The History of Florida (55 page)

There would be years of controversy over the legal status of freedmen, but

· 260 ·

Reconstruction and Renewal, 1865–1877 · 261

the labor system that replaced the institution of slavery came by military

order.

Sharecropping, crop liens, and tenant farming extended across the old

plantation belt and affected both black and white farmers for decades after

the Civil War. Cotton was produced by this inefficient system at a time when

demand for it was constantly declining. The result was that the economy of

old Middle Florida languished at the same time that East Florida and the

peninsula began to grow.

Florida’s readmission to the Union and the status of freedmen as citizens

were matters that consumed much time and left a bitter legacy. Lincoln had

anticipated the anger and bitterness that eventual y engulfed the nation over

these matters. Wishing to avoid as much conflict as possible, he had tried

to rebuild loyal governments in Union-occupied territories such as north-

eastern Florida while the war was still being fought. Eager Florida Unionists

such as Lyman Stickney, Calvin Robinson, and John Sammis seized upon the

president’s “ten-percent plan,” but their efforts were thwarted by the Union

military defeat at Olustee in early 1864. Little more was heard of Lincoln’s

plan, but the Direct Tax Commission, of which Stickney and Sammis were

original members, carried out its duties to foreclose upon and sell Confed-

erate property within Union lines. The ensuing “direct tax sales” transferred

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hundreds of pieces of property from Confederate owners to Unionists,

many of whom were freedmen, and caused tremendous difficulties when

President Andrew Johnson subsequently restored ownership to the former

Confederates. The problem that arose is il ustrated by the case of Confeder-

ate General Joseph Finegan’s home in Fernandina. It was auctioned to Chloe

Merrick of Syracuse, New York, for twenty-five dol ars. Miss Merrick, who

later married Republican Governor Harrison Reed, made the house into

an orphanage for black children. When General Finegan marched home

with President Johnson’s amnesty proclamation in hand and found little

black children playing on his veranda and the U.S. Army guarding them, the

tenuous peace of Fernandina was sorely tested. Much of the tax-sale land

was eventual y returned to its former Confederate owners, but the matter

exacerbated the struggle over Reconstruction in Florida and remained an

issue until the 1890s.

With Freedmen’s Bureau agents encountering increasing resistance from

planters unaccustomed to limits on their autonomy, and confrontations be-

tween contesting owners of tax-sale property, President Johnson’s Recon-

struction plan was implemented. Fol owing Lincoln’s nonpunitive ideas,

262 · Jerrell H. Shofner

Johnson permitted most former Confederates to participate in forming a

new government. He appointed Wil iam Marvin, a former federal judge

from Key West, as provisional governor. Working closely with Major Gen-

eral John Foster, the military commander, Marvin registered those adult

white males who took the requisite oath and called an election for delegates

to a constitutional convention. The convention wrote a new constitution

to conform with recent developments. Slavery was repudiated, as was the

right of a state to secede from the Union. All debts incurred in support of

the Confederacy were also repudiated. Laws enacted by Congress since 1861

were recognized, and a committee was appointed to review the state statutes

and make recommendations for necessary changes when the first legislature

met. In the ensuing election, David Walker became the new governor, and

Ferdinand McLeod was elected to the national House of Representatives.

The legislature was composed of many prominent former Confederates.

There were, of course, no black members, and James Dopson Green of Man-

atee County was the only former Unionist named to the body. Former gov-

ernor William Marvin and former Confederate Wilkinson Cal were elected

by the legislature to the U.S. Senate. There was some grumbling among

congressmen in Washington about the predominance of Confederates in

Florida’s restored government, but the major portent of future difficulties

proof

came with the report of the three-member committee on statutory changes.

Speaking for the committee, Anderson J. Peeler recommended that the leg-

islature preserve, insofar as possible, the beneficial features of the “benign,

but much abused and greatly misunderstood institution of slavery.”1 The leg-

islature complied. Freedmen were given customary civil rights except that

they were not permitted to give testimony in cases involving white people.

Since most of their difficulties were with their employers, this was a major

shortcoming. Beyond that, a lengthy series of laws clearly discriminated

between white and black citizens, even to the extent of substituting corporal

punishment for fines and imprisonment for blacks convicted of crimes.

Already angered by President Johnson’s decision to proceed with “presi-

dential Reconstruction” without calling them into session, some congress-

men watched with growing alarm as Florida and most other southern states

enacted legislation denying equal citizenship to the freedmen. When it con-

vened in December 1865, Congress refused to recognize Johnson’s efforts.

Marvin, Cal , and McLeod were denied seats in their respective Houses

along with everyone elected from the other former Confederate states. A

joint committee was named to investigate the conditions in the South and

recommend an alternative course of action.

Reconstruction and Renewal, 1865–1877 · 263

An acrimonious deadlock developed between President Johnson and

Congress. It became increasingly clear that Johnson’s program would not

be approved without significant modifications. It was equal y clear that the

president was unwil ing to compromise. The standoff became ugly. Con-

gress enacted a civil rights law in April which expanded the rights of na-

tional citizens and gave enforcement authority to the U.S. Army. President

Johnson vetoed the legislation and proclaimed an end to the “insurrection”

in the South, with the apparent intention of removing martial law. Florid-

ians applauded the president, but their elation was premature. Angered by

the president’s arbitrary actions and unwilling to readmit the seceded states

without some guarantees of fair treatment of the freedmen, Congress voted

to override the president’s veto of the Civil Rights Act and another measure

extending the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

The continuing controversy between president and Congress gradu-

al y eroded the effectiveness of both the army and the bureau in protecting

freedmen and Unionists in Florida. As chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Gen-

eral Ulysses S. Grant had at first instructed his field commanders to protect

all freedmen and Unionists from abuses of their civil and property rights.

But he was acting under the laws of Congress while his commander-in-chief

was at odds with those laws.

proof

In Florida, General John Foster tried to follow General Grant’s instruc-

tions. Governor David Walker understandably agreed with the proclama-

tions of the president. Both were reasonable men, and they tried to keep

order in a situation that was becoming increasingly unclear. When the U.S.

Army and a Nassau County sheriff’s posse faced each other in the street

in front of General Finegan’s house, the two men went on the same train

to Fernandina and prevented a violent confrontation. But they could not

give personal attention to the hundreds of incidents arising throughout the

northern Florida counties. Freedmen were treated atrociously by the county

criminal courts. When Freedmen’s Bureau agents attempted to intercede,

they often confronted county sheriffs with large armed posses. General Fos-

ter felt compelled to declare martial law in nine counties in the summer of

1866. His action angered Governor Walker and did little to improve the

plight of the freedmen.

The deteriorating situation in Florida was accompanied by increasing ac-

rimony between President Johnson and Congress in Washington. In August

1866, Johnson issued an even stronger proclamation restoring civil law in

Florida. Still sympathetic with congressional efforts to protect freedmen in

their civil rights, General Grant was, after al , accountable to the president,

264 · Jerrell H. Shofner

who was commander-in-chief of all armed forces. The general accordingly

issued new instructions to the field commanders which left their authority

unclear. Increasingly frustrated at his inability to protect freedman from

mistreatment, General Foster resigned in November 1866. He told his supe-

riors that he would happily return to Florida but only if the laws were made

adequate for him to execute his duties to protect al citizens in their civil

rights.

The failure of President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan in Florida coin-

cided with the eclipse of his authority in Washington. Congress wrested

control from him and implemented its own plan. Under congressional Re-

construction, martial law was reinstated with Major General John Pope in

command. He appointed Ossian B. Hart of Jacksonvil e as supervisor of

registration for a new electorate, which this time included al adult black

males. New elections were held for delegates to yet another constitutional

convention. The new document was to include a guarantee of black suffrage.

When a suitable constitution was ratified by Florida voters and the legisla-

ture ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, military

occupation would be ended and the state would be able to resume its nor-

mal place in the Union.

At the end of the war many native white Floridians had time only “to

proof

worship the Confederate dead and hate the Yankee living,” but they had

“gradual y learned to manage” under the Johnson plan of Reconstruction.2

Now, nearly two years after the war, Congress was forcing black suffrage

upon them. There was talk of white immigration to Latin America or the

unsettled American West, and a few Floridians did resettle in Brazil. A

larger number simply abandoned Middle Florida and moved southward to

Brevard, Orange, Hil sborough, and other sparsely populated central Flor-

ida counties. Most of them remained where they were, but they were badly

divided over what course to follow. Some chose not to participate in elec-

tions involving blacks, but Hart’s registration teams administered the oath

of loyalty to several thousand who decided to make the best of the situation.

The demoralization and division of the white population left an open

field for the evolving Republican Party, but it was also badly divided. At a

convention called by Hart in the summer of 1867, vigorous disagreements

emerged. A group led by Daniel Richards, a former tax commissioner;

Liberty Billings, a former commander of a black regiment; and William U.

Saunders, a representative of the Union League, joined by Charles H. Pearce,

a Canadian minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wanted to

emphasize rights for blacks at the expense of native whites. Another faction

Reconstruction and Renewal, 1865–1877 · 265

proof

A Florida family photographed in the 1870s. Despite the fact that a few African Ameri-

cans won election to government offices, Reconstruction did not result in securing for

blacks an equal part in Florida society. In his book on Florida during that period,
Nor

Is
It
Over
Yet,
Jerrell Shofner wrote: “The moderate Republicans who implemented the

1867 Reconstruction acts in Florida had never given Negro rights more than second-

ary consideration. Black voters contributed more to the Republican Party than they

received from it. Even their basic right to vote was diluted by provisions for dispro-

portionate legislative representation. Yet their situation between 1868 and 1877 was