Joshua R. Giddings (1795-1864), an anti slavery leader and a champion of free speech, was admitted to the bar in 1821 and went on to serve several terms in the United States Congress, where he seized every opportunity to expose the sophisms of the slaveocracy. One of the highlights of his term during the first session of the Thirty-fifth Congress was the publication of The Exiles of Florida: The Crimes Committed By Our Government Against the Maroons, Who Fled From Florida South Carolina and other Slave States, Seeking Protection Under Spanish Laws (1858).
An early indictment of slaveocracy, The Exiles of Florida is an unoffending community of Black and Native Americans. Both groups were viewed as a threat to the status quo and the expansionist anthem of an emerging United States government's deadly role in destroying this Florida community, where both Blacks and Native Americans lived, worked and actively resisted enslavement. 338 pages