Avon Park had a “no negro proviso” on the sale of its land by 1892

Summary

Six years after the town was founded, somebody wrote to the newspaper of the colony next door to ask whether the rule that applied at Avon Park would apply at Pabor Lake as well. The editor’s answer, printed in the number for November and December 1892, is the earliest evidence that Avon Park’s exclusion of Black people was a condition attached to the sale of land, and not merely a line in an advertisement.

What was asked and what was answered

WE have been asked whether the “no negro” proviso, as it exists at Avon Park, is to be enforced at Pabor Lake. We desire to say that we believe in the right of every colonist of ours to bring with them negro servants if they have them, and as there is no law, written or unwritten to forbid them, far be it from us to assume to interfere with private rights or privileges. As to selling land to negroes, that is another matter. Help is scarce, and there should be nothing done to prevent settlers from bringing their own help, of whatever color, with them. We have no fear that any, except cultured white people, will ever dominate in the Pabor Lake Colony lands.[plp-1892-11]

Three things are in that answer. The word proviso — a condition in a contract or a deed. The phrase as it exists at Avon Park — the writer is describing something already in force four miles away, not proposing it. And the distinction the editor draws for his own colony: Black servants brought by a settler, yes; selling land to negroes, that is another matter.

W. E. Pabor was declining to adopt his neighbor’s rule in full while making clear he expected the same result. What he says of Avon Park he says in passing, as a fact his correspondent already knew.

What the same paper said later

The rule was still being stated three years afterwards, in the column the paper kept for answering settlers’ inquiries. Under the heading “The race question”:

It does not enter into the condition of things as they exist in Avon Park township. No land is sold to negroes, and no encouragement given to them as laborers.[plp-1895-12]

That answer ran in December 1895 and again, word for word, in May 1896. The paper’s standing columns were carried forward from issue to issue without being checked — an advertisement in the same run was still promising a railway “before the end of 1894” months after a different railway had actually opened — so the repetition is one statement reprinted, not two occasions of saying it.[plp-1895-12]

What has not been found

No deed, plat restriction, company circular or town ordinance carrying the proviso has been located. What exists is a neighbor’s description of it, twice, four years apart. The place to look is the conveyances the Florida Development Company made to its settlers, which would carry the condition on their face if it was written into them.

Related

• Avon Park was advertised as a town free of Black people, in its founder’s own newspaper
• The town’s own chronology dates the first Black labor in Avon Park to 1914
• The record of Black Avon Park is almost entirely missing
• The Pabor Lake Pineapple
• The Florida Development Company

References

• plp-1892-11 — W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher. The Pabor Lake Pineapple, November–December 1892, page 4: the ‘no negro’ proviso at Avon Park. 15 December 1892. pabor-lake-pineapple.md
• plp-1895-12 — W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher. The Pabor Lake Pineapple, 15 December 1895 and 1 May 1896, Question Box: the race question in Avon Park township. 1 May 1896. pabor-lake-pineapple.md

Where this comes from

Evidence

single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, November–December 1892, page 4: the 'no negro' proviso at Avon Park (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1892) · newspaper
2. W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, 15 December 1895 and 1 May 1896, Question Box: the race question in Avon Park township (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1896) · newspaper

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