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ORDINANCE OF SECESSION

We, the people of the State of Florida, in convention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish, and declare, That the State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the confederacy of States existing under the name of the United States of America and from the existing Government of the said States; and that all political connection between her and the Government of said States ought to be, and the same is hereby, totally annulled, and said Union of States dissolved; and the State of Florida is hereby declared a sovereign and independent nation; and that all ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded; and all laws or parts of laws in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union, be, and they are hereby, repealed.

adopted January 10, 1861

Florida Secession Flag

This flag was presented to Gov. Madison Starke Perry by the Ladies of Broward's Neck in Duval County and it was hoisted on the state Capitol when the Ordinance of Secession was signed on Jan.11, 1861.

"The ladies of Broward's Neck", a community in Duval County, presented Gov. Madison S. Perry with a flag of their own design symbolizing Florida's withdrawal from the Union. The flag, never officially adopted, thus was proffered as an emblem of Florida as a sovereign nation. Governor-elect John Milton presented that flag to the Florida Secession Convention at Tallahassee in 1861 after signing of the Ordinance of Secession. The stars represent South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida, the first three states to leave the Union. Mrs. G.E. Ginder, great-niece of one of the ladies of Broward's Neck, in the interview in the Florida Times-Union in 1961, said the flag was displayed on the rostrum of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Tallahassee during the Civil War (sic).

This information is based on the article written by Allen Morris for the Florida Handbook 1988.