Florida Statehood, March 3, 1845

Florida became the 27th state on March 3, 1845, when President John Tyler signed an act admitting Florida and Iowa together (Department of State; State Archives of Florida).

The State Archives copy of the act says it was approved March 3, 1845, by the second session of the 28th Congress, and the document ends with a note that it is a true copy from the roll, dated March 5, 1845; it is held as Collection M81-22 (State Archives, statehood act). The Department of State Quick Facts page lists 1821 as the year Florida was acquired from Spain as a U.S. territory (Department of State Quick Facts).

Admission came after years of division. Floridians had drafted a state constitution in 1838 and 1839, and the State Archives says Floridians were divided over whether and how Florida ought to enter statehood (State Archives). Last verified: October 18, 2026, by rechecking the Department of State statehood and quick facts pages, four State Archives records from the 1838 constitution to the 1845 returns, and current hours at the Port St. Joe and Tallahassee museums.

Floridians disagreed about statehood itself: some wanted to wait and enter as two states, some in the Panhandle preferred joining Alabama, and others disliked the tax cost of a state government (State Archives territorial guide).

Slavery shaped the debate. The State Archives says some pro-slavery Floridians wanted to wait until the population could support two states, which would add strength to pro-slavery forces in the U.S. Senate, while others wanted the territory admitted as fast as possible (State Archives). Advocates such as David Levy, later Yulee, and Robert Raymond Reid argued that statehood would bring better representation in Congress, federal land grants and national prominence for settlement and business (State Archives).

War pulled the other way. The territorial research guide says the Second Seminole War underscored how much Florida depended on the federal government for protection, which weighed against the cost objections (State Archives territorial guide). The same guide says Congress did not act on the 1839 request for admission in part because Floridians sent mixed signals (State Archives).

Delegates met at St. Joseph, a Gulf port near Apalachicola, from December 3, 1838, and approved Florida's first constitution on January 11, 1839 (State Archives of Florida).

The State Archives says a May 1838 referendum returned a majority interested in statehood, after which Governor Richard Keith Call authorized the election of delegates; voters approved the finished constitution the following May by a narrow margin (State Archives). Its constitutions page puts the convention at 56 prominent Floridians and says they drew on neighboring states' constitutions, especially Alabama's (State Archives, Florida constitutions).

The host town did not last. Florida State Parks says St. Joseph was a boomtown in 1835, competed with Apalachicola as a trading port, lasted only nine years, and was chosen over Tallahassee for the convention; the constitution drafted there became the Organic Law of Florida on admission in 1845 (Florida State Parks). Ratification did not settle the question. The State Archives says the Legislative Council took no immediate action on the document, and for several years it was as though no constitution had been approved at all (State Archives).

Statehood advocates argued that if Iowa entered alone, the northern states would gain an advantage in the U.S. Senate, so Florida had to be admitted with it (State Archives of Florida).

The State Archives says the prospect of Iowa's admission spurred Florida's leaders into action, voters elected a pro-statehood Legislative Council, and both houses of Congress passed the joint bill (State Archives). The territorial research guide describes the tipping point as 1845, when the governor, the territorial delegate to Congress and the Legislative Council all backed admission, and adds that Southern concern over Iowa entering as a free state played no small part (State Archives territorial guide).

Democrat William Moseley won the first election for governor on May 26, 1845, and was inaugurated on June 25, 1845 (State Archives of Florida).

The State Archives says local Democratic leaders meeting in Madison nominated Moseley, a Jefferson County planter, for governor and David Levy Yulee for representative to the 29th Congress, while the Whigs ran Richard Keith Call for governor and Benjamin A. Putnam for Congress. The Democrats won both races and took majorities in both houses of the first General Assembly, and the inauguration featured a new, short-lived state flag (State Archives). The Department of State says Yulee, one of the leading proponents of statehood, became a U.S. Senator (Department of State).

The vote itself is archived. Each of Florida's 25 counties was divided into precincts that filed returns naming voters, and the State Archives notes that a voter may appear in the 1845 returns and not in available census records (State Archives).

The Department of State gives 54,477 people in 1840, almost half of them enslaved, and 87,445 in 1850, including about 39,000 enslaved people and 1,000 free Black residents (Department of State, Territorial Period; Department of State, Statehood).

Political power was narrow. The Department of State says Florida voters were white males aged 21 or older, that the slavery issue began to dominate the new state's affairs, and that in the 1860 presidential election no Floridians voted for Abraham Lincoln (Department of State). The new government also needed a home: the Florida Historic Capitol Museum says the building now known as the Historic Capitol was started in 1839 and finished in 1845, just as Florida became the 27th state (Florida Historic Capitol Museum).

The two key places are the Constitution Convention Museum State Park in Port St. Joe and the Florida Historic Capitol Museum in Tallahassee (Florida State Parks; Florida Historic Capitol Museum).

The Constitution Convention Museum, at 200 Allen Memorial Way in Port St. Joe (850-229-8029), is open only Thursday through Monday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Eastern time, so a Tuesday or Wednesday trip finds it closed; admission is $2 per person, with children under 5 free. It sits on part of the park's 14 acres, offers a self-guided tour and displays artifacts from the original St. Joseph settlement (Florida State Parks).

The Florida Historic Capitol Museum, at 400 South Monroe Street in Tallahassee and managed by the Florida Legislature, is open Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Sundays and holidays noon to 4:30 pm; phone (850) 487-1902 (Florida Historic Capitol Museum). What visitors see today is the building as restored between 1978 and 1982 to its 1902 form (museum history). The statehood act and the 1845 election returns are both online through the State Archives (statehood act; election returns).