Union Colony in the Confederate South studies a retirement community in North Florida developed for veterans of the Union army. Hundreds of acres of virgin pine and palmetto along St. Andrews Bay were purchased by William Harcourt Lynn as president of a Delaware chartered company, the St. Andrews Bay Development Company. The project was promoted by the Grand Army of The Republic, a Union veteran's organization. Lots in the planned colony were advertised in The National Tribune, a G.A.R. publication and sold by agents throughout the country. In 1911, aged men and their families took possession of their property in the new town, Lynn Haven. Over the next two years, the colony experienced a period of astounding growth. These twentieth-century pioneers/retirees built homes, businesses, and churches there. They established social and civic clubs and instituted local government. Both Lynn Haven and the new Bay County were chartered in 1913. The veterans provided a school for the children and educational opportunities for all citizens. Their experiences demonstrate that the west coast was promoted much as the east coast, but developed in its own unique manner. Many lived out their years enjoying the Florida environment, but survival of the town became questionable as economic problems developed and the population declined as the settlers died. / Unfortunately, the developer, Lynn, and his company did not realize the financial rewards they anticipated. By 1915, the community bank failed and by 1917, the St. Andrews Bay Company went into receivership. William Lynn turned his attention to other promotions, and the town bearing his name was left to fend for itself. By 1920 the population had declined from two thousand to seven hundred. Only through the concerted efforts of the transplanted Northerners who had grown to love their community in the South did Lynn Haven survive to become the prosperous community that today approaches its centennial. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-02, Section: A, page: 0834. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Horseracing flourished in antebellum north Florida only to lose favor in the 1840s. A resurgence of interest after the Civil War sustained horseracing into the twentieth century as it spread to Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa. Opposition to gambling culminated in a 1911 state law which temporarily curtailed racing. Proponents bounced back with creative, alternative betting schemes and horseracing continued. With the south Florida land boom in the 1920s, racing moved into the Miami area to stay and prosper. First Hialeah Park in 1925, followed by Tropical Park in 1931, and then Gulfstream Park in 1939 opened to popular acclaim. Fighting anti-gambling opponents, horsemen convinced the state legislature to legalize pari-mutuel betting in 1931, a move designed to boost the ailing economy with much-needed revenue. While the three tracks battled for the best winter racing dates, organized crime infiltrated the tracks as race horse owners, bookmakers, and controlling interests in the tracks. Expelled in 1941 from Tropical Park, organized crime otherwise continued unabated until Senator Estes Kefauver's investigations in 1950-51. Horseracing survived the scrutiny to become the number one spectator sport in the United States in the 1950s. Sunshine Park near Tampa revived racing on the west coast, and the first new, all-weather track for summer racing, Calder, opened in Dade County in 1971. Tropical became a Dade County parks and recreation facility, Gulfstream surged ahead of Hialeah in attendance and money generated for state coffers, and economics threatened to close the grand-dame of Florida racing, Hialeah. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0332. / Major Professor: Edward F. Keuchel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

A detailed history of Santa Rosa County--Florida's twenty-first county--was compiled for the period covering the years 1821 to 1865. The second most western county in the state, Santa Rosa was created from Escambia County in 1842. The study traces the area's development from the end of the Spanish period to the termination of the Civil War. Aspects covered in the work include the role of early pioneers, frontier life, Indian wars, brick-making, the lumber industry, politics, slavery, industrial development, the formation of communities, religion, social life, and the impact of the Civil War. / A courthouse fire destroyed the county's records in 1869; consequently, the early portion of the county's history has hitherto been neglected in any historical treatments. Santa Rosa was the most industrialized county in the state of Florida before the Civil War. The yellow pine lumber industry was vital to the county's economy and was essential in providing economic support to the nearby port city of Pensacola as well. The in-depth study of the county also serves as a microcosmic analysis of the Old South, revealing both similarities and differences with commonly held assumptions of the Old South as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1364. / Major Professor: John Hebron Moore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Between 1945 and 1962, a cohesive faction of Florida state senators known as the "Pork Chop Gang" controlled the upper chamber. This faction, composed primarily of senators from north Florida, resisted efforts to shift the balance of power in the legislature from the heavily Southern native, north Florida to the rapidly growing, largely non-Southern native, south Florida. Florida possessed the most severely malapportioned legislature at the time. By blocking efforts to reapportion the legislature, the "Porkchoppers" preserved control of Florida's legislature by the heavily Southern native, north Florida. / The work begins with general information on the dynamics of Florida politics in the first half of the twentieth century. The background and character of prominent "Porkchop" senators is reviewed. Regionalism in Florida and the 1945 legislative reapportionment are discussed. The political and social structures by which the "Porkchoppers" controlled the legislature are analyzed. The relationship between Governor Leroy Collins and the "Pork Chop Gang" is chronicled. The role of the pork choppers and Senator Charley Johns in Florida's desegregation crisis is addressed. Maps are analyzed which display regional voting patterns and their correlation to population growth. Finally the epilogue briefly discusses the rapid decline of the "Gang". / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: A, page: 4915. / Major Professor: William W. Rogers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Alive, John C. Calhoun exercised tremendous political influence over South Carolina. Dead, his legacy was the determining factor in her political course in the ensuing decade. The disruption of the National Democratic party in 1860 and the cooperative secession of the lower South, led by South Carolina, brought Calhoun's political legacy to fulfillment. This dissertation looked closely at the South Carolinian's post-nullification career, largely from his own perspective. Calhoun was clearly driven in this period to uniting the South in its own defense. Reform of the general government, even through the powerful instrument of southern union, had become impossible by 1850. By Calhoun's own reckoning, the cooperative action of the southern states must lead to a separate confederacy. / The thrust of the dissertation dealt with how Calhoun's legacy was acted upon by the South Carolinians in the 1850s. In the state's first secession crisis of 1851, his legacy of united southern resistance was sustained when the state chose not to secede alone. Her secession in 1860, prefaced by assurances of cooperation from the cotton states, put his legacy into play. References to Calhoun were frequent, encompassing such issues as the rise of a National Democratic party in South Carolina, the acquisition of Cuba, and the admission of Kansas. Indeed, South Carolina spent much of the decade lamenting his loss and the want of a worthy successor to his mantle. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1361. / Major Professor: James Jones. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This is a detailed account of the Florida Federal Theatre's State-Wide Touring Company, starting with the formation of the Jacksonville Repertory Company in 1936, through its transformation into a touring theatre company in October, 1937, until the termination of the Federal Theatre Project in June, 1939. It includes complete descriptions of all the company productions during two full seasons "on the road"--Miles Gloriosus, The Chester and Everyman, Twelfth Night, She Stoops to Conquer, The Girl of the Golden West, One Sunday Afternoon, When Knighthood was in Flower, If Ye Break Faith, the outdoor Chester Cycle Nativity of 1938, The Rise of Silas Lapham, R.U.R., Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Remember the Day. Each production is discussed in terms of the play and its selection, the production itself, the tour itinerary and the public response. A summary and evaluation of the company's work is included, along with appendices listing complete tour itineraries and all known company personnel, extensive bibliography of primary sources, and sixty-four photographs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3553. / Major Professor: Richard Hornby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This is a study of the political career of George Armistead Smathers Smathers was a United States senator from Florida from 1951 through 1968. Prior to his election to the senate, Smathers served Dade, Collier, and Monroe counties in the House of Representatives from 1947 through 1951. / The focus of this work is Smathers's political career within the framework of the Cold War. His election victories in 1946 and 1950 mirrored, in some aspects foreshadowed, political events throughout the nation during this era. In defeating both Congressman Pat Cannon in 1946 and Senator Claude Pepper in 1950, Smathers victories turned on his ability to change the political landscape. / During both his two terms as congressman and three terms as senator, George Smathers played the role of a quintessential Cold Warrior. An early supporter of the Truman Doctrine, he subscribed fully to the necessity of containment, the domino theory, and assumptions regarding the monolithic nature of communism. These beliefs were most fully played out through his interest in Latin America and his avid backing of the Vietnam War. While his activity in foreign policy alone is of importance, Smathers also had an impact domestically. He was counted among the few southern moderates on civil rights, aiding in the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, though he consistently opposed federal intervention to promote and ensure social or economic equality. / Smathers was part of Senator Lyndon Johnson's "inner circle," which led to powerful posts on the Interstate and Foreign Commerce committee and Finance committee, as well as chairmanship of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. His coordination of the Kennedy-Johnson campaign in the South and his long friendship with John F. Kennedy afforded Smathers uncommon access to the White House beginning in 1961. Long devotion to Lyndon Johnson, and commitment to Johnson's wars both domestically and overseas, ensured Smathers a continued "insider" role up to his retirement in 1969. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: A, page: 1807. / Major Professor: C. Peter Ripley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Senor: The Life of Al Lopez, details Lopez's life growing up in the Ybor City section of Tampa, his career as a player and manager in professional baseball, his role as a pioneer opening organized baseball to Floridians and Latins. Accusations made by Larry Doby, the first black player in American League history and one who played both with and for Lopez, regarding the manner in which Lopez treated black baseball players, particularly Doby, during his tenure in the game are also examined. / Lopez was the first major league player born and raised in Tampa. The thirteenth Floridian overall to ascend to the big leagues, he was also among the initial wave of big leaguers of Latin descent. In a nineteen year playing career, Lopez, a catcher, gained a notable reputation for durability establishing a then record of 1,918 games caught. As a manager his teams finished first or second in eleven of his first sixteen seasons, capturing pennants in 1954 and 1959. In 1977 Lopez was enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame as a manager. / Senor: The Life of Al Lopez, depends much on the recollections of Lopez and former players, colleagues, etc., as told to the author and others. As with most studies of sport figures, the use of oral history, authenticated thru periodical literature, is relied upon heavily. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: A, page: 1812. / Major Professor: James P. Jones, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Cotton was the United States' most important export in the antebellum period. In the American South cotton was the essence of the economy. The businessmen who marketed the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee River valley's cotton overcame many handicaps. Transportation of the cotton to market relied on the waterway. This river system was the largest in the Southeast, but like the other southern river systems, it was usually not boatable in the dry summer months. Thus, the conduct of the cotton trade depended on the water level. / The most serious hindrance to the cotton entrepreneurs was the lack of adequate banking facilities. What few banks that operated there were woefully overextended and undercapitalized. Since the region lacked sufficient capital to finance the cotton trade, it depended on the money markets of London and New York. The laborious trail of credit that followed each cotton transaction extended from Europe via New York to the Apalachicola cotton factor and eventually to his planter client upriver. The financing of the cotton trade was further complicated by an uneven currency composed of a myriad of state bank notes of varying worth. / The advent of the railroad into the valley forever altered trade and transportation patterns. When the cotton producers no longer relied exclusively on river transportation, the economic entity that had centered on the river was broken up, and the port of Apalachicola declined. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0782. / Major Professor: John Hebron Moore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

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