Special Constitutional Provisions.—A wife holds in her own name property acquired before or after marriage; she is not liable for debts incurred by her husband. Intermarriage of whites and negroes, or persons of negro de scent to the fourth generation, is A homestead of 160 acres, or of one-half of an acre in an incorporated town or city, owned by the head of a family who is a resident of the State, with personal property not to exceed $1,000 and the improvements on the real estate is exempt from enforced sale except for pur chase money, delinquent taxes, or mortgage. It is further ordered by legislative enactment that whites and blacks living in adultery are to be punished by imprisonment or fine; divorces may be secured only after two years' residence within the State and on the ground of adultery, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, habitual indulgence in violent temper, desertion for one year, previous marriage still binding, physical incapacity, or such relationship of the parties as prohibits by law their entering into lawful wedlock. Legitimacy of natural children can be established by subsequent marriage of the parents. The legal age of consent is 16 years.
In Florida had a popu lation of 528,542, comprising 297,812 whites and 320,730 negroes. or 9.6 persons to each square mile of area. In 1910, it returned 752,619, com prising 443,950 whites and 308,669 negroes, or 13.7 persons to the square mile. This was an increase of 42.1 per cent for the decade. In 1915, the population by sex and birth comprised 291,684 white males, 268,103 white females, 187,295 negro males, and 173,099 negro females, 226 Asiatics and 129 Indians, making a grand total of 921,618. Of the total (752,619) re ported by the last census, 33,842 were foreign born, of whom 1,896 were from the West Indies, 2,917 from England, 2,442 from Ger many, 4,538 from Italy, 1,698 from Canada, and 4,183 from Spain. The population on 1 July 1917, was estimated at 916,185. The largest cities in the State are Jacksonville, with an estimated population of 76,101 in 1916; Tampa, 53,886; Pensacola, 26272; Key West, 21,724; Tallahassee, the capital, 5,193. Of the total population, in 1915, 44.2 per cent was urban.
The greatest and the most heroic stand of the American aborigine in defense of his home land was made by the Seminoles of Florida, who for centuries after the advent of the white man roamed in undisputed possession all over the peninsula. The Spaniards at
tempted to found only a few settlements on the coast and rarely penetrated inland; during the later colonial period they treated the In dians with kindness and interfered not at all with their freedom of action. Soon after the peninsula was ceded to the United States, grasping white settlers from Georgia began to encroach on the red man's domain and exhibited little sympathy, no charity and a minimum of honest dealing toward him. Trouble ensued and one of the great conflicts of American history took place in which superior force prevailed; the Indians were decimated, and the greater part of the survivors were torn from their native haunts and removed to western reser vations. Some, however, concealed themselves in the Everglades, refused to yield and to-day their descendants occupy a unique position. They are still unconquered and have never acknowledged allegiance to the government of the United States. Their number is estimated at present as a little less than 500 souls. They are expert hunters and trappers as their forebears were, but the drainage enterprises and the ever advancing settlements of the whites are rapidly depriving them of their hunting grounds and consequently of their means of subsistence, for they do not take kindly to agri culture.
Since 1889 the State legislature made several attempts to set aside land for the Indians. Congress took a hand in the matter and pro vided funds for the purchase of 23,000 acres for a reservation. In 1913, Congress appointed a special agent to look after the interests of this tribe. In 1917, the State legislature set aside 100,000 acres near the Ten Thousand Islands, on which industrial schools are to he erected and where the Seminoles will be assisted to be come self-supporting through agriculture, stock raising, etc. The difficulty to be faced is that most of the tribe still look upon agriculture with disdain and their peculiar tribal customs render efforts for their education especially dif ficult. The measles, elsewhere a mild disease, is one of the great enemies of the Seminoles. Because of the lack of sanitation, it spreads rapidly, and the medicine man of the tribe often proves an efficient aide in increasing mortality from the disease. For the ethnography, his tory, customs, etc., of this tribe see SEMINOLE