Background
Born in Jacksonville to Isaiah Hart, one of the city"s founders, he was raised on his father"s plantation along the Saint Johns River.
Born in Jacksonville to Isaiah Hart, one of the city"s founders, he was raised on his father"s plantation along the Saint Johns River.
He was a lawyer in Jacksonville. In 1845, Hart became Florida State Representative for Saint Lucia County. In 1846 he moved to Key West where he resumed his law practice.
In 1856, he moved to Tampa, Florida.
Despite his upbringing, Hart was a Republican and openly opposed secession from the United States, causing some difficult times for him during the American Civil War. Following the war, he helped reestablish the governments of the state and of the city of Jacksonville.
In 1868, he was appointed a justice of the Florida Supreme Court. In 1870, he ran unsuccessfully for United States. Congress, only to be elected governor two years later on January 7, 1873.
He appointed Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs as Florida"s first African American Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Following the campaign, he fell ill with pneumonia and died in Jacksonville. He was succeeded by lieutenant governor Marcellus Stearns, Florida"s last Republican governor until 1967.
He moved to a farm near Fort Pierce, Florida in 1843, and was a founding member of the Saint Lucie County Board of Commissioners.