According to some studies, white Florida is more racist than any other state—an attitude rooted in the state’s late entry into slavery. Under the Spanish, Florida was a haven for fugitive slaves from Georgia and Alabama. But when the territory became part of the US in 1822, opportunistic settlers rushed in to establish cotton and sugar plantations. By 1845, half of the state’s population was enslaved by these parvenu slave owners, the dregs of the slavery establishment. Some say that the word cracker comes from the crude Florida slave owners’ fondness for the whip.
