The period after the Civil war in the South is known as Reconstruction. The name is a bit misleading. For former states of rebellion, these years were largely state government controlled with U.S. military oversite. Florida had been one of the slave state instigators before the war and one of the most controlled afterwards. Among other things, the federal government seized vast sections of land whose owners could not pay taxes. With strong northern influence over government, many Yankees came into the state seeking their own fortunes and earning another name for the period, the Carpet...