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These were years that witnessed Middle Florida’s development into one of the Old Southwest’s most prosperous slave-based economies. Enjoying successive appointments by Presidents James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, DuVal presided over Florida’s first 12 territorial legislative sessions. The scion of a well-to do Richmond, Virginia, family, DuVal migrated to Kentucky as a youth, fought in the War of 1812, served in Congress, and in 1822, became the first civil governor of the Territory of Florida. William Pope DuVal was a well-connected but nearly forgotten frontier politician of antebellum America. Thoroughfares in Tallahassee, Richmond, Lexington, Austin, and numerous other towns in Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, and Texas also bear the name - as does one of Florida’s most populous counties. Each day thousands of revelers trudge down Duval Street in Key West, but few know for whom the street is named.
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