Homicide in Florida, 1821-1861

James M. Denham

The data on homicide in Florida, 1821-1861, were gathered by James M. Denham. Denham finds that Florida was an extremely homicidal place, especially for whites, and especially during periods of warfare or political upheaval. The homicide rate for white adults were probably between 40 and 80 per 100,000 per year--which would have made Florida as homicidal as Texas or California on the eve of the Civil War. The sources for the data--and his interpretations--appear in:

  • Denham, James M. (1997) "A Rogue's Paradise": Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1861.
  • Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
  • Denham, James M. and Randolph Roth (forthcoming 2008) "Homicide in Florida, 1821-1861: A Quantitative Analysis." Florida Historical Quarterly.

The following files are available

Graphs of estimated homicide rates

Worksheets

Spreadsheet (in CSV file)

 


[csv] - Some links on this page are to .csv files requiring the use of a database program. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.

[doc] - Some links on this page are to Microsoft .doc files requiring the use of Microsoft Word. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.

[zip] - Some links on this page are to .zip files requiring extraction. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.