Escapes and efforts to prevent the escape of enslaved people
Rivers, Larry E. Rebels and Runaways: Slave Resistance in 19th Century Florida. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
This selection of publications includes both primary and secondary resources relating to escapes and efforts to prevent the escape of enslaved people in antebellum Florida.
Primary sources
Both the territorial and state legislatures of Florida passed laws drafted by white public officials to legalize and enforce the institution of slavery.
Historical Florida newspapers show the media’s role in preserving slavery and persecuting freedom seekers during the antebellum period.
Still other published primary sources include information about the work of abolitionists in Florida and efforts on the part of pro-slavery white settlers to curtail their efforts.
- Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida. “An Act for the punishment of slaves, for violations of the penal laws of this Territory.” Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida. (Florida, 1822, PDF), 181-185.
- General Assembly of the State of Florida. “Chapter 387.” Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida (Florida, 1850, PDF), 132-133.
- Lloyd, Robert. Newspaper Advertisement Announcing the Capture of an Enslaved Man Named Miles in St. Marks, The Floridian, July 28, 1838. 1838-07-28. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
- Walker, Jonathan. Trial and imprisonment of Jonathan Walker, at Pensacola, Florida, for aiding slaves to escape from bondage. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1850.
- Note: The State Library’s Florida Special Collection includes a facsimile of the above publication, rather than an original copy.
Secondary sources
Secondary sources, including peer-reviewed monographs and journal articles, examine many historical examples of enslaved peoples’ resistance to enslavement, as well as the efforts of white settlers to prevent the escape of enslaved Floridians.
- Clavin, Matthew J. The Battle of Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community. New York: New York University Press, 2019.
- Clavin, Matthew J. “Runaway Slave Advertisements in Antebellum Florida: A Retrospective.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 94, no. 3 (2016): 426–43.
- Kokomoor, Kevin. "A Re-Assessment of Seminoles, Africans, and Slavery on the Florida Frontier." The Florida Historical Quarterly 88, no. 2 (2009): 209-36.
- Moussalli, Stephanie D. "Florida's Frontier Constitution: The Statehood, Banking and Slavery Controversies." The Florida Historical Quarterly 74, no. 4 (1996): 423-39.
- Rivers, Larry E. Rebels and Runaways: Slave Resistance in 19th Century Florida. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
- Rivers, Larry E. Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009.
- Thompson, Joseph Conan. “Toward a More Humane Oppression: Florida’s Slave Codes, 1821-1861.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 71, no. 3 (1993): 324–38.
- Winsboro, Irvin D. S., and Joe Knetsch. "Florida Slaves, the "Saltwater Railroad" to the Bahamas, and Anglo-American Diplomacy." The Journal of Southern History 79, no. 1 (2013): 51-78.
