While the Reconstruction policies instituted
by even the radicals were lenient, a feeling of extreme bitterness still
prevailed among many southerners, especially in the deep south. Military
control was not withdrawn from Florida until 1876, and South Carolina and
Louisiana suffered Union occupation until 1877. The atrocities of some
of the military deputies and their units, along with the racial tension
between displaced whites and newly freed blacks, armed a time bomb between
the races which built up strength for almost 100 years. The Civil War and
the Reconstruction set a precedent for racial, territorial, and social
prejudice which this country suffers from to this day.