January 10, 1861 – Florida Becomes Third State to Secede from the Union

Florida was admitted to the Union as a slave state in 1845. On this day in history, delegates to the Florida Convention in Tallahassee voted to secede from the United States of America, following similar declarations by South Carolina and Mississippi. The following month, Florida was one of six Deep South states to form the Confederate States of America.

The secession ordinance of Florida simply declared its severing of ties with the federal Union, without stating any reasons. Five days earlier, however, John C. McGehee, President of the Florida Secession Convention, had declared, per a National Park Service history of Florida’s secession:

At the South, and with our People of course, slavery is the element of all value, and a destruction of that destroys all that is property. As we stand our doom is decreed.”

NPS explains:

He believed remaining in the Union meant allowing rule by those who were ‘sectional, irresponsible to us, and driven on by an infuriated fanatical madness that defies all opposition” and who would “destroy every vestige of right growing out of property in slaves.'”

McGehee had reason to be concerned. He owned 100 enslaved people. It was the foundation of his wealth and power. The NPS site reports:

The secession convention had 69 delegates representing Florida’s 36 counties. Every delegate was a white male owning, on average, 10 enslaved people. They argued and debated about when, not if, to secede. A majority favored immediate secession while some wanted to wait until Georgia and Alabama left first.”

The NPS site notes ironically:

Delegates voted on January 10: 62 delegates voted yea and seven nays. ‘Then was heard from the people who thronged the hall one simultaneous shout declaratory of the dawn of liberty,’ one reporter wrote.”

A new Constitution, also produced on this date, set out the rights of “free white men.” Article XV, Section 1 provided that “The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves.” Section 2 added: “The General Assembly shall have power to pass laws to prevent free negroes, mulattoes, and other persons of color from immigrating to this State, or from being discharged from on board any vessel in any of the ports of Florida.”

Florida played an active role in the Civil War. At least 17,000 Floridians fought in the conflict. The state was an important source of foodstuff for the South and the coastline had many bays and inlets that allowed blockade-runners to evade the Union Army.

The war ended in April 1865. By the following month, United States control of Florida had been re-established, slavery had been abolished, and Florida’s Confederate Governor John Milton had committed suicide.