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Florida Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement, 1845-1896

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Florida Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement, 1845-1896 Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 Civiliter Mortuus: Florida Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement, 1845 1896 Chris Day Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES CIVILITER MORTUUS: FLORIDA SUPREME COURT AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1845 – 1896 By CHRIS DAY A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2013 Chris Day defended this Dissertation on November 1, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: Maxine D. Jones Professor Directing Dissertation Maxine Montgomery University Representative Peter Garretson Committee Member James P. Jones Committee Member Joe M. Richardson Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii DEDICATION I would like to thank several people for their assistance and patience in the completion of this endeavor. First and foremost I would like to thank my family for all of their support without which I could not have made it through these years. To my mother, I would like to thank you for teaching me to be persistent and focused and never allowing me to give up on myself. To my wonderful wife, Zainab Day, who is the most beautiful human being I have ever met. You are my every breath and without you my life would be lost and empty. You have given me two beautiful and vibrant children and I will always remember the sacrifices you made for our family and me. I will never forget the hundreds of hours you gave me to finish this project and while I may have written this dissertation it is indeed our work. This publication is ours because we did it together. Thank you and realize words can never express my admiration for you and the totally of your indomitable spirit. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like acknowledge my graduate committee for their hard work and patience. Dr. Joe M. Richardson’s direction on my work on Reconstruction and postbellum activism helped clearly articulate my prose on the subject. Dr. James P. Jones’s expertise on the Civil War and its impact on African Americans was significant because it allowed me to better understand the paradigm shift experienced as a result of those events. Dr. Peter Garretson was always mindful that this subject area was not confined to the American South and that it was important to have a global prospective in order to ask more insightful questions about human rights activism. Dr. Maxine Montgomery always provided a kind ear and advice on how to improve my writing. To my major professor, Dr. Maxine D. Jones, I would like to personally thank you for all of your kind words and support over the years. Your calming strength has allowed me to transcend from ignorance to maturity. You never gave up on me and allowed me to grow as necessary and taught me lessons that I will never forget. Without your guidance in all aspects of my work, from the antebellum period on, I would never have been able to finish this. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract...........................................................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 1. ABOLITIONISTS ARTICULATE THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT...........................12 2. SLAVE CODES AND THE PROTECTION OF PROPERTY............................................31 3. THE ENSLAVED AND A JURY TRIAL............................................................................53 4. CIVIL WAR AND A NEW PARADIGM............................................................................87 5. RECONSTRUCTION AND THE NEW DISCOURSE OF FREEDOM...........................108 6. ASSAULT ON AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ................................................154 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................202 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................207 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.......................................................................................................231 v ABSTRACT In the American political context African Americans have the greatest legacy because of their crusade for freedom and civil rights. Unlike Anglo-Americans, African Americans were barred from society for no other reason than their skin color, but their fight for freedom forced Americans to define themselves and how to protect their rights in a free society. The American system has been touted by historians such as Gordon Wood as being a radical departure from the British model of government. Barbara Clark Smith argued that the American Revolution was not a radical event because it failed to meet the egalitarian principles set forth by the revolutionary intellectuals. Wood’s response was that the radical nature of the Revolution was not seen until well after the war and subsequent nation building, because those principles led to emancipation and universal suffrage. Smith’s point is important to note because the immediacy created by the concept of “radical” was not met during the Revolutionary period. For the enslaved their lot in life had not changed with Treaty of Paris or the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution, previous to the passage of the 14th Amendment, did not provide a definition of citizenship. It was just assumed that an American citizen was a white male landowner. The reality of this situation was that racial discrimination caused many to turn their backs on egalitarianism for a racially bifurcated society. At this point, African Americans, free and enslaved, had to collectively speak out against this discrimination and remind Anglo- Americans of their egalitarian principles. The greatest legacy of Civil Rights Movement was that it forced America to abide by its altruistic principles. African Americans forced the definition of citizenship and created greater protections for American civil rights. This was not a process that started in the twentieth century; it began with the inception of the American Republic. In order to understand the true nature of society historians must look at the dispossessed to see the worst effects of society over time. In the Antebellum period enslaved and free blacks were those groups. The want of freedom is the simplest civil right. When enslaved African Americans went into the court system laws used to protect freedom had to be disfigured to protect bondage. With intent or not, every time a slave went into the court system they had to be given a minuscule amount of rights in order to participate in the trial. This was a challenge to the oppressive system. In a society that is governed by laws, enforcement in the courts should be autonomous enough to overcome social discrimination, but the law is a slow lumbering beast that has to wonder the dark woods of a fickle society before it can see the light vi of true autonomy. The Civil Rights Movement was significantly impacted by the court system because it controlled the impact of law on African Americans. The movement first had to get the courts to recognize them as human beings before they could continue the quest for freedom. This journey can be seen in the Florida Supreme Court. The battle between property and humanity raged on until after the Civil War and emancipation. Reconstruction created a new dialogue of African American freedom and citizenship. No longer did they have to suffer the courts’ myopic view of them as property. Federal intervention allowed African Americans to exercise suffrage and participate in jury trials. After the threat of Federal intervention was removed by apathy and paternalistic adjudication in the U.S. Supreme Court, states began attacking African American rights and enacting segregationist laws. The Civil Rights Movement faced an all out assault in Florida with the removal of African Americans from the voter rolls and public conveyances. This trend towards a rigid society based on racial division was solidified with the Plessy decision. The courts for a short time were willing to view African Americans as first-class citizens, but inevitably reverted back to antebellum jurisprudence that saw blacks as having no rights they were bound to respect. For African Americans, their contribution to the historical lexicon has been the protection of rights set forth by the Constitution. They gave the Republic a road map explaining how to protect their rights in the courtroom and on the streets. vii INTRODUCTION In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at a July Fourth event in Rochester, New York. The speech known as “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” was not the typical patriotic oration. Douglass took the opportunity to question whether the principles of the Declaration of Independence were extended to African Americans. He said, “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.”1 Was he there to be mocked as they celebrated liberty and freedom while his enslaved brethren could not? He said
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