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Abstract

Historians have contended that during the period of Reconstruction when the Republican party dominated the political stage in Florida, the state was controlled by incompetent, illiterate, and venal Negroes. A critical examination of primary sources, however, shows that this is not a valid conception. Negro office holders were always in a decided minority and among those who held office on the state and local level there were many capable men. The best example of a Florida Negro who disproves the stereotyped freedman politician is Jonathan C. Gibbs, one of the best educated and most cultured persons holding a political office.

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