Remembering the Confederacy Too Fondly

[HooptieWagon]

2. Reconstruction....

I am only up on Floridas history, not the other states. Florida had only been a state for 15 years when the Civil War broke out. It was a slave state, and among the first few to secede. However, Floridas population was very small, and the state largely an undeveloped frontier. Florida was largely unaffected by the war, only a few skirmishes were fought here.
Reconstruction did bring a few positives... namely that former slaves were freed, could acquire land, and vote and run for office. Many did. However, the reconstruction governments were incredibly corrupt, and pretty much threw open the doors to the states treasury and resources to various northern con men and looters that devastated the state. Remnants of those actions still have an adverse effect today, in the vast private land-holdings of the timber and mining companies. These were lands held by homesteaders, whose promised titles were stripped away so the land could be sold for pennies on the dollar to pay off fraudulent bonds the state backed through bribery. And then of course, once the Reconstructionists left, there was a vacuum in govt and the state suffered through a period of incredible violence. There were lynchings, assassinations, etc... much like what happened in Iraq.