Richard Keith Call

Richard Keith Call (October 24, 1792 – September 14, 1862) was an American attorney, politician, military officer, and enslaver who served as the 3rd and 5th territorial governor of Florida. Before that, he was elected to the Florida Territorial Council and as a delegate to the U.S. Congress from Florida, contributing to the legislative process during one term in office and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history. In the mid-1830s, he developed two plantations in Leon County, Florida, one of which was several thousand acres in size. By 1860, Call enslaved more than 120 people and was the third-largest enslaver in the county. A Southern Unionist, he opposed Florida’s declared secession during the American Civil War.

Call was born in Pittsfield, Prince George County, Virginia, to William Call and Helen Meade Walker Call. He was the nephew of another Richard Call, a Revolutionary War hero, and later became the uncle of Wilkinson Call, who would serve as a U.S. Senator from Florida. When Richard was young, his father and two of his brothers died. Shortly after 1800, his widowed mother moved with her four surviving children and five enslaved people across the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky. The family eventually settled on land owned by her brother, Senator David Walker, in Russellville, Kentucky, where Call spent most of his remaining childhood. After his mother’s death in 1810, Call moved to Tennessee to live near another uncle and to obtain a formal education.

In 1813, Call left college to take part in the Creek War, which was being fought in the broader context of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. During his military service, he came favorably to the attention of General Andrew Jackson, a leading American commander in the conflict. In 1814, Call was commissioned as a first lieutenant and went to Florida to serve as Jackson’s aide. He returned with Jackson in 1821 to help establish the territorial government after the United States acquired Florida from Spain under the Adams–Onís Treaty. Call resigned from the Army in 1822, settled permanently in Florida, and opened a legal practice, beginning a long career that combined law, land speculation, and politics.

Call quickly became a prominent figure in territorial Florida. A close friend and ally of Andrew Jackson, he was appointed receiver in the federal land office, a position that gave him detailed knowledge of developing areas and made him a leader of the influential “land-office faction,” sometimes called the “Nucleus,” in territorial politics. He was elected to the Legislative Council of the Florida Territory and served as a Delegate to the U.S. Congress from Florida. As a member of the Unknown Party representing the territory, he served one term in Congress, participating in the democratic process and advocating for the needs of the developing territory at a time when federal policy toward land, Native nations, and territorial governance was of central importance.

In 1824, Call married Mary Letitia Kirkman of Nashville, Tennessee. Her parents, who were political enemies of Andrew Jackson, opposed the match, but the couple was married at Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, underscoring Call’s close personal and political ties to the general. Of the several children born to the couple, two daughters—Ellen Call Long and Mary Call Brevard—survived to adulthood. Call’s growing family life paralleled his expanding economic interests. Beginning in the 1820s and especially during the 1830s, he purchased large tracts of land in Leon County, Florida, and developed two major plantations. Orchard Pond Plantation, located north of Tallahassee, eventually encompassed more than 8,000 acres. The Grove Plantation, a square mile on the northern outskirts of Tallahassee where construction likely began around 1824 at the time of the city’s founding, featured a mansion regarded as one of the finest examples of Georgian-Colonial architecture in the South. By 1860, Call enslaved more than 100 people at Orchard Pond Plantation alone and more than 120 people in total, making him the third-largest slaveholder in Leon County.

Call’s prominence in territorial affairs led to his appointment as governor. On March 16, 1836, President Andrew Jackson named him the 3rd territorial governor of Florida. During his first term, he also held the rank of brigadier general of the Florida Militia and personally led forces in the Second Seminole War, most notably at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. His tenure was marked by disputes with federal authorities over the level of military and financial support provided to Florida during the conflict. These disagreements culminated in President Martin Van Buren replacing him with Robert R. Reid on December 2, 1839. Despite this setback, Call remained a significant political figure. In the 1840 presidential campaign, he crossed party lines to support Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. After Harrison’s victory, Call was reappointed as territorial governor, becoming the 5th governor of Florida Territory. His second term began on March 19, 1841, during which he worked to move the territory closer to statehood and to mitigate the severe financial difficulties caused by bank failures and a nationwide economic depression. He left office on August 11, 1844.

When Florida achieved statehood in 1845, Call sought election as the state’s governor. However, his earlier support for President Harrison and his alignment with Whig interests contributed to his defeat in that race. Call continued to be active in public affairs. In 1856, he served as a delegate to the American (Know Nothing) Party convention in Philadelphia. He walked out of the convention in protest over sectional divisions regarding slavery, specifically demanding that Section 12, which supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, be restored to the party platform. Although a lifelong enslaver and defender of slavery in the South, Call later emerged as a Southern Unionist. As the secession crisis deepened in the late 1850s and early 1860s, he opposed Florida’s decision to leave the Union at the outset of the American Civil War, reflecting his complex and often contradictory political views.

Call spent the remainder of his life at The Grove in Tallahassee, overseeing his plantations and remaining a figure of local prominence. He died at The Grove on September 14, 1862. His legacy continued through his descendants and through the physical landscape of Florida. In 1942, The Grove Plantation was purchased by future Florida governor LeRoy Collins and his wife, Mary Call Darby Collins, a great-granddaughter of Richard Keith Call. Collins later served two terms as governor, and the Call–Collins Mansion at The Grove is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Collins family eventually sold the house and property to the State of Florida for use as a historic house museum. Call’s name endures in several Florida communities: streets bearing his name can be found in Tallahassee, Starke, Jacksonville, Hollywood, Orange City, and High Springs. During World War II, the Liberty ship SS Richard K. Call was named in his honor. An 1828 proposal to create a “Call County” in north Florida, however, was vetoed by then-governor William P. Duval, reflecting the sometimes contentious nature of his contemporary reputation.