Abstract
After the Civil War the Florida lumber industry quickly recovered and expanded until it became a major factor in the state’s economy. Yellow pine lumber and heavy timber was being shipped from Florida to domestic, European, and Latin American ports in large quantities by 1873. In that year twenty sawmills near Jacksonville employed hundreds of laborers. Lumber was surpassed only by tourism in relative importance to the city’s economy. City leaders were predicting prosperity and growth on the basis of an expanding lumber industry and tourist trade. In April, 6,660,000 superficial feet of lumber was loaded on schooners and a few steamers at the Jacksonville docks. About one-fifth of it went to foreign ports. Because of the city’s rapid growth, contractors also constituted a major market for Florida’s lumber. City and county taxes were high, however, and the tourist trade tended to drive living costs higher in Jacksonville than in other parts of the state.
Recommended Citation
Shofner, Jerrell H.
(1971)
"The Labor League of Jacksonville: A Negro Union and White Strikebreakers,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 50:
No.
3, Article 6.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol50/iss3/6
