1866: Purman's first year as Freedman's Bureau agent

Hamilton had already completed one of the major tasks of the Bureau agents by approving labor contracts at the beginning of the year. Purman joined Hamilton in attention to the remaining primary functions of the Bureau. One goal was to promote the creation of schools for black children. Their main success was in Marianna where they supported an embattled, but thriving, school originally organized by U.S. troops in 1865. Purman was very impressed by the eagerness of the freedmen for education, writing that "They are zealous in every pursuit of, intelligence, and the desire they have for the education of their children is as unexpected as it is truly laudable."

Purman was less impressed, however, by George Bramman, the northern-born white teacher already ensconced in Marianna, describing him as "not a proper person, qualified either by education or disposition, to fulfill the duty. He is not even acquainted with the rudiments of common education, and yet he plays the teacher, preacher, and oracle to these superstitious people, living with, and associating exclusively with them. The chief success of his teachings seems to be in promoting discontent and enmity between the black and white classes of the community. I would recommend his dismissal as a fermenter of mischief and as a very ignorant man."

A ugly series of confrontations and accusations ensued, bringing in the intervention of the state's superintendent of education. After charges that he was overly close with the black community, Bramman reversed himself, adopting to the prejudices of the white community. Finally, after an embarrassing incident at the July 4th celebration, Bramman alienated the black community and was driven out. Hamilton and Purman replaced him with a local woman who agreed to teach.

It is difficult to assess the significance of the confrontation with Bramman. Were Purman and Hamilton merely motivated by their displeasure with his poor qualifications? Purman's descriptions suggests they were equally bothered by his influence over the black community. Did they consider him a rival for the loyalty or affection of the black community? Hamilton and Purman were certainly willing to incur white hatred for their efforts in promoting the legal rights of blacks (which did not include voting at this point). Was Bramman teaching more radical ideas? Did the dispute with Bramman preview divisions later to emerge between "moderate" Republicans (with whom Purman allied initially allied himself) and "radical" Republican in Florida politics. It is impossible to know since we have no evidence of Bramman's views and whether his promotion of "discontent and enmity" between the races stemmed from preaching social and political equality, and not merely the assertion of legal rights.

The agents other efforts in 1866 were focused on encouraging and preserving the free-labor system. They soon found frustration in this arena as they recognized that some employers were inclined to take advantage of their freedmen laborers and these laborers could find no recourse in the biased local court system. Any efforts by the agents to intervene on behalf of cheated freedmen risked violent resistance by white planters. Purman dryly observed that Bureau regulations directed the agents "to divide the crop according to contracts in all cases of dispute or difficulty between employers and employees, but under present circumstances it is the conviction of this humble Agent that the performance of this duty, singlehanded, throughout this unreconstructed section, would be decidedly dangerous and “unhealthy.”" Violent attacks against freedmen by whites similarly went unpunished. In vain, Purman wrote to his superiors that "the ready prosecution of all who maltreat freedmen, or deny their rights, will exert a salutary restraining influence upon others, and, no doubt, will before long, effect a great diminution of this barbarous spirit which is now only too ready to inflict the most shameful treatment on the least whim or custom, or provocation whatever."

Purman was further frustrated by cooperation among court officers and local law enforcement not only to deny blacks their contractual rights, but to target and punish them disproportionately. "It is clearly evident that a disposition prevails among these petty magistrates and the people of their respective communities, to colleague and prevent as far as possible all prosecutions against white persons, however just and necessary; and to watch every freedman with a lynx-eyed scrutiny, and on the slightest pretext arraign him before the authorities, and visit him with the extremest penalty of the law."

In a sentence about unjust employers that could equally apply to his observations of the white community generally during his first year in the Bureau, Purman wrote that "The old formulas of slavery are yet too deeply rooted, and the proper ideas of freedom, justice, and civil rights are slow, in gaining admission into the sentiments and conduct of the employers."

1866: Purman the Lecturer

Immediately after his arrival in Marianna, Purman began to lecture Jackson County's African American population. Almost weekly, he spoke to gatherings of freedmen "on business, in their rights, on the laws of the State, and their duties and conduct under them." There is no record of any order commanding Purman to conduct these talks; Hamilton, much more diffident, and an awkward orator, did not lecture. Nor it is clear how Purman, with a public school education, some reading of law, and no college, found his subjects or texts. He qualifications to speak with authority on any of his subjects were certainly questionable, Nevertheless, Purman quickly developed a reputation as a forceful speaker. Even more significantly, it soon became clear that Purman, unlike his friend Hamilton, had a natural ability for engaging with his African American audiences and cultivating their personal loyalty.

It can be speculated that Osborn had some role in shaping or promoting Purman's lecture program. Osborn was the moving force behind organization of the Lincoln Brotherhood, a Florida fraternal group for African Americans, similar to the more well known Union League. Although Hamilton and Purman never mention the Lincoln Brotherhood in their reports by name, it was almost certainly active in Jackson County. The objective of the Lincoln Brotherhood was to secure Florida freedmen as loyal Republicans. Presumably, Osborn operated the Brotherhood at the behest of the national Republican Party which foresaw the enactment of black suffrage at some later date, but Osborn likely also saw the Brotherhood as a vehicle for building a constituency to bolster his own political ambitions. The roots of the so-called "moderate" wing of Florida's Reconstruction era Republican Party, can be identified in the network of Bureau officers who participated in leading local Brotherhood cells under Osborn's guidance.

Purman's lecturing was no secret. During the mass July 4th barbecue hosted by the African American community, Jackson County whites has their first opportunity to hear one of Purman's speeches when he stood behind the speaker's stand to lecture the freedmen "at length, in their rights, their duties, and obligations" and to explain the laws of the state.

Purman Arrives in Florida

The Bureau was late in getting organized in Florida. Osborn found on his arrival that he had virtually no one available to staff the essential field positions. Out of desperation, the Bureau declared that local probate judges were to serve as civilian agents to represent the Bureau. Appointing white Southern officials holding over from the Confederacy was worse than useless. In January, Osborn finally received some VRC officers and sent them out to field positions. Hamilton was given Jackson and three adjacent counties as his territory. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Marianna in late January, Hamilton reported on the local staffing problem. When Osborn asked for recommendations to replace the local civilian agents, Hamilton suggested his friend Purman as a "suitable person for the position of Civilian Agent" for Jackson Co.

Purman arrived in Marianna, Florida in late March or early April 1866. Officially, Purman reported to Hamilton, the sub-assistant commissioner for Jackson and three adjacent counties. Hamilton reported to Osborn, the assistant commissioner for the State of Florida and Osborn, in turn, reported to the Bureau's Commissioner, Gen. O.O. Howard, in Washington.

Unlike Hamilton, who was salaried, civilian agents depended for income from their position on the fees they were entitled to charge for stamping and approving documents, primarily labor contracts. By the time Purman arrived in Florida, however, Hamilton had already nearly completed revising and approving the labor contracts for 1866, leaving Purman little opportunity to earn money from transaction fees. Consequently, Hamilton sent a request to Osborn asking as a "personal favor" that Purman be awarded a salaried position. Osborn gave his approval, and beginning June 1, Purman was paid one hundred dollars per month.

The Mysterious Early Years: What exactly was William James POORMAN doing during the War?

The facts about William James Purman's childhood are lost in the haze of history. He is listed as born on April 11, 1840, the son John Poorman, from Chester County, “an eminent and useful” Methodist minister (but listed in the 1850 census as a cabinetmaker), and Sarah Harter, daughter of a prosperous carriage and wagon maker. Purman’s birthplace is listed as his mother’s home town, Millheim, Pennsylvania, and he attended school at adjacent Aaronsburg [according to Wikipedia, Aaronsburg is significant in American Jewish history as the first town in Pennsylvania, and probably the U.S, "laid out and named after a Jew", i.e., Aaron Levy."] These villages are found in Pennsylvania's appropriately named Centre County. In the 1850 census, the Poorman family was listed as living in Haines Township, just to the east of Milheim (and including teh village of Aaronsburg). The Poorman family, however, must have moved at some point during William's youth, because Purman has also been described as the boyhood friend and neighbor of Charles M. Hamilton, whose family had lived for generations in the Jersey Shore – Avis area, more than thirty miles from Milheim, across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Without this geographic propinquity, there is no explanation for the close bond between Charles Hamilton and William Purman, which pre-dated their army service. As Hamilton wrote in 1866, they had been "inseperably associated for the greater part of" their lives.

According to the earliest biographical sketches, Purman, “when quite young was successful as a school-teacher” but he soon commenced the study of law and completed his studies, but did not “enter actively upon the practice of law.” Another account states that he read law in Lock Haven, but he never claimed to have been admitted to the bar. Whatever his actual acadmic achievements, his writing, grammar and spelling indicate a high level learning.

The war began in the spring of 1861 and the haze surrounding the facts of Purman’s background then thickened. It is certain that about this time he changed his last name from Poorman to the more refined sounding Purman. One critical account accused him of choosing a more "aristocratic" name.

The Hamilton brothers enlisted almost immediately after Fort Sumter, entering the “Jersey Shore Rifles” [Co. A of the 5th PA Reserve Infantry] that fought through all the major battles of the Army of the Potomac. Charles Hamilton was wounded at Fredricksburg in Dec. 1862 where he was captured by the Confederate army. Alexander served throughout the War and youngest brother John was killed leading a unit of U.S. Colored Troops at Petersburg in the war's last week.

Despite Hamilton's statement that they had "enlisted together in 61," Purman did not join his boon-companions in the ranks as a brother-in-arms. Instead, Purman’s early biographies, most likely self-composed, state that he “entered the army of the United States as a private, and served on special duty in the War Department at Washington.” Barnes, William Horatio, Biographies of Members of the House of Representatives of the Forty-third Congress, (Nelson & Phillips, NY) 1874, 217. There is no record of a William Purman having served in the Union army. Some William Poormans from Pennsylvania are listed in the Civil War databases, but no information connecting any of them to “special duty” service at the War Department. Certainly Purman’s critics later seized on the ambiguities of his military record. Soon after Purman became prominent in post-war politics in Florida, a Democratic newspaper from Columbia, Pennsylvania, more than one hundred and thirty miles down the Susquehanna from the Jersey Shore region, launched a vicious attack against Purman's repututation. After noting the Poorman-Purman name change, the editor informed his readers that during the war, Purman “made a precarious living by peddling photographs and asafoetida in the Penna Reserves. He was too cowardly to enlist and afraid to stay at home on account of the draft.” Columbia [PA] Herald in Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, Sept. 1, 1868]. In the nineteenth century, asafoetida was used as an expectorant, but also widely prescribed for hysteria and symptoms associated with mood swings and depression, Phyllis Balch, “Understanding Herbal Healing” p. 25. I'm not sure if the accusation of being an asafoetida pusher carried some unseemly connations and what exactly is being insinuated by accusing Purman of peddling photographs.

At some point Purman did end up in Washington with some kind of position in the War Dept. Again, how he had the connections to pull this off and avoid a combat unit is inexplicable. In D.C., Purman most certainly encountered Lt. Charles Hamilton, who served out the last few years of the war on various guard duty posts around the capital as part of the Veterans Reserve Corps for disabled soldiers. Many, many years later, like thousands of others, Purman insisted that he was in the audience at Ford’s Theatre, with Hamilton, the night Booth murdered Lincoln. There is no other record of Purman – or Hamilton, making this claim.

At the end of the war, Purman, presumably, was mustered out of whatever form of the service he had entered. He immediately assented to an invitation from Charles Hamilton to join him in workinng for the Freedman's Bureau in Marianna, Florida. This might suggest that Purman was at loose ends, but Hamilton wrote that Purman had "resigned a good position in the War Department" to join him in Florida.

The William J. Purman Biography: Why a Blog?

William James Purman may not be my favorite Florida Carpetbagger, but he is the most interesting and, perhaps, the most controversial of his peers. He is a fascinating subject for a biographical article. I considered writing a "formal" article for a scholarly journal, such as the FHQ, but past experience has proven that journal articles about long-forgetten Reconstruction Era figures garner little, if any, attention. The blog format is appealing because of the informality which encourages for revisions and digressions. Furthermore, more readers will stumble across this blog page, either through google searches, or just accidentally, than will ever see an article in a local history journal. I've assembled quite a lot of information about Purman that I'll be posting here over the next few months.