Reconstruction & Renewal

The author of the textbook is also the editor, Michael Gannon. The book, "The History of Florida”, was created by 23 historians along with Michael to tell the history of Florida. The author that helped write this section is Jerrell H. Shofner. The contributor's section of the textbook, it talks about Jerrell. He is a retired professor of history at the University of Central Florida and in 1995 became an editor of the Florida Historical Quarterly. Two things that were in desperate need of reconstruction were the economy and the government in Florida. "There was no government. After Governor John Milton killed himself, Union General Edward McCook had suppressed efforts to reorganize a civil government."(1). "there was no economy. Money and credit had disappeared with the fall of the Confederacy. The means of production had ended with the abolition of slavery.”(2). "It was planting time, and while the new president pondered the situation, something had to be done it crops were to be put in so the people could eat the following winter.”(3). General Newton forced farm owners to free their slaves but also pay them wages for working on the farm. General Newton also let the union's military be in charge of Florida for the time being. “General John Newton instructed Florida planters to assemble their former slaves, explain that they were now free, and ask them to remain on the plantations and work for wages.”(4). “The agents subsequently supervised the contracts between freedmen and their former owners, but they did so in accordance with the system implemented by the U.S. Army as an emergency measure.  The Florida Legislature legitimized the system with appropriate legislation. There would be years of controversy over the legal status of freedmen, but the labor system that replaced the institution of slavery came by military order.”(5). Demand for cotton was decreasing during the early years of reconstruction. The most famous name for white and black farmers that were given a new structure in which to on their land is sharecropping. "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.”(6). The first issue that engulfed Florida was the confederates trying to take back their land from unionists. The second issue is confederates were in the reconstructed government. "Much of the tax-sale land was eventually returned to its former Confederate owners, but the matter exacerbated the struggle over Reconstruction in Florida and remained an issue until the 1890s.”(7). "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 came with the report of the three-member committee on statutory changes.”(8). Lincoln's fear is the confederates would try and take over again. President Johnson allowed blacks could not be involved in court cases involving whites. This angered congressmen in Washington. "Already angered by President Johnson's decision to proceed with "presidential Reconstruction” with that calling them into session, some congressmen watched with growing alarm as Florida and most other southern states enacted legislation denying equal citizenship to the freedman"(9). Lincoln's non-punitive idea was to restore a civil government to the hands of southern Unionists and Confederates. Blacks were mistreated by whites. “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 for blacks convicted of crimes."(10). “Freedmen were treated atrociously by the county criminal carts."(11). If blacks tried to take their employer to court, it would basically get thrown out.The Civil Rights Act of 1865 was so ineffective because of the fight between President Johnson and Congress. There were Floridians on President Johnson's side. "The continuing controversy between president and Congress gradually eroded the effectiveness of both the army and the bureau in protecting freedmen and Unionists in Florida. …But he was acting under the laws of Congress while his commander-in-chief was at odds with those laws.”(12). The legislative measure that marked the end of martial law in Florida was the 14th Amendment. "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 legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution1 military occupation would be ended and the state would be able to resume its normal place in the Union.”(13). Here is a quote to explain the internal division in Florida. "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 settle in Brazil. A large number simply abandoned Middle Florida and moved southward to Brevard, Orange, Hillsborough, and other sparsely populated central Florida counties. Most of them remained where they were, but they were badly divided over what course to follow. Some chose not to participate in elections involving blacks, but Hart's registration teams administered the oath of loyalty to several thousand who decided to make the best of the situation."(14). So basically the whites did not want to live near blacks or be told what to do by blacks. Conservative had control over land and credit, they would deny blacks land and credit, as well as make it hard to vote. “While Conservative editors and legislators fought Reed in Tallahassee, others took more direct action in the outlying areas. Controlling most of the land and credit, Conservative planters and merchants denied credit and land rentals to freedmen who continued to vote the Republican ticket. Vigilantes such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Young Men's Democratic Clubs used violence and intimidation to discourage or prevent newly enfranchised blacks from exercising their voting privileges. Leaders were threatened, beaten, and killed. Polling places were disrupted by gunfire and threats. Former Confederate cavalry commander J.J. Dickison even led bands of mounted men in cavalry charges through crowds of potential voters." (15). Middle of Florida was having political and racial strife during the reconstruction. Peninsular Florida however was just open land and cattle farms, they did not have much of a reconstruction. “While Reconstruction brought unwelcome changes and political and racial strife to the Middle Florida plantation belt, it concomitantly helped to open up peninsular Florida to settlement. Until the 1860s the Florida peninsula had been a sparsely populated cattle range where drovers grazed their herds over miles and miles of open range. When William Gleason accompanied Freedmen's Bureau agent George F. Thompson on a tour of southern Florida in 1865 - 66, they reported vast open lands and a balmy climate—only the first of many touting the Florida peninsula to receptive audiences across the nation. Northerners were attracted by available open land where the winters were mild. Southerners liked the idea of an unsettled region where they could escape the conditions of Reconstruction.”(16). Companies and people who helped the renewal of Florida are magazines, newspapers, railroads, Florida New Yorker, Hubbard Hart (Harriet Beecher Stowe's winter home), Frederick DeBary, and Henry S. Sanford. One railroad industry had negatively impacted Florida’s renewal. “The Reed administration assisted Milton Littlefield and George W. Swepson with their Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Mobile Railroad venture, but that firm also became embroiled in litigation which was not settled until 1879. Railroad construction in Florida had to wait until the 1880s."(17). Florida became a Conservative-Democratic state. Later the state would become Democratic. "In the meantime, Stearns first acted in Hart's absence and then became governor in fact. His elevation to the governorship did little to nurture harmony in the party. Blacks felt increasingly alienated as Stearns tried to build his strength with the white, officeholding faction of the party. His actions led to new feuds. Congressman William J. Purman and Senator Simon B. Conover both broke with him, and the newspapers were filled with their acrimonious assaults on each other. The Conservative-Democrats had not been idle.”(18). "By 1884, Democrats, who had by then dropped the “Conservative” from their party name, …”(19). 

Resources:

(1-4) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 260). The University Press of Florida.

(5)Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, pp. 260-261). The University Press of Florida.

(6 + 7) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 261). The University Press of Florida.

(8-10) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 262). The University Press of Florida.

(11 + 12) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 263). The University Press of Florida.

(13 + 14) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 264). The University Press of Florida.

(15) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (pp. 266-268). The University Press of Florida.

(16) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 268). The University Press of Florida.

(17) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, pp. 270-271). The University Press of Florida.

(18) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 271). The University Press of Florida.

(19) Shofner, J. H. (2018). The History of Florida (M. Gannon, Ed.) (Ch. 15, p. 273). The University Press of Florida.

First Photo: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1901/03/the-freedmens-bureau/308772/

Second Photo: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reconstruction-timeline/