Did Slaves Have Free Will? Luke, a Slave, v. Florida and Crime at the Command of the Master

The mules had been shot. When the mules, regularly left to forage for themselves amid the Florida scrub, did not wander back to the Hernandez plantation, Adam, the driver charged with their care, went to look for them. He found the animals dead and dying along the road that connected the Hernandez and Dupont plantations, south of St. Augustine. A trail of blood led to Dupont\u27s

Free Blacks, Citizenship, and the Constitution in Florida Courts, 1821-1846

In 1829, George J. F. Clarke of St Augustine called on the St. Johns County tax assessor to make a return (itemization) of his taxable properties and those of each of his five adult sons. Clarke was one of the city\u27s leading men, born in St. Augustine to Scottish parents during Florida\u27s British period. Clarke\u27s sons, born once Florida had returned to Spanish rule, were his children by his mistress, Flora Leslie, a slave he had purchased in 1793 and emancipated in 1797. In November 1828, the Legislative Council for the Florida Territory had enacted a revenue law that taxed not only property but contained a levy on free men of color as well. For each of his sons, Clarke made a property return, then returned him as a free man of color, + entered a protest against the constitutionality of the act of the Council and admonished the assessor not to proceed under it. Some weeks later, when the tax collector, Francis J. Avice, demanded payment, Clarke paid each son\u27s property tax but declined to pay the personal tax. Avice refused to receive the one without the other. Clarke then paid the whole, warning Avice not to remit the money to the state treasurer as he would be sued for it