James M. Denham, Ph.D.

Professor of History

My goal as a professor is to aid students in reading and thinking critically while developing an appreciation for the relevance of history to their daily lives. I encourage students to understand ‘cause and effect’ of historical events, as well as appreciate the ‘why important’ and the significance. Finally, I believe that active engagement through research, writing, and developing public presentations is essential to good teaching, and I enjoy sharing my projects with my students.

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Biography

James M. Denham is Professor of History and Director of the Lawton M. Chiles Jr. Center for Florida History at Florida Southern College. Before coming to Lakeland in 1991, Denham held teaching appointments at Florida State University, Georgia Southern University, and Limestone College in South Carolina. A specialist in Southern, Florida, Criminal Justice, and Legal history, Denham received his Ph.D degree from Florida State University. He is the author of Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015), "Fifty Years of Justice: A History of the U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015), and "A Rogue's Paradise": Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997). Denham is also the author of four other books including Florida Sheriffs: A History, 1821-1945 (Tallahassee, Sentry Press, 2001), with William W. Rogers; Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives, the Florida Reminiscences of George Gillette Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), with Canter Brown, Jr. Echoes from a Distant Frontier: the Brown Sisters’ Correspondence in Antebellum Florida (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004), with Keith Huneycutt and The Letters of George Long Brown: A Yankee Merchant on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2019), with Keith L. Huneycutt.

Denham's articles and reviews have appeared in the America Historical Review, American Journal of Legal History, Journal of Southern History, Florida Historical Quarterly, Florida Bar Journal, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Military History of the West, Gulf Coast Historical Review, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Florida Living, South Florida History Magazine, and the Tampa Tribune. An award-winning author and public speaker, Denham was awarded the Florida Historical Society's Arthur W. Thompson Prize in 1992 and in 2002 he was awarded the society’s James J. Horgan Book Prize for Florida Sheriffs.

Denham has lectured widely throughout the state for the Florida Humanities Council and other organizations. He is a frequent contributor to Florida Public Radio. Denham has also served fellowships at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, the University of South Carolina, the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University, Columbia University, the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, and the Virginia Historical Society. In 2015 the Florida Historical Society awarded Denham the Rembert Patrick Book Prize for Fifty Years of Justice. In 2016 the Board of Directors of the Florida House on Capitol Hill in Washington D. C. named him Florida Distinguished Author of the Year.

Teaching Experience

Florida Southern College

Assistant Professor, 1991-96
Associate Professor, 1996-00
Professor, 2000-
Director, Center for Florida History, 2001-
Chair, History-Political Science Dept 2015-

Limestone College

Assistant Professor, 1987-91

Georgia Southern University

Instructor, 1987

Florida State University

Adjunct Instructor, 1985-6

Courses Taught

Western Civilization I &II
U.S. Survey I & II
Old South
New South
U.S. Diplomatic History I & II
U. S. Foreign Policy
Civil War and Reconstruction
History of Women in America
Modern Latin America
African American History
Florida History
Florida’s Heritage of Diversity and Justice (Honors)
England and the World Wars (England May Option Program)

Education

Ph. D., History, Florida State University, (1988)
- Dissertation: “A Rogue’s Paradise: Violent Crime in Antebellum Florida, 1988
- Major Field: U. S. Nineteenth Century, concentration in the Antebellum South
M. A., History, Florida State University (1983)
B. A., History, Florida State University (1980)

Awards

Rembert Patrick Prize, Florida Historical Society for Fifty Years of Justice – 2016
Named Distinguished Author of the Year, Florida House on Capitol Hill – 2016
Awarded Tenure – 2011
Preservationist of the Year, City of Lakeland - 2005
James J. Horgan Book Award, Florida Historical Society, for Florida Sheriffs – 2002
Arthur W. Thompson Prize, Florida Historical Society - 1992

Publications

Books

With Keith L. Huneycutt, The Letters of George Long Brown: A Yankee Merchant on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier. Gainesville: University Press of
Florida. 2019.

Fifty Years of Justice: A History of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015.

Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015.

With Keith L. Huneycutt, Echoes from a Distant Frontier: The Brown Sisters’
Correspondence in Antebellum Florida. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

With William W. Rogers, Florida Sheriffs: A History, 1821-1945. Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 2001.

With Canter Brown, Jr. Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: The Florida Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

"A Rogue's Paradise": Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997.

Book Chapters (Peer Reviewed)

“Florida’s First State Constitutional Convention in 1838,” in Robert Cassanello, ed. Crafting Constitutions in Florida, 1810-1968. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 60-85.

“William Pope DuVal,” 23-30; “John Henry Eaton,” 31-42; “Robert Raymond Reid,” 53-64; “John Branch,”66-76 in R. Boyd Murphree and Robert Taylor eds. The Governors of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020.

“Introduction” in Robert M. Jarvis, ed. Florida’s Other Courts: Unconventional Justice in the Sunshine State. Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2018, 1-5.

With Canter Brown, “South Carolina Volunteers in the Second Seminole War: A Nullifier Debacle as Prelude to the Palmetto State Gubernatorial Election of 1836” in W. Steve Belko, ed. America’s Hundred Years War: U. S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763-1858. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011, 209-36.

“Victoria Seward Varn Brandon Sherrill: South Florida Women as Community Builders, in The Varieties of Women’s Experiences: Portraits of Southern Women in the Post-Civil War Century. Larry Rivers and Canter Brown, eds. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010, 54-63.

“William Pope DuVal and Washington Irving: Fiction as Fact and Fact as Fiction—an Exploration of Early American Folklore on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” in Claudia Slate and April Van Camp ed. In Florida Studies: Proceedings of the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Florida College English Association, College English Association Proceedings, 2008. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009, 107-18.

“Some Prefer the Seminoles: Violence Among Soldiers and Settlers in the Second Seminole War,” in Samuel Watson, ed. Warfare in the USA, 1784-1861. London: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006, 305-21.

"Cracker Women and Their Families in Nineteenth Century Florida," in William Rogers, Canter Brown, and Mark E. Greenberg eds. Florida's Heritage of Diversity: Essays in the Honor of Samuel Proctor. Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 1997, 15-28.

Articles (Peer Reviewed)

“Mr. Marvin Goes to Key West,” British Journal of American Legal Studies (Special Issue on Key West in the Civil War) 12 (Fall 2023): 295-315.

https://bcuassets.blob.core.windows.net/docs/csu2023397-bjals-coverswebnew-133518770563741868.pdf

“Captain Charles E. Hawkins, the ‘Key West Tragedy,’ and the ‘Unwritten Law’” Florida Historical Quarterly 99 (Winter/Spring 2021): 237-55.

“’A Most Profligate Villain’: Poor Whites as Depicted in Antebellum Wanted Proclamations,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, 101 #4 (Winter 2017): 300-19.

“William P. DuVal: Lawyer, Judge, and Governor,” Florida Supreme Court Historical Review, (Spring-Summer 2017): 16-20.
http://www.flcourthistory.org/resources/Documents/2017%20Magazine/FSCHS__2017_web.pdf

“Creating the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida,” Florida Historical Quarterly 92 (Fall 2013): 183-204.

“Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Pensacola,” Florida Historical Quarterly 90 (Summer 2011): 13-34.

For Podcast of above article conducted by the Florida Historical Society see below.
http://floridahistoricalquarterly.blogspot.com/2011/09/summer-2011-volume-90-no-1.html

With Randolph Roth, Douglas L. Eckberg, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Kenneth Wheeler, James Watkinson, and Robb Haberman “The Historical Violence Database: A Collaborative Research Project on the History of Violent Crime, Violent Death, and Collective” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 41 (Spring 2008): 81-98.

With Randolph Roth, “Why was Antebellum Florida So Murderous? A Quantitative Analysis of Homicide in Florida, 1821-1861,” Florida Historical Quarterly, 86 (Fall 2007): 216-39.
For Podcast of above article conducted by the Florida Historical Society see below.
https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/radio/program/58

With Keith L. Huneycutt, “’Everything is Hubbub Here’: Lt. James Willoughby
Anderson’s Second Seminole War, 1837-1842,” Florida Historical Quarterly (82 (Winter 2004): 313-59.

With Keith Huneycutt, "Our Desired Haven: the Letters of Corinna Brown Aldrich from Antebellum Key West, 1849-1850,"Florida Historical Quarterly 79 (Spring 2001): 517-45.

"Explorations in Class and Gender in the Old South." Documentary Editing: Association of Documentary Editing 21 (December 1999): 83-86.

"Charles E. Hawkins," "Thomas S. Jesup," "Jose Antonio Mexia," "Edwin Ward Moore," "Texan Navy," and "John Tyler" in The United States and Mexico at War: Nineteenth-Century Expansionism and Conflict. Edited by Donald S. Frazier. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.

With Keith Huneycutt, "With Scott in Mexico: Letters of Captain James W. Anderson in the Mexican War, 1846-1847," Military History of the West 28 (Spring 1998): 9-48.

"Bringing Justice to the Frontier: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Hillsborough County" Tampa Bay History 19 (Fall/Winter 1997): 77-91.

"From a Territorial to a Statehood Judiciary: Florida's Antebellum Courts and Judges," Florida Historical Quarterly 73 (April 1995), 443-55.

"New Orleans, Maritime Commerce, and the Texas War for Independence, 1836," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 97 (January 1994), 511-34.

"The Florida Cracker before the Civil War as Seen Through Travel Accounts," Florida Historical Quarterly 72 (April 1994), 453-468.

"Denys Rolle and Indian Policy in British East Florida," Gulf Coast Historical Review 7 (Spring 1992), 31-44.

"'Some Prefer the Seminoles': Violence and Disorder Among Soldiers and Settlers in Florida's Second Seminole War," Florida Historical Quarterly 70 (July 1991), 38-54.

"'The Peerless Wind Cloud': Thomas Jefferson Green and the Tallahassee Texas Land Company," East Texas Historical Journal (Spring 1991), 3-14.

"The Read-Alston Duel and Territorial Florida Politics," Florida Historical Quarterly 68 (April 1990), 427-446.

"Charles E. Hawkins: Sailor for Three Republics," Gulf Coast Historical Review 5 (Spring 1990), 92-103.

"Five Years Experience with Dueling in Territorial Middle Florida," Apalachee (1979-1983).

Book Reviews

The Supreme Court of Florida: A Journey Toward Justice, 1972-1987. By Neil Skene. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017. Florida Historical Quarterly 96 (Winter 2018): 388-90.

Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood. By Deborah A. Rosen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015. In The Historian 80 (Spring 2018): 122-23.

Before the Pioneers: Settlers, Slaves, and the Founding of Miami. By Andrew Frank. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017. In H-Net Reviews (February 2018).
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=51049

Federal Justice in the Mid-Atlantic South: United States Courts from Maryland to the Carolinas, 1836-1861. By Peter Graham Fish. Legal History. (Durham, N. C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2015 in Journal of Southern History 82 (August 2016): 673-75.

Thunder on the River: The Civil War in Northeast Florida. By Daniel L. Schafer. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010 in Civil War Book Review (Winter 2015)
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2309&context=cwbr

The Long Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and the Law in the American Hemisphere. By Robert J. Cottrol. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013 in Civil War Book Review (Fall 2013).
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2334&context=cwbr

Going, Going. . . Almost Gone Lutz-Land O’Lakes Pioneers Share Their Precious Memories. By Elizabeth Riegler MacManus and Susan MacManus. Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 2011 in Tampa Bay History, 26 (2012): 116-17.

Sweet Cane: The Architecture of Sugar Works of East Florida. By Lucy B. Wayne. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010 in World Sugar History Newsletter 41 (October 2011). http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/wshn/number41.html

Fear and Anxiety on the Florida Frontier: Articles on the Second Seminole War. By Joe Knetsch. Dade City, FL: Seminole Wars Foundation, Inc., 2008 in Journal of Southern History 76 (August 2010): 717-18.

Faces on the Frontier: Florida Surveyors and Developers in the 19th Century. By Joe Knetsch. Cocoa, FL.: The Florida Historical Society Press, 2006. In Florida Historical Quarterly, 85 (Fall 2006): 231-33.

Fierce and Fractious Frontier: The Curious Development of Louisiana’s Florida Parishes, 1699-2000. By Samuel C. Hyde, ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. In Gulf South Historical Review, 21, (Spring 2006): 109-11.

Moses Levy of Florida: Jewish Utopian and Antebellum Reformer. By C. S. Monaco. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. In H-Net Online Reviews, (March 2006).

Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West.  By Sam Davis Elliot. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. In H-Net Online Reviews, (March 2005).
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10332

Alabama’s Response to the Penitentiary Movement, 1829-1865. By Robert David Ward and William Warren Rogers.   Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. In American Historical Review (February 2005), 159.

A Short History of Florida’s Railroads. By Gregg Turner. Charleston: Arcadia Press: 2003. In Florida Historical Quarterly 83 (Summer 2004), p. 94-96.

Somebody’s Darling: Essays on the Civil War. By Kent Gramm. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. In Society of Civil War Historians Newsletter, 15 (Winter 2003), 1-2.

Bathed in Blood: Hunting and Mastery in the Old South. By Nicholas W. Proctor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 86 (Winter 2002): 643-45.

The Tropic of Cracker. By Al Burt. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. In Gulf Coast Historical Review 17 (Spring 2002), 76-78.

“Watery Eden”: A History of Wakulla Springs. By Tracy J. Revels. Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 2002. In Tallahassee Democrat, April 28, 2002.

Crime, Sexual Violence and Clemency: Florida’s Pardon Board and Penal System in the Progressive Era.   Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.   In American Journal of Legal History 45 (2001): 226-28.

Burnside's Bridge: Antietam. By John Cannan. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 2001. In North and South Magazine 4 (2001).

Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation. By Larry Eugene Rivers. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. In American Historical Review 106 (December 2001), 1802-03.

Modern Medea: A Family Story of Slavery and Child-Murder from the Old South. By Steven Weisenburger. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998. In American Journal of Legal History 44 (2000): 292-93.

"Bridging the Gap: Continuing the Florida NAACP Legacy of Harry T. Moore, 1952-1966. By Robert W. Saunders. Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 2000. In Lakeland Ledger, May 21, 2000.

"Come to My Sunland": Letters of Julia Daniels Moseley from the Florida Frontier, Edited by Julia Winfred Moseley and Betty Powers Crislip. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998. In Florida Historical Quarterly 78 (Fall 1999): 234-36.

Plain Folk in the South Revisited. Edited by Samuel C. Hyde, Jr. Baton Rogue: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. In Florida Historical Quarterly 77 (Winter 1999): 376-78.

American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward the Civil War. By David   Grimsted. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. In H-Net Online Reviews, February 28, 1999.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2812

Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1810-1899. By Samuel C. Hyde, Jr. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. In Gulf South Historical Review 14 (Spring 1999): 100-101.

Jimmy Carter: American Moralist. By Kenneth Morris. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996, in Atlanta History: a Journal of Georgia and the South 41 (Winter 1998): 49-51.

John Archibald Campbell: Southern Moderate, 1811-1889. By Robert Saunders, Jr. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997. In Society of Civil War Historians Newsletter (Spring 1998).

Supreme Court of Florida and its Predecessor Courts. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. By Walter W. Manley, E. Canter Brown, Jr. and Eric W. Rise. In Florida Bar Journal 72 (October 1998): 109.

The Search for Thomas F. Ward, Teacher of Frederick Delius. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996. By Don C. Gillespie. In Tampa Bay History 20 (Fall/Winter 1998): 85-86.

Rose Cottage Chronicles: Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens Family. Edited by Arch Frederick Blakey. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 82 (Winter 1998): 894-95.

Pioneer Family: Life on Florida's Twentieth-Century Frontier. By Michel Oesterreicher. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. In Florida Historical Quarterly 75 (January 1997): 338-39.

Things Remembered: An Album of African Americans in Tampa. By Rowena Ferrell Brady. Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 1997. In Tampa Tribune, February 23, 1997 and South Florida History Magazine (Spring/Summer 1997): 38-39.

A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930. By Stewart E. Tolnay and E. M. Beck. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. In Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South 41 (Spring 1997): 59-60.

Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People. By Kenneth W. Porter. Revised and edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. In Tampa Bay History 19 (Spring/Summer 1997): 93-95.

Voices of the Old South: Eyewitness Accounts, 1528-1861. Edited By Alan Gallay. Athens: University of Georgia Press 1995. In Tampa Tribune, February 18, 1996.

The New Florida History. By Michael Gannon. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. In Tampa Tribune, April 7, 1996.

Fort Mose: Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom. By Kathleen Deagan and Darcie MacMahon. Gainesville: University Press of Florida/Florida Museum of Natural History, 1996. In Tampa Tribune, August 18, 1996.

Dade's Last Command. By Frank Laumer. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1995. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 80 (Summer 1996): 410-11.

Whaling Will Never Do For Me: The American Whaleman in the Nineteenth Century. By Briton Cooper Busch. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1995. In Tampa Tribune, March 9, 1995.

Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865. By Noah A. Trudeau. Boston: Little Brown, 1995. In Tampa Tribune, April 2, 1995.

Home on the Range: A Century on the High Plains. By James R. Dickenson. New York: Scribners, 1995. In Tampa Tribune, August 20, 1995.

Removal Aftershock: The Seminoles' Struggle to Survive in the West, 1836-1866. By Jane F. Lancaster. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 79 (Summer 1995): 479-81.

Fort Meade, 1849-1900. By Canter Brown Jr. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995. In Tampa Bay History 17 (Fall-Winter 1995): 75-77.

Trail from St. Augustine: A Cracker Western & Riders of the Suwannee: A Cracker Western. By Lee Gramling, 1993. In Tampa Tribune, January 2, 1994.

Free Men in the Age of Servitude: Three Generations of a Black Family. By Lee Warner. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1992. In Florida Historical Quarterly 72 (April 1994), 517-9.

Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. By Jack Hurst. New York: Knopf. In Tampa Tribune, May 1, 1994.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga: The Battles that Doomed the Confederacy. By John Bowers. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. In Tampa Tribune, December 4, 1994.

The Outlaw Youngers: A Confederate Brotherhood. By Marley Brant. In Tampa Tribune, April 11, 1993.

Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy. By Winthrop Jordan.   Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. In Tampa Tribune, July 25, 1993.

The Lincoln that No One Knows: The Mysterious Man Who Ran the Civil War. By Webb Garrison. Rutledge Hill Press, 1993. In Tampa Tribune, August 15, 1993.

Florida: A Short History. By Michael Gannon. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1993. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 77 (Fall 1993): 596-7.

The Frontiersman: The Real Life and Many Legends of Davy Crockett. By Mark Durr. New York: William Morrow, 1993. In Tampa Tribune, December 26, 1993.

Seminoles of Florida. By James W. Covington. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1993. In Tampa Bay History 15 (Fall and Winter 1993), 85-7.

Opinion/Editorial Pieces

With Canter Brown, “Fortunately, the Polk County Historical Commission Survives,” Lakeland Ledger, October 11, 2021.

“Mary Holland Inspired Floridians,” Lakeland Ledger, August 22, 2009.

“Biography Presents LeRoy Collins as a Moderate Southern Voice,” Lakeland Ledger, December 17, 2006.

“Governor Would Kill State Library, Scatter Archives,” Tampa Tribune, February 22, 2003; “Bush Shows Contempt for Library,” Lakeland Ledger February 21, 2003.

"Allot More Time for Regency," Lakeland Ledger, May 31, 2001.

"This Election's Loser May Be the Courts," Lakeland Ledger, December 15, 2000.

"Teach History of the Civil Rights Movement," Lakeland Ledger, August 17, 1999.

"Protect Lakeland's Historical Collection," Lakeland Ledger, January 14, 1999.

"Dropping State History?" in Lakeland Ledger; Gainesville Sun; Jacksonville Times-Union; Tallahassee Democrat, Pensacola News Journal (March-April 1995).

"Subliminal Politics: Chiles Use of Cracker Phrases Played up Bush's Outsider Status," in Lakeland Ledger, November 16, 1994.

Conference Papers, Symposia, Invited Lectures

“Florida in the Era of the Revolution” Platform Art, Community Forum, Lakeland, FL, November 1, 2023

“Remembering the Forgotten War,” Veterans Day Celebration, 1000 Korean War Reflections, RP Funding Center, Lakeland, FL, November 11, 2023.

“Governor DuVal and Indian Affairs,” Tally Turkey Time Travel, Tallahassee, Florida, November 26, 2023.

” Bicentennial Historians Symposium, A Commemoration of the Founding of Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL, March 21, 2024
https://ths32.wildapricot.org/event-5644659

“William P. DuVal and the Founding of Tallahassee,” Florida Historical Society, Tallahassee FL, May 16, 2024.

“Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant,” Kathleen Historical Society, Lakeland, FL, January 25, 2024.

“Protecting Slavery and Destroying Banks: Florida’s First Constitutional Convention in 1838,” Florida Conference of Historians, Melbourne, FL, January 27, 2024

“Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861,” Lakeland Public Library, December 6, 2023.

Discussant: Session on Race, Gender, Agriculture, and Violent Death in Progressive Era Florida, Special Section, Undergraduate Research, Florida Conference of Historians, Hutchinson Island, Stuart, Florida, January 28, 2023.

Moderator, “From Slavery to Community Builder: The Story of Lawrence B. Brown,” 23rd Annual LB Brown Heritage Festival, Bartow, February 12, 2023.

“Florida Sheriffs: A History, 1821-1945,” Kathleen Area Historical Society,” Kathleen Heritage Park, March 23, 2023.

Panelist, “Modern Florida History: Music, Mayhem, and the New Millennium,” Florida Historical Society Public History Forum and Florida State Genealogy Society Conference, Lakeland, Florida. May 20, 2023.

“The Keeper of the Flame: Rhea Grafton Chiles, Florida First Lady, 1991-1998, Florida Historical Society, Orlando, October 21, 2023.

“Florida in the Era of the Revolution” Platform Art, Community Forum, Lakeland, FL, November 1, 2023
“Remembering the Forgotten War,” Veterans Day Celebration, 1000 Korean War Reflections, RP Funding Center, Lakeland, FL, November 11, 2023.

“Governor DuVal and Indian Affairs,” Tally Turkey Time Travel, Tallahassee, Florida, November 26, 2023

“The Voice of Gentleness Speaking from out of the Whirlwind, Mary Agnes Groover Holland, Florida’s World War II Florida Lady, Florida Historical Society, October 22, 2022.

“A Brief History of the US Middle District of Florida, with an Emphasis on Tampa’s First Federal Courthouse,” Labor and Employment Section, Florida Bar Conference, Tampa, Florida, December 2, 2022.

Panelist, “Florida Literature: Historical Perspectives in Fiction and Non-Fiction,” Joint meeting of the Florida Historical Society Public History Forum and the 33rd Annual Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society Conference, Gainesville, Florida. May 20, 2022,

Interviewee and consultant, “Those Men that Came Before,” [film on Cuban War for Independence], produced by Platform Art Inc. and Kevin O’Brien Films, Screened May 18, 2021, premiered at the Gasparilla International Film Festival, June 12, 2021, received the Grand Jury Award for Short Documentary Films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTkiE_ddgjY&t=21s

Chair, Panel discussion, "Territorial Florida in 1821,” May 21, 2021." Florida Historical Society 2021 Virtual Public History Forum available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgRYyfhgi80

Panel Discussion, "Historians Chairside Chat with Canter Brown," Lakeland Public Library, November 12, 2020, Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28c0Ary0yBo&list=PLiUFSFHxap9aHCNnvm0oK_4pcflVn4dVO&index=3&t=1340s

Panel Discussion, "Chairside Chat with Canter Brown #2," Black History Month, Lakeland Public Library, February 25, 2021, Available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ8hbwW4CGs&list=PLiUFSFHxap9aHCNnvm0oK_4pcflVn4dVO&index=4

“The Letters of George Long Brown: A Yankee Merchant on Florida Antebellum Frontier,” Matheson History Museum, Gainesville, Florida, November 16, 2019

“Captain Charles E. Hawkins, The ‘Key West Tragedy,’ and the Unwritten Law, 1827-1830, ”Key West Maritime Historical Society, Key West, January 16, 2019.

“Women of Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” Kathleen Area Historical Society, Kathleen, Florida, February 21, 2019.

“Charles E. Hawkins: Sailor of Three Republics,” Florida Conference of Historians, Sarasota Florida, February 23, 2019.

“Women of Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” Pasco County Historical Society, Dade City, March 15, 2019

“Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant,” Distinguished Lecture Series, Historical Society of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach Florida, April 10, 2019.

“New Research on the Seminole Wars,” Seminole Wars Convocation, St. Augustine, Florida, August 12, 2017.

“St Joseph’s Constitution, 1838,” Florida Historic Capital Museum, Tallahassee, Florida, February 15, 2018.
https://networks.h-net.org/search?search=Denham

“An Ambivalent Legacy: The Territorial Governorships of Robert Raymond Reid And John Branch,” Florida Conference of Historians, Wakulla Springs, Florida, February, 16, 2018.

“William P. DuVal: Florida’s First Territorial Governor,” DuVal Society Annual Meeting,” Tallahassee, Florida, June 8, 2017

“William P. DuVal,” Polk County History Center, Bartow, January 17, 2017.

“Reconstruction: What it Meant to do & What it Failed to Do,” Venice Area Historical Society, January 17, 2017.

“William P. DuVal,” Matheson Historical Museum, Gainesville, FL, February 2, 2017.

Point of View Gallery Talk, “The Florida Photography of Carlton Ward, Historical and Cultural Perspectives,” Polk County Museum of Art, March 10, 2017.

“Florida Sheriffs—A History,” Polk County Historical Association Annual Banquet, Bartow, June 16, 2016.

“William P. DuVal,” Book Talk and Signing, Jacksonville Historical Society, June 23, 2016.

“Florida Sheriffs” East Hillsborough Historical Society, Plant City, Florida, October 11, 2016.

“Florida’s Antebellum Frontier: White, Black, and Native American,” Presented at South Florida State College as part of Grant Entitled “A Sense of Home: From Cultural Conflict to Coexistence in Florida’s Heartland,” November 3, 2016.

“John H. Eaton, Jackson Protégé, as Governor of Florida, 1834-1836,” Florida Conference of Historians, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, February 19, 2016.

“Florida and the Civil War,” Sarasota County History Center, Sarasota, Florida, April 22, 2016

“An Ambivalent Jacksonian Legacy: The Territorial Governorships of Robert Raymond Reid and John Branch,” Florida Historical Society, Orlando, Florida, May 20, 2016

“Florida Sheriffs—A History,” Polk County Historical Association Annual Banquet, June 16, 2016

“William P. DuVal, The Founding of Tallahassee, and the ‘First Removal’ of the Seminoles,” Florida Historical Society, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 26, 2014.

“Florida Sheriffs: A History” Polk County Retired Teachers, Lakeland, Florida, March 4, 2014.

“The Civil War in Southwest Florida,” Venice Historical Society, Venice Florida, February 25, 2014.

Discussion Facilitator, Film, “The Abolitionists,” Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle Series, Plant City Photo Archives and History Center, Plant City, Florida, February 18, 2014.

“The Battle for Justice: Judge Bryan Simpson and the St. Augustine Uprising, 1963-1964,” Florida Conference of Historians, St. Augustine, February 1, 2014.

Panelist, “Celebration of Florida Citrus Through the Years,” Moderated by Florida Commissioner of Agriculture, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida, April 11, 2013.

Lead Scholar, “Florida: A New Frontier,” Teacher Workshop of Palm Beach County Teachers as Part of USDOE Teaching American History Grant, West Palm Beach, Florida, March 8-9, 2013.

With Keith Huneycutt, “Letters from Newnansville: the Brown Sisters of Florida’s on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” Micanopy Historical Society, Micanopy, Florida, January 12, 2013.

“History of Florida Sheriffs,” Polk County Historical Museum, Bartow, September 18, 2012.

“Creation of the U. S. Middle District Court of Florida,” Middle District of Florida Fiftieth Anniversary Academic Symposium, Orlando, October 26, 2012.

“Florida’s Reconstruction Sheriffs, 1865-1877,” Florida Historical Society, Tampa, Florida, May 25, 2012.

“The New Deal in Florida,” Venice Area Historical Society, Venice, Florida, February 28, 2012.

“Pioneers on Florida’s Nineteenth Century Frontier,” Brevard County Teachers Workshop Sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council, Cocoa, Florida, February 25, 2012.

“Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal,” Venice Area Historical Society, Venice Florida, January 24, 2012.

“William Pope DuVal: Florida’s First Governor,” Presbyterian Men’s Home, Lakeland, September 5, 2011

“Florida Sheriffs During the Civil War,” Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, May 28, 2011.

“A Rogue’s Paradise: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida,” Bonita Springs Historical Society, February 4, 2011.

“The Richness of Polk County’s African American Heritage: Looking Back over Two Centuries and Looking Ahead to New Discoveries,” L. B. Heritage Festival, Bartow, Florida, February 13, 2010.

“Polk County History,” Polk County Sesquicentennial Kickoff, History Courthouse, Bartow, February 12, 2011.

“Homicide on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” with Randolph Roth, Florida Lecture Series, Florida Southern College, March 25, 2010.

“The U. S. Middle District Court of Florida History Project,” Judicial Conference of the U. S. Middle District of Florida, Palm Coast Florida, October 21, 2010.

“The 1899 Florida Bar,” Presentation to Tenth Judicial Historical Group, Law Offices of Boswell and Dunlap, Bartow Florida, June 25, 2009.

“Florida’s Seminole Wars, 1818-1858,” South Florida Community College Honors Program, Avon Park, Florida, January 15, 2009.

“Women on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” Ormond Beach Historical Society, Ormond  Beach, Florida Humanities Council Program, February 28, 2009.

“William Pope DuVal: Florida Founder and Frontier Von Vivant.,” Florida Historical Society, Pensacola, Florida, May 23, 2009.

“The Black and White of Florida Cracker Lives: Shared Traditions and Recalled Legacies,” Florida Conference of Historians, Jacksonville, Florida, March 1, 2008.

“Victoria Seward Varn Brandon Sherrill: South Florida Women as Community Builders,” Florida Historical Society, Sarasota, Florida, May 22, 2008.

“William Pope DuVal: Virginian, Kentuckian and Territorial Governor of Florida.” Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA, July 23, 2008.

“Victoria Brandon,” East Hillsborough Historical Society, Plant City, FL, October 14, 2008.

“William Pope DuVal and Washington Irving: Fiction as Fact and Fact as Fiction—an Exploration of Early American Folklore on Florida’s Antebellum Frontier,” Florida Teachers of English Conf., Tampa, FL, October, 17, 2008.

“Pioneer Florida,” Venice Historical Society, Venice, FL, October 28, 2008.

“Who are the Crackers?” Largo Public Library, April 5, 2007

“Women in Antebellum Florida,” Pasco County Historical Society, Dade City, Florida, July 20, 2007.

“Catching Criminals on the Antebellum Florida Frontier,” Manatee County Bar Association, Bradenton, Florida August 29, 2007.

“The Evolution of Florida’s Courts in the Context of Other Historical Events,” Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Address, First District Court of Appeals, Tallahassee, Florida July 12, 2007.

“The Black and White of Florida Cracker Lives: Shared Traditions and Recalled Legacies,” Florida College English Association, Lakeland, Florida, November 10, 2006.

“Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Pensacola,” Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, Pensacola, October 5-7, 2006.

Chair and Commentator, Session entitled “Shaping Race in Early Florida,” The Fourth Biennial Allen Morris Conference on the History of Florida and the Atlantic World, Tallahassee, Florida, February 24-25, 2006.

“The Historical Violence Database: A Collaborative International Database on
Violence Crime and Violent Death,” Panel Discussion, Social Science Historical Society, Baltimore, Md., November 14, 2003.

“’Cast Your Bucket Down Where You Are’: Research Opportunities in Florida
History,” Keynote Address, Regional meeting of the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society, Stetson University, Deland, Florida, March 29, 2003.

“Nineteenth Century Florida Frontier,” Workshop for Orange County Social
Studies Teachers, Orange County Regional History Center, Orlando, Florida, February 15, 2003, November 22, 2003.

"Nineteenth Century Social History," Florida Studies Summit Presented by
Florida Humanities Council, Tampa Bay History Center and USF, St. Petersburg, Florida, November 9, 2001.

"Historical Overview of Settlement and Development of the Tampa Bay Area," Envisioning Session, Marabay-Terrabrook Development at Apollo Beach, Marriot Hotel, May 17, 2001.

"The Black and White of Florida Cracker Lives; Shared Traditions and Recalled Legacies," Symposium on Celebration of African American Heritage in Florida, Bartow, Florida, February 2, 2001.

Commentator, "Session on Confederate Homefront," The Citadel Conference on the South, Charleston, SC, April 7-8, 2000.

Discussion Leader ("Making Florida Home") Series of Reading and Discussions at Wauchula and Frostproof Public Libraries Sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council. Meetings on January 20, 26, February 3, 10, 17, and   24, 1998.

"A Rogue's Paradise: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861," Annual Banquet, Southwestern Florida Historical Society, Fort Myers,
Florida, February 12, 1998.

Panel Discussion with Canter Brown, Jr., Doris Weatherford, and the Honorable Pam Iorio, "Florida Women" Barnes and Noble Bookstore, Tampa, March 5, 1998.

Keynote Address: "Florida: An Historical, Social, and Cultural Portrait," Annual National Extension Partnership Dinner, Florida Manufacturing Technology Center, Orlando, Florida, March 4, 1998.

Moderator, "Life on the Ridge: Crackers and Critters," Series of programs held at the Lake Wales Public Library sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council:

Al Burt, "Understanding Florida: Its Crackers and Critters," April 16, 1998;
Canter Brown, "Cracker Women and Children in Polk County," May 7, 1998;
Lee Gramling, "19th Century Florida: Wilder than the West," October 7, 1998.

Opening Convocation: "Law and Justice Then and Now: An Overview of Crime and Punishment in Florida's Past and Present," Academy of Law Studies/Criminal Justice, Zephyrhills High School, September 3, 1998.

"History of the Death Penalty in Florida," Florida Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Annual Convention, Orlando, Florida, October 17, 1997.

"Lady Luck and the Jack of Hearts: Gambling in Antebellum Florida," Florida Historical Society, Daytona Beach, May 23, 1996.

"Bringing Justice to the Frontier: Lawyers, Courts, and Crime, and Punishment in Antebellum Hillsborough County," Hillsborough County Bar Association, Tampa, March 19, 1996.

"Cracker Florida," Humanities Lecture Series at the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida, January 15, 1996.

"Frontier Florida: Highlands County's Cattle Heritage," Highlands County
Economic Development Council, Annual Industry Appreciation Banquet, Avon Park, Florida, September 18, 1996

"Territorial Florida: The Land and its People, 1821-1845," A Sesquicentennial Symposium sponsored by the Citrus County Historical Society, Lecanto, Florida, October 7, 1995.

"The Trials and Tribulations of Antebellum Lawmen in Florida," Florida Historical Society, Fort Myers, May 19, 1994.

Florida Humanities Council (Speakers Bureau), 1993-1994

"Who are the Crackers?"
"Osceola and the Second Seminole War"
"'Cussed Rogues and Double-Dyed Scoundrels': Catching Criminals on Florida's Antebellum Frontier"

"The Florida Cracker in the Early Nineteenth Century," Popular Culture Association in the South, Nashville, Tennessee, October 14, 1993.

"Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida," Florida Historical Society, Pensacola, May 21, 1993.

"'Apprehending the Double-Dyed Scoundrel': Catching and Extraditing the Criminal in the Old South -- the Experience in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina," Institute For Southern Studies, University of South Carolina, February 7, 1991.

"'They Live[d] the Most Undesirable Lives': The Florida Cracker in the Early Nineteenth Century," Florida Historical Society, Orlando, Florida, May 1991.

Projects

Current Projects

Lawton M. Chiles, Biographical Study