Date

3-10-2026

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Jeffery Rogers

Keywords

Antebellum Florida, Antebellum Economics, Antebellum Politics, Antebellum Banking, Antebellum, Land Speculation, Florida Territory, Richard K. Call, John Innerarity, Jacksonian Democracy

Disciplines

History

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the interplay of land speculation, legal authority, and political governance in the Florida Territory from 1821 to 1845. Centered around the extensive Forbes and Innerarity land claims carried over from the Spanish period, the litigation and politics are demonstrative of the territorial administration and was profoundly shaped by a concentrated cohort. This faction of legally trained officeholders and investors, figures such as Joseph M. White, Richard K. Call, James, Gadsden, and William P. DuVal, operated as governing nucleus. Their ability and command of statutes, access to federal patronage, and strategic involvement allowed them to use land speculation, banking, and eventually railroads to meet their various goals. They were able to take ambiguous land claims into enforceable property, which were capitalized by regional banks, and able to consolidate their political power. This dissertation demonstrates how frontier governance in the early days of the American republic blurred the line separating public duty from private enrichment. Through schemes, shielded by the Legislative Council, they leveraged public credit of the territory to guarantee the bonds, speculative banking, and railroad companies. This eventually led to a regional banking collapse and resulted in the failure of a system designed to enrich a few at the expense of the public domain. Ultimately the Territory of Florida functioned as an early example of democratic inequality, in which legal expertise and speculative enterprise banded with political connections combined to produce a durable elite whose priorities decisively influenced the region’s economic development and political trajectory into statehood.

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