo Domingo, legajo 2564. White appointed
Atkinson commander of the militia in June 1800, McQueen to White, June
18, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E 11. See also Richard K. Murdoch,
The Georgia-Florida Frontier, 1793-1796: Spanish Reaction to French Intrigue
and American Designs (Berkeley, 1951), 63-64, 108-09, 124-25.</P>
<P>17. Nathaniel Hall was already a captain in the rural militia at the time rebel
forces seized the small outpost of Juana in June 1795 (see notes 26-31).
<PB N="179">
and join there a militia detachment from Georgia and encounter
Bowles and the Indians.19 This news has given me much satisfaction, being the best plan that one could devise to stave off those
looters and stop them in their scheme.20</P>
<P>Estacholy told us that Mr. Macqueen was in high spirits, as
were all the troops, that they had fifteen days of provisions-little ammunition because the launch had not arrived.21 If the
Americans side with us, as I hope, and if our troops don't fall
into some ambush, we shall soon be delivered from all danger.
They have jailed in Newton one of Bowles's partisans who I
hope will not escape like Bob Allen.22</P>
<P>McQueen called Hall "a plain honest Man." Hartridge, Letters of McQueen,
68.</P><P>18. St. Marys, Georgia; the inhabitants of East Florida habitually referred to it
as New Town or Newton. See McQueen to White, July 4, 1800, EFP, reel
55, bundle 135 E 11; Murdoch, Georgia-Florida Frontier, 4.</P>
<P>19. McQueen notified the Spanish government in September 1800 of word he
had received "from our confidential correspondent at St. Marys, advising
us of Bowles's intention of paying us a visit, and from every circumstance,
I am induced to believe we shall hear of him in a few days on the banks of
the St. Marys, where he expects to be united by the rebels from Florida."
McQueen to Morales, September 27, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E 11.
A short time later McQueen accepted appointment to the command of the
militia. McQueen to Morales, October 10, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle I35
E 11. Governor White then drew up a formal set of instructions containing
twenty-five articles on how the expedition against Bowles should proceed
and how the troops were to coordinate their efforts with the American
detachment from Georgia. See White to Castilla, October 11, 1800, EFP,
ibid. Spanish agents in Georgia helped frustrate the designs of Bowles.
One. William Ashley, alerted McQueen that Bowles planned to camp on
the south side of the St. Marys on October 16, Bowles to Ashley, October
16, 1800, ibid. Another, David Garven, hearing that money had been deposited in St. Marys to purchase powder and ball for Bowles, went to the
different stores in the town and bought up all available powder, McQueen
to White, November 9, 1800, ibid.</P>
<P>20.  Before he was captured and imprisoned in Havana, Bowles hoped that
with the aid of discontented whites in Georgia, a motley assortment of
Indians. and Spanish rebels, he could take possession of East Florida. His
plan was "to plunder the plantations and burn the Town of Augustine, by
which means to drive the inhabitants into the Fort and so starve them out."
See Seagrove to McQueen, January 31, 1801, EFP, reel 55, bundle 136 F
11.</P><P>21. The armed launch, San Agustin, was used to transport supplies and ammunition to the troops at the various outposts. See White to Castilla, October
11, 1800, EFP, reel 85, bundle 200 E 16. Its sailing from St. Augustine was
delayed because of contrary winds, so rations for eight days were sent by
horseback, Morales to Clark, October 17, 1800, ibid.</P>
<P>22. In addition to being an elusive prisoner, Alien was a recruiter for Bowles
and a notorious horse thief. He escaped from Seagrove's party from Georgia
<PB N="180">
Dr. Travers is mistaken when he says that the Indians in
Bowles's party are not from among those of the territory ceded
to the Americans.23 It is an assorted pack from all the nationsChiahas, Cowetas, Hitchitis and a number of High Creeks, who
are American, as well as those of Alachua. Even some kinsmen
of Paine and some Mickasoukies, who are Floridian.24 In the
proclamation of the Governor of Georgia which I have at hand,
he acknowledges that the United States is obliged by the fifth
article to join in common cause with us and by the decrees of
Congress to prevent any Citizen or other inhabitant from joining with Bowles unless he is so authorized by the English or is
acting as a vagabond: those are its terms. The proclamation is
dated July 8th and there is no doubt that there are orders from
the President for sending troops to join ours in order to go and
attack Bowles.25</P>
<P>We were expecting Estacholy for dinner on his way back and
to learn more news from Piccolata, but the wind is blowing so
strongly from the west, which is directly against him, that he
would not be able to get down the river. NB: He got down after
I went to bed. I assure you my dear Friend, that this news has
greatly calmed our fears. If Quesada26 had acted in the same</P>
<P>after being captured along the St. Marys with twelve horses he had
stolen, Seagrove to McQueen, June 28, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E
11.</P><P>23. Dr. Thomas Travers, a native of Ireland, had been stationed in East Florida
as an army surgeon under the British. He also remained there after the
cession of the province to Spain. His home in St. Augustine was on Hospital
(now Aviles) Street. See Census Returns, St. Augustine, 1793, EFP, reel
148, bundle 323 A. The Fatio residence was on Marine Street, now the site
of a wax museum.</P>
<P>24. Payne was the principal chief of the Alachua group of Seminoles. Payne
accompanied Francis P. Fatio, Jr., to Miccosukee in 1801 to try to obtain
the return of some of his father's slaves who had been stolen. Bowles
treated Fatio with civility, and they recognized each other as having been
in garrison together in New York in 1783, when Bowles was a provincial
officer. Not only were the slaves not returned, the Miccosukee Indians also
stole Fatio's horses. See Fatio to White. November 12, 1801, EFP, reel 83,
bundle 197 B 16.</P>
<P>25.  Proclamation of Governor James Jackson, Louisville, July 8, 1800. Fatio
may have had a copy of the Savannah newspapner, Columbian Museum &
Savannah Advertiser, which published the proclamation on July 15, 1800.
See copy in EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E 11. This refers to the Pinckney
Treaty of 1795. Its fifth article stipulates that both parties "shall maintain
peace and harmony among the several Indian nations" and that no treaty
of alliance "shall be made by either party with the Indians."</P>
<P>26.  Juan Nepomuceno Quesada had replaced Z_spedes as governor in 1790.
Fatio's relations with Quesada were not as cordial as those with Z_spedes.
<PB N="181">
[picture caption]
FRANCIS PHILIP FATIO
Original oil minature on display at the Ximenez-Fatio House, St. Augustine.
Photograph courtesy of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
in the State of Florida.
<PB N="182">
way when Lang27 came to attack Cowford,28 after his party had
captured Wheeler29 and burned the redoubt at Juana30 on June
26th 1795, they would not have come to take Cowford on July
10th.31 May God inspire our leaders and give success to our
expedition which will decide our fate.</P>
<P>We have had rain every day since Fleming's32 arrival, except</P>
<P>Fatio had offered to help the government during the 1795 rebellion, but
due to the number of Spanish subjects who took part in the rebellion,
especially those who came from the United States after 1790, the governor
began to suspect some he had previously considered loyal, including Fatio.
He noted that the corn provided by Fatio "was worm eaten and of little
usefulness." See Quesada to Las Casas, July 13, 1795, EFP, reel 129, bundle
294 P 12. Fatio seems to suggest that Enrique White, who became governor
in 1796, was a better military strategist than Quesada.</P>
<P>27. Richard Lang had settled in Florida earlier and owned a plantation along
the St. Marys. Suspected of treason at the time some Americans sympathetic to the French Republic were planning an invasion of East Florida in
1793, he was indicted with a number of others and put in prison. After
being released in January 1795 for lack of evidence, these men moved
north of the St. Marys River into Georgia. Lang first sought compensation
for his persecution, Lang to Quesada, February 27, May 10, 1795, EFP,
reel 83, bundle 196 A 16. Then he began to organize troops for a Florida
invasion. They first attacked Fort Juana, which had been built on the King's
Road at the present-day Ribault River in April 1794, Atkinson to Howard,
April 21, 1794, EFP, reel 50, bundle 126 S 10.</P>
<P>28. Cow Ford was the name used in referring to the narrow river crossing at
the Pass of San Nicolas. It was also used to identify the battery of St. Nicolas.</P>
<P>29. Isaac Wheeler was commander of the twelve-man militia at Fort Juana. All
were taken prisoner. See Howard to Morales, July 4, 1795, Archivo General
de Indias, Papeles procedentes de Cuba, legajo 1438. Microfilm in Library
of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington [hereinafter AGI, PC].</P>
<P>30. Also referred to as Fort Jane. See Isaac Wheeler to Charles Howard, December 9, 1794, EFP, reel, 51, bundle 127 J 10. One reason the dates and
details remain so clear in Fatio's mind is that Lang's men took 114 head of
cattle, which Fatio had contracted to buy as the meat supply of the province,
several horses, and a Negro belonging to Fatio, Fleming to Morales, July
3, 1795, AGI, PC, 1438.</P>
<P>31.  After their success at Juana, Lang and his men decided to cross the St.
Johns River again in small boats and attack the two-gun battery at San
Nicolas. Three of the garrison were killed and some twenty-eight men were
taken prisoner, Quesada to Las Casas, July 25, 1795, AGI, PC, 1438. The
Spanish forces recaptured the battery on July 12 and took several of the
enemy prisoner, but Lang and the others escaped. See Janice Barton Miller,
"The Rebellion in East Florida in 1795," Florida Historical Quarterly, LVII
(October 1978), 181-84.</P>
<P>32.  George Fleming married Fatio's daughter Sophia in 1788. He served as
captain of the urban militia, EFP, reel 146, bundle 32. He was also paymaster of the St. Johns militia at the time of the 1795 rebellion. See Atkinson
to Morales, May 2 1, 1795, EFP, reel 51, bundle 128 K 10. Fleming continued to perform many services for the Spanish government.
<PB N="183">
for today, which has stopped our picking cotton;33 and not being
able to dry the picked cotton, we were obliged to stop ginning
yesterday. As of the 16th we had already ginned 4324 pounds
of raw cotton and as of this morning we had baled 17 bales of
cotton-3667 pounds-from this year. This evening we shall
finish another bale of 276 pounds, which will bring us close to
4000 pounds of cotton. We have put aside the 19 bales for Mr.
Henry which weigh 5006 lbs. We have remaining 11 Bales which
weigh 2954 lbs; one from this evening weighed 296. That will
make 3250 lbs. which I plan to send to you in town by Arnau
with all we are able to bale later.34 We only have enough ginned
cotton for two medium-sized bales, but as the weather has
turned dry again, and since we have on hand 960 lbs. of picked
cotton-we shall begin our work again next Tuesday and every
two days we shall be able to gin a large bale. Meanwhile Mr.
Fleming has four Negroes at the gins; and I hope that next
week all his picked cotton will be ginned and baled and ready
to be sent with ours; he will have 33 good bales and some left
over.35</P>
<P>I received with pleasure the coffee, sugar, and onions. We
need some pencils. I don't have a drop of wine, which is a great
inconvenience. Yesterday I drank some toddy at dinner which,
although extremely weak, made me unwell. Today I wanted to
drink some pure lemonade without Brandy; it made my breathing short; fortunately I had in reserve the sole bottle of wine
from the cases and I drank half of it; the rest will be for tomorrow. The 5 broken bottles did me a great disservice; on the
return trip of the Negro I hope you will send me several bottles
in the warlets.36 I would like very much to receive a couple of</P>
<P>33. Fatio noted that he began to plant cotton in 1793 and soon found that "one
good acre of Cotton can very well purchase the Corn of ten acres when the
price is not exorbitant," Fatio to McQueen, March 12, 1801, EFP, reel 55,
bundle 136 F 11.</P>
<P>34. Possibly Jos_ Arnau, a Minorcan who lived in St. Augustine.</P>
<P>35. Fleming's cotton probably came from his plantation, Hibernia, which was
on the opposite side of the St. Johns from New Switzerland. This seems
substantiated by the fact that in July 1800, "four of Captain George Fleming's Negroes" were taken by the Indians "on the opposite of St. Johns
River." See Hall to White, July 8, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E 11.</P>
<P>36. The "warlet" or wallet was evidently some type of saddle bag placed on the
back of the horse to send supplies back and forth between New Switzerland
and St. Augustine. The dates of the letters exchanged by Fatio and his wife
suggest that such a trip was made every few days.
<PB N="184">
dozen by Arnau. We have enough tobacco, but we are going to
be able to count the days until we need salt. If you have some,
send me a barrel of it. We expect to kill a lamb tomorrow morning at dawn-you shall have half of it.37 Fleming believes that a
piece of it would give the Governor pleasure, if Dr. Travers is
willing to let him eat it. 38 I shall not be able to send you any fresh
butter because we do not have any hogslard to season our winter
squash, etc. Our cows go too far away looking for good pasture.
Today Gray put them in the upcountry fields so we will be able
to have them early in the evenings and also get more milk.39 We
shall save the cream which Mary gives me a little of every evening in my tea, if the cows don't come back.40</P>
<P>Our cotton fields promise an abundant harvest if we are not
stopped by the Frost. I don't believe we have yet picked a fourth
of the cotton, although what we have already picked amounts
to 5388 lbs. reduced to net weight, or 1347 baskets of 12 lbs.
calculated at 4 lbs. net.41 I hope that Mr. Henry will want to buy
our oranges and take them when he comes to load his cotton.42</P>
<P>37. Fatio had some 150 sheep. See Fatio's Census Return, February 27, 1801,
EFP, reel, 55, bundle 136 F 11.</P>
<P>38. Governor Enrique White. Dr. Travers was, until his death in 1807, principal physician of the Royal Hospital of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was
both physician to and friend of Governor White.</P>
<P>39. Juan Gray, a free mulatto, was field foreman of the plantation. See Fatio's
Census Return, February 27, 1801, ibid.</P>
<P>40.  Reared by her grandparents, Mary Fatio, then twelve years old, was the
only child of Louis Fatio and his first wife, Ann Douglas, daughter of John
Douglas, colonel in the British Army and commandant in St. Augustine
during the Revolutionary War. Ann died of a throat infection in 1788,
soon after Mary's birth, and was buried at New Switzerland. Louis was later
asked by Fatio to return to Europe to manage the family property there.
Louis settled near Nice in 1792, remaining there until he died of the plague
in 1799. G. L'Engle, Collection of Letters, II, 12.</P>
<P>41. If the 5,388 lbs. of picked cotton was a fourth of the crop, the total yield
Fatio expected that year would be over 20,000 lbs. The average yield at
that time was 200 lbs. of cotton per acre. One may surmise then chat around
100 acres were planted in cotton at New Switzerland.</P>
<P>42. Oranges became an increasingly important crop at New Switzerland. The
master of a schooner reported having loaded 165,000 oranges and 5,700
lemons at the Fatio plantation in 1831 for shipment to New York. Papers,
Jacksonville Historical Society (Jacksonville, 1949), II, 17. The extensive
groves, containing some 3,000 trees, surrounded the house on all sides
except the one facing the river and remained productive until their destruction by frost in 1835. G. L'Engle, Collection of Letters, II, 17. Dr. Paul
Schuler, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, reports that it was customary to plant forty-nine orange seedlings per acre
during the 1700s. There must have been then about sixty acres of orange
trees on the plantation.
<PB N="185">
The letter he wrote me is very satisfactory, and I hope you will
have received delivery of the Libranza for a thousand piastres
before my letter reaches you.43 However, one cannot always
count on promises.</P>
<P>If we are not chased out of here, I shall soon have some very
fine salad greens. 44 I am sending you some asparagus-a little
small-but it is a rarity. My garden appears promising, and it is
just about in order. I have planted cabbage, onions, carrots,
mustard, beets, spinach, parsnip, horseradish, and some garlic
from that which you sent me, most of which was stolen by the
Negroes to make necklaces against yellow fever. Send me some
more of the same which was very fine and good. I didn't have
enough to plant three rows, and I have three more which are
waiting.</P>
<P>I would have liked very much to have some chicory and
some blite, as well as some sweet potatoes. Then my garden
would be complete for winter. Not a seed of the cauliflower
which Farley sent came up. We do not have any English peas,
or any beans. Dr. Travers could get some for me-the peas
from the Minorcans and the beans from the Commandant.
Morning of the 19th</P>
<P>I have in the second drawer of my big desk, on the left, a
pound of gunpowder in a hidden packet. Please be so kind as
to send it to me . . . [illegible words] . . . my main food with fish
and pigeons, because I am not able to eat any salted meat. I am
writing to the Doctor to ask him to get us some powder from
the Government and some ball.</P>
<P>Goodbye, my dear Friend, I am wrapped up in my winter
clothes. This cold weather doesn't bother me as it did last year.
I am better in mind and spirit, and am of good cheer. Love me
without worrying. I shall be happier. But I would not know
how, nor would I be able, to love you more.
If Frantney wishes to have our sheep, he must find a pasture
for them other than the garden. I have just given the rest of my
tea, half a box, which will last us nine days. I shall send you on</P>
<P>43. Libranza - Spanish contract of exchange.</P>
<P>44. Some Indians had already declared they intended to ransack every plantation along the St. Johns, beginning with Fatio's. See Fatio to White, June
25, 1800, EFP, reel 55, bundle 135 E 11.
<PB N="186">
the wagon the 6 lbs. Goodbye. Your devoted husband and loving
companion.</P>
<P>F. Fatio</P>
<P>We are all well and I do not have a single Negro sick.
We have finished the molasses which was very helpful to us for
our sick.</P>
<P>Mary is sending some cakes to her cousins.45
What suit will you give me to wear when I go to town? My old
white suit?</P>
<P>Have someone look again at my velvet suits, re-sew the buttons
and make the lining straight at the bottom, which folds out from
the inside. The tailor can do that without my being there. It is
not worth the bother of my having a suit made of new material
for the remaining months I have to live. I think this winter, if
it is severe, will not spare me. Please make me several pills of
roasted rhubarb. I fear my diarrhea.</P>
<P>Fatio's concern about the cold weather was due to the fact
that the preceding winter had been an extraordinarily severe
one, with much snow and frost. The January 1800 snowstorm
developed into the greatest recorded in the history of the region. Near the mouth of the St. Marys, over five inches of snow
fell on January 10, 1800, the deepest snowfall known to have
fallen in Florida.46 The frost damaged his cotton crop, the deer</P>
<P>45.  The cousins included five Fatio grandchildren living in St. Augustine.
Louis Michael Fleming, son of George Fleming and Sophia Fatio, was then
two years old. Others were Francis Joseph Fatio and his sister Sophia,
children of Philip Fatio and his wife, Jane Cross, who had died in 1795.
Also living with their grandparents were Louisa and Eliza Fatio, daughters
of Francis P. Fatio, Jr. and his first wife, Susan Hunter, who had died in
1799. See G. L'Engle, Collection of Letters, I, 48-49. Louisa Fatio, who never
married, later owned the house on Aviles Street in St. Augustine now
known as the Ximenez-Fatio House. Listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, it is the museum of The National Society of the Colonial
Dames in the State of Florida.</P>
<P>46.  The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, 1706-1800 (Philadelphia, 1814), Appendix
121. Ellicott's Journal also carried an account of a freeze on February 19-20,
1800, when there was a "smart frost," water congealed nine feet from the
fire, and ice formed one-sixth of an inch thick. Andrew Ellicott, "Astronomical and thermometrical observatons made on the boundary between the United and His Catholic Majesty," American Philosophical Soci
ety Transactions, V (Philadelphia, 1802; reprint ed., New York, 1966), 281.
See also David M. Ludlum, Early American Winters, 1604-1820 (Boston,
1966), 160-62.
<PB N="187">
destroyed his pumpkins and peas, and the dry spell in the spring
limited his corn harvest to about 1,000 bushels.47</P>
<P>His physical ailments also continued to bother him. Fatio
wrote on March 12, 1801: "I propose to be in town some days
next week if my Rupture permits me to travel."48 In spite of
declining health, he remained the patriarch of the family and
continued to oversee his plantations for eleven more years. This
responsibility may be better understood in light of the information given in his 1801 Census Return. It lists eighteen white
members of the family, one free mulatto, four free Negroes,
and eighty-six slaves, totaling 109 "souls" in his care. In addition,
he had fifty-eight head of cattle, fourteen horses, 150 sheep,
and sixty pigs. He owned five houses in St. Augustine, two
houses in the country, two store houses, five work sheds, two
horse barns, and twenty-seven cabins for the Negroes, a total of
forty-three buildings to be maintained.49</P>
<P>Fatio was nearly eighty-seven years old when he died in
1811. His wife died a year before him, but he was refused burial
beside her in the church graveyard in St. Augustine because he
never converted to Catholicism.50 His grave is now lost among
the tall trees covering what was his beloved plantation, New
Switzerland.</P>
<P>The following year, during the Insurrection of 1812, the
other members of his family barely escaped with their lives when
the rebels and Indians plundered the plantation.51 They burned
the house and its contents, including Fatio's fine library of some
1,200 volumes. They also burned the fences and more than
100,000 feet of lumber. They killed the livestock-sixty head of
cattle, 106 head of sheep, and fifty pigs. What they did not burn
or kill, they stole. Losses included twenty-one Negroes, six teams
of oxen, five horses, a large boat, carpentry tools, blacksmith
tools, a cotton gin, two stills, a telescope, and a microscope. The
losses amounted to 34,841 pesos.52</P><P>47.  Fatio to McQueen, March 12, 1801, EFP, reel 55, bundle 136 F 11.</P>
<P>48. Ibid.</P>
<P>49. Census Return of February 27, 1801, ibid.</P>
<P>50. O'Reilly to Estrada, July 15, 1811, EFP, reel 38, bundle 100 I 8.</P>
<P>51. S. L'Engle, Notes of my Family, 29-30; G. L'Engle, Collection of Letters, I, 52,
80.</P><P>52. Francis Philip Fatio, Jr., 1817 Inventory of Losses, EFP, reel 174, bundle
385.
<PB N="188">
Several years later, another house was built at New Switzerland and cultivation was begun again. But other disasters were
not long in coming. The extensive orange groves with some
3,000 trees were destroyed by frost in 1835.53 The Indians plundered the plantation in January 1836 during the Second
Seminole War. Once more the house was burned; it was never
to be built again.54</P>
<P>53. G. L'Engle, Collection of Letters, II, 17.</P>
<P>54. Ibid.
<PB N="189"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:7" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>BOOK REVIEWS</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>BOOK REVIEWS</HEAD>
<P>Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida: Spokesman for the New South. By
Tom R. Wagy. (University: University of Alabama Press,
1985. x, 264 pp. Acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $22.50.)</P>
<P>This biography of former Governor LeRoy Collins is wellwritten and emphasizes the growth in Collins's mastery of issues
as his political career developed from 1934 until 1968. At the
same time, while he contributed greatly to the solution of
Florida's development, his role in facilitating integration of races
ultimately brought an end to his ability to win electoral office.
Yet, he accomplished a great deal and stands high among twentieth-century Florida governors in both ability and achievement.
Wagy's well-written book joins other studies of twentieth-century Florida figures as a definite contribution which readers will
welcome. These other books include Samuel Proctor's study of
Governor Napoleon B. Broward, Wayne Flynt's biographies of
Senator Duncan U. Fletcher and of Governor Sidney J. Catts,
and David Colburn and Richard Scher's study of twentieth-century Florida governors.</P>
<P>LeRoy Collins was born in Tallahassee, Florida, on March
10, 1909, the son of a moderately successful grocery store
owner. He grew up as a Methodist and later became an Episcopalian. He always held strong moral beliefs which ultimately
influenced his position and treatment of blacks and still later
caused him to oppose the imposition of capital punishment, although his earlier social and political positions were those of a
typical middle-class small town Southerner. After high school,
he attended one term of a northern business school and then
received a law degree from the one-year law school, Cumberland University. Wagy calls his early political position as being
typical of the "New South" attitude of Henry Grady of Georgia,
emphasizing government support for education, for business
development, and for free enterprise. Later Collins strongly admired Franklin Delano Roosevelt's leadership, and he became a
New Deal Democrat. He was elected to the Florida House of
Representatives in 1936 and then to the Florida Senate from the
<PB N="190">
district centering on Leon County. In the senate he championed
the cause of public education and also sought to promote such
governmental reforms as reapportionment, executive branch
reorganization, home rule for counties and cities, and a new
constitution to replace that of 1885. Following the death in office of his friend Governor Daniel McCarty, he successfully ran
for the last two years of McCarty's term, 1954-1956, and was
then re-elected for a full four-year term, 1956-1960. During
this time he made progress on strengthening the merit system,
removing state road contracts from a patronage system, and
from appointing judges on a patronage basis. However, on the
major issues of reapportionment and constitutional revision, his
strenuous efforts were defeated by the control of the agrarian
north Florida legislative group known as "Pork-Choppers," who
constituted a majority in the malapportioned legislature. Wagy
brings this struggle vividly to life.</P>
<P>Following the school integration decision of Brown v. School
Board of Topeka, Kansas (1954), he successfully led the fight
against school closing in Florida and against massive resistance.
At the same time he at first criticized the integration decision,
and supported measures attempting to preserve segregation in
the schools by peaceful means, but by the end of his term he
was urging the South to change and began saying that integration was inevitable and was morally just. His leadership of south
ern moderates gained him the chairmanship of both the Southern Governors' Conference and National Governors' Confer
ence. He was also named as the permanent chairman of the
1960 Democratic National Convention, and was considered as a
possible vice-presidential candidate on the ticket with John F.
Kennedy (a position won by Lyndon B. Johnson when it became
obvious that Collins had lost control both of the Florida delegation to the convention and also the Florida Democratic party).</P>
<P>Wagy might have mentioned the consequences had Collins,
rather than Johnson, been the vice-president when Kennedy
ultimately was assassinated during his single term as president.
Following the close of his gubernatorial term in January
1961, Collins served for two years as president of the National
Association of Broadcasters and then, after Johnson assumed
the presidency, became head of the Community Relations Service under the United States Commerce Department. This
agency helped to resolve integration problems in over 120
<PB N="191">
communities. Ultimately, this led to Collins mediating between the
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and officials of Selma and
the Alabama Highway Patrol concerning King's march from
Selma to Montgomery. In much of the press, including the
Florida press, the pictures of Collins and King were captioned
as showing the two leading the blacks on the march. Collins next
served as undersecretary of commerce under Johnson, and then
returned to practice law in Florida. In 1968, when United State
Senator George Smathers announced his retirement, Collins ran
for the Senate seat, only to be challenged by his primary opponent, Attorney General Earl Faircloth, on the issue of "law and
order," a codeword which implied responsibility for integrationist riots and the sit-ins at southern lunch counters and
motels. While Collins successfully won a narrow victory in the
Democratic primary, he carried only four counties in the general election and was defeated by his Republican opponent, Ed
ward J. Gurney.</P>
<P>After returning to Tallahassee to lick his wounds, Collins
wrote a series of historical essays which appeared in his book,
Forerunners Courageous. He revealed his writing skill and his ability to depict past events in a colorful way. He then resumed the
practice of law and served by appointment on such official committees as the Constitution Revision Commission, which pre
sented a new constitution to the voters and was rejected by them
in 1978, and the Commission on Post-Secondary Education,
which influenced the development of colleges and universities.
He also has frequently spoken out against capital punishment.
Wagy thus presents, in an attractive style, an appraisal of one of
Florida's leading political figures since World War II. The author also shows how the challenge of tremendous growth in
Florida and great social and economic change has brought about
many interesting and controversial political developments during the past fifty years.</P>
<P>University of Florida         MANNING J. DAUER</P>
<P>He-Coon: The Bob Sikes Story. Edited by Bobbye Sikes Wicke.
(Pensacola: Perdido Bay Press, 1984. x, 757 pp. Forword,
illustrations, index. $22.95.)
<PB N="192">
He-Coon, the autobiography of former Congressman Bob
Sikes, is an account of his "love affair" with his district, the
panhandle of Florida, and the people-his people-who live
there. His territory was 235 miles long, from the Aucilla River
between Monticello and Madison to the Alabama-Florida line
west of Pensacola. After congressional re-districting, Congressman Sikes represented only about one-half of the area, but
it was still a huge territory. Fifty years ago the panhandle country was considered the "State of West Florida" by most of its
inhabitants; many natives referred to it as "West By God
Florida." This beautiful, mostly undeveloped land of resourceful people was rather unique in its loyalty to a geographical and
cultural identity. They were overwhelmingly concerned with the
good opinions of their neighbors. In national politics they were
not ideological conformists. Much of this unique West Florida
character is still true today, and Bob Sikes, their most famous
citizen, proudly tells of his service to "his" people, first as state
representative from Okaloosa County in the Florida legislature
for two-terms, and then for thirty-eight consecutive years in the
Congress.</P>
<P>The language of He-Coon is folksy, interlaced with homilies
and candid observations. For example, Clarence Cannon, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, is described as
being "strongly opinionated, crusty, and tough, but very able."
Among the less generous critics of Cannon claimed, "He wasn't
as mean sometimes as he was usually."</P>
<P>The first section of He-Coon describes Sikes's life and activities before he went to Washington. It is most entertaining
and informative. Sikes narrates his memories of noted people
in Florida politics, and he also remembers hundreds of the notso-well-known citizens who voted for him year after year and
insisted that he remain as their representative in national government. He-Coon is a book not only for those who enjoy reading
about Florida politics, but also for many others, including
genealogists who will gather much information concerning the
many people who attended the reunions of the Williams,
Mashburn, Gainer, Gordon, Parker, and Watford families.</P>
<P>Congressman Sikes neglected no area of the panhandle in
his search for votes. He was a frequent visitor even to small
rural hamlets like Two Egg, he listened appreciatively to the
Gospel choirs, and he enjoyed most of all "pressing the flesh"
<PB N="193">
with voters at political rallies. This was the normal routine for
successful politicking in Florida a half century ago. It led Bob
Sikes to Tallahassee and then Congress in 1941 where he served
for thirty-eight years.</P>
<P>In the second part of his autobiography, Congressman Sikes
outlines some of the important services he performed for "his
people": promotion of defense installations ($750,000,000 in
federal expenditures in 1979, and employment of 50,000
people); legislation to promote rivers, ports, and harbors; farm
and forestry laws; and support of educational and welfare programs consistent with his political philosophy. There were also
thousands of personal errands and chores for individuals-the
sine qua non for re-election. His efforts were tireless and his
success, legendary.</P>
<P>We are introduced to dozens of world figures and hundreds
of other political personalities as the author covers important
national political events from 1941 through 1979. In 600 pages
of He-Coon historians and political scientists will find important
observations about political America. President Eisenhower's
illnesses, President Johnson's change of ideologies, and the
liberalizing of the congressional committee seniority rules are
some of the important events covered by Congressman Sikes.
Sikes also calls attention to his reprimand by the United
States House of Representatives; it was, he says, "The saddest
moment of my life." He emphasizes the double standards of
conflict of interest interpretations, and argues that he was
treated unfairly because of his political philosophy. He also includes information about other members of Congress-whose
misdeeds have often gone unpunished. He wonders, for example, how many citizens know on what payrolls, other than con
gressional, their congressman's name appear. It is a fact that
even after the reprimand, Sikes's constituents voted three to
one for him, but he voluntarily retired in 1979 and returned
home to Okaloosa County.</P>
<P>I served in Congress with Bob Sikes for fourteen years. He
was most gracious to me and aided me in the passage of many
pieces of legislation that benefitted all of the state of Florida.
Sikes was the dean of the Florida delegation; no member of
Congress that I knew worked more diligently or more successfully for his district than he. Congressman Sikes was and is the
<PB N="194">
He-Coon to the people of west Florida.</P>
<P>Gainesville, Florida       D. R. "BILLY" MATTHEWS</P>
<P>The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds. By Bruce Porter and
Marvin Dunn. (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1984. xvi,
207 pp. Preface, introduction, figures and tables, index, biographical note. $19.00.)</P>
<P>In May 1980, an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted five
Miami policemen of manslaughter charges in the death of Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance agent who had died as a result
of a beating in the wake of an alleged traffic violation. Within
hours after the verdict exonerating the white policemen, blacks
in Miami started a riot that lasted for three days. In this study
commissioned by the Ford Foundation, the authors have
sketched the background of the riot and examined in detail its
course and aftermath. Drawing on more than 250 interviews,
the authors have produced an exhaustive and often gripping
account of what occurred and how public officials, especially
police, responded.</P>
<P>Indeed, the book reads in part like a manual on riot control.
Significantly, the longest chapter is devoted to "The Police."
However, the study is no mere apologia for local police forces.
In explaining the immediate precipitants of the riot and its prolongation during three days, the authors assign responsibility to
the police and the criminal justice system. The McDuffie case
was the last in "a series of five highly sensitive cases [which]
reinforced the belief widely held among blacks that they could
never expect to get fair treatment from the criminal justice system of Dade County" (p. 27). So, too, the authors contend that
(in hindsight) Miami police missed opportunities to quell the
riot in its early stages.</P>
<P>Both the strengths and weaknesses of this inquiry probably
result from the authors' particular backgrounds. The engaging
narrative and eye for telling details undoubtedly reflect the expertise of Bruce Porter, a former editor of Newsweek, who is
currently a journalism professor. The clear grasp of the local
scene and the emphasis on black anger and resentment can be
attributed to Marvin Dunn, who teaches community psychology
<PB N="195">
in Miami. As an anatomy of a riot, the book achieves its purpose.</P>
<P>However, the authors have some difficulty putting the 1980
events in historical perspective. They argue that "the Miami riot
followed a dramatically different course from the disorders in
the 1960s" (p. 173). In contrast to the earlier disturbances which
were directed primarily at property, "What was shocking about
Miami was the intensity of the rage directed by blacks against
white people" (p, xiii). The authors are undoubtedly correct in
stressing this contrast with the 1960s but they go too far in
claiming that "to find a precedent for the random killing of
whites, one would have to reach back before the twentieth century to the Nat Turner-style slave rebellion before the Civil
War" (p. 173). Four pages later the authors contradict this statement by pointing to antiwhite violence in race riots after World
War I. In fact, the Detroit race riot of 1943 would provide an
even more recent example of a "communal riot," as Morris
Janowitz has termed a racial clash in which people rather than
property are the primary target. Moreover, in Miami, as in previous communal riots, whites were not the only victims, despite
the emphasis of Porter and Dunn. While black rioters murdered
eight whites in Miami, three blacks minding their own business
were shot to death by white motorists firing randomly. In addition, seven blacks were killed by authorities. The authors' con
sideration of the Miami violence and its relation to the past
would have profited from greater use of the extensive historical
and sociological literature on collective racial violence, and this
in turn would have strengthened what is an otherwise insightful
study of a single riot.</P>
<P>University of South Florida       ROBERT P. INGALLS</P>
<P>Modern Florida Government. By Anne E. Kelley. (Landham, MD:
University Press of America, 1983. xi, 395 pp. Preface, tables
and charts, notes, glossary, bibliography, appendix, index.
$36.75; $22.00 paper.)</P>
<P>Professor Kelley in the preface to her book notes that the
last study on Florida government suitable for a classroom text
was The Government and Administration of Florida by Wilson K.
<PB N="196">
Doyle, Angus M. Laird, and S. Sherman Weiss, published in
1954. Her objective was to provide a more up-to-date study. She
selected the ten-year period 1968 through 1978 "to identify and
to describe the governmental processess and institutions of modern Florida government." This may have been an unfortunate
choice of years since in mid-1985 the text in many ways conveys
a sense of staleness.</P>
<P>There have been many major changes in Florida in the years
since 1978: legislators have been chosen since 1982 from singlemember districts, negating the discussion of multi-member
selection; the Public Service Commission has not regulated common carriers since 1980; the sales tax went from four to five per
cent in 1982; and the homestead exemption was raised from
$5,000 to $25,000 in 1982.</P>
<P>By limiting her statistical data-salaries, political party ratios,
etc.-to the 1968-1978 period, Kelley may also be providing,
albeit inadvertently, students and other users with misleading
impressions. It is unwise to limit a classroom text to such a narrow period. Florida government simply does not stand still. For
example, the governor's salary is given, without date, as
$59,500; by January 1, 1986, the salary will be $78,700.</P>
<P>Some questions of fact mar an otherwise good discussion of
state government. For instance, the question of legalizing casino
gambling was on the ballot in 1978 by reason of popular initiative, and not as a result of proposed changes to the 1968 con
stitution as recommended by a revision commission. There is no
such thing as a pocket veto of legislative acts; any act held longer
than fifteen days by the governor becomes law without his signature.</P>
<P>Since 1980 the first reading of bills has been accomplished
by publication in the journals of the house and senate. The
special order calendar of the house controls the flow of bills to
the chamber for consideration from the first day of a session,
not the last thirty days. Fuller Warren was not the only governor
to have impeachment charges filed against him; Governor Harrison Reed (1868-1872) survived four attempts to oust him.
Wade Hopping was the Republican appointee to the Florida
Supreme Court who was unseated in the general election, not
Charles Holley. The Board of Administration seems confused
in this volume with the Department of Administration. There
are also some inconsistencies. On page 113, for instance, it is
<PB N="197">
stated that the legislature has "hundreds of professional staff."
The next paragraph speaks of "the lack of adequate research
staffs." On page 126, Florida Power and Light Company is confused with the Florida Power Corporation.</P>
<P>But, as Chief Justice B. K. Roberts would say, "half of something is better than all of nothing." That bit of philosophy, so
appropriate to the governmental process, applies to Modem
Florida Government. While the reader may disagree with various
statements, the fact remains that the book does provide useful
information and it stimulates thought. Closer editing and
clearer statement of time frame would improve the next edition.
Professor Kelley has travelled a considerable distance toward
her goal of closing the gap in texts since Doyle, et al., produced
their book in 1954.</P>
<P>Tallahassee, Florida            ALLEN MORRIS</P>
<P>Rails `Neath the Palms. By Robert W. Mann. (Burbank, CA: Darwin Publications, 1983. 220 pp. Acknowledgments, foreword,
maps, illustrations, index. $29.95.)</P>
<P>This is a handsome book. Printed on glossy paper with an
attractive four-color dust jacket, it will make a nice addition to
every railroad buff's collection. Scores of quite rare railroad
photographs are reproduced, and this reviewer had his visual
knowledge of Florida railroading much enhanced by the volume. Unfortunately, the text does little to enhance the book's
photographic excellence.</P>
<P>Varieties of people write railroad books: business analysts,
historians and economists of transportation, steam and diesel
power engineers, and train buffs-to name a few. Many combine a technical expertise with their love for railroading. The
Jacksonville-resident author of this book is an amateur historian-railroad buff, and in this lies both the strengths and weaknesses of the work. It exhibits a frustrating indifference to dates,
and historical inaccuracies abound. It is satisfing, however, as a
reflection and illustration of one man's love for the railroads of
his state.</P>
<P>Though the writing is often sparkling and romantic, at times
it reflects the tone of local boosterism or the puffery of the early
<PB N="198">
railroad brochures. The presence of a number of misspellings
suggests that the work was not subjected to rigorous proofing.
One also wonders if numbers of questionable statements reflect
poor proofing or want of careful dedication to verifiable fact. It
is hard to take seriously such wildly imaginative statements as
that the St. Johns Railroad spawned "feeder lines which eventually grew into the trunk lines of today" (p. 7). That was a pre
Civil War horse-drawn line early absorbed into Flagler's system,
but hardly "spawned" it!</P>
<P>Errors abound. Flagler would turn in his grave to learn that
his magnificent "Whitehall" was located in West Palm Beach (p.
21). Historians will doubt that during the Florida boom the
Jacksonville Terminal was the busiest "in the entire world" (p.
52). It stretches credulity to accept that the "Havana Special"
ever ran in twenty-four sections (p. 52). It is amusing to read
that Henry B. Plant sold his railroad system to the Atlantic Coast
Line in 1902, because he died in 1899 (p. 68). It is disquieting
to read that Tampa has stood on its bay for 400 years, "to rival
Jamestown and Plymouth" (p. 115).</P>
<P>Those familiar with the Atlantic, Suwannee River and Gulf
Railroad will be affronted at the claim that it was built by the
Seaboard to a terminus at "Bell on the Suwannee River" (p.
128). A similar geographical vagary has David L. Yulee's crossFlorida railroad running from Cedar Key to West Palm Beach
(p. 129). Another has the Live Oak, Perry, and Gulf interchanging cars at Perry with the Georgia Southern and Florida, near
which the rails of the G.S. & F. never came.</P>
<P>The wary reader with a critical eye may see in this book
broad general outlines of the development of several railroad
systems in Florida: the Florida East Coast, the Atlantic Coast
Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Southern, the Louisville and
Nashville, as well as the recent great mergers. Unfortunately,
many of the fascinating really short little lines are ignored, but
given the shortcomings noted, it may be just as well.</P>
<P>The credibility of this interesting book is seriously weakened
by a lack of documentation. The author thanks railroad people
and libraries for their help, but nowhere lists any bibliography.
Nor does he use any citations to buttress what appear to be
controversial interpretations or doubtful statements. Both general and expert readers will appreciate the excellent collection
<PB N="199">
of hard-to-find photographs, but neither should take the text
too seriously.</P>
<P>University of Florida       HERBERT J. DOHERTY, JR.</P>
<P>George Washington, A Biography By John R. Alden. (Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. ix, 219 pp.
Preface, illustrations, bibliographical essay, index. $19.95.)</P>
<P>The author of this one-volume life of George Washington
brings impressive qualifications to his task. During his career
Mr. Alden has produced four biographies of eighteenth-century
worthies and three major volumes on the American War for
Independence, two of them for distinguished series. This life of
Washington, a natural capstone to the arch, joins three other
single-volume biographies published in the past twenty-five
years (Cunliffe, Callaghan, and Jones), all with strengths and all
with deficiencies as well. These shorter treatments challenge the
large-scale biographies that began with John Marshall's five volumes in the first decade after Washington's death and most
recently are represented by two notable sets, the seven volumes
of Douglas Southall Freeman (1948-1957), and James T.
Flexner's four volumes (1965-1972).</P>
<P>Whether single- or multi-volume, biographies of Washington often leave readers with the uneasy feeling that the
man has not quite come through, that he has eluded every effort
to reveal his true inwardness. Washington himself must bear
some of the blame; though he wrote frequent letters and kept
a diary for part of his life, he carefully guarded his expression,
so carefully that he often sounds like a grave judge reading a
short paper at a public meeting. Getting at the man requires
interpretation, sometimes risky interpretation.</P>
<P>In his title the author does not tip his hand: George
Washington, a Biography, not "George Washington, the Indispensable Man" or "George Washington: Republican Aristocrat,"
or even "George Washington: Man and Monument." His 306
pages of text are roughly chronological, though not rigidly so.
In the first 102 pages he carries Washington through his first
forty-three years-youth, early military adventures, establishment as a planter, and his marriage. Then in approximately the
<PB N="200">
same space (107 pages) he takes him through eight years of war,
1775-1783. Finally, after the interlude at Mount Vernon, the
constitutional convention, and ratification, Alden describes in
sixty-seven pages Washington's eight years as first president of
the republic. This space allocation runs contrary to that of most
single-volume studies of important figures in which the years of
crowning achievement get a disproportionate number of pages,
sometimes nearly all. Thus Mr. Alden implicitly recognized that
Washington had two major public careers, one military and one
civilian, both demanding the fullest analysis possible within
space limitations. Readers may disagree with the author's decision to devote more space to Washington as the commander-in-
chief, than to his tenure as president. They can certainly not
cavil at the scholarship-the sources covered and the mass of
secondary literature cited in the critical bibliography are impressive. On this solid base Mr. Alden has built his narrative and
grounded his judgements. Though clearly an admirer of
Washington (chapter VIII, "The Magnate of Mount Vernon"
and chapter XVIII, "The Great Man" carry the burden of his
interpretation), Alden also points out his weaknesses, for example his ardent pursuit of rank (pp. 49-59) and his tendency to
shift blame from himself (p. 137). Alden has emphasized
Washington's human qualities by telling of his relish for salty
stories and by assuring us of his sexual potency. In brief Mr.
Alden has exercised his right as a biographer to conceive his
subject-after patient study of the enormous sources-and to
present him with every resource of his art.</P>
<P>Of course this procedure may open the window to subjectivity that some purists will insist contaminates scholarship's anti
septic air. But reflective readers know that historical works carry
a heavy freight of subjective elements, far more than the precepts of graduate method courses permit. Actually this subjec
tive matter becomes an integral part (sometimes the most important part) of a historian's work, for his most important insights
cannot be fully documented even in a book of large scope. Accordingly the burden on the historian's shoulders approaches
the limit; in a sense the scholar-the master who has exhausted
the sources and reflected deeply on their meaning-becomes
his own authority. But the responsibility he assumes is enormous. In George Washington, a Biography readers will find what
<PB N="201">
they properly expect: solid research, balanced judgements, and
careful expression.</P>
<P>University of Georgia          AUBREY C. LAND</P>
<P>The Papers of Henry Clay, Volume 8, Candidate, Compromiser, Whig,
March 5, 1829-December 31, 1836. Edited by Robert Seager
II. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1984. xii, 948
pp. Preface, symbols and abbreviations, calendar of unpublished letters, indexes. $40.00.)</P>
<P>Volume 8 of The Papers of Henry Clay begins as Clay was
preparing to leave Washington, following the inauguration of
Andrew Jackson. "Let us never despair of the American Republic," he advised a group of discouraged admirers at a farewell
dinner on March 7, 1829. Relieved of the arduous duties of the
office of secretary of state, he soon departed for the life of a
private citizen in Kentucky, His trip home buoyed his spirits. It
was "a kind of triumphant march," he wrote one correspondent.
"Stages, taverns, tollgates have been generally thrown open to
me, without charge; and I have literally had a free passage" (p.
19).</P>
<P>Clay professed that "retirement, unqualified retirement,
from all public employment, is what I unaffectedly desire" (p.
54). Yet he was inexorably drawn back to the national political
scene. He accepted election to the United States Senate from
the Kentucky legislature in 1831, and the presidential nomination of the National Republican party later that year. His
chances for victory against the popular incumbent-never
good-were completely dashed by the Antimasonic movement,
which prevented a united anti-Jackson electoral ticket in 1832.</P>
<P>During the nullification controversy Clay once again held
the center of the political stage, but his authorship of the Compromise Tariff of 1833 failed to boost his presidential chances.
Although he was the recognized leader of the congressional coalition against Jackson that adopted the Whig name in 1834, he
received little encouragement to run for the presidency in 1836,
nor did he seek the nomination. "It is repugnant to my feelings
and sense of propriety," he wrote a supporter, "to be voluntarily
placed in an attitude in which I would seem to be importuning
<PB N="202">
the public for an office which it is not willing to confer" (p. 783).
Despite his earlier counsel to his followers, Clay himself almost despaired of the republic on numerous occasions during
Jackson's presidency. "Blackguards, Bankrupts and Scoundrels,
Profligacy and Corruption are the order of the day," he
lamented in 1835 (p. 775). Private woes also plagued him. His
eldest son, Theodore, was committed to the Lunatic Asylum of
Kentucky, and his second son, Thomas Hart, drank excessively.
But the cruelest blow was the death of his favorite child and last
surviving daughter, Anne Clay Erwin, in 1835. "There are some
wounds," he wrote a friend, "which nothing can heal" (p. 8 13).</P>
<P>There are considerably fewer Clay documents for the eightyear period from 1829 to 1836 than for the years-1825 to
1829-when he served as secretary of state. Because editor
Robert Seager II has chosen to summarize most of the correspondence Clay received, as well as his senatorial speeches, a
project that once seemed destined to be extended into the
twenty-first century now appears likely to be concluded with
two additional volumes. On the whole, Seager has done a competent editorial job, but there are occasional slips. He states, for
example, that letters from Clay's youngest sons, James Brown
and John Morrison, dated January 11 and January 14, 1831,
respectively, were "erroneously addressed" to their father in
"Washington City" (pp. 3 19-2 1). Internal evidence, however, indicates that the letters were correctly addressed to Senator Clay
at the nation's capital, but that they should have been dated
1832 instead of 1831.</P>
<P>University of Houston-University Park    EDWIN A. MILES</P>
<P>No Chariot Let Down: Charleston's Free People of Color on the Eve of
the Civil War. Edited by Michael P. Johnson and James L.
Roark. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1984. xvi, 174 pp. Acknowledgments, abbreviations, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $16.95.)</P>
<P>The position of the free Negro in antebellum southern society was always tenuous, resting on infirm ground. Blacks,
whether slave of free, lived in a twilight zone under sharply
defined limits. They were perpetually threatened by the
<PB N="203">
prospect of kidnapping, court action, legislative enactments, and
societal actions which limited opportunities for employment,
travel, education, manumission, and the accumulation of property. At best, free blacks constituted an anomaly in the American
democratic social order which, over a period of time, excluded
them from active participation. At worse, free blacks lived in a
shadowy world suspended between slavery and freedom,
prompting historians to describe them as "denizens," rather
than citizens, "quasi-free," and slaves without masters.</P>
<P>Michael Johnson and James Roark explore this nebulous
world. Drawing on thirty-seven letters composed by free blacks
and hitherto unknown to historians, the editors provide refreshingly new perspectives and insights into the daily lives of South
Carolina's free black population. According to Johnson and
Roark, free blacks lived full social lives prior to the enslavement
crisis of 1859. They traveled freely inside and outside the state,
attended gala affairs, including lavish weddings, receptions, festivals, and revivals, supported indigenous marriages, became en
grossed in community gossip, constructed a network of community organizations and institutions geared to their needs, and
jealously guarded their privileges and status. In short, their lives
were strikingly similar to those of aristocratic whites whom they
sought to emulate.</P>
<P>In 1859, however, national, state, and local circumstances
conspired to threaten this tranquil world. John Brown's raid on
Harper's Ferry, the division of the Democratic party over slavery, and the opposition of up-country planters and white Charleston labor forces to the perceived privileged status of free
blacks forced the South Carolina legislature in 1859 to introduce
and consider some twenty bills which imposed further restrictions on free blacks, including enslavement and diminished em
ployment opportunities.</P>
<P>Free blacks in South Carolina, particularly Charleston, rallied to defend themselves in the new crisis. Drawing on a vast
network of support within the white and black communities,
aristocratic free blacks exploited their reserves and expertise to
defeat the opposition. Charleston blacks resisted bullies and
policemen, lobbied the mayor, legislators, and other white
friends, organized a petition campaign among aristocratic
whites to stave off efforts to enslave them and restrict employment opportunities, and considered such alternatives as
<PB N="204">
emigration to distant countries or migration to other states. Some free
blacks packed their possessions, sold their property, and left
South Carolina. Most, however, preferred to ride out the storm,
protect their property, and maintain the safety and security of
family ties. In the end, the election of Lincoln and the secession
crisis in the South forced whites to abandon attempts to enslave
free blacks. Many survived the Civil War and became leaders in
the new order of Reconstruction.</P>
<P>Johnson and Roark have made a distinctive contribution to
the historical literature on free blacks through the publication
of James Marsh Johnson's letters to his brother-in-law, Henry
Ellison. By employing copious footnotes to explain references
to persons, places, and events, the editors help to unravel relationships within the free black, slave, and white communities,
without which the letters would be unfathomable. Beyond these
considerations, however, their contribution remains small and
unoriginal. Overall, historians will welcome No Chariots Let Down
as valuable supplementary reading and as documentary sources
for additional research.</P>
<P>Florida A and M University    THEODORE HEMMINGWAY</P>
<P>A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary. Edited by
Gerald Schwartz. (Columbia: University of South Carolina
Press, 1984. x, 301 pp. Introduction, acknowledgments,
foreword, afterword, bibliography, index. $17.95.)</P>
<P>Esther Hill Hawks was an abolitionist, reformer, medical
doctor, and fortunately for later generations, a diarist. When
the Civil War erupted she and her husband, J. Milton Hawks,
were eager to play a role. He became a surgeon in a black regiment, and Esther put her hand to whatever was needed or
piqued her interest at the moment. She became a volunteer
assistant in a hospital, a freedmen's teacher, physician for
wounded black soldiers after the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts's
suicidal charge on Fort Wagner, an orphanage supervisor, temporary Freedmen's Bureau agent in Florida, and an indefatiga
ble socializer. From 1862 to 1866 she recorded much of what
she did and observed in South Carolina and Florida in three
diaries.
<PB N="205">
Hawks devoted more space to personal trivia than to more
significant events, was far better at description than analysis,
and occasionally her entries were written several weeks after the
described events occurred, yet her diaries are both interesting
and useful. They contain significant, if often biased and naive,
accounts of freedmen, black soldiers, white teacher-missionaries, inept Union forces, black education, southern whites,
and descriptions of living and travel conditions. She rarely
found anything positive to say about southern whites. The better
classes appear in her diary as arrogant and mean spirited. Poor
whites were stupid and pitiable. Florida Crackers, she wrote,
were "much less human than the negroes, more ignorant, dirty
and lifeless-many of them look as if they had already been
buried for months." She did not admire many of the Union
officers and freedmen's teachers she encountered either. She
dismissed one Union officer's wife with the comment: "to me
she looks irishy." Although her pen was frequently gall-dipped
when she characterized people, Hawks became almost rhapsodic
when describing southern scenery.</P>
<P>Hawks's intense curiosity made her an interesting diarist.
She seldom missed an opportunity to examine a new situation
or location. Her inquisitiveness led her to observe the execution
of three black soldiers, and to accompany some Union officers
to a flag of truce meeting with their Confederate counterparts
near Jacksonville in February 1865. At the latter meeting she
was displeased when the enemy officers shared a pleasant picnic
lunch, drank together until intoxicated, and parted with hearty
handshakes. During the return to Jacksonville Hawks was
seriouly injured when the drunken driver of the ambulance in
which she was riding hit a fallen tree at high speed.</P>
<P>Professor Gerald Schwartz has ably edited the Hawks's
diaries. His foreword, afterword, and footnotes add appreciably
to the reader's understanding of both Hawks and her writings.
The resulting book is a delightful and valuable addition to the
literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction.</P>
<P>Florida State University        JOE M. RICHARDSON
<PB N="206">
Last Train South: The Flight of the Confederate Government from
Richmond. By James C. Clark. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland &
Company, 1984. 164 pp. Preface, maps, illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index. $17.95, plus 1.50 for postage).</P>
<P>This book tells the tragic, desperate, and doomed story of
the flight by Jefferson Davis and his cabinet from Richmond,
Virginia, in April 1865. First by train, then by horseback, carriages, and wagons, the weary leaders and their escorts moved
south along an angled route. It is an account that has been
detailed before-by A. J. Hanna's Flight into Oblivion (1938)-
and more recently by Burke Davis in his The Long Surrender
(1985).</P>
<P>Clark's version is written in a style that wanders from the
scholarly to the journalistic and contains only 141 pages of text.
The narrative is smooth and reads easily, although battlefield
communications from General Robert E. Lee are inexplicably
quoted in their entirety. As the train labors slowly along, various
principals take their leave. At the start the passenger list is an
impressive one. Among the fugitives are Stephen R. Mallory,
secretary of the navy; John H. Reagan, postmaster general;
John C. Breckinridge, secretary of war; Judah P. Benjamin, secretary of state; George Davis, attorney general; and George
Trenholm, secretary of the treasury. Davis's wife, Varina Howell
Davis, had gone on ahead.</P>
<P>Clark is obviously not aiming at profundity. Nor does he
provide any startling interpretations or uncover any new evidence. Few manuscripts or contemporary newspapers are
utilized, but, even so, the writer makes good use of memoirs and
secondary sources. There are enough typographical errors to
cause concern and probably worry-see pp. 41, 42, 105 (where
three occur), and p. 106.</P>
<P>Some errors mar an otherwise sprightly treatment of
Florida's role. For example, Clark has Breckinridge escaping
down the St. Johns River. In fact, he was escaping up that mavrick stream. Admittedly, Florida was not densely populated in
1865, but the state's most settled area was in the north. It was
not true that "there was nothing in between" Pensacola and St.
Augustine except for "Tallahassee and some other scattered villages" (p. 106).
<PB N="207">
Despite such shortcomings, the book never loses its tight construction and holds the reader's interest. The capture of Davis
at Irwinville (misspelled on p. 95), Georgia, avoids melodrama
and is told with poignance. The author deals objectively with
Jefferson Davis and is to be commended for making it embarrassingly clear that he was totally out of touch with reality. He
never realized that the war was over. Somehow, the president
of the fallen Confederacy believed, the South would regroup
and sweep to triumphant victory on battlefields old and new.</P>
<P>Florida State University     WILLIAM WARREN ROGERS</P>
<P>The Booker T. Washington Papers, Volume 13: 1914-1915. Edited
by Louis R. Harlan and Raymond W. Smock. (Champaign:
University of Illinois Press, 1984. xxx, 461 pp. Introduction,
erratum, symbols and abbreviations, addenda, bibliography,
index. $32.50.)</P>
<P>Booker T. Washington's career ended November 14, 1915,
in Tuskegee, Alabama. He and his wife only barely made it
home from St. Luke's Hospital in New York before he died. He
had labored so diligently to prepare some of his race to establish
itself as an economic and cultural entity in southern life. By
1915 the world and the South were in the initial stages of revolutionary changes. The Negro was migrating away from the
farm and away from the South. His problems were now of new
sorts. He was rapidly shifting his economic and social bases.</P>
<P>Washington had actually little intimate understanding, or
perhaps sympathy, for many of the challenges facing the new
urban Negro. Nationally political alignments and sources of
power had shifted from the hospitable Republican occupancy of
the White House of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard
Taft to that of the Democrats and Woodrow Wilson.
Washington seems never to have formed an acquaintance, with
President Wilson, and the times were unpropitious for establishing an association with the nation caught up in the frenzy of
World War I.</P>
<P>Running throughout this final volume of papers is a distinct
note of changing times and the status of the Negro in American
society. Also, despite the fact that Booker T. Washington had
<PB N="208">
over the years formed strong liasons with powerful American
commercial and financial leaders, there was also a feeling in
1915 of the strong currents of change. Included in this volume
are letters from the old advisors such as Julius Rosenwald, Hollis
B. Frissell, Oswald Garrison Villard, Andrew Carnegie, James
Hardy Dillard, Seth Low, Emmet O'Neal, and many others.</P>
<P>These letters reflect the overweening conservatism of the era in
which Booker T. Washington had functioned so effectively. His
philosophy of helping the Negro to make economic and social
adjustments within the context of conservative and racist
America would have found him later at bitter odds with the
rising new urban black leadership.</P>
<P>The eulogistic editorials, special articles, and flood of letters
and telegrams following his death stand as a kind of durable
monument to a dedicated spokesman and laborer for his race.
In his waning months Booker T. Washington had failed to heed
the warnings about the condition of his health. Almost, it seems,
as a fatalistic drive, he allowed himself to become overworked
and exhausted when many of his friends urged him to rest and
seek expert medical care.</P>
<P>In the publication of this final volume a major portion of the
primary Washington record is now handsomely in hand. These
highly-professionally edited papers not only place Booker T.
Washington in the context of his times in the nation, and the
South, but they add a distinct dimension to American social
history. While Washington died without seeing any real reduction in the barbarity of lynching, the germ of criticism was viru
lent and it ultimately brought an end to this inhuman crime, but
not until the Emmet Till and Philadelphia tragedies had
shocked the American people.</P>
<P>Louis Harlan, Raymond W. Smock, and their associates kept
on schedule for fifteen years to see this project nobly concluded.
Surely Elizabeth Dulaney, a copy editor in the University of
Illinois Press, deserves a note of high commendation, as does
the press itself for the excellent format and publication of these
voluminous papers. This final volume reflects not only the closing years of a determined American, but likewise incipient
changes which in time were to reshape the currents of American
history.</P>
<P>University of Kentucky         THOMAS D. CLARK
<PB N="209">
The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forest. By
Thomas D. Clark. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press,
1984. xvi, 168 pp. Preface, bibliographical essay, index, illustrations. $20.00.)</P>
<P>For three decades Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky's noted historian, has been writing about the agrarian South and its lumber
industry. In his latest book, The Greening of the South, he surveys
in a short, concise, and statistically packed work the history of
timbering in the South and its impact on the land, economy,
and people of the region. While Clark tells the story of the
shameless waste, exploitation, and wanton destruction of the
vast virgin woodlands of the South, which left a legacy of millions of acres of scarred, denuded, eroded, and minerally de
pleted hillsides, the real thesis of his book is a heartening and
up-beat one. It is the story of the turn-around, rebuilding, and
changes in attitudes which re-greened the South. Thus, in essence, the book shows that man does not have to reap what he
has sown but can change his ways and atone for his sins.</P>
<P>There are many villains to blame for the wholesale destruction of the South's pristine forests-the small farmer, the backwoodsman, the railroads, the timber barons, the federal government, the merchants, the state legislatures, John Q. Public him
self, and even the woodland's wild razorbacks-but there are
also some heroes that Clark singles out. They include the Great
Southern Lumber Company of Bogalusa, Louisiana, which
practiced conservation when it was an unpopular thing to do;
George Vanderbilt's Biltmore forestry school, which privately
trained foresters from 1898-1913; the Mississippi Federation of
Women's Clubs, which promoted fire control, reclamation, and
reforestation when few else would; the federal Weeks and
Clarke-McNary laws which led to the repurchase of lands for
national forests; the establishment of Forest Experiment Stations in 1921 (one was at Starke, Florida); the Civilian Conserva
tion Corps, which during the Great Depression worked tirelessly
to reseed and restore thousands of acres of southern forests;
and finally, the individual scientists and foresters who brought
about changes in knowledge, practices, and products which
helped to bring about the `"new" South, the one which cares
about scientific management, reclamation, reforestation, and
conservation.
<PB N="210">
It was the scientists and professional foresters, who after
1920, brought about the revolutionary changes in paper manufacturing and forest cultivation which have resulted in vast
changes in the economic, social, and physical landscape of the
modern South. The South now supplies our nation two-thirds
of its paper stock. Nearly 4,000,000 jobs in the South are directly
related to the lumber industry and nearly 24,000,000 acres of
forests in the South are now owned by the federal government.
And while the South still loses thousands of acres of land each
year, primarily due to urban sprawl, it appears that the wanton
destruction of its forests has been arrested and the region will
remain green for many generations to come. This is the story
that Clark so ably tells.</P>
<P>The Greening of the South is the most recent addition to the
University Press of Kentucky's series "New Perspectives on the
South." It makes a good companion to Albert Cowdrey's This
Land, This South, An Environrnental History, which the press also
published. The Greening of the South includes an informative bibliographic essay and a good index. I recommend this to all who
relish southern history and who would be heartened to read an
up-beat story about the region.</P>
<P>University of Texas</P>
<P>LINDA VANCE</P>
<P>The New Deal and the South. Edited by James C. Cobb and Michael
V. Namorato. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1984.
x, 173 pp. Preface, introduction, notes, selected bibliography,
index. $15.00 cloth, $8.95 paper.)</P>
<P>The volume brings together the papers delivered at the
ninth annual Chancellor's Symposium on Southern History held
at the University of Mississippi, October 1983. The six papers
treat the impact of the New Deal on the South, attempting to
assess especially the degree to which the New Deal was a turning
point in southern history.</P>
<P>Frank Freidel in "The South and the New Deal" concludes
that important social changes had come to the region during the
thirties, but that the most important impact of the New Deal was
the way it had changed potential leaders of the future South,
such as Lyndon Johnson. Pete Daniel, in his examination of
<PB N="211">
southern agriculture, points to the cross purposes which sometimes developed among the twenty-seven different federal agencies regulating aspects of agriculture during the Roosevelt era.
In specific, statistical detail, he shows how tenants were hurt by
acreage reductions and notes that New Deal farm programs
generally reflected the biases of the particular administrators.
The overall impact of the New Deal was to speed the process of
mechanization and the concentration of land ownership,
thereby encouraging a decrease in sharecroppers who were thus
ready to gravitate to the defense industries of the 1940s.</P>
<P>In his chapter on the New Deal and labor, Wayne Flynt deals
especially with the growth of unions in Alabama industry and
concludes that the advance in union membership in New Deal
years strengthened civil liberties, race relations, and political
liberalism while it reduced wage differentials based on skill,
race, and region. There was no similar revolution brought to
internal southern politics by the New Deal according to Alan
Brinkley. Roosevelt did not try to prevent local control of programs. On the other hand, Roosevelt's ability to gain votes in
other regions shattered the South's grip on the Democratic party
and allowed the party to become more liberal, especially after
the removal of the two-thirds majority needed for a presidential
nomination.</P>
<P>Harvard Sitkoff's assessment of the impact of the New Deal
on blacks is similar to his presentation in his 1985 edited volume,
Fifty Years Later. Rather than berating the lack of gains for
blacks, Sitkoff praises the important ones which did occur.
Numan Bartley in the concluding essay focuses on the New
Deal's breakdown of the plantation system in the South, which
in turn shattered the paternal order of life, paving the way for
more individualism which underlay the later civil rights movement and the expanding role of women in southern society.</P>
<P>Collectively, these papers, while not strikingly novel, are well
honed and bring together in one volume incisive insights into
what was, if not a watershed, at least a seedbed for the modern
South.</P>
<P>Winthrop College          THOMAS S. MORGAN
<PB N="212">
Running Scared: Silver in Mississippi. By James W. Silver.
(Jackson: University Presses of Mississippi, 1984. xiii, 238 pp.
Preface, acknowledgments, afterword, appendixes, photographs, index. $14.95.)</P>
<P>Readers seeking information about Mississippi and the
South are apt to be disappointed in Running Scared: Silver in
Mississippi. The book lacks the purpose and force that made
Mississippi: The Closed Society such a powerful work. James W.
Silver, in the preface to Running Scared, explains that he wrote
the book "to help straighten me out on the life of Jim Silver in
Mississippi." Additionally, there was the fact that a retired history professor "cannot fish all of the time because of weather,
marina hours, and lessening interest." The result is a book that
adds rather little to the material and interpretation presented
in The Closed Society.</P>
<P>In another sense, however, Running Scared is quite fascinating. It is the kind of book I suspect a great many academicians
might like upon retirement to write, except for the fact that
little of general interest has ever happened to most of us. A lot
of interesting things happened to Silver, and he describes them
with admirable honesty and sometimes with wit. Arriving in Mississippi in 1936, Silver and Margaret "Dutch" Thompson Silver
liked Oxford and the University of Mississippi and "concluded
that we hoped to enjoy the good life in Mississippi for the rest
of our days" (p. x). Thereafter, Silver describes his evolution
from "Embryonic Mississippian" (1936-1941) to "Staid Professor" (1939-1945) to "Optimistic Moderate" (1945-1954) to
"Quiet Reformer" (1954-1959) to "Paper Radical" (1959-1965)
to "Proper Hoosier" (1964-1969, the years Silver taught at the
University of Notre Dame) to "Southerner Again" (1969- , the
period that he taught at the University of South Florida and has
lived in retirement in Florida).</P>
<P>During this odyssey, the Silvers became close friends to the
family of William Faulkner, and the historian writes with some
ambivalence about his personal relationship with the novelist.
Silver examines his growing hostility toward the Mississippi program of massive resistance to desegregation and explains the
events that led to his presidential address before the Southern
Historical Association in November 1963. Indeed Silver chose
the title Running Scared because "it most aptly describes my state
<PB N="213">
of mind until some moment in the Meredith crisis when I
stopped `running scared'" (p. xi). Little more than a year after
"the Meredith crisis" Silver delivered the paper that elevated
him to national prominence. "My entire life," he writes, "had
unquestionably been a preparation for my `Mississippi: The
Closed Society' speech in 1963" (p. 86). The following June
Silver's book-length study of the closed society appeared, and a
few months later the Silvers left Oxford for South Bend, never
to return permanently to "the good life in Mississippi."</P>
<P>Like Mississippi: The Closed Society, Running Scared is part narrative (141 pages) and part documents (eighty-seven pages).
Among the documents is the "Correspondence related to James
Silver and the Board of Trustees," most of which was exchanged
during the period between the "Closed Society" speech and the
book. It was during these months when Silver suffered from
health problems and official Mississippi harassment that, he
writes, "I have never felt so alone in my life . . ." (p. 98). Running
Scared is a memoir by a leading American historian and an eminently decent person.</P>
<P>University of Georgia         NUMAN V. BARTLEY</P>
<P>Ambivalent Legacy: A Legal History of the South. Edited by David J.
Bodenhamer and James W. Ely, Jr. (Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi, 1984. Preface, tables, bibliography, index.
$20.00; $8.95 paper.)</P>
<P>For all the scholarly attention that has been directed at the
American South, there is a dearth of published work on the
legal history of the region. Ambivalent Legacy: A Legal History of
the South, a volume comprised of eleven essays, represents an
attempt to redress this scholarly neglect.</P>
<P>This collection is drawn from papers presented in 1983 at a
conference on southern legal history in Gulfport, Mississippi.
The volume is divided into four sections: the first offers introductory pieces on southern law, one by the editors, David
Bodenhamer and James Ely, and one by the keynote speaker at
the conference, Lawrence Friedman. The second contains papers on law and the southern economy, the third presents essays
on law and race relations, and the fourth includes papers on
southern courts, lawyers, and judges.
<PB N="213">
Ambivalent Legacy gets off to a good start. The editors' essay
maintains that the South possesses a "distinctive heritage in matters of law and society, but it has nonetheless remained part of
the larger Union." This paradox gives rise to the volume's title.
The editors point to several features of the southern legal tradition that they see as unique, including the frequently discussed
subjects of race and violence and less well-known topics involving the judicial and economic systems. Friedman's essay points
out how little is really known about southern legal history. He
also challenges scholars to perform the painstaking research
which will illuminate what is unique in the southern legal tradition or where southern law "converges" with that of American
law generally.</P>
<P>Several of the essays in the volume reflect the kind of careful
research called for in the introductory section. Three examples
will suffice. Peter Hoffer's essay examines the record of criminal
proceedings in the tidewater area of colonial Virginia. He finds
that the apparent high rate of crime was more attributable to
the fears of the citizenry than to a particularly heinous criminal
class. His analysis presents a fine example of the importance of
getting behind quantitative data rather than simply believing
the numbers.</P>
<P>The best quantitative essay in the volume is also the one with
the most scope: Kermit Hall's paper on the impact of elections
on southern appellate courts between 1832 and 1920. Based on
career-line studies of hundreds of judges, Hall concludes that
the southern elected judiciary, in contrast to elected judges in
other parts of the country, was superior in quality but more
parochial and less accountable to constituents.</P>
<P>Mark Tushnet's essay on the strategy of the NAACP's legal
staff between 1925 and 1950, while not entirely persuasive, is
nonetheless provocative. The essay illustrates that the choices
the organization made to fight for integration were not popular
with all black intellectuals and suggests that social justice for
blacks might better have been achieved by working for the improvement of conditions within segregated black communities
than by confronting the massive white resistance that the
NAACP's integrationist stance provoked.</P>
<P>As is usually the case with a collection of scholarly papers,
the overall quality is uneven. Yet, any weaknesses in Ambivalent
Legacy are more than compensated for by exhaustive footnotes
<PB N="215">
and a selected bibliography of the best literature on southern
legal history.</P>
<P>Clemson University          JOHN W. JOHNSON</P>
<P>Swamp Water and Wiregrass: Historical Sketches of Coastal Georgia.
By George A. Rogers and R. Frank Saunders, Jr. (Macon:
Mercer University Press, 1984. ix, 253 pp. Introduction, illustrations, bibliography, index. $19.95.)</P>
<P>Like all collections of essays, the quality and interest of these
sketches varies considerably. Some consist of fairly well known
material while others are about little known happenings.</P>
<P>Both authors have been members of the history department
of Georgia Southern College at Statesboro, Georgia, and have
worked on the history of this part of Georgia for some years.
Most of the sketches are about Liberty County, a special interest
of the authors. Thus the subtitle seems misleading in implying
that a larger area is included.</P>
<P>After an introduction that sets the physical and social environment, there are thirteen sketches, eight of which have been
previously published or read at historical meetings. The sketch
on the genesis of the Midway settlement and the one on the
Reverend Charles C. Jones and Bishop Stephen Elliott are about
fairly well known matters. The sketches about the Civil War in
Liberty County, Camp Lawton at Millen, and the experiences of
Benjamin Wright as a prisoner of war at Camp Chase near Calumbus, Ohio, are standard treatments that do not come up with
any startling new information or interpretations but which
document specific incidents that should be useful to historians.</P>
<P>The sketches of Negro education and religion in post-Civil
War Liberty County tell of not-so-well known happenings, often
bizarre to the modern mind, that will be of special interest to
the social historian and the historian of black life. One of the
most interesting sketches describes the cavalry militia units and
the ring tournaments or cavalry tilts, held in this area from 1830
to at least 1900. But this sketch wanders far afield from coastal
Georgia. The sketch on Henry Ford's activities at Richmond
Hill, Georgia, from 1925 to 1947 is enlightening and interesting.
The authors claim that Ford did much to help a people sunk in
<PB N="216">
poverty, despair, and disease. The book ends with a short historical sketch on the Altamaha River and Darien, the only town on
that river's banks.</P>
<P>To this reviewer, the most interesting and in many ways the
best sketch is that on agriculture in nineteenth-century Liberty
County. It contains detail on post-Civil War agriculture proving
that often the county did not fit the "standard" pattern of farming in that period for coastal Georgia. More such local studies
are needed to reassess the accepted views of this topic.</P>
<P>Generally the sketches are clearly written, footnotes are
adequate, and there is an extensive bibliography although containing a few strange errors. Often the introductions to the
sketches are lengthy, in one case taking up about half of the
sketch. There are conclusions also to tie the sketches to current
historical ideas. This old-fashioned reviewer would have preferred shorter introductions and conclusions and more narrative
describing what actually happened in the area. Those interested
in Liberty County or coastal Georgia will find these sketches
interesting and informative.</P>
<P>University of Georgia         KENNETH COLEMAN
<PB N="217"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:8" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>BOOK NOTES</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>BOOK NOTES</HEAD>
<P>The Steamboat Era in Florida is a collection of papers presented
at Florida's Second Maritime Heritage Conference held at Silver
Springs, March 24, 1984. The papers were edited by Edward A.
Mueller and Barbara A. Purdy. William H. Ewen notes in the
first essay that the steamboat era began in the United States in
1807 with Robert Fulton's North River (known also as the Clermont). Steamboating began in Florida in the 1830s and con
tinued up to about 1920. Steamboats played an important role
in the growth and development of Florida. They helped to open
up the state for settlement. Steamboats brought in goods from
the North and carried out Florida products. They also transferred settlers and tourists, including a number of world famous
celebrities. Contributing essays to this volume are J. Revell Carr,
Joseph Gutierrez, George E. Buker, Peggy Bulger, Hibbard Casselberry, Jr., James W. Covington, Alfred Robson, Edward A.
Mueller, Patricia R. Wickman, John J. LoCastro, Howard B.
Tower, Jr., Robert Holcombe, Hampton Dunn, and Herbert J.
Doherty, Jr. There are illustrations from the Florida State Archives and many private collections. The price is $15.00. Order
from Barbara A. Purdy, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, or from Edward A. Muel
ler, 4734 Empire Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32207.</P>
<P>Florida's Pinellas Pennisula, by June Hurley Young, is a pictorial history of the Gulf coast of Florida from St. Petersburg
north to Tarpon Springs. Included are the histories of Gulf
Port, South Pasadena, the Gulf beaches, Kenneth City, Pinellas
Park, Seminole, Belleair Bluffs, Belleair, Largo, Clearwater,
Dunedin, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar, and Palm Harbor. The earliest recorded history of the area dates to the voyages of the
Spanish explorers: Ponce de Le_n, Narvaez, De Soto, Father
Luis Cancer, and Men_ndez. Many of the fascinating characters
who have visited the area and influenced its history are described by Mrs. Young. They include Colonel George Mercer
Brooke, who established the fort on the Hillsborough River;
Odet Phillipe, the first permanent settler of Pinellas Peninsula;
<PB N="218">
Hamilton Disston, who purchased 4,000,000 acres of Florida
land from the state; Peter Demens, who owned the Orange Belt
Railway and who named St. Petersburg for his native city in
Russia; Henry B. Plant, the railroad and hotel magnate; Luis
Pappas, patriarch of the famous restaurant family; Hanson P.
D. Safford, former governor of Arizona, who promoted Tarpon
Springs as a spa and winter resort; and Walter T. Fuller, real
estate developer and local historian. The volume includes many
pictures, some of which are being printed for the first time.
Florida's Pinellas Peninsula was published by Byron Kennedy and
Company, Box 10937, St. Petersburg, FL 33733, and it sells for
$29.95.</P>
<P>Beginning May 16, 1981, Howard Kleinberg, editor of the
Miami News, began publishing a weekly series on Miami and
Dade County history. His primary source was the Miami Metropolis which is older than the city itself, and is the predecessor
of the News. Kleinberg also utilized the excellent photographic
archives and manuscripts in the Historical Association of Southern Florida, the Metro-Miami Public Library, and the Black Archives Foundation. Another valuable source was the papers of
early Miami pioneers, and he talked to many old-timers. More
than 200 pieces have appeared in the News. Seventy-seven of
these have been assembled into a handsome volume titled
Miami, The Way We Were. People, places, and events are the
subject of Mr. Kleinberg's stories, which trace the history of
Miami from its earliest beginings (decades before Jamestown) to
the post World War II era. Miami, The Way We Were was published by the Miami Daily News, and the price is $18.95.</P>
<P>Dr. Charles T. Thrift, Jr., former president of Florida
Southern University and the Florida Historical Society, died
May 5, 1984 (see obituary, Florida Historical Quarterly, October
1984, 245-46). Earlier that day he had attended the Annual
Conference of the Florida Methodist Episcopal Church in
Bramscomb Auditorium on his campus. In 1984, the Methodist
Church was celebrating the bicentennial of its founding. In observance of that anniversary and in memory of Dr. Thrift this
collection of Essays on the History of Methodism was republished.
In addition to the essays by Dr. Thrift, there are also several
tributes to him. The book may be ordered from the United
Methodist Church office, Box 1747, Lakeland, FL 32802; the
price is $3.50.
<PB N="219">
Dust Tracks on a Road, by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1942. It has been reprinted by the University of Illinois
Press with an introduction by Robert E. Hemenway, author of
the definitive biography of Hurston. Dust Tracks is described by
Hemenway as "one of the most peculiar autobiographies in
Afro-American literary history"; it adds to the mystery surrounding Miss Hurston, the noted black anthropologist,
folklorist, and novelist, who was born in Eatonville, Florida.
Hemenway establishes her birthdate as January 7, 1891, rather
than the other dates-1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903,
1910-which Hurston herself cited in various public documents.
Her autobiography omits mention of her second marriage, refuses to name her first husband, and avoids placing personal
events within a historical framework. The paradox of the public
and private Zora Neale Hurston remains and much mystery
about her continues. Nonetheless she had a major impact on
American writers, black and white, and her narrative style never
disappoints. It is rich and expressive. Included in this edition of
Dust Tracks are three previously unpublished chapters, which
were part of the original manuscript given to Yale University.
One, "My People, My People!" appeared as chapter twelve in
the published book, but in a much revised form from the original. Also, "The Inside Light-Being a Salute to Friendship,"
differs from the published version. The chapter, "Seeing the
World as It Is," contained very controversial statements about
race and American politics. It was obviously written before Pearl
Harbor, and the publisher forced a rewrite. The paperback edition of Dust Tracks on a Road sells for $8.95.</P>
<P>Let Us Alone, by William R. Ervin, is a brief history of Florida
with emphasis on the Indians of the area from prehistoric times
to about 1940. The black and white illustrations are by
Stephanie Kaye Ervin. Let Us Alone sells for $12.95. Order from
W & S Ervin Publishing, Box 1267, Port Orange, FL 32029.</P>
<P>The Seminole War, Prelude to Victory 1828-1838 is also by William R. Ervin. This short monograph covers the history of Indian-white relations in Florida prior to the Second Seminole
War through the first three years of that conflict. Included are
maps showing the location of forts along the Gulf and east
Florida coasts. Order from W & S Ervin Publishing; the price is
$3.95.
<PB N="220">
Libby Prison was the notorious Confederate internment
center at Richmond, Virginia. Thousands of Union soldiers and
officers were incarcerated there. One was Lieutenant Colonel
Frederic Fern_ndez Cavada. He was born in Cuba of a Spanish
father and an American mother, and was educated in Philadelphia. He distinguished himself in the Civil War, and later be
came a martyr in the Cuban struggle for independence. He was
a civil engineer and topographer by training, but he was also a
talented painter. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the
Union Army; later he was major general during Cuba's War of
Independence (1868-1878). He was commander in chief of all
Cuban forces when he was captured and executed by Spanish
troops. During the American Civil War Cavada was captured at
the Battle of Gettysburg and was placed in Libby Prison. There
he kept a diary, actually notes on margins of newspapers and
on other scraps of paper which were smuggled out when he was
paroled in 1864. This diary, Libby Life, was published in 1864,
and Cavada directed that the proceeds should go to the widows
and orphans of his fellow prisoners. After the war he was appointed by Secretary of State Seward, as United States Consul
at Trinidad de Cuba. It was there that he became involved in
the Cuban independence movement. Libby Life has been reprinted by University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland. It
includes a valuable interpretative essay by Joseph John Jova,
president of Meridian House International and former American Ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Jova is the great
grandnephew of the author. He provides important information on Cavada's life and career after the Civil War and his
activities in Cuba. The volume sells for $12.50.</P>
<P>University of Alabama Press has republished the Pulitzer
Prize winner (1933) The Store by T. S. Stribling in its Library of
Alabama Classics Series. Stribling's other two volumes in the
trilogy - The Forge and Unfinished Cathedral - are also being reissued by the University of Alabama Press. The Store includes an
introduction by Randy K. Cross. The paperback edition sells for
$12.95. Also reprinted by the University of Alabama Press is
Carl Carmer's Stars Fell on Alabama, which was first published in
1934. This new paperback edition is in the Library of Alabama
Classics. It includes an introduction by J. Wayne Flynt, and the
price is $12.95.
<PB N="221">
Native Carolinians, The Indians of North Carolina, by Theda
Perdue, examines the history of the state's Native Americans,
past and present. There is evidence that Paleo Indians were in
North Carolina, living in the Piedmont and perhaps in the
mountains, thousands of years ago. There is no evidence of
permanent houses or villages, burial sites, pottery or agriculture.
There are relics of the Archaic peoples, including large
soapstone bowls and weapons. Agriculture appeared about 1000
B.C. and native peoples began living near streams where they
could grow food products. These were the Woodland Indians,
who built permanent homes and made pottery. The Woodland
tradition was alive at the time of European contact in the sixteenth century. The other cultural tradition in North Carolina
at the time of European exploration and colonization, as Dr.
Perdue points out, was the Mississippian. These people moved
into the Piedmont from the Mississippi area. Perdue's pamphlet
includes chapters on the Indian way of life, Indian-White relations, and the history of the state's two major tribes, the
Cherokees and Lumbees. Native Carolinians was published by
the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division
of Archives and History. It serves as an excellent teaching tool.
The price is $3.00, plus $1.00 for postage.</P>
<P>A Guide to Cherokee Documents in Foreign Archives, by William
L. Anderson and James A. Lewis, lists source documents in
Canadian, French, British, Mexican, and Spanish Archives.
Many of these documents relate to Florida. Particularly rich in
Florida items are the public records in Great Britain and the
collections in Spain, particularly the Archivo General de Indias
in Seville. In addition to listing sources which directly mention
the Cherokees, the Guide also lists materials that refer to
Cherokee territory and to all southern Indians. Documents are
cited in their historical context; if the letter contains attachments
or is itself an attachment, this fact is noted. Other pertinent data
is also included with each entry: date, geographic origin, type
of document if something other than a letter, and the sender
and the recipient. A Guide to Cherokee Documents in Foreign Archives was published by Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, NJ
and it sells for $37.50.
<PB N="222">
The largest private medical center in the South is Ochsner's
in New Orleans. Established in 1942 by Alton Ochsner and four
Tulane University medical professors, it is now world famous
for its research and medical care. A few frame structures and
an old army hospital were the first facilities. Now Ochsner has
a major complex of buildings, and has treated almost 750,000
patients. There have been many trials and tribulations over the
years. Once it was even threatened with bankruptcy. Both the
problems and the successes are described in detail in Ochsner's:
An Informal History of the South's Largest Private Medical Center by
John Wilds. Published by the Louisiana State University Press,
it sells for $22.50.</P>
<P>Black Progress: Reality or Illusion?, edited by Carol Collins, is
a collection of editorials written between 1979 and 1985. They
are excerpted from major American newspapers, including
many Florida papers. It is organized into sections covering education, economic status, civil rights, and politics. Riots erupted
in Miami on May 17, 1980, after an all-white jury in Tampa had
acquitted four former Dade County police officers who were
charged in the fatal beating of a black insurance executive from
Miami. These riots were the subject of stories and editorials
carried in newspapers in America and throughout the world.
Editorials from the Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg Times, and
other major newspapers are included in this volume. Published
by Facts on File, Inc., New York, Black Progress sells for $22.50.
<PB N="223"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:9" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>HISTORY NEWS</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>HISTORY NEWS</HEAD>
<P>Florida History Fair
Final competition for the fourth annual Florida History Fair
was May 2-3, 1985, at the Florida Historical Society's annual
meeting in Tallahassee. Eight winners from county history/social
science fairs participated in the state contest. The first prize
winner was Adri Spain of Washington High School, Pensacola.
Her project was "Poverty to Power," and her teacher was Karen
Moore. Leigh Eubanks, of Ferry Past Middle School, Pensacola,
was runner-up. His project was "Simon de Monteford: English
Baronial Reform," and his teacher was Marietta Clark. Michael
Faughn, of Bellevue Middle School, Leon County, was the third
winner with his project, "Triumph at Natural Bridge." His
teacher was Janice Inzer. Other winners included Steve Carlin,
Mainland High School, Daytona Beach (Susan Preston, teacher);
David McGrath, Sugarmill Elementary School, Daytona Beach
(Barbara Shaffer and Charles Bradford, teachers); Lisa Stevenson, Griffin Middle School, Leon County (Debra Rice, teacher);
Michelle Enfinger, Rocklake Middle School, Seminole County
(Carol Elliott and John Rafferty, teachers); and Holly Howard,
Pinemeadows Elementary School, Escambia County (Marion
Woods, teacher). Olive Peterson, Owen North, Chris LaRoche,
and Gerald McSwiggan served as judges for the Florida History
Fair Competition.</P>
<P>Adri Spain, Leigh Eubanks, and Michael Faughn entered
their projects in the National History Fair in Washington, D. C.,
from June 11-14. All their projects received "superior ratings"
at the national level.</P>
<P>The Florida History Fair was sponsored by the Florida Historical Society with generous support from Gerald McSwiggan.
Dr. Paul S. George, University of Miami, served as chairman of
the Florida History Fair.</P>
<P>Announcements and Activities</P>
<P>The eleventh Gulf Coast History and Humanities Conference will be held in Pensacola, Florida, March 6-8, 1986. The
theme of the 1986 Conference is "Civil War and Reconstruction
<PB N="224">
on the Gulf Coast." The proceedings of this conference will be
published. For information, contact Dr. Grace Earnest, Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola, FL 32504.</P>
<P>The Robert Manning Strozier Library, Florida State University, Tallahassee, has acquired the official and personal papers,
documents, photographs, recordings, books, and memorabilia
of Claude Pepper. It also includes the papers, memorabilia, and
paintings of Mildred Irene Webster Pepper, the congressman's
late wife. The papers cover Pepper's politically active life from
his years as Florida legislator in the late 1920s as United States
Senator during the 1930s and 1940s to his career as Congressman from the 1960s to the present. They also include cor
respondence and speeches relating to senior citizens, his major
topic of concern. The papers of Claude and Mildred Pepper,
currently over 475 cubic feet, are in the Mildred and Claude
Pepper Library in Dodd Hall. The collection is open for research purposes.</P>
<P>The Bureau of Florida Folklife has received a grant from
the National Endowment for the Arts to support a comprehensive folk arts survey of the Metro-Dade County area. The project
is co-sponsored by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida
and the Metro-Dade Council of Arts and Sciences. Professional
folklorists will identify and document the Miami area's traditional arts and folk artists who are associated with significant
ethnic population groups: Cuban, Haitian, Jamaican, Yiddish,
Greek, Polish, Conch, Chinese, and Mexican. The results of the
survey will be presented at a folk arts exhibition at the Historical
Museum of Southern Florida, Miami (March 22-23, 1986) and
at the annual Florida Folk Festival at White Springs (May 24-26,
1986). For information on the project, contact the Florida
Folklife Programs, Box 265, White Springs, FL 32096.</P>
<P>A conference, entitled the "Sunbelt: A Region and Regionalism in the Making?" will be held in downtown Miami at
the University of Miami's Knight Conference Center, November
4-8, 1985. This is the first national multidisciplinary research
conference dealing with all aspects of the Sunbelt region. Leading scholars from the social sciences and humanities will present
papers and lead discussions dealing with the region's
<PB N="225">
significance in contemporary America. They will also try to set research agendas for disciplinary and multidisciplinary study in
the 1980s and the 1990s. For information on the conference
contact Dr. Stanley Brunn, Chairman of the Department of
Geography, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506.</P>
<P>The Historical Museum of Southern Florida is sponsoring
two special exhibits this fall. One, "Powder Horns in the Southern Tradition," cosponsored with the Museum of Florida His
tory, Tallahassee, will be on display through October 31, 1985.
The other exhibit, "Wings Over Miami," emphasizes the role
that Miami and South Florida has played in the history of aviation from 1911, the date of the first local flight, to 1940 when
the Miami area became recognized as a major center for international aviation. The exhibit will open November 8, 1985, and
continue through February 13, 1986. Through the generosity
of the Knight Foundation, the Historical Association is also reprinting The Commodore's Story by Ralph Middleton Munroe and
Vincent Gilpin, and They All Called It Tropical by Charles M.
Brookfield and Oliver Griswold.</P>
<P>"Winter Park Documentary," a special photographic exhibition, will be showing from November 15 through December 20,
1985, at Crealde School of Art in Winter Park. It is a result of
a photographic survey directed by Peter Schreyer, Crealde faculty member and program coordinator. Some seventy-five black
and white photographs of the history of Winter Park are included in the documentary which will be part of a travelling
museum to other Florida cities. For information, call (305) 6711886.</P>
<P>The Florida Genealogical Society will hold its ninth annual
conference at the Holiday Inn Northeast in Tampa on
November 8-9, 1985. For information on the conference, contact Dorothy Gardat, 22502 North Glen Avenue, Tampa, FL
33607. The Society is also planning a series of volumes on
Hillsborough County cemeteries. The first volume will list
names "A through F." For information on the publication, contact the Society, Box 18624, Tampa, FL 33679.
<PB N="226">
A genealogical survey seminar is being presented by the
Everton Publishers, November 2, 1985, at the Orange Park
Lions Club, 324 Stowe Avenue, Orange Park, Florida. For information, contact Mrs. Iris Siques, Branch Genealogical Library,
Box 943, Orange Park, FL 32073 (904) 272-1150 or 781-5985.</P>
<P>In July 1985 the Dade Heritage Trust announced the recipients of its annual Preservation Awards in the areas of restora
tion, preservation, and distinguished service. Awards for restoration of historic structures were given to the Magic City Resto
ration Company for the restoration of the Warner Place in
Miami; Les Beilinson, architect, for his efforts on the Flagler
House facade in Miami; Thomas Henry for Anderson's Corner
in the Redlands; and Mr. and Mrs. Huber R. Parsons, Jr., for
the restoration of their Coral Gables home. Winners of awards
for outstanding preservation programs were the city of Miami
for its adaptive reuse of historic Fire Station No. 4; Borrelli &
Associates for their feasibility study of the redevelopment of the
Gusman Cultural Center/Olympia Building; and Borrelli, Frankel, Blitstein Architects for the rehabilitation of the old Miami
Beach City Hall. Receiving an award for distinguished service
to the field of preservation was Les Beilinson, member of the
Board of Trustees for Dade Heritage Trust. The Trust is a
non-profit Florida corporation dedicated to the preservation,
restoration, and use of historic properties in Dade County.</P>
<P>The Kentucky Historical Society has presented its Richard
H. Collins Award for 1985 to Professor Frank F. Mathias, University of Dayton, and William J. Marshall, University of Ken
tucky Library. The award recognizes outstanding research and
writing. The winning essays were published in 1984 in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.</P>
<P>Ronald Hase, under a grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts, is conducting research on Florida Cracker architecture. He is seeking information on older properties (construc
tion dates from the Civil War to World War I) in North Florida
and the Panhandle-farm houses, plantation homes, townhouses, industrial buildings, and commercial and resort structures. Contact Mr. Hase at 607 S.W. 27 Street, Gainesville, FL
32607.
<PB N="227">
Dave Kingman, 608 May Flower Avenue, Fort Walton
Beach, FL 32548 is seeking information about current Florida
aviation museums and aircraft displays. This data will be published in the Florida Aviation Historical Society Newsletter.
<PB N="228"></P></DIV1>
<DIV1 PDF="/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0064_002/64no2.pdf" NODE="fhq_64_2:10" TYPE="article"><BIBL><TITLE>ANNUAL MEETING</TITLE></BIBL>
<HEAD>ANNUAL MEETING</HEAD>
<P>EIGHTY-THIRD MEETING
PROCEEDINGS OF THE EIGHTY-THIRD
MEETING OF THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
AND
FLORIDA HISTORICAL CONFEDERATON
WORKSHOPS
1985</P>
<P>PROGRAM</P>
<P>Thursday, May 2
FLORIDA HISTORICAL CONFEDERATION
Registration:
Capitol Complex, Tallahassee, Florida</P>
<P>Morning Sessions</P>
<P>SOURCES AND RESOURCES</P>
<P>Photographs: Dr. Linda Mainville, Florida Photographic
Collection</P>
<P>Collections: Dennis Pullen, Museum of Florida History
Paper: Isabel Kirkwood, Paper Conservation Laboratory
Metal/Wood: Herbert Bump, Bureau of Archaeological Research</P>
<P>Evening Sessions
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS</P>
<P>Friday, May 3</P>
<P>FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: REGISTRATION
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY SESSIONS
Session I: Postwar Florida Politics, 1945-1963
Chair: Peter Klingman, Daytona Beach Community College
<PB N="229">
Session II: Florida Blacks in the 1860s, The Lot of the Soldiers
Chair: John Scafidi, Florida State Archives</P>
<P>Session III: Film and Video as Means of Communicating Florida's
Past</P>
<P>Chair: Paul S. George, University of Miami</P>
<P>Evening Program</P>
<P>FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BANQUET
Presiding: Randy Nimnicht, president
Florida Historical Society</P>
<P>The Honorable George Firestone, Secretary of State
Presentations of Awards</P>
<P>Florida History Fair Awards
Presented by Paul S. George</P>
<P>Arthur T. Thompson Memorial Award in Florida History
Presented by J. Leitch Wright, Jr. to Daniel L. Schafer</P>
<P>Rembert W. Patrick Book Prize
Presented by Herbert J. Doherty, Jr. to Donald C. Curl</P>
<P>Charlton W. Tebeau Junior Book Prize
Presented by Charlton W. Tebeau to Scott O'Dell</P>
<P>Florida Historical Confederation State Merit Award
Presented by Patricia Bartlett</P>
<P>Saturday, May 4</P>
<P>FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING</P>
<P>Session IV: Spaniards and Indians: The Past as
Revealed at the San Luis Site
Chair: Janet Snyder Matthews, Sarasota
Presentors: Gary Shapiro and John Hann
Bureau of Archaeological Research
Division of Archives, History and
Records Management</P>
<P>Commentator: Amy Bushnell, Historic St. Augustine
Preservation Board
<PB N="230">
FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY</P>
<P>MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING
May 2, 1985</P>
<P>The annual meeting of the board of directors of the Florida
Historical Society was called to order at 7:30 p.m., May 2, 1985,
at the Brokow-McDougal House, Tallahasee, Florida, by President Randy F. Nimnicht. Present were: Lucius F. Ellsworth,
president-elect; Paul S. George, vice-president; Linda K. Williams, recording secretary; Gary R. Mormino, executive director; and directors Alva L. Jones, Marcia J. Kanner, Mary C.
Linehan, Gerald W. McSwiggan, L. Ross Morrell, Owen North,
George F. Pearce, Daniel L. Schafer, Michael Slicker, William
M. Straight, and Kyle S. VanLandingham. Also attending were
Dr. Thomas Greenhaw, editor of the Florida Historical Newsletter,
and Hayes Kennedy, chairman of the finance committee, Dr.
Samuel Proctor, Richard Brooke, Jr., Hampton Dunn, Bettye
D. Smith, and Dr. Larry E. Rivers were absent.</P>
<P>The minutes of the December 1984 board meeting in
Tampa, as printed in the Florida Historical Quarterly, LXIII
(April 1985), were amended to read that the confederation and
newsletter committees will be appointed at this meeting. Approved.</P>
<P>Gary Mormino, executive director, presented his annual report. He offered his perspective on the state of the Florida His
torical Society. Membership in the Society fell from more than
1,800 members in the 1970s to 1,300 in 1983. At the same time,
the prestige of the organization, once regarded as the spokeman
for Florida history, had been surrendered to other statewide
organizations. Paradoxically, the financial assets of the organization, due to prudent investments in the 1970s have grown
dramatically.</P>
<P>The Florida Historical Quarterly remains the stabilizing element within the Society, and if our organization only published
the Quarterly, it would have served a special purpose. However,
there seemed to be a general consensus that the Society needed
a director and direction and that the principal aim of the organization should be to promote Florida history, not merely
stockpile revenues.</P>
<P>Identifying and learning the intricacies of the Society and
the state's cultural and educational organizations required a
<PB N="231">
commitment of time and energy during this first year for the
executive director. A vast network of resources exists in the
state, and the Society must cooperate with these institutions if it
is to maintain and sustain leadership, growth, and program development.</P>
<P>In order to best utilize state resources, the Society must understand the strengths and weaknesses of its own organization.
The Society had been allowed to drift, not without aims but
without direction. Loose administrative procedures at the Society's headquarters, the result of internal and external factors,
are being corrected.</P>
<P>The Society plays a valuable role as an information center.
Dr. Mormino is often requested to assist with school projects,
genealogical searches, and historical inquiry. Paul Camp, archivist at the University of South Florida, has been helpful in
assisting the executive director. The Society is hamstrung by
obsolete equipment and the inability to master new technologies
which would greatly enhance the ability to meet demands. The
filing system has not kept abreast of new technologies.</P>
<P>Thousands of form letters are typed each year which could be
handled by a word processor.</P>
<P>During the last several years, the Society's fiscal status has
been deceptively secure. The investment of funds in restricted
money market accounts-a move that has increased the Society's
assets-has obscured its overall economic standing. In reality,
the Society has not, as appeared in annual reports, operated a
$6,000 average surplus, but has generally broken even or suffered a slight deficit. For instance, in 1983, the Society withdrew
$3,000 from the Julien Yonge Publication account to pay bills.
Distinctions must be recognized between restricted and unrestricted funds.</P>
<P>The Society is now embarking on a series of new campaigns
(membership drives and educational programs) which, it is believed will generate revenues needed for future needs. If the
Society is to play a leadership role and bring its message to the
public, money must be spent. Revenues should be used as a
means to an end: the promotion of Florida history. What is
good for Florida history is good for the Florida Historical Society. The Florida Historical Society is launching several exciting
new projects. A commitment to the teaching of Florida history
<PB N="232">
in public schools is a keystone in Society programming. Many
developments portend future promise in this area. The executive director led workshops for teachers in Hillsborough and
Pinellas counties. In February 1985, Dr. George and Dr. Mormino talked with county social science coordinators meeting in
Orlando about the role the Society could play in curriculum
development and the importance of the history fair. A grant is
being submitted to the Florida Endowment for the Humanities,
to underwrite a summer workshop in Florida history, to be held
at the University of South Florida. A society-sponsored workshop will be given in Tallahassee in October.</P>
<P>The North Carolina Division of Archives and History received a prize in 1984 for publication of a five-volume series on
the social history of the state. The Florida Historical Society has
within its grasp the talent to underwrite a similarly ambitious
project. Dr. Jerrell Shofner is considering editing under the
auspices of the Society, a collection of essays, complied from the
Florida Historical Quarterly articles. It could be used as a supplemental text in Florida history. The last index of the Florida His
torical Quarterly was compiled in 1975; a new index is needed.</P>
<P>In the past year, the executive director has spoken to a variety of social and educational groups in the state. Most of the
speaking engagements have been in the Tampa Bay area, because of logistical restraints. Such expenditures of time and
energy have raised the image of the Society, but have resulted
in a questionable return of identifiable dividends, i.e., memberships. The Society needs to tap the energies of its membership.</P>
<P>In early December, the Society will hold a commemoration of
the 150th anniversary of the Dade Massacre in Bushnell. Dr.
John Mahon and Frank Laumer have agreed to lead tours and
discuss the event for a limited number of Society members.
Other similar events might be organized.</P>
<P>The Society is gaining new members. The problem confronting membership is complex. It is not that members are not join
ing the Society, but during the last decade over 2,000 individuals
allowed their memberships to lapse. The Society has only rarely
recruited members in a systematic way. A brochure addressing
this problem is being prepared. The executive director, with a
mailing list of the Tampa Historical Society and a letter signed
by prominent Tampans, secured forty new members. This could
be repeated in other parts of the state.
<PB N="233">
Dr. Mormino discussed the financial report for the period
January 1-December 31, 1984. He explained the new accounting procedures which distinguish between the restricted and
unrestricted accounts. There has been some blurring of the
funds in the past, but that is no longer possible. The Julien
Yonge account increased from the original investment of $9,000
to current assets of $16,860. In 1983, $3,000 was transferred
from the account to cover operating expenses. Dr. Mormino
recommended that this amount be returned to the Yonge account which was designed to underwrite publications.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht stated that the board has an obligation
to stand by these restricted account concepts, but from a pragmatic standpoint it needs to know what the restrictions are. For
instance, can the Yonge account be utilized for compiling and
publishing the Florida Historical Quarterly index? He believed that
Dr. Proctor, editor of the Quarterly, and everyone else will agree
with this. Dr. Ellsworth suggested that Dr. Proctor, Dr. Goza,
and Milton Jones clarify the special accounts. Moreover, he
stated that the Society should not expend money out of any of
these accounts until their purposes are defined.</P>
<P>Dr. Ellsworth proposed that Dr. Mormino's traveling expenses be broken down into two accounts: $500 for his personal
discretionary account and $1,400 for travel. He pointed out that
the Society provides Dr. Proctor $1,000 as a discretionary account. This motion was seconded by Mr. McSwiggan and car
ried.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino discussed the issue of membership growth. On
December 31, 1984, the Society numbered 1,375 members,
which increased to 1,433 in April 1985. Dr. Mormino expects
to register more gains for 1985-1986.</P>
<P>Because of the importance of promoting growth, Mormino
asked the board to reconsider its December 1984 decision to
increase individual membership fees from $15.00 to $22.50.
The action had a negative reaction, and it will be easier to promote memberships to individuals if the fee is $20.00. Currently,
libraries pay $15.00, and Dr. Mormino recommended that the
individual membership be reduced to $20.00, and that an institutional membership be set at $25.00. President Nimnicht re
minded the directors of the need for the Society to become as
self-sufficient as possible in all of its operations, including supporting one staff position and part of the other, both now
<PB N="234">
funded by the University of South Florida. Dr. Pearce moved
and Mr. North seconded a motion to change dues from $22.50
to $20.00, and the motion carried. Dr. Schafer moved that there
be an institutional membership at $25.00. Seconded by Dr.
Ellsworth, the motion carried. The following categories were
established: Individuals, $20.00; Family, $25.00; Institutional,
$25.00; Student, $15.00; and Contributing, $50.00 and up.
Dr. Ellsworth suggested that the Society ask Dr. Proctor and
Dr. Mormino to present at the December board meeting a proposal for indexing the Quarterly. This would include the cost of
indexing and printing the volumes, beginning with fifty-four.</P>
<P>Mrs. Kanner suggested that revenue sources for this work be
investigated. President Nimnicht recommended that the executive director present all ideas to the board on individual projects,
including cost and revenue sources.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino announced another project involving publishing articles from the Quarterly as a supplemental text for
teachers. Ms. Wickman stressed the importance of working with
the state department of education so that such a volume can be
integrated into the educational system at whatever level is
selected. Dr. Mormino will present a proposal at the December
meeting.</P>
<P>The board endorsed Dr. Mormino's plan to seek funding
from the Florida Endowment for the Humanities for the Summer Institute for Teachers.</P>
<P>In the absence of Dr. Proctor, the executive director read his
report on the Florida Historical Quarterly. During the past year
(April 1984-April 1985) the Florida Historical Quarterly received
thirty-eight articles. Seventeen were returned, either because
they were unsuitable for the journal or needed rewriting. Several of the articles were revised and returned to be reconsidered
for publication. Sixteen articles were published in Volume
LXIII (July 1984-April 1985). A total of 114 books were reviewed in the book review and book notes sections of the Quarterly. Approximately one-half dealt with Florida; all others had
a southern theme. The policy of the Quarterly is to review all
books, monographs, pamphlets, and other materials dealing
with Florida. It also reviews books relating to the South with
historical themes involving Florida. The Quarterly encourages
professional and non-professional historians and graduate students to submit articles based upon primary sources, dealing
<PB N="235">
with any aspect of Florida history. They need to include some
analysis or intrepretation of the subject, in addition to description. Submissions must demonstrate clarity, knowledge of the
subject, research skills, and their significance to Florida history.
If the Quarterly is successful, it is because of the work and
support of many people. This includes the office staff, particularly Richard J. Junkins, the graduate student assigned to work
with the Quarterly, and Roberta Young, the secretary. The staff
utilizes the resources of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History and is grateful for the cooperation of Elizabeth Alexander
and Stephen Kerber. Joan Morris of the State Photographic
Archives is always most helpful in providing photographic material. Photographic material is also received from local historical
societies and museums. The Quarterly's printer, Dick Johnston,
and the personnel of E. O. Painter Printing Company are unfailing in their help. Dr. Gary Mormino has been cooperative in
every way. The University of Florida Library and the Florida
State Museum provides office space and telephone services. The
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of History,
and the Office of Academic Affairs continue their generous
support of the Quarterly's activities. The University of Florida
has been supporting the publication of the Florida Historical
Quarterly since 1944. Included in Dr. Proctor's report was the
announcement of the 1984-1985 literary prizes: the Arthur W.
Thompson Memorial Prize in Florida History will be awarded
to Daniel L. Schafer for his article, "Plantation Development in
British East Florida: A Case Study of the Earl of Egmont," which
appeared in the October 1984 issue of the Florida Historical Quarterly. The Rembert W. Patrick Memorial Book Prize will be pre
sented to Donald W. Curl for his book, Mizner's Florida, American
Resort Architecture. The Charlton W. Tebeau Junior Book Award
will be given to Scott O'Dell for his book, Alexandra. These
awards will be presented to the recipients at the banquet on
Friday evening. The Florida awards made by the American Assocation for State and Local History will also be presented.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht announced that Dr. Proctor is being recognized this weekend in spring commencement exercises of the
University of Florida as Distinguished Alumnus. At the same
ceremony in Gainesville, William M. Goza will receive the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He extended his con
gratulations on behalf of the officers and the board of directors.
<PB N="236">
Nimnicht also announced that Dr. Goza, on behalf of the
Wentworth Foundation, is again contributing $1,000 for the
support of the Quarterly.</P>
<P>Dr. Greenhaw reported on the Florida History Newsletter. He
is trying to secure advertisements or financial support. He
thanked Ms. Wickman and Mrs. Shofner for their help in getting out the current issue of the Newsletter. President Nimnicht
asked Dr. Greenhaw to inform Dr. Mormino of each issue so
that a purchase order can be prepared.</P>
<P>Ms. Wickman reported on the activities of the Florida Historical Confederation. The Directory of Historical Agencies has been
printed, and she thanked the Division of Archives, History and
Records Management and the Museum of Florida History for
their support in this project. The $100 which the board had
allocated to the project was not needed and has been returned.
President Nimnicht reported that the Directory cost $2,414.09
(.80_ per copy) and that 3,000 copies were printed. The
Museum of Florida History will mail the Directory to anyone
requesting a copy. The availability of the Directory will also be
announced in the Newsletter and the Quarterly. Ms. Wickman reported on the feasibility of producing a resource handbook for
historical agencies in Florida. The eight basic areas that might
be dealt with are administration, collections, exhibits, education,
development, publications, research, and fiscal planning. It
would cost approximately $9.00 each to produce the volumes.
The Confederation wants to use its funds to produce the handbook during the next eighteen months and to increase Confed
eration membership fees to $20.00, utilizing the handbook as a
membership benefit. Current membership is $10.00. There are
450 agencies listed in the new Directory, but the Florida Historical
Confederation has only eighty-five members. Mr. Nimnicht
asked Ms. Wickman to do a mailing promoting the Confederation and announcing the Florida handbook project. Ms.
Wickman also announced the creation of a list of individuals
who are affiliated with historical agencies in Florida who can act
as speakers or resource persons. Dr. Curl is chairman of this
activity.</P>
<P>Mr. VanLandingham reported on behalf of the finance committee. The E. F. Hutton cash reserve management money mar
ket account, through December 31, 1984, is $69,323. The
<PB N="237">
income generated during 1984 was $6,416, all of which was reinvested in the management account. The Society's money market
account was currently earning seven and one-half to eight per
cent, down from a previous high of sixteen per cent. Hayes
Kennedy, chairman of the finance committee recommended
that the board authorize the withdrawal of a portion of the
funds to be invested in three to five year accounts yielding
higher interest. The executive director will wait for the finance
committee's recommendation. Mr. Nimnicht asked the board
for investment suggestions. The president announced that the
board of directors will consider all of the financial matters being
discussed at their mid-winter meeting to be held December 7,
1985, at the Society's headquarters, the University of South
Florida Library.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino recognized the gift from the Wentworth Foundation for $1,000, and Dr. Ellsworth announced that a $1,000
contribution had been received from the Florida History Associates to pay for the Society's reception at the Old Capitol.</P>
<P>Ellsworth expressed appreciation for the support of Dr. Lee
Warner, Ross Morrell, and Dr. Goza, who is president of the
Florida History Associates.</P>
<P>Dr. George noted that there are five counties participating
in this year's history fair. Mr. McSwiggan contributed the money
needed to send the contestants to the National History Fair in
Washington, D.C. President Nimnicht thanked Dr. George and
Mr. McSwiggan.</P>
<P>Mrs. Kanner presented revisions of the by-laws and distributed a summary of the proposed changes. These are available
at the registration table to all members. Dr. Ellsworth moved,
and Mrs. Olive Peterson seconded the adoption of the revised
by-laws. Motion passed.</P>
<P>Mr. Slicker gave the report of the library assessment committee. He expressed concern over the amount in the Father
Jerome Fund and the amount that should be spent on library
acquisitions. As noted in his report and confirmed by President
Nimnicht, no formal agreement exists between the University
of South Florida Library and the Florida Historical Society as to
the University's responsibilities for the Society's library. The
committee recommends that a written agreement between the
Society and University of South Florida be negotiated regarding
this matter. The committee also recommends the compilation of
<PB N="238">
a directory that lists resources of various depositories in Florida
to be published in the Quarterly. Ms. Wickman noted a similar
project currently underway by the Florida State Archives in conjunction with the Society of Florida Archivists. Dr. George is
also working on a resource directory.</P>
<P>Dr. Ellsworth expressed concerns about renegotiating with
the University of South Florida. The directors discussed the
merit of retaining the collection. He moved the board's endorsement of the implementation of major items in Mr. Slicker's re
port, and moved that the committee, working with the executive
director make further recommendations in regard to the library. Ms. Wickman seconded the motion, which passed. Mr.
Nimnicht thanked the committee and other board members for
their excellent work.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino gave the nominating committee report for
Hampton Dunn. Five names will be recommended to the membership by the nominating committee: Earle Bowden, Pen
sacola; Raymond Mohl, Florida Atlantic University; David Colburn, University of Florida; Wright Langley, Key West; and
Marcia Kanner. President Nimnicht noted that under the bylaws Mrs. Kanner cannot serve another term; no member may
be nominated to be reelected as director until a lapse of one
year between terms. Dr. George suggested Dr. Greg Bush for
the fifth director position.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino gave the education report, stating that several
workshops are being planned for teachers.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht reported that the Florida Historical Society had received an official invitation from Sarasota signed by
Lillian Burns for the 1986 meeting. Mrs. Jan Matthews, however, reported that all the hotels had been booked for a medical
conference at the time. As a result, Bradenton was selected as
the site for the 1986 meeting. President Nimnicht has appointed
the following program committee for 1986: Dr. Schafer, chair;
Dr. William Straight; Dr. Amy Bushnell, and Dr. Larry Rivers.</P>
<P>The following nominating committee was also appointed:
Linda Williams, Alva Jones, Terri Horrow, Leitch Wright, William Adams, and Paul George. Dr. Straight moved and Ms.
Wickman seconded the board's approval of the committee,
which passed.</P>
<P>There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
<PB N="239">
Minutes of the Business Meeting
May 4, 1985
Randy Nimnicht, president, called the annual business meeting of the Florida Historical Society to order on Saturday, May
4, 1985, at 9:00 a.m. at the San Luis Archaelogical and Historic
Site in Tallahassee, Florida.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht noted his concerns about the lack of
growth of the Society and the greater prestige of other historical
organizations in the state; this concern has been expressed by
other members over the past few years. The board had asked
Mr. Nimnicht to head a committee called the "Future of the
Society." That committee has worked over a number of years
and concludes that if the Society is to grow, it must offer more
programs. The board of directors endorsed a course for additional activities and programs as well as for membership growth
and a closer working relationship with the University of South
Florida.</P>
<P>Mr. Nimnicht explained that the Florida Historical Society
has three support budgets: the Society's operational budget; a
subsidy from the University of Florida for the publication of the
Florida Historical Quarterly; and the University of South Florida's
subsidy for an account clerk and one-half of the executive director's salary, in addition to facilities for the library and care of all
the Society's collections. These are worth an estimated $45,000.
The Society has agreed that over the course of the next three
years it must try to subsidize the salary of the account clerk and
part of the executive director's salary. The president thanked
Dr. Lucius Ellsworth for negotiating the agreement with the
University of South Florida. He also thanked Dr. Gary Mormino, the Society's executive director, who has brought new
energy and direction to his position. During the past year the
president has appointed committees to examine all current programs, including the library, membership, finance, by-laws,
Florida Historical Confederation, and the Florida History Newsletter. Mr. Nimnicht stated that any recommendations for change
should be examined on the basis of revenue and cost. The Society will strive to keep the costs of the annual meeting low so that
as many members as possible can attend. The president concluded his remarks by noting that over the past decade, the
Society has lost 2,007 members, an average of over 200 per
<PB N="210">
year. To date there are 1,375 members. The number of losses
must be reduced and new members added.</P>
<P>Dr. Gary Mormino, executive director, reported on the
status of the Society. As of December 1984, assets totaled
$98,183. Much of that amount is in restricted accounts set up
to fund special projects such as purchasing books for the Society's library and promoting publications. These accounts will be
maintained for their original purposes. This past year the Society had an $1,100 surplus in the unrestricted account. There
were 1,375 members in 1984 and efforts are underway to recruit
new members. Dr. Mormino has been invited to speak to different groups about the Society, and his office is developing a new
promotional brochure.</P>
<P>The Society is discussing the publication of a book of readings on Florida history, and the need for updating the index of
the Florida Historical Quarterly. The Society continues to be involved with the Florida History Fair. This summer Dr. Mormino
will be participating in a series of history training sessions for
teachers to help promote both Florida history and the Society.
Any organization desiring a speaker should contact him. Volunteers in the Society's library are also welcome. President Nim
nicht told members that if they have an idea for a Society project
they should contact Dr. Mormino.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino read Dr. Proctor's report as editor of the
Florida Historical Quarterly (see minutes of directors' meeting).
Dr. Paul George announced the slate of officers as recommended by the nominating committee (Linda Ellsworth, Dr.
Eugene Lyon, Gwendolyn Waldorf, and Hampton Dunn, chair).
Nominated as directors were J. Earle Bowden of Pensacola, district 1; Wright Langley of Key West and Gregory Bush of
Miami, district 3; Raymond Mohl of Boca Raton, district 4; and
David Colburn of Gainesville, at large. Charles Crimson moved
that the slate be accepted as presented and Patti Bartlett seconded. The motion carried.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht announced the following as the nomination committee for 1986: Linda Williams, chair; Alva Jones;
Terri Horrow; Leitch Wright; William Adams; and Paul
George. Members were urged to contact the committee members with suggestions of people to serve on the board.
<PB N="241">
Alva Jones presented the report of the membership dues
assessment committee (Hampton Dunn, Gary Mormino, and
Oliver Moore). Members approved the board's recommendations for dues: Student, $15.00; Individual, $20.00; Family,
$25.00; Institutional, $25.00; and Contributor, $50.00 or more.
There was discussion about the status of life memberships. It
was agreed that no new memberships in this category would be
accepted since they do not provide enough revenue and are
difficult to administer. Corporate members will be sought.</P>
<P>Mrs. Marcia Kanner, chair of the by-laws committee, reported several proposed changes in the by-laws. A summary
sheet was distributed to the members. Dr. Herbert J. Doherty,
Jr., stated that he felt that the membership should continue to
have the authority to ratify changes in the dues structure, and
he proposed an amendment to the motion for Article I, Section
2, so that it will read: "dues fixed by the board shall be approved
by the membership at the annual meeting of the Society." The
motion was seconded and passed. Dr. Doherty further moved
to amend the motion so that Article VII, Section 1, reads "these
by-laws may be amended by a majority vote of the members of
the Society present and voting at the annual meeting of the
Society upon and after the recommendation of the board." Seconded by Dr. Ellsworth, the motion carried.</P>
<P>Dr. Jerrell Shofner questioned Article III, Section 3, which
makes the chair of the Florida Historical Confederation an exofficio director. This was approved at last year's annual meeting.
Discussion followed on the role of the Florida Historical Confederation. President Nimnicht appointed a committee, consisting
of Dr. Ellsworth, chair, Pat Wickman, Thomas Greenhaw, Linda
Williams, Dr. Shoffner, and Dr. Mormino, to examine the status
of the Confederation and the Florida History Newsletter.</P>
<P>Ken Ford questioned the change in Article III, Section 4
which eliminates one district. President Nimnicht explained that
the change is recommended to keep Dade and Monroe counties
from having too large an input on the board of directors.
President Nimnicht called the question on adoption of the
by-law revisions, including the two amendments that were offered by Dr. Doherty. The motion carried.</P>
<P>Mrs. Linda Ellsworth reported on the possible demolition of
the Floridan Hotel in Tallahassee. Mrs. Kanner offered a resolution whereby the Florida Historical Society registers its concern
over the possible loss of this historically significant structure.
<PB N="242">
Mrs. Jones seconded and the motion carried.</P>
<P>President Nimnicht offered the following resolutions, which
were seconded and passed unanimously:</P>
<P>WHEREAS Dr. Samuel Proctor is currently being honored
by the University of Florida at its commencement exercises with
the title of "Distinguished Alumnus," and . . .</P>
<P>WHEREAS the Florida Historical Society has long considered Dr. Proctor to be "Distinguished" not only for his
twenty-one years as editor of the Florida Historical Quarterly, but
also for his many contributions to the Society and its programs.</P>
<P>BE IT RESOLVED, that the Florida Historical Society adds
its sincere congratulations to those of the University of Florida
in recognizing the lifetime achievements of Dr. Samuel Proctor.</P>
<P>WHEREAS William M. Goza is currently being honored by
the University of Florida at its commencement exercises with
the Doctorate of Humane Letters, and . . .</P>
<P>WHEREAS the Florida Historical Society has long appreciated Dr. Goza for his many contributions to the Society as
a member, director, and past president.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Florida Historical
Society adds its sincere congratulations to those of the University
of Florida in recognizing the lifetime achievements of William
Goza.</P>
<P>BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that special thanks be extended to the following organizations for their contributions to
the success of this annual meeting: Division of Archives, History
and Records Management, Department of Natural Resources,
Florida A & M University, Florida History Associates, Inc.,
Florida State University, Historic Tallahassee Preservation
Board, Tallahassee Community College, Tallahassee Historical
Society, and the Tallahassee Junior Museum; to the Tallahassee
Garden Club and Albertsons grocery; and to Mildred Fryman,
Linda Ellsworth, Gwendolyn Waldorf, Mary Louise Ellis, Carl
McMurray, Mark Dougherty, Greg Brock, Larry Rivers, Ed
Keuchel, Gerard Clark, Patricia Wickman, George Percy, Randolph Kelly, Ross Morrell, Lee Warner, and the staff members
of the Museum of Florida History and the Florida State Archives.</P>
<P>BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Florida Historical
Society expresses its sorrow and sense of loss in the death of the
following members during the past year:
<PB N="243">
J. Ollie Edmunds, Ponte Vedra, Florida
Mrs. Clyde Fisher, Palm Beach, Florida
Clarence V. Griffin, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida
Mrs. William J. Krome, Homestead, Florida
Robert C. Stafford, Peninsula, Ohio</P>
<P>Dr. Ellsworth made a motion that the Florida Historical Society endorse the creation of the Constitution Bicentennial Com
mission in Florida. The motion was seconded and passed.</P>
<P>The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.</P>
<P>FLORIDA HISTORICAL CONFEDERATION
Executive Committee Meeting
May 3, 1985</P>
<P>The meeting was called to order at 7:20 p.m. by Pat
Wickman, chair. Present were Susan Clark, Patsy West, Sandy
Johnson, Patti Bartlett, Robert Cottrell, Donald Curl, and Terri
Horrow. Also present were Dr. Thomas Greenhaw, Dr. Gary
Mormino, and Marilyn Parris.</P>
<P>Terri Horrow read the minutes of the last Executive Committee meeting of December 7, 1984; Patti Bartlett moved that
the minutes be accepted as read. The motion was seconded and
carried.</P>
<P>Dr. Mormino, reported that there had been no expenditures
by the Confederation this year. The Florida Historical Confederation had a balance of $1,695.75 as of December 31, 1984.
There was a discussion of whether the funds of the Florida
Historical Confederation should be merged with those of the
Florida Historical Society to ease bookkeeping responsibilities.
The treasurer's report was accepted.</P>
<P>Dr. Greenhaw reported that the publication of the spring
issue of the Newsletter resulted from the work of Pat Wickman
and Shirley Shofner. Dr. Greenhaw urged everyone to send
him pertinent information as early as possible. It was suggested
<PB N="234">
that deadlines for submission of information be printed in each
issue. All Florida Historical Confederation members and members of the Florida Historical Society receive the Newsletter.
Ms. Wickman distributed the new Directory of Historical Agencies. She commended the volunteers for their 450 hours of work
compiling the information, and the Confederation members
who worked on the survey results. Ms. Wickman will recommend to the Society's board that each member of the Florida
Historical Society receive a copy of the Directory.</P>
<P>Ms. Wickman announced the winners of the first annual
awards: Publications-Stuart McIver for his series in the Fort
Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel Sunshine Magazine, submitted by
the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society; Education-Dr. Joseph
Fitzgerald, guest curator of a special exhibit on the mapping of
Florida in the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, submitted by the Historical Association of Southern Florida; Preserva
tion/Conservation-Boca Raton Town Hall for its restoration by
the Boca Raton Historical Society, submitted by the Palm Beach
Historical Society. Plaques will be presented to each winner. The
plaques will cost a total of $75.00. Ms. Wickman reported that
thirteen nominations had been received in the three categories.</P>
<P>No nominations were submitted for the membership category.</P>
<P>The awards committee-Linda Ellsworth, Samuel Proctor, and
James Moody-recommended the establishment of another
award for sustained service to Florida history. Everyone was
encouraged to think of a name for this award. The guidelines
committee will meet again to make changes and revisions for
next year. This report should be ready for distribution by September 7. Nominations are due by January 15. Ms. Bartlett
moved that the present awards committee continue for three
years. After that time one member will rotate off each year with
the chairman last. The executive committee will select each new
member. The motion was approved.</P>
<P>Ms. Bartlett reported on the cost of the proposed handbook:
the price for 100 copies of a looseleaf binder with a silkscreened
logo, eight dividers and 100 pages of text will be $1,000. Ms.
Clarke moved that the Confederation membership dues be increased to $20.00 when the handbook is released so that it can
be used as a membership bonus. The handbook would not be
available for sale. The report was approved as recommended.
Ms. Horrow moved that the Confederation by-laws be
<PB N="245">
changed directing that executive committee members must attend at least fifty per cent of the meetings to be eligible for re
nomination for a second term. Ms. Bartlett moved that potential
executive committee members understand that they must attend
at least fifty per cent of the meetings during their first term to
be eligible for a second term. The motion was approved. Dr.
Curl recommended that the Confederation provide speakers
for history organization program meetings when requested. Dr.
Curl will organize a form to be completed by potential speakers.
The matter will be referred to the directors of the Florida Historical Society.</P>
<P>The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.</P>
<P>FLORIDA HISTORICAL CONFEDERATION
Minutes of the General Membership Meeting
May 2, 1985</P>
<P>The meeting was called to order by chairman Pat Wickman
at 1:05 P.M. at the Hilton Hotel in Tallahasee. She welcomed
all Florida Historical Confederation members, members of the
board of directors of the Florida Historical Society, and all
guests.</P>
<P>Terri Horrow, secretary, read the minutes of the last general
membership meeting, May 3, 1984. Dr. Gary Mormino, treasurer, reported that the Confederation balance was $1,695.75.
His report was approved. Dr. Greenhaw reported on the Florida
History Newsletter. He stressed that information be sent for the
Newsletter promptly. Information on personnel changes and new
museums and programs is needed. Future deadlines will be published in the Newsletter.</P>
<P>Ms. Wickman, reported that a logo has been prepared for
both the Confederation and the Society. The Confederation
logo is a part of the larger image of the Le Moyne drawing
which will be the Society's logo. A Directory of Historical Organizations has been prepared with support from the Division of Ar
chives, History and Records Management. It was prepared
through the efforts of eight Museum of Florida History
<PB N="246">
volunteers. The preface includes an organizational profile drawn
from the results of the Needs Assessment Survey conducted last
year. Copies are available from Ms. Wickman at the Museum of
Florida History. A resource handbook for historical agencies in
Florida is a project which the Executive Committee is working
on. It will focus on eight areas: administration, collections,
exhibits, education, development, publications, research, and
physical plant. The first annual Confederation awards were announced. The winners are: Publication-Stuart McIver for his
series in the Fort Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel's Sunshine
Magazine; Education-Joseph Fitzgerald, curator of the exhibit
on mapping the state of Florida at the Historical Museum of
Southern Florida; Restoration-Boca Raton Historical Society
for the Boca Raton Town Hall. The awards committee recommended the establishment of an additional award for sustained
service in Florida history. The Confederation compiled a resource list of people to act as speakers on a variety of topics. Dr.
Donald Curl is developing a form to identify these people.</P>
<P>The nominating committee report was made by Ed McCarron, chairman. Other members of the committee were Russ Be
lous and Kenneth Ford. The following slate was presented (all
have served one term and are eligible for a second term) Pat
Wickman, district 1; Patti Bartlett and Robert Cottrell, district
2; and Donald Curl and Terri Horrow, district 3. The motion
that the slate be accepted was approved.</P>
<P>Pat Wickman introduced Randall Kelley, director of the Division of Archives, History and Records Management, who
talked about the activities of the Division and its support of
historical organizations throughout the state of Florida.</P>
<P>The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.</P>
<P>GIFTS TO THE SOCIETY
1984-1985</P>
<P>The Wentworth Foundation, Inc., presented a check for
$1,000 to help support the activities of the Florida Historical
Quarterly. Gerald McSwiggan continues to support the History
Fair projects with a gift of $1,000. Mr. and Mrs. John DuBois
gave a cash gift to the Father Jerome Book Fund; other gifts
<PB N="247">
were received from Alva Jones and Helen Walpole. Books and
periodicals were received from the National Conservation Advisory Council, Smithsonian Institution, Putnam County
Genealogical Society, editors of American Heritage Magazine,
Ron G. Hickox, Southern Bell Telephone, and Michael Piper.</P>
<P>NEW MEMBERS</P>
<P>For the year 1984</P>
<P>Robert W. Aaron, Plant City
Leatrice Aberman, Miami
William H. Adams, Gainesville
**Mr. and Mrs. James L. Alderman, Tampa
Michael S. Alderman, Tallahassee
**Mr. and Mrs. Joe Anderson, Jr., Old Town
James Andrews, Fort Pierce
George Artman, Jr., Punta Gorda
**Mr. and Mrs. Ken Barnes, Jr., Odessa
Marcia L. Beasley, Floral City
John Belohlaveck, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. B. Frank Bowen, Seffner
**Mr. and Mrs. Elliott Brown, Chattahoochee
Warren J. Brown, Largo
F. Ivan Burry, Fort Pierce
Gregory Bush, Coral Gables
**Mr. and Mrs. Gary W. Cameron, Plant City
**Mr. and Mrs. Philip L. Camp, Fort Pierce
Hibbard Casselberry, Jr., Fort Lauderdale
**Dr. and Mrs. Jerry H. Center, Belleair
James C. Clark, Orlando
**James Clark and Deborah Boles, Melbourne
*David Coles, Tallahassee
**Mr. and Mrs. Harley G. Cowles, Fort Pierce
Mary A. Cox, North Miami Beach
Carol S. Cupery, Tallahasee
Mrs. R. S. Dean, Sr., Fort Myers
John T. Dunkin, Fort Pierce
John Durham, Fort Pierce
Sara Eaton, Miami Beach
**Mr. and Mrs. William Everett, Brandon
Mrs. David A. Falk, Tampa
**Hon. and Mrs. Dante Fascell, Miami
Colleen J. Fenrich, Port Richey
Harry A. Ferran, Orlando
**Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fitzgerald, Miami
Garcia Fleishman, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. John T. Foster, Tallahassee
A. David Fountain, Tampa
Patricia Freedman, La Belle
JoAnn Giannini, St. Petersburg
Mrs. William Gilmore, Pensacola
<PB N="248">
**Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Goldberg, Sarasota
Neil K. Graham, Stuart
**Dr. and Mrs. L. G. Gramling, Gainesville
Huber H. Griffin, DeLand
Robert Griffin, Jacksonville
*Mrs. Irma A. Grigg, Fort Myers
Ray M. Hall, East Palatka
*Mary J. Hanes, Davie
Josephine H. Harrison, Palmetto
Charles T. Hart, Jr., Okeechobee
Lomie Y. Helmich, Fort Pierce
**Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd G. Hendry, Fort Myers
**Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Henriquez, West Palm Beach
Barbara J. Hightower, Fort Pierce
Samuel S. Hill, Jr., Gainesville
**Mr. and Mrs. William Hilla, Jr., Melbourne
Elise R. Hollowes, Jacksonville
Christina P. Hooker, Okeechobee
John Hoover, Orlando
James A. Horland, North Miami
Wiley L. Housewright, Tallahassee
Ed Hughes, Spring Hill
Donald J. Ivey, Orlando
Mrs. A. B. Jackson, Fort Pierce
Mrs. Ada Jaki, Aurora, IL
**Mr. and Mrs. Jesse A. Jones, San Antonio
**Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Junkins, Aurora, IL
Richard D. Junkins, Orlando
Kit S. Kapp, Osprey
Henry C. Kelly, Okeechobee
**Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Kennon, Fort Pierce
Fran L. Kerce, Okeechobee
Harry J. Kicliter, Jr., Fort Pierce
**Mr. and Mrs. Jim Kirby, Fort Pierce
Michael G. Kissner, Vero Beach
**Mr. and Mrs. J. Knight, Clermont
**Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Knowles, Fort Pierce
Robin Krawitz, Nashville, TN
***Angus Laird, Tallahassee
Allen Lastinger, Jr., Jacksonville
*Murray D. Laurie, Gainesville
**Mr. and Mrs. Perry Lloyd, Fort Pierce
Mrs. Charles Lovein, Jr., Atlanta, GA
A. G. Lutz, Maitland
**Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Lykes, Tampa
Patrick W. McGrady, Knoxville, TN
Herbert G. McKay, Tampa
*Mrs. Marie V. McMullen, Miami
Alvin J. Marrow, Sebring
*Maria E. Martinez. Hialeah
Richard Ira Matthews, Riverview
James H. Mayfield, Lady Lake
Barbara F. Mitchell, Gainesville
Edith Mullins, Fort Pierce
<PB N="249">
**Mr. and Mrs. David Murphey, III, Tampa
Linda P. Myers, Sarasota
**Colonel and Mrs. D. A. Neck, Fort Mason, CA
**Mr. and Mrs. Stuart North, Leesburg
**Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Olds, Inverness
Yetive B. Olson, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Palmer, Fort Pierce
Mr. R. C. Partridge, Mount Dora
**Dr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Pizza, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. Hans Ploch, Miami Beach
Brian S. Polley, Tallahassee
Charlotte Porter, Gainesville
Helen C. Price, Tampa
James F. Pruett, Rockledge
*Catherine Puckett, Archer
**Mr. and Mrs. Douglas S. Putnam, Fort Pierce
***George P. Putnam, Boynton Beach
Samuel J. Rampello, Temple Terrace
Annie H. Raulerson, Okeechobee
Alberta C. Rawchuck, Fort Myers
**Mr. and Mrs. D. Lawrence Rayburn, Plant City
**Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Reed, Fort Pierce
**Mr. and Mrs. Roger E. Reilly, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. J. David Richeson, Fort Pierce
Mrs. Amelia Rickerson, Fort Pierce
*Sherry Robles, Tampa
Michael Ryan, Naples
J. Whitcomb Rylee, Sarasota
Marion V. Sabatine, Seminole
*Milly V. Saint Julien, Clearwater
Sarasota Nuclear Lab, Sarasota
Martha F. Sawyer, Lakeland
Ralph Shear, Greensboro, NC
**Mr. and Mrs. James H. Sheehan, Fort Pierce
Bruce Sherwood, Sebring
Bertha M. Short, Clearwater
Thelma M. Shultz, Lutz
T. L. Sloan, Fort Pierce
*Frank L. Snyder, Dunedin
**Mr. and Mrs. David Souza, Fort Pierce
**Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Sparr, Lake Wales
**Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Stockton, Balm
Mrs. J. E. Stoneburg, Fort Pierce
J. R. "Bob" Stripling, Boynton Beach
Mike Sunders, Clearwater
Mrs. Paul Sykes, Ocala
*Michael D. Tegeder, Orlando
Stephen D. Tutko, Fort Myers
Anne D. Tuttle, Tampa
Mrs. S. P. VanLandingham, Fort Pierce
Arthur E. P. Wall, Titusville
Genia P. Ward, Tampa
George W. Watters, Orange Park
Lois H. Wescott, Ormond Beach
<PB N="250">
**Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Whatley, Largo
**Mr. and Mrs. Bill White, Tampa
**Mr. and Mrs. David G. Willbur, Fort Pierce
Harrison, Dietz & Getzen, Sarasota
**Mr. and Mrs. Frank Williamson, Okeechobee
Woodrow Wilson, Woodbridge, VA
John B. Wolf, Jupiter
**Mr. and Mrs. E. Clayton Yates, St. Petersburg
E. J. Youkers, Tampa</P>
<P>Libraries:</P>
<P>Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
Broward County Library, Fort Lauderdale
Miccosukee Community' Library, Miami
Oakcrest Elementarv School, Ocala
Okeechobee County Library
Palm Beach Junior College, Lake Worth
Polk County Historical Library, Bartow
St. Joseph's University Library, Philadelphia, PA
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID</P>
<P>Historical Societies:</P>
<P>Baker County Historial Society, MacClenney
Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Miami
Bureau of Historic Preservation, Tallahassee
Dade Heritage Trust, Inc., Miami
Flagler County Historical Society, Bunnell
Florida Folklife Program, White Springs
Gulfport Historical Society
Historic Tampa/Hillsborough County Preservation Board
Osceola County Historical Society, Kissimmee</P>
<P>*Student Membership
**Family Membership
***Contributing Membership
<PB N="251">
TREASURER'S REPORT
January 1, 1984-December 31, 1984</P>
<P>Net Worth, December 3 1, 1984 ........................................................ $98,183.44
Current Assets:
University State Bank (Tampa, FHS checking) .....................  4,431.10
University State Bank (Florida Historical Confederation
checking) .............................................................................  1,695.75
First Federal Savings & Loan Assn. (Gainesville) ..................  1,215.81
Fortune Federal Savings & Loan (Thompson Fund,
Gainesville) .........................................................................  4,442.43
Glendale Federal Savings & Loan. Tampa (formerly
Tampa Federal Savings & Loan) .......................................  4,486.97
Fortune Federal Savings & Loan Yonge Publication Fund
(Gainesville) ........................................................................  509.06
University State Bank (Tampa) ..............................................  2,945.83
Freedom Federal Savings & Loan (Tampa) ...........................  9,007.49
E. F. Hutton ............................................................................. 69,323.00
Middle South Utilities (I 26 shares) ........................................  126.00
Total Assets .............................................................................. 98,183.44
Receipts:
Memberships:
Annual ...................................................................................... 10,030.00
Family .......................................................................................  2,880.00
Contribution ............................................................................  700.00
Library ......................................................................................  5,822.30
Historical Societies ...................................................................  1,005.00
Student .....................................................................................  240.00
Florida Historical Confederation (Annual) ............................  590.00
Contributions:
Transfer ...................................................................................  1,080.00
Other Receipts:
Quarterly Sales ..........................................................................  323.43
Index ........................................................................................   52.50
Duplicating ...............................................................................  134.15
Labels .......................................................................................  205.00
Photographs .............................................................................   24.10
Microfilm ..................................................................................  202.50
Internal Income:
First Federal .............................................................................   65.05
Fortune Federal .......................................................................  237.75
Glendale Federal .....................................................................  252.37
Fortune Federal .......................................................................   20.37
University State Bank ..............................................................  157.78
Freedom Federal .....................................................................  483.28
Dividends Income:
E. F. Hutton .............................................................................  6,406.00
Middle South Utilities .............................................................   15.48
Annual Meeting:
Expenses ...................................................................................  -195.47
Total Receipts ............................................................................... 30,731.59
<PB N="252">
Disbursements:
Florida Historical Quarterly
Printing and Mailing ...............................................................
Mailer Labels and Envelopes ..................................................
Post Office Box Rental ............................................................
Copyright ......... ........................................................................
Editor .......................................................................................
University of Florida Teaching Resources Center
(photographs) ......................................................................
Annual Meeting:
Expenses ....................................................................................
Arthur W. Thompson Memorial Prize ...................................
Rembert W. Patrick Memorial Prize .......................................
Charlton W. Tebeau Junior Award ........................................
Other Expenses:
Florida Historical Society Newsletter ............................................
Postage .....................................................................................
Telephone ................................................................................
Duplicating and labels .............................................................
Educational Resources .............................................................
Supplies ....................................................................................
Travel .......................................................................................
Insurance .................................................................................
C.P.A. (preparing income tax) ................................................
Taxes ........................................................................................
History Fair ..............................................................................
Florida Historical Confederation Administrative ..................
Books ........................................................................................
Florida Historical Society Bank charges .................................
Florida Historical Confederation Bank charges ....................
December Board Meeting .......................................................
Stationary .................................................................................
Petty Cash ................................................................................</P>
<P>14,842.65
391.63
26.00
110.00
1,000.00
150.00
150.00
150.00</P>
<P>1,741.18
1,444.79
252.22
657.66
120.93
1,268.00
268.32
100.00
75.00
10.00
1,790.00
39.52
37.63
.37
4.52
59.38
140.34
20.00</P>
<P>Total Disbursements ..................................................................... 24,850.14
Net income .........................................................................................  5,991.45
Balance, December 31, 1984 ............................................................. 98,183.44
GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
1985
Nov. 4-8   Sunbelt Conference   Miami, FL
Nov. 8-9   Florida State     Tampa, FL
Genealogical Society
Nov. 12-15  Southern Historical   Houston, TX
Association
Nov. 15-16  Florida Museums    Maitland, FL
Association
Dec. 26-29  American Historical   New York, NY
Association
1986
Mar. 6-8   Gulf Coast History   Pensacola, FL
and Humanities
Conference
Mar. 6-8   Florida College Teachers Jacksonville, FL
of History
Apr. 9-12  Organization of    New York, NY
American Historians
Apr. 10-12  Florida Anthropological Gainesville, FL
Society and Florida
Academy of Science
Apr. 30   Society of Florida    Bradenton, FL
Archivists
May 1    Florida Historical    Bradenton, FL
Confederation
May 1-3   FLORIDA      Bradenton, FL
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY-84th
MEETING
A GIFT OF HISTORY</P>
<P>A MEMBERSHIP IN THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY IS
AN EXCELLENT GIFT IDEA FOR BIRTHDAYS, GRADUATION, OR
FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE RICH AND COLORFUL
STORY OF FLORIDA`S PAST.</P>
<P>A one-year membership costs only $20.00, and it includes
four issues of the Florida Historical Quarterly, the Florida History
Newsletter, as well as all other privileges of membership. A personal letter from the Executive Director of the Society will notify
the recipient of your gift of your generosity and consideration.
Convey your respect for that special person's dignity and uniqueness. What better way to express your faith in the lessons
of the past and to celebrate old friendships?</P>
<P>Send to: Florida Historical Society
University of South Florida Library
Tampa, Florida 33620</P>
<P>Please send as a special gift:
q Annual membership-$20.00
q Family membership-$25.00
q Library membership-$25.00
q Contributing membership-$50 and above
q Student membership-$15.00
q Check or money order enclosed
q Cash enclosed
TO
FROM
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF FLORIDA, 1856
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, successor, 1902
THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, incorporated, 1905</P>
<P>OFFICERS
RANDY F. NIMNICHT, president
LUCIUS F. ELLSWORTH, president-elect
PAUL S. GEORGE, vice-president
LINDA K. WILLIAMS, recording secretary
GARY R. MORMINO, executive director
SAMUEL PROCTOR, editor, The Quarterly
DIRECTORS
J. EARLE BOWDEN      OWEN NORTH
Pensacola        Clearwater
RICHARD BROOKE, JR.    GEORGE F. PEARCE
Jacksonville       Pensacola
GREGORY BUSH      OLIVE D. PETERSON, ex-officio
Miami         Fort Pierce
DAVID COLBURN      LARRY E. RIVERS
Gainesville       Tallahassee
ALVA L. JONES       DANIEL L. SCHAFER
Clearwater       Jacksonville
WRIGHT LANGLEY      MICHAEL SLICKER
Key West        St. Petersburg
MARY C. LINEHAN     WILLIAM M. STRAIGHT
Lantana        Miami
RAYMOND A. MOHL     KYLE S. VANLANDINGHAM
Boca Raton       Okeechobee
PATRICIA WICKMAN, ex-officio
Tallahassee</P>
<P>The Florida Historical Society supplies the Quarterly to its
members. Annual membership is $20.00; family membership is
$25.00; library membership is $25.00; a contributing membership
is $50.00 and above. In addition, a student membership is $15.00,
but proof of current status must be furnished.</P>
<P>All correspondence relating to membership and subscriptions
should be addressed to Dr. Gary R. Mormino, Executive Director, Florida Historical Society, University of South Florida
Library, Tampa, FL 33620. Inquiries concerning back numbers
of the Quarterly should also be directed to Dr. Mormino.</P></DIV1></BODY>
</TEXT>
</DLPSTEXTCLASS>

