A Congressman and a state senator take hostages in Jackson County

Rep. Charles M. Hamilton
(R) Florida

by Dale Cox

You often hear about members of Congress from one party or the other holding senior citizens hostage. It is usually a rhetorical device employed in debates over Social Security or Medicare, but it actually happened in Jackson County, Florida.

A Member of Congress took an elderly man hostage at Marianna in 1870 and used him as a human shield. In fact, he was even assisted by the U.S. Assessor - or tax man - for Florida!

The incident took place during the heated campaign leading up to the election of 1870. Rep. Charles M. Hamilton, a Republican, represented Florida in Congress and claimed to live in Jackson County although he had not so much as visited the county in over one year.

The same was true of state Sen. William J. Purman, who double-dipped as U.S. Assessor for Florida. He represented Jackson County's district at the State Capitol, although he lived in Tallahassee.

Both men were Carpetbaggers - a term used by white and sometimes black Southerners to refer to Northerners who came South after the Civil War or War Between the States to seek office or establish businesses.

Hamilton and Purman arrived at Marianna in 1866 as the agent and assistant agent of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands - usually called the Freedmen's Bureau or just The Bureau.

Bureau agents did respectable work in many areas, smoothing the way for African Americans as they made the transition from slavery to freedom. They helped the former slaves - who were called Freedmen - negotiate labor contracts, opened schools for black and white children alike, and even distributed rations to starving people of all races in war-ravaged areas.

Sen. William J. Purman

Hamilton and Purman, however, engaged in a series of bitter confrontations with Jackson County residents, exceeded their legal authority by ordering armed gangs to kidnap citizens who defied them and were accused of numerous improprieties by a U.S. Army officer sent to investigate their activities.

Hamilton, in fact, went so far as to urge - in writing - the killing of white citizens by black citizens and the start of a race war of sorts in Jackson County. He was under indictment for kidnapping in the Circuit Court - which was then under the control of the Reconstruction government - when he was named as Florida's sole U.S. Congressman and left the county.

Purman, who took over as Bureau agent in Marianna after Hamilton's departure, was wounded in an assassination attempt and left Jackson County for Tallahassee, where he represented the county in the state legislature even though he no longer lived there. To his credit, he intervened and stopped the race war that Hamilton attempted to ignite.

As the election of 1870 heated up, more Democrats - many of whom were former Confederates - registered to vote and formerly untouchable politicians like Hamilton and Purman faced at least a minimal political threat. So, the two men came back to Jackson County on a campaign swing. As they did, one of Florida's leading African American officials accused them both of being little more than thieves, a sign that their popularity was falling with both races.

Marianna in the late 1800s

The Congressman and state senator conferred with Sheriff Thomas West,  an appointee of Florida's Reconstruction Governor, who called for an armed posse of 500 men to escort them out of the county. There were clear signs that the population did not intend to let Hamilton and Purman leave Jackson County alive and West - who was generally liked by both sides in the growing Reconstruction era bitterness - feared for their lives.

Many citizens, however, feared that the appearance of such an armed irregular posse would lead to the violence it was intended to prevent. A delegation of Marianna's older and more-established citizens went to West, Hamilton, and Purman to try to convince them of the error of the plan:

When the older citizens found such was to be the program, they immediately came to us, and begged, for God’s sake, that we should not call out such a posse, saying that their young men would not stand it; that war would take place right away at once. They said: “Ask any means for your safety, and you shall have it.” Thereupon, we selected ten of the oldest and best citizens as hostages. - Testimony by William J. Purman, November 11, 1871.

Purman later testified about the events before a Select Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress investigating the outbreak of violence in Jackson County. The members were stunned to some degree that a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Hamilton) and a Federal official (Purman) would resort to such drastic measures:

Question. You spoke of some ten or twelve old men going with you as hostages. Do you mean by that they went out to answer with their lives for any assault on you?

Answer. No, sir; I will explain what I mean, Mr. Senator. There were fifteen of us, and ten of them, and had we been attacked, and had it become necessary to go on, spiritually speaking, into the land of Canaan, every one of those men would have gone with us.

Question. You would have murdered those old men?

Answer. We would not have gone alone ; we would have done what it is said Indians have done under certain circumstances. We have heard of Indians, who, when pursued, would interpose the women and children they may have kidnapped between the guns of their enemies and themselves. Had we been pursued in that way, we would have made a bulwark of those hostages.

No censure or other action was taken against Hamilton or Purman for their role in the episode, but fortunately, no violence occurred as the party made its way from Marianna to Tallahassee by way of Bainbridge, Georgia.

At least one modern writer has justified the taking of elderly peacemakers as hostages and using them as human shields by a U.S. Congressman and the equivalent of an IRS agent. In truth, it is difficult to justify such actions in any circumstance.

The violence in Jackson County continued in spells from 1865 to 1876 and occasionally after that. As is often the case, events that were domestic or personal in nature have been included in tabulations of political assassinations created by modern historians, but there can be no disputing that it was a bitter and stressful time.


The use of American citizens as human shields by two Federal authorities in Jackson County worked in that both escaped with their lives. They never faced legal consequences for their roles in the episode.