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6 Preserving Spanish Days: Marriage and Manumission One Spanish-era legacy that persisted, although with muted or at least veiled advantages, was familial bonds with whites. Interracial relationships, however , occurred more surreptitiously and with less social pressure on white fathers to live up to their responsibilities. On 23 Sep­ tem­ ber 1847, Robert R. Reid informed George Burt that “Francis Forward was caught last night very quietly spending the evening with a molatto girl,” thus attesting to the continuity , despite legal prohibitions, of a social pattern that stretched back to Spain’s rule. The St. Augustine News noted the “many walking evidences” of these relationships in 1841, and visitors from the North of­ ten remarked on the number of racially mixed persons they encountered. William Cullen Bryant, who came in 1843, was impressed by the “agreeable, open, and gentle physiognomy ” of the blacks he observed at Catholic Mass. The “Spanish race,” he concluded, “blends more kindly with the Af­ri­can, than does the English, and produces handsomer men and women.”1 Bryant, then, was quick to recognize a distinguishing characteristic of the local black community. The specifics of white-black conjugal ties, nevertheless, generally prove elusive. Compared to the Spanish period, Catholic baptismal records during the US antebellum regime offer very little data, but they sometimes hint of liaisons between prominent white men and Af­ ri­ can Ameri­ can women. David Levy Yulee, who served in the US Senate, and John Peck, a noted St. Augustine physician, were Protestants. This, along with antimiscegenation laws and the ridicule men faced in the press for race-mixing, makes it unlikely that Yulee and Peck would acknowledge their paternity if they sired bi­ racial progeny. Yet, on 29 April 1839, a priest noted that “Gillermo,” the son of “David Liby” and “Paty Mickler” was born. Eight years later, on 13 May 1847, “Francis Pecke[?],” a “colored boy” of “John Peke[?] and “Franc[e?]s Loid[?]” 100 / Chapter 6 entered the world. Thus, Senator Yulee and Dr. Peck possibly had children of color. Evidence is stronger for the planter Morris Sánchez (Joseph Simeon Sánchez’s cousin), and Sheriff Rafael B. Canova, both Catholics. In late 1852, “Bridget Rebeca,” the daughter of “Merris Sanchez” and the aforementioned “Patty Mickler,” along with “Christina,” born of “Harriet” and “Raphael B. Canova,” were baptized.2 These entries give evidence that some prestigious Hispanic whites remained willing to acknowledge their mixed-race offspring late into the antebellum period. Secular records also point to possible blood ties between blacks and whites. George Center, a white St. Augustine merchant, Indian trader, and politician , at one time ran an ice house and grocery/liquor business with Martin Roddy. In the 1830s, Francis Roddy, whose wife was a free woman of color, owned a general store in town. Charlotte Erwin had lived with Felicia M. F. Garvin (George J. F. Clarke’s mulatto daughter) and was a white planter’s biracial child. On 9 May 1845, “George Center” and “Charlotte Irving” were blessed with a baby, “Ann Center.” In 1850, “Charlotte Irwin,” a mulatto in her mid­ thirties, lived in the household of the mixed-race sexagenarian “George Santos.” Still, neither she, nor her daughters, “Frances Irwin” and “Florida Irwin,” bore the old man’s surname. In his younger days, Santos would have been a good provider. During the 1830s, he had purchased his brother’s free­ dom. Moreover, municipal officials had employed him to clean the marketplace and the city council’s office. Five year-old “Anna Center” stayed with her Catholic godmother, the quadroon Honora Clarke, and the latter’s white mother, Mary D. Clarke, in 1850. Ten years later, “Annie Center” resided with “Florida Center,” “Frances Center,” and “Charlotte Irvin.” Interestingly, George Center was not Charlotte Erwin’s white guardian in 1838 or 1858. Instead, he performed this duty for Fanny Fatio and Syke Saunders.3 “Center” may have been a corruption of “Santos.” On the other hand, in East Florida, free biracial women of­ ten became consorts of older whites who wielded economic or po­liti­cal power, and whites who had lived among the Seminoles frequently took wives of Af­ ri­ can descent. Shifting black identities added to the uncertainty surrounding interracial relationships. In 1834, the free woman of color Amelia McQueen sued the United States for damages that its troops inflicted during the Patriot War. She filed her petition under the name of her deceased husband, Abraham McQueen. Judge Robert R. Reid ordered depositions...

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