While most Floridians were enjoying free park entry for George Washington’s Birthday weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Monroe County pulling a cord off a brand-new bronze tribute to James Monroe — Founding Father, fifth U.S. president, architect of the Monroe Doctrine… and lifelong slaveholder.
Welcome to America 250, Florida-style.
The statue, placed near Bahia Honda State Park along the newly christened Spottswood Heritage Trail in Big Pine Key, is part of the state’s semiquincentennial rollout — a multi-county effort to plant Founding Fathers in public squares like historical garden gnomes.
“In Florida, we honor our nation’s history,” DeSantis declared, celebrating Monroe’s “legacy of civic virtue.”
Civic virtue. Let’s talk about that.
Monroe’s résumé is undeniably robust: Decorated Revolutionary War hero, diplomat, signer of the Adams-Onís Treaty that transferred Florida from Spain to the United States — why the county was named after him — and author of the Monroe Doctrine, 
which warned European powers to stay out of the Western Hemisphere.
But here’s the part that doesn’t fit neatly on a plaque: Monroe owned more than 200 enslaved people over his lifetime. He inherited them. Bought them. Sold them. Relied on their labor at his Highland plantation and elsewhere — including during his presidency.
Yes, he privately referred to slavery as a “necessary evil.” Yes, he supported gradual emancipation.
He also supported shipping freed Black Americans to Liberia through the American Colonization Society rather than integrating them into the country they helped build.
And as governor of Virginia, he suppressed Gabriel’s Rebellion in 1800, leading to the execution of 28 enslaved men.
That’s not civic virtue. That’s the American contradiction.
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The state says the statue series reinforces “historical literacy.” But literacy requires full sentences — not selective paragraphs.
Are we telling visitors to Bahia Honda State Park that Monroe sold enslaved people to settle his debts? That families were separated under his ownership? That the expansionist policies he signed, including the Missouri Compromise, prolonged the institution he claimed to regret?
Or are we sticking to the greatest-hits album?
Because statues don’t footnote themselves.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd said every mile of Florida’s coastline is a monument to Monroe’s vision. Technically, that’s true. The Adams-Onís Treaty brought Florida into the U.S. orbit.
But there’s something almost poetic about installing a monument to a slaveholding president in 2026 Florida — a state currently 
locked in culture-war battles over how slavery is taught in schools. Remember when DeSantis signed a bill in 2022 that prohibited the teaching of critical race theory? He is still erasing entire chapters on race and ethnicity from college textbooks.
History, apparently, is safest when cast in bronze.
The statue isn’t just about Monroe. It’s about branding.
“America 250 Florida” is the governor’s stage for patriotic pageantry. Free park entry. Founders in every county with a presidential namesake. Civic pride with a glossy finish.
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It’s smart politics. It’s also selective storytelling.
Because honoring the Founders without grappling with their contradictions isn’t education — it’s marketing.
No one is arguing Monroe wasn’t consequential. He was. But if Florida wants to lead the nation in civic literacy, as it claims, then let’s tell the whole story.
Monroe the diplomat. Monroe the expansionist. Monroe the enslaver.
All of it.
Because the real test of patriotism isn’t whether we erect statues. It’s whether we can stand in front of them and tell the truth.
This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
Ron DeSantis unveils statue of slave owning U.S. president James Monroe added by Ladra on
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Now do Frederick Douglass – https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/2-25-26-unveiling-of-frederick-douglass-statue/
”Stephen, you are delusional.”
IMO White Power which also applies to Hispanics is not delusional , they just rewrite history to suit their agenda .
”Africans living in the sanitary conditions of plantations were far happier and better off than those in the unsanitary conditions of Africa.”
For starters the plantations forced labor were not sanitary and they were subjected to brutality if the land owner thought necessary .
Your post is pure DeSantis type thinking and with your ” reasoning ” if you watched the movie Schindlers List it wasn’t so bad because they were learning how to make hinges , etc in clean warehouses .
Slavery in America was merely a labor management system. During that period of history, there were no other opportunities for those who worked on plantations. In return, they had job security and guaranteed cradle to grave room and board for the men and women. Africans living in the sanitary conditions of plantations were far happier and better off than those in the unsanitary conditions of Africa.
Stephen, you are delusional. I suggest you educate yourself. Start by watching Roots.
Love, Ladra
”There is more than two genders, right? LOL”
I think there are 4 now but 7 in California
Jose,
I never mentioned Trump. What does Trump have to do with any of this. You definitely have TDS.”
Lol outstanding
Jose,
I never mentioned Trump. What does Trump have to do with any of this. You definitely have TDS.
For your information I am a Democrat. But like plenty of Democrats, I am realizing our party is full of crazy and lunatic people that can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
There is more than two genders, right? LOL
The Truth
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not know history I agree yet Trump does ?
TDS which is the standard MAGA reply does not change reality .
This pretty much sums up DeSantis and the MAGA movement –” “Benefits” of Slavery: Florida’s New School Curriculum under DeSantis ” because if you subscribe to this playing slavery down let us say many in Castro’s prison camps who had to work the fields learned agriculture and this how full of it DeSantis is .
Cubans who kiss DeSantis White Power Rump because they are no different would go ballistics and rightfully so if DeSantis played down Fidel’s labor camps after all they learned agriculture , construction , etc .
”Humble people, whose only flaw was that they were not sympathizers of the system; because they knew that it was a Communist system. So they were taken to these captive villages. Those men there had to build their homes. They took them to prison, but after prison, they put them into forced labor brigades. Some did construction, others worked on chicken farms, others in agriculture, but then there is a group of those young men who had to build housing for all those families.”
https://www.bushcenter.org/freedom-collection/blas-giraldo-reyes-rodriguez-captive-villages
Ladra,
I so much enjoy your sarcasm, because it shows your true ignorance. Your lack of historical knowledge is worse than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But then again, why know it when you can spin the narrative for political purposes and motivation. The world’s economic system back then was dependent on the slave system. It was not just the U.S. Every race and every country was dependent on indigent people. Was it right? Well today, we all know that it is not. It is part of our progression as people and our society.
However, progression is not criticizing a statute dedicated to James Monroe for his incredible lifetime deeds and accomplishments and try to overshadow it by a decision that was the norm back then, nor supporting the dedication of a statute to a violent felon in George Floyd.
But you will find every reason to support the latter and hate on the former.
Ignorance is bliss!
President Monroe was so beloved that the capital of the Republic of Liberia in Africa is named after him – – Monrovia!
We Americans enjoy free speech, but we can’t stand whiners who don’t help themselves.
Slavery is one of the deepest moral stains in American history, and James Monroe’s participation in it is a legitimate subject of discussion. No honest reading of history should ignore that reality.
But historical literacy also requires proportion and context. Monroe was hardly unique among early American leaders. Several presidents of that era, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, were slaveholders. This reflects the tragic structure of the period, not a singular moral aberration.
There is real racism in the world today that demands clarity, focus, and moral force. Not every historical commemoration or statue automatically rises to that level. When everything is treated as a racial offense, the term itself can lose meaning and impact.
We should absolutely confront genuine injustice where it exists. But this doesn’t feel like the best use of our “that’s racist” cards.
This raises an honest question about standards and consistency. If the existence of slaveholding alone invalidates public commemoration, would we then apply the same logic to monuments of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson?
Both were foundational figures in the nation’s history, and both were also slaveholders. Yet public memory has long recognized that historical legacies can contain profound contradictions.
The history of the country must to be told in full if we ever are to become a more perfect union. The only way to distance ourselves from the sins of the past is to reveal it all.
Our nation was riding that arc that bends toward justice, until the backsliding white supremacy adherents got elected. We now have to make up lost ground. Keep the truth coming.
I do not understand how people who so hate America, who feel so mistreated by America, can stand to live here.
If America is so bad, then why are they here? There is no Berlin Wall around America.
They are free to escape from America, so why don’t they just leave? It would be best for all of us!
Oh Ed, it seems you don’t grasp what makes America truly great. One of those things is that we are free to criticize the government and our elected leaders when they do boneheaded shit. We don’t want to leave. We want to make it better. We are free to do that.
I do not understand how some people who so hate dissent or differing opinion can stand to live here, where differing opinions are not just tolerated, but sought and valued. If freedom of speech is so bad, then why are you here? There is nothing stopping you from leaving.
You are free to escape from America. Cuba is close by and the state controls media and restricts access to information that contradicts its ideology. You might like that. Or maybe Saudi Arabia, where they regularly jail and kill journalists who criticize anything? That sounds like something you might be in favor of. The best place for censorship might be North Korea, though. where media is entirely a mouthpiece of the government and there is no independent journalism at all.
Maybe you would feel better in one of those places, Ed. We don’t want to leave. But you sure seem to.
Love, Ladra
Right on the money Elaine!