The Politics Of Slavery And Secession In Antebellum Florida, 1845-1861

The political history of antebellum Florida has long been overlooked in southern historiography. Florida was a state for just sixteen years before secession set it apart from the rest of the Union, but Florida’s road to secession was as unique as any of its southern counterparts. From the territorial days in the early nineteenth century, Florida’s political culture centered on the development and protection of slavery throughout the state. The bank wars in the pre-statehood and early statehood periods reflected differing views on how best to support the spread of the plantation economy, and the sectional strife of the 1850s instigated Floridians to find the best way to protect it. By the end of the antebellum period amidst increasing sectional strife and a sense that secession and disunion were acceptable courses of action, Florida’s population pulled together under the banner of protecting slavery – and by extension, their way of life – by whatever means necessary. Northern infringement into slavery affected not just the planters, but every free man who called Florida his home.