"A class of people neither freemen nor slaves": from Spanish to American race relations in Florida, 1821-1861

While these invasions disrupted expansion in East Florida, the sugar boom in Cuba continued without incident. Independence movements swept away much of its empire, yet Spain clung to Cuba by promoting massive slave imports, condoning lax enforcement of protective slave codes, and encouraging what Paquette calls "secular racism" among Cuban liberals to intentionally escalate the anti-free colored hysteria of the 1840s. In East Florida, however, survival of the colonial government and the plantation elites depended to a large extent on the vitality of the intermediate caste. This comparison appears to substantiate the observation made by David B. Davis nearly thirty years ago that variations within each slave society were as significant as over-arching metropolitan laws and institutions. (15)

Before the decade ended there would be two more invasions, prompting Spain to cede Florida to the United States in 1821. During the Spanish evacuation of St. Augustine, 145 free blacks decided to emigrate. (16)

Race Policies Under the United States

Once Florida became a territory of the United States, there were immediate efforts to institutionalize a two-caste system of race relations. Delegates at early sessions of the territorial council passed a series of laws that restricted the activities of free African Americans. Blaming them for creating discontent among slaves, the territorial council in 1827 barred free blacks from entering Florida. In 1828 they were forbidden to assemble or give seditious speeches, sell intoxicating beverages to slaves, or conduct any commercial sales activities on Sundays. Rights to carry firearms were restricted in 1825 and 1828, and were taken away entirely in 1833. Free blacks were disenfranchised, barred from jury service, and from testifying against whites in court proceedings. Florida law prohibited interracial marriages and made children of inter-racial couples ineligible to inherit their parents' estates. White men found guilty of fornicating with African American women could be fined up to $1000 and stripped of their civil and political rights. Discriminatory head taxes were levied on all free black males over fifteen years of age; supplemental taxes were assessed in subsequent years by both state and municipal governments. (17)

The council also moved aggressively to outlaw manumission. An 1829 law required owners to forfeit $200 for each person emancipated, and to post a security bond equal to the value of the slave. Within thirty days of emancipation all freedmen were required to permanently emigrate from Florida. Freedmen found in non-compliance with any provision of the 1829 law could be seized by a sheriff and sold back into slavery. Free blacks already in the general population could also be sold into slavery to satisfy debts and fines arising from misdemeanor convictions. In 1842 all free blacks were required to place themselves under a white guardian. When the guardian law was strengthened in 1848 and 1856 many free blacks emigrated, including over 150 from Pensacola who moved to Mexico. "It was a painful sight," the Pensacola Gazette reported, "to see them parting from their friends and native country to seek homes in a foreign land." St. Johns County lost almost half its free black population in a five year period, as their numbers declined from 164 in 1845 to only 86 in 1850. Ten years later the total was 82. (18)