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COVER Miami’s Bayfront Park, November 5, 1927, after the bust of the land boom. The photograph was taken by Richard B. Hoit who operated an aerial photographic service in Miami from the late teens until the 1950s. It is re- printed courtesy of the Historical Association of Southern Florida. The THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume LIX, Number 2 OCTOBER 1980 COPYRIGHT 1980 by the Florida Historical Society, Tampa, Florida. Second class postage paid at Tampa and DeLeon Springs, Florida. Printed by E. O. Painter Printing Co., DeLeon Springs, Florida. (ISSN 0015-4113) THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Samuel Proctor, Editor David Sowell, Editorial Assistant David L. Lawrence, Editorial Assistant EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Herbert J. Doherty, Jr. University of Florida Michael V. Gannon University of Florida John K. Mahon University of Florida Jerrell H. Shofner University of Central Florida Charlton W. Tebeau University of Miami (Emeritus) J. Leitch Wright, Jr. Florida State University Correspondence concerning contributions, books for review, and all editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor, Florida Historical Quarterly, Box 14045, University Station, Gainesville, Florida 32604. The Quarterly is interested in articles and documents pertaining to the history of Florida. Sources, style, footnote form, original- ity of material and interpretation, clarity of thought, and interest of readers are considered. All copy, including footnotes, should be double-spaced. Footnotes are to be numbered consecutively in the text and assembled at the end of the article. Particular attention should be given to following the footnote style of the Quarterly. The author should submit an original and retain a carbon for security. The Florida Historical Society and the Editor of the Florida Historical Quarterly accept no responsibility for statements made or opinions held by authors. Table of Contents JOHN WILLIS MENARD: A PROGRESSIVE BLACK IN POST-CIVIL WAR FLORIDA Bess Beatty 123 LIBERAL ARTS ON THE FLORIDA FRONTIER: THE FOUNDING OF ROLLINS COLLEGE, 1885-1890 Jack C. Lane 144 FEDERAL SCHOOLS AND ACCULTURATION AMONG THE FLORIDA SEMINOLES, 1927-1954 Harry A. Kersey, Jr. 165 RUBE BURROW, “KING OF OUTLAWS,” AND HIS FLORIDA ADVENTURES William Warren Rogers, Jr. 182 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS “THE CASE AND PETITION OF HIS MAJESTY’S LOYAL SUBJECTS, LATE OF WEST FLORIDA” J. Barton Starr 199 BOOK REVIEWS ............................................................................ 213 BOOK NOTES ................................................................................. 241 H ISTORY N EWS ....................................................................... 248 SEVENTY-EIGHTH MEETING ..................................................... 252 iii BOOK REVIEWS ETHNIC MINORITIES IN GULF COAST SOCIETY: PROCEEDINGS OF THE GULF COAST HISTORY AND HUMANITIES CONFERENCE, VOLUME VIII, edited by Jerrell H. Shofner and Linda V. Ellsworth reviewed by Gary Mormino RELACIONES DE DEPENDENCIA ENTRE FLORIDA Y ESTADOS UNIDOS (1783-1820), by Pablo Tornero Tinajero reviewed by Bruce S. Chappell AFRICANS AND CREEKS: FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD TO THE CIVIL WAR, by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. reviewed by Kenneth Wiggins Porter AARON BURR: THE YEARS FROM PRINCETON TO VICE PRESIDENT, 1756-1805, by Milton Lomask reviewed by Aubrey C. Land THE PRESIDENCY OF ANDREW JACKSON: WHITE HOUSE POLITICS, 1829-1837, by Richard B. Latner reviewed by Ernest M. Lander, Jr. RETREAT FROM RECONSTRUCTION, 1869-1879, by William Gillette reviewed by LaWanda Cox JOHN HORRY DENT: SOUTH CAROLINA ARISTOCRAT ON THE ALABAMA FRONTIER, by Ray Mathis reviewed by Edward C. Williamson ORATORY IN THE NEW SOUTH, edited by Waldo W. Braden reviewed by James W. Silver SEARCH FOR CONSENSUS: THE STORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, by Ralph M. Goldman reviewed by William C. Havard AUTOMOBILE AGE ATLANTA: THE MAKING OF A SOUTHERN METROPOLIS, by Howard L. Preston reviewed by Judson C. Ward, Jr. REDNECK MOTHERS, GOOD OL' GIRLS AND OTHER SOUTHERN BELLES: A CELEBRA- TION OF THE WOMEN OF DIXIE, by Sharon McKern reviewed by Ruth Amy “TURN TO THE SOUTH“: ESSAYS ON SOUTHERN JEWRY, edited by Nathan M. Kaganoff and Melvin I. Urofsky reviewed by Abraham J. Peck STAND WATIE AND THE AGONY OF THE CHEROKEE NATION, by Kenny A. Franks reviewed by Theda Perdue HISPANIC-AMERICAN ESSAYS IN HONOR OF MAX LEON MOORHEAD, edited by William S. Coker reviewed by Gilbert C. Din JOHN WILLIS MENARD: A PROGRESSIVE BLACK IN POST-CIVIL WAR FLORIDA by BESS BEATTY * OHN WILLIS MENARD was thirty-three years old when he arrived in Florida in 1871. Born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, he had at- tended Iberia College in Ohio and had been employed by the federal government during the Civil War. His service on a com- mittee which surveyed areas in Central America as possible sites for settlement of emancipated slaves had made him even more aware of the needs of the black freedman. He was the first black to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, although he was never seated. He also for a time was editor of the New Orleans Standard. Menard possessed the talent, educa- tion, and experience to become a major force on the Florida political scene during Reconstruction and the tumultuous years that followed. Menard and his wife Elizabeth, their son Willis, and two daughters, Mary and Alice, settled in Jacksonville. There Menard purchased two lots in the city. He worked first as a post office clerk and then was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue for the Florida district. He also edited the Jacksonville Sun. 1 * Ms. Beatty is a member of the history faculty, Shorter College, Rome, Georgia. 1. John Willis Menard, Lays in Summer Lands (Washington, 1879); Edith Menard, “John Willis Menard,” Negro History Bulletin, XXVIII (De- cember 1964), 53-54; Thomas V. Gibbs, “John Willis Menard, The First Colored Congressman Elect,” A.M.E. Church Review, III (April 1887), 426-32; Joan R. Sherman, Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nine- teenth Century (Urbana, 1974), 97-102; Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News- paper, XXV (December 26, 1868), 227; John Willis Menard to Mr. Secre- tary (William Windon?), June 15, 1889, Personnel Applications, Office of the Secretary, 1830-1910, General Records of the Treasury Department, Record Group 56, National Archives Building; U. S. Register of Offices and Agents (Washington, September, 1873), 380; Warranty Deeds, no. 763 (July 11, 1871), no. 767 (July 28, 1871), Title and Trust Company of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. 124 FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Spanning slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, and the emergence of the Jim Crow era, Menard’s career is typical of the noted group of blacks who played an influential role both in the black community and in the general society in the post- Civil War period. Earlier histories of Reconstruction have given short shrift to these black leaders, usually pronouncing them corrupt, servile, and incompetent. As late as 1947 one southern historian concluded that “much of their performance was either grotesque or puerile.“ 2 During the past few years this stereotype has been altered considerably by recently published general studies and individual biographies of black Southerners. But, because most of these revisions have dealt only with the most prominent blacks, understanding of grass-roots black leadership is still elusive. The sketchy material available on John Willis Menard’s Florida career sheds some light on the activities of such men, the kind of leadership they offered, the difficulties they faced, the peculiarities of their roles as compared to that of comparable white leaders, and the extent and nature of their power and influence. His career is also typical of those grass-roots leaders in the paucity of the records pertaining to it. With few of his personal papers and none of his newspapers extant, it is difficult to go beyond the public-and therefore partial-personality and dis- cover the person who was John Willis Menard. There was some newspaper notice following his historical speech in Congress as a potential member from Louisiana in 1868. The Worcester Spy described him as “a man of good stature and stout body, young and pleasant-looking in the face, the features of which, though heavy, are mobile and vivacious, while the color is a dark brown. His manner is pleasant and gentlemanly, while his voice is re- fined and well modulated. He appears and is a gentleman of education and fair abilities.” He was also described as having “a very high reputation as a scholar,” “an intelligent face,” as being “calm, self-possessed,” “an able representative man” and as “repre- senting not only his race, but the liberty of the American people.“ 3 But the private person is best revealed in his poetry published in a single volume as Lays in Summer Lands (1879). 2. E. Merton Coulter, The South During Reconstruction, 1865-1877 (Baton Rouge, 1947), 145. 3. Menard, Lays in Summer Lands, 6-14. JOHN WILLIS MENARD 125 A romantic, he wrote poems to the woman who became his wife, to his children, his parents, and to other members of his family. A few of his poems dealt with racial matters, and they show how he waxed now optimistic and now despondent as events seemed to dictate. 4 Other than this, one must be satisfied with the surviving records of Menard’s public career. Menard became involved in Republican politics soon after his arrival in Jacksonville in 1871. In the fall of 1873 a legisla- tive vacancy was created in Duval County by the resignation of John R. Scott, a black man who had held the seat since 1868. At the Duval Republican convention in November 1873, Menard, who was serving as chairman of the convention’s committee of resolutions, was nominated to run for the Florida House. The Jacksonville Union noted that while it was not a ticket that would elicit the support of property owners and the general business community, “both white and colored might have fared much worse than they have.” Successful in the election, Menard took his assembly seat in January.

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