Ossian Hart is a member of the Republican Party in Florida during the years of . In the 1872 gubernatorial election, the votes of Black people carry him to the governor’s mansion. Although he was himself a slaveowner prior to the American Civil War and his primary political objectives are improving the Southern economy through increased ties to the North, he repays his supporters by quelling anti-Black violence, prohibiting segregation in most public spaces, and naming Hubburt DeVaughn justice of the peace in Leon County. Later, names her second son, , after Ossian Hart.