The Black Dilemma in Post-War Florida

The goal of the Republican party after the Civil War was to ensure political stability and maintain Reconstruction laws in Southern states. 

Florida was one of several formerly Confederate states to be occupied by Union forces well after the end of the Civil War. Southern White attitudes about Black Freedman were not positive. Wealthy and influential Democrats often sought to prevent Freedman from owning land or establishing themselves permanently. 

Northern policy initially encouraged Unionism among the southern population. At the time, Republicans believed that reintegrating rebellious states into the Union would be easy. Union loyalists were installed in Florida to support sectional reintegration.

Military rule was supposed to end July 4, 1868 but then-Governor Harrison Reed requested Union troops to stay fearing intense White resentment.

The presidential election of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction. Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina disputed the election between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.

In Washington, the disputed election was solved behind closed doors. Rutherford B. Hayes was announced the winner of all three states. Simultaneously, Republican officials announced the end of military occupancy in Florida. 

With Reconstruction enforcement and oversight officially over, Southern Democrats could pursue their broader initiatives of disenfranchising the Black vote and maintaining an agrarian south. 

One example of an entrepreneur who succeeded in utilizing convict leasing and debt peonage to amass great fortune was Henry Flagler. 

Henry Flager founded Standard Oil. Between 1885 and 1913, Flagler used forced servitude, "leasees", to industrialize Florida's rail, hotel, and city infrastructure. As a large landowner, Flagler's name now adorns Flagler College, Flagler County, Flagler Memorial Bridge, and Flagler Beach. 

Florida grew steadily more connected and into an early tourist empire by exploiting its African American population. This labor system was pushed by powerful white southerners in order to keep Freedman in a form of involuntary servitude. 

Many southern industrialists leased convicts from their respective states during this period. Convict leasing supplied workers to the least desirable and harshest conditions - unbearable heat, mosquitos and disease, little medical care, the constant threat of abuse - all sustained in a system that exploited their labor.  

Black men promised positions as cooks, foremen, or other positions were often compelled into working as laborers. Basic necessities like food were denied to people who refused to work. 

Transportation, board, and commissary costs were trumped up in an effort to prevent convicts from leaving.

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