Eric Musgrove
Contributor
We ended our discussion last week talking about the First Seminole War, in which former slaves played an important role. This week, we continue our discussion of African American history in Suwannee County. As this article begins, I must stress that my philosophy has always been that we must talk about all of history, not just the good parts. History is full of bad and ugly events, and as a historian, I believe it is my duty to present all of them, even if it is not the version that many people believe or accept. Furthermore, we must remember that what was considered acceptable at one time may no longer be considered such due to our “modern” sensibilities. In 100 years, what will people say about our beliefs and actions?
By the time of the Civil War, African Americans were a large minority in some states; in one or two Southern states, they were even the majority. However, despite the prevalent modern thought that most Southerners owned slaves (and large numbers of them, at that), the historical facts show otherwise. Depending upon the accounting method used, only between 6% and 30% of Southern households owned slaves, and most of these only owned a small number of slaves. An interesting point of reference not often mentioned is that 28% of all free African Americans owned slaves themselves.
Suwannee County was not extremely rich when it was established in December 1858. There were several slave owners in the new county; the largest number were owned by Thomas D. Dexter, an early settler whose plantation was off White Springs Road, surrounding what is now the University of Florida/IFAS Suwannee Valley Agricultural Extension Office (there’s a reason the adjoining lake is called Dexter Lake!). Dexter owned 53 slaves, which was a far smaller number than owners in the counties to the west who owned hundreds of slaves on their large plantations. Several other Suwannee County citizens owned a few dozen slaves. Number-wise, just like many other states, it works out that a small minority of citizens owned a large majority of slaves. Many of the slave owners in Suwannee County only owned one or two slaves, and they were often domestic servants; we’d probably associate them with maids or butlers today (except for the very important distinction that they were not free). In fact, the first recorded deed in Suwannee County, recorded in 1859, was the sale of a slave named Adam for $1,200 ($47,000 today). Slaves were not cheap, which is one of the reasons why relatively few people owned one, let alone dozens.
Deed Book A, page 53, is the first recorded document existing in Suwannee County. It is a deed, recorded in 1859, for the sale of a slave named Adam for $1,200 ($47,000 today).
Although a full discussion is outside the scope of this article, the Civil War did not begin as a quest to abolish slavery, although slavery was definitely one of the major issues that split the Union in two (and neither was it technically a civil war, but that’s another story!). Even most Northerners believed that African Americans were inferior to whites. There were also several slave states that remained loyal to the United States during the war, indicating that slavery was not perceived as the main reason for the war. It was not until after the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862 (a year and a half after the war had started) that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves in the Confederacy, a symbolic gesture that did not immediately free many slaves because they were still under Confederate control! The Proclamation was a major political and moral victory because it helped secure support for the war at home and abroad, which was what Lincoln really needed after a year of repeated military defeats. Lincoln also established an institution through which African Americans could join the United States Army (although serving under white officers), through which thousands of African Americans fought for the Union.
Despite these progressive ideas, Lincoln himself did not believe that African Americans should have the same rights as whites nor that they should be allowed to vote, a belief shared by many in the North. Near the end of his life, however, Lincoln decided that perhaps African American veterans and perhaps educated men should have the right to vote. Lincoln’s preferred solution to the slave problem was to ship African Americans to Africa or Central America, an idea shared by many other American leaders up through the early 1900s. In fact, the African country of Liberia was founded 40 years prior to the Civil War for the primary purpose of providing a new home for former slaves (“liberated,” in other words) from the United States.
Regardless of the complex social, political and moral beliefs surrounding it, the United States finally outlawed slavery with the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution on Dec. 6, 1865, more than six months after the end of the Civil War. This act freed the remaining slaves in the North and the South and opened up a new world to millions. Many African Americans decided to move to Suwannee County, some originally arriving as soldiers in the Union Army and others simply as private citizens. In fact, nearly half of all newcomers to the State of Florida immediately after the war were African Americans. Some received land under the Freedmen’s Bureau Act, which distributed abandoned land, food and clothing. The Bureau also helped establish schools and other professional opportunities for the newly freed men and women.
Join me next week as we continue our study of African American history in Suwannee County.
Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or 386-362-0564.