Was Slavery Really Abolished in Florida on 1865?

 In the novel, A Land Remembered, Tobias provides a guy named Skillit with a job after he was freed from slavery. Slavery was abolished May 20th 1865 and was abolished under Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. It took the state of Florida an extra 2 years after the Emancipation to officially abolish slavery in the Floridas. 



But, even after the slaves were "officially free," there were many slaves who had no where to go after they were legally free, and many were still enslaved after the proclomation. In the novel, A Land Remembered, Skillit was on the run after he was freed, but had nowhere to go. He only had pants to his name when Tobias found him wandering the land. Sadly, many plantation owners were not following the new laws regarding the abolishment of slavery, leaving many slaves confused on wether they could rightfully leave their plantations and harsh conditions. 


This is a flyer from 1860, posted by Edmund Jones informing people of his runaway slave that he intends to capture back. This is a glimpse into the harsh mindset of these plantation owners back in mid 1800's Florida.


Even though the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln was officially passed in Tallahassee in 1865, the local view of slavery did not always change how the proclamation intended it to. Sadly, many plantation owners still kept the slaves working in hard conditions, or even worse, let them free and allowed them to die in the wilderness. 


Humanities, Florida, and Florida Humanities. “Florida's Culture of Slavery - Florida Humanities.” Florida Humanities - Sharing the Stories of Florida, 20 Oct. 2021, https://floridahumanities.org/floridas-culture-of-slavery/. Accessed 5 October 2022.

Smith, Patrick D. A Land Remembered. Scarborough, Ontario, 1984. Accessed 5 October 2022.

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