The Smallest Tadpole's War in the Land of Mysterious Waters

Book excerpt: In the 1860's a Northern newspaper referred to Florida as the "smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession." Political power in the state was held largely by wealthy white planters. In early 1861, Florida was a rural frontier state that had joined the Union just fifteen years before. Its population of 140,000 was by far the smallest of any of the states that formed the Confederacy. Nearly 63,000 of the population were African Americans, most of whom were slaves working in an agricultural-based economy. The majority of the white population was relatively poor and rural, with a smaller number of tradespeople and their families living in small towns. This work of historical fiction tells the story of one Florida family in the 1860s.