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The subject matter of the government documents contained in this collection covers many topics of importance to Florida's territorial and early statehood legislatures and governors. Included in the correspondence, petitions, and legislative records (acts, resolutions, and committee reports) are items pertaining to Florida's boundary, banking, slavery, the status of free Black people in Florida, Indian affairs, state militia concerns, the war with Mexico, railroads, gambling, agriculture, party politics, secession, and the Civil War.
There are approximately 630 items in this collection. While several letters and documents in the collection are in fragile condition, given the age and unknown storage history of the collection, the vast majority of the collection is in good to excellent condition.
Summary:
This series contains correspondence; petitions; legislative acts; and resolutions and committee reports of the secretaries of state, the territorial and state governors, the general assembly, citizens of Florida, and officials of other states from 1821 to 1878. The collection has been organized into 9 subseries maintaining the original order of the items in the collection.
Subseries 1: Banking and the Florida/Georgia Boundary Dispute, 1833-1858 (39 items). This series includes correspondence, petitions, and reports. There are numerous letters of interest between the governors of Florida and the governors of Georgia regarding the Florida-Georgia boundary dispute. Also of interest are letters and legislative documents on banking in Florida during the territorial period and early statehood.
Subseries 2: Infrastructure Issues: Railroads, Ferries, Lighthouses, Post Offices, and Public Lands, 1825-1862 (59 items). This series includes correspondence, resolutions, petitions, memorials, and reports. The majority of items in this collection deal with infrastructure issues in Florida; primarily railroads, lighthouses, mail routes, and waterways. Other correspondence of note deals with Florida's participation in the first World Fair in 1851.
Subseries 3: Florida Militia and Circuit Court Cases, 1825-1861 (104 items). This series includes correspondence, affidavits, copies of bills and laws, petitions, and resolutions. Among the militia items of interest are an Annual Militia Return for the Territory of Florida (1831), a "Confidential" report on the defense of Florida (1846), and a letter to Governor Moseley on how to defend Florida (1846). Other items of note are the correspondence from other states acknowledging or requesting copies of Florida Laws or Reports.
Subseries 4: Florida Boundaries, Banking, Abolition, and Agriculture, 1826-1858 (22 items). This series includes correspondence, memorials, petitions, and resolutions. Agricultural Items of interest include letters discussing the study of diseases affecting orange trees and the raising of Brahmin cattle. Other items discuss banking in Florida and the surveying of the Florida-Alabama boundary in 1846.
Subseries 5: Education, Divorce, and Railroads, 1845-1858 (39 items). This series includes correspondence, copies of bills, and petitions. Education items of interest include petitions to the legislature regarding the future location of the East and West Florida seminaries and the use of public lands for schools. In addition, there are resolutions and bills concerning the construction of railroads from 1848-1857 and petitions for divorces from 1844-1845..
Subseries 6: Military and Florida Volunteers 1840's, 1823-1860 (88 items). This series includes correspondence, petitions, and reports. Military items of interest include correspondence with the Federal Government establishing fortifications at Key West and Dry Tortugas and items concerning the defense of Florida. Other letters of significance deal with arming the Florida volunteers.
Subseries 7: Florida Railroads, Secession, and Taxes, 1838-1876 (72 items). This series includes correspondence, copies of acts and bills, petitions, resolutions, and reports.
Subseries 8: Negro and Slave Rights, 1824-1878, (96 items). This series includes correspondence, petitions, memorials, and copies of bills.
Subseries 9: Railroads, Indian Raids, Militia, Health and Fisheries, 1826-1858 (115 items). This series includes correspondence, memorials, petitions, resolutions, and reports.
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Ownership/Custodial History:
In the fall of 2006, staff at the University of Central Florida contacted the State Library and Archives of Florida about a collection of documents that UCF had acquired in May 2006. The collection apparently contained originals or copies of State of Florida governmental documents from the territorial and early statehood periods.
A joint examination of the collection by UCF staff and Florida State Archives staff revealed that the papers appeared to be original to the state government of Florida. The UCF collection contained numerous territorial and state government documents not contained in the State Archives' collections, in addition to contemporary copies of correspondence, acts, and petitions to the territorial and state legislatures contained in the State Archives' collections.
This collection appears to have been a part of the estate of Dr. Julia Floyd Smith, a professor of history at Georgia Southern University. In 1973, the University of Florida Press published Dr. Smith's work, Slavery and Plantation Growth in Florida 1821-1860. The notes and bibliography of this book cite several of the documents contained in the present UCF collection. The citations list the documents as part of the correspondence of the Governors and Secretaries of State of Florida, 1845-1860, which includes documents from the territorial period. Since Dr. Smith's book was published in 1973, it is likely that she performed the research for the book during the 1960s.
It is clear this collection consists of official papers long lost to the State of Florida. The collection provides extraordinary documentation from Florida's territorial and early statehood eras. The value of these documents to the preservation and study of Florida's history cannot be calculated.
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Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Secretary of State. Secretary of the Territory.
Banks and banking History Florida. Governors Florida Mexican War, 1846-1848. Railroads Florida Seminole War, 3rd, 1855-1858. Seminole War, 2nd, 1835-1842. Slavery Florida
Proclamations. aat Territorial records. aat Letter books. aat
for detailed listing.