In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

9. Slave Violence [He] . . . split in twain the head of his master. —Tampa Florida Peninsular, December 15, 1856 Without doubt,many more of Florida’s enslaved blacks absconded from 1821 to 1860 than committed physical violence against whites, but acts of physical violence remained nonetheless the ultimate demonstration of discontent with the institution of slavery. Violence could result in the destruction of human livesbutmightsimplyentaildestroyingproperty.Large-scalerebellioncertainly constituted the ultimate in violence against whites; yet with a major exception to be discussed in chapter 10 and not unlike the southern experience generally, individual acts of violence perpetrated by slaves against whites represented the typical and most frequent such action in Florida.1 Acts of physical violence perpetrated on whites by captive laborers may have been seen less frequently than nonviolent forms of resistance in Florida,but the possibility of slave-perpetrated violence persistently sent chills through and often wreaked panic in Florida’s white community during the territorial and early statehood periods.Offering context,the peninsula had enjoyed a reputation as a haven for armed runaways from the Chesapeake region and Carolina Lowcountry dating back at least to the establishment of the free black community of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose) near St.Augustine in 1738.Whites had learned from firsthand experience in the years subsequent to that event that blacks could and would fight. When whites streamed into frontier Florida after 1821, Fort Mose had ceased to exist, but still they found themselves dealing time and again with armed free blacks and runaways who were well prepared to defend their right to be free.2 Ironically, the tradition of fighting to defend home and family that struck so fundamentally at white psyches when demonstrated or threatened by black Floridians formed a core element of the culture many whites brought with them Rivers_Text.indd 121 3/22/12 10:12 AM 122 Violent Resistance to the territory and state.Based upon traditions dating back to the seventeenth century, Virginia migrants and others who settled in Florida also stood ready to defend their honor and that of their families with violent reprisals. Those actions could include fighting and dueling, although sometimes they encompassed outright murder. The proclivity to defend one’s rights and space thus pervaded Florida society and made for a volatile climate. Slaves, of course, could not defend their families in the same manner as whites because, if they did so,they faced the reality that such acts risked instant death for themselves and perhaps their loved ones as well.3 Acts of violence committed by blacks against whites concerned Floridians so much that their councilmen and legislators time and again enacted measures designed to protect the public from bondservants and runaways.Plus,owners and their agents took care to ensure that enslaved blacks, as well as runaways, generally knew of the potential consequences of assaulting or killing a white person. In order that enslaved blacks not turn the slaveholder’s world upside down,laws clearly delineated prescribed,strict punishments.A statute enacted in 1824, only three years after the United States accepted Florida from Spain, plainly declared: “Be it further enacted that if any slave shall consult, advise, or conspire to rebel,or make insurrection against the white inhabitants of this territory,or against the laws of the government thereof,or shall plot or conspire the murder of any white person,or shall commit an assault and battery,on any white person with an intention to kill, he or she shall, on conviction of either of the said crimes, suffer death.”4 Other legislative acts followed the 1824 statute. Three years after its enactment , for instance, the territorial council specified that a slave convicted of murder would not even be allowed assistance to save his mortal soul. That is, the law clearly articulated that “if any Negro should make an attempt to kill a white person,or aid or abet such attack,”he was to suffer death without benefit of clergy. Historian Julia Floyd Smith aptly summed up other punishments that eventually were to be imposed on enslaved blacks convicted of physically touching a white man or woman. As she summarized, they were subject to “having his [or her] hands burned with a heated iron, his [or her] ears nailed to a post, or a certain number of lashes by the whip.” As would be expected, Smith added, “a felony [was] punishable by death.”5 Whites’ fears were not without some foundation in fact. The...

Share