STATE OF FLORIDA, COUNTY OF GADSDEN, KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT WE, JOHN W. JONES & W.J. LAURENCE, ARE HELD AND FIRMLY BOUND UNTO R.R. HAYGOOD & S.M. FLEISHMANN, IN THE SUM OF SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS, FOR THE PAYMENT WHEREOF, WELL AND TRULY TO BE MADE, WE BIND OURSELVES. . . THIS 29TH DAY OF JANUARY [1858] . . . THE CONDITION OF THIS OBLIGATION IS SUCH, THAT WHEREAS THE SHERIFF IN AND FOR SAID COUNTO [sic], BY VIRTUE OF 2 EXECUTIONS ISSUED FROM THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE COUNTY OF GADSDEN, IN FAVOR OF R.R. HAYGOOD & S.M. FLEISHMANN AGAINST JOHN W. JONES HAS LEVIED UPON THE FOLLOWING PROPERTY, TO-WIT: A NEGRO MAN NAMED TOM ABOUT 45 OR 50 YEARS OF AGE. . . AND THE SAID J.W. JONES WISHING TO REPLEVY THE SAME: NOW IF THE SAID J.W. JONES SHALL HAVE THE SAID PROPERTY FORTHCOMING AT QUINCY, IN SAID COUNTY, ON THE 1ST DAY OF MARCH A.D. 1858, AND DELIVER THE SAME TO THE SHERIFF OF SAID COUNTY, THEN THIS OBLIGATION TO BE VOID...; by Florida Bond [Negro Man Named Tom] - 1858

Gadsden County, Florida, 1858. Legal broadside, 8" x 12-1/2". Partially printed on blue paper, completed in ink manuscript. Minor wear, Very Good. John W. Jones [1786-1860], born in North Carolina, was a Gadsden County farmer wning five slaves, one of whom matched the description of the "Negro man named Tom." Jones's writ of replevin required him to post a bond in favor of Haygood and Fleishman, in the event that Jones was found not to be entitled to the possession of Tom. S.M. Fleishman was likely Samuel M. Fleishman [c.1822-1869], a German Jew from Ohio who settled in Florida as a merchant in Gadsden County. He is said to have been targeted by the Ku Klux Klan; he hired and did business with local blacks, and allegedly asserted that, for every Black murdered by white supremacists, they should murder three Klansmen. It is said that while living in Marianna in 1869, he was asked to leave by the townspeople: the Klan had threatened the safety of the entire town if he remained. After refusing, he was taken by force, shot, and dumped in rural Jackson County. See Southern Jewish History, Journal of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, 2005, Volume 8.