James T. Magbee

James T. Magbee, known as J. T. Magbee, was a pioneer of Tampa, Florida, the town's first lawyer, and the federal collector of revenues at Tampa.[1][2] Magbee was a Florida State Constitutional Convention delegate, a Florida State Senator, a newspaper editor and a judge of the Circuit Court. He owned slaves prior to the Civil War.[3]

He edited the Tampa Guardian.[4]

After the war he became a "scalawag", a term of derision, when he changed affiliations from southern Democrats, to northern Republicans. Known for his public drunkenness, Tampa residents spread molasses and cornmeal on his unconscious body where it lay in the street and pigs reportedly ate off the sweet mixture along with some of the judge's clothes. Magbee is buried in downtown Tampa's Oaklawn Cemetery.[1][5]

References
  2. [Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor, page 101, Canter Brown, 1997, ISBN 0807121371
  3. Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction by Carter Brown Jr. Page 12
  4. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84022831/
  5. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu, University of South Florida, Scholar Commons, Digital Collection - Florida Studies Center, Publications, Digital Collection - Florida Studies Center, 11-1-1994, Sunland Tribune 20/01, Tampa Historical Society, pg 28,

Further reading
  • JAMES T. MAGBEE; "Union Man, Undoubted Secessionist and High Priest in the Radical Synagogue” by KYLE S. VANLANDINGHAM
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