Biography
John Black was among a group of white men hanged in Gadsden County, Florida, in 1846. The Espy chronology classifies Black, Alvin Flowers, and Thomas Smith under “Aid Runaway Slave” and dates their executions to October 2. Other later execution compilations place the same group in a mail-robbery and murder prosecution and disagree about the date. Because the surviving summaries conflict and do not separate each man’s conduct, Black’s profile records the Espy classification while leaving his precise role and motive unresolved.
