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97-772: Through purchase of Benson-Lehner Corporation of Van Nuys, California , and the Telecomputing Services (TSI) product line of the Whittaker's Data Instruments, North Hollywood, California , which became its fully owned subsidiaries, United Gas was engaged in missile business and various other defense activities related to the U.S. aerospace industry. In particular, it operated data processing centers for military and civil government agencies, including White Sands Missile Range missile test data analyzing, provided processing services for Strategic Air Command 1st Missile Division at Vandenberg Air Force Base , etc. At

194-623: A former British Spitfire pilot, and George Lehner, a UCLA psychology professor and inventor. Benson-Lehner was initially based in Santa Monica and had manufacturing plants in England and France. It was later headquartered in West Los Angeles and Van Nuys. Benson-Lehner's primary business was producing and selling electronic plotting machines that would take tables of X and Y-coordinate data and plot them out on paper, providing

291-584: A graphical representation of the data. The company was acquired by United Gas Corporation in 1964 to further that entity’s strategic interest in operating data processing centers for military and civil government agencies. Benson retired to France, where he purchased a chateau in the Dordogne and became involved with world peace initiatives. He eventually donated his chateau to an order of Tibetan monks. Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie , also referred to as

388-593: A large American army in the process, and set up a network of bases inland. Although there were Loyalists within the Southern colonies, they were concentrated in larger coastal cities and were not great enough in number to overcome the revolutionaries. The British forces at the Battle of Monck's Corner and the Battle of Lenud's Ferry consisted entirely of Loyalists with the exception of the commanding officer ( Banastre Tarleton ). Both white and black Loyalists fought for

485-718: A large area north of the city (along the Mississippi) becoming known as the German Coast. Still greater numbers immigrated to Texas (especially after 1848), where many bought land and were farmers. Many more German immigrants arrived in Texas after the Civil War, where they created the brewing industry in Houston and elsewhere, became grocers in numerous cities, and also established wide areas of farming. By 1840, New Orleans

582-483: A majority of both boards. From that point on, Pennzoil exercised ultimate control over the actions of United Gas Corporation and United Gas Pipeline Company. In April 1968, Pennzoil compelled a merger of United and Pennzoil, forming Pennzoil United, Inc. In December 1968 Pennzoil forced United Gas Pipeline Company to pay a dividend of $ 51,000,000 to its new owner. Pennzoil proceeded to sell off most of United's assets, first spinning off its retail business and then, in 1974,

679-440: A naval flotilla was sent to Charleston harbor, and the threat of landing ground troops was used to compel the collection of tariffs. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over states' rights continued to escalate in the following decades. The second issue concerned slavery, primarily the question of whether slavery would be permitted in newly admitted states. The issue

776-604: A series of quick strikes in sulphur, potash, copper, gold, and silver. Benson-Lehner Corporation Benson-Lehner Corporation was an early digital technology company that initially made plotters and other input-output devices that were purchased by branches of the U.S. government during the Cold War . It later marketed high-speed precision cameras used for similar military applications, including nuclear bomb and missile testing. Benson-Lehner’s executives were almost entirely WW2 veterans. Its founders were Bernard Benson ,

873-459: A short time during Reconstruction. There were thousands of people on the move, as African Americans tried to reunite families separated by slave sales, and sometimes migrated for better opportunities in towns or other states. Other freed people moved from plantation areas to cities or towns for a chance to get different jobs. At the same time, whites returned from refuges to reclaim plantations or town dwellings. In some areas, many whites returned to

970-520: A total of 260,000, out of a total white Southern population at the time of around 5.5 million. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and about 18% in the South. Northern military deaths were greater than Southern military deaths in absolute numbers, but were two-thirds smaller in terms of proportion of the population affected. After

1067-510: Is still operational in Shreveport today. The company also developed extensive mines and technology through its subsidiaries, Duval Corporation, a miner and miller of copper, potash, sulphur and other materials, and UGC Instruments, a manufacturer of electronic devices primarily used in the oil and gas industry . The company's crown jewel, however, was the extensive pipeline network built out and maintained by United Gas Pipeline Company . In

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1164-558: The 15th Amendment (which extended the right to vote to African American males), African Americans in the South were made free citizens and were given the right to vote. Under Federal protection, white and black Republicans formed constitutional conventions and state governments. Among their accomplishments were creating the first public education systems in Southern states, and providing for welfare through orphanages, hospitals and similar institutions. Northerners came south to participate in politics and business. Some were representatives of

1261-609: The British Isles before the American Revolution . In the 1980 census , 34% of Southerners reported that they were of English ancestry; English was the largest reported European ancestry in every Southern state by a large margin. The early colonists engaged in warfare , trade, and cultural exchanges. Those living in the backcountry were more likely to encounter Creek Indians , Cherokee , and Choctaws and other regional native groups. The oldest university in

1358-804: The Chesapeake Bay . The next region to be settled was the Deep South, beginning in Province of Carolina and later the Province of Georgia . The last region to be settled was Appalachia, also settled by the Scotch-Irish . King Charles II of England granted the Charter of Carolina in 1663 for land south of the British Colony of Virginia and north of Spanish Florida . He granted the land to eight lords proprietor . Charles granted

1455-495: The Civil War and Reconstruction era (1865–1877). Following effects included thousands of lynchings (mostly from 1880 to 1930), a segregated system of separate schools and public facilities established from Jim Crow laws that remained until the 1960s, and the widespread use of poll taxes and other methods to deny black and poor people the ability to vote or hold office until the 1960s. Scholars have characterized pockets of

1552-621: The Freedmen's Bureau and other agencies of Reconstruction; some were humanitarians with the intent to help black people. Some were adventurers who hoped to benefit themselves by questionable methods. They were all condemned with the pejorative term of carpetbagger . Some Southerners would also take advantage of the disrupted environment and made money off various schemes, including bonds and financing for railroads. White Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts became known as scalawags . Secret vigilante organizations such as

1649-552: The Ku Klux Klan  – an organization sworn to perpetuate white supremacy  – had arisen quickly after the war's end in the 1860s, and used lynching , physical attacks, house burnings and other forms of intimidation to keep African Americans from exercising their political rights. Although the first Klan was disrupted by prosecution by the Federal government in the early 1870s, other groups persisted. By

1746-626: The Patriot cause . Virginia would provide leaders such as commander-in-chief George Washington , and the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson . In 1780 and 1781, the British largely halted reconquest of the northern states and concentrated on the south, where they were told there was a large Loyalist population ready to leap to arms once the royal forces arrived. The British took control of Savannah and Charleston, capturing

1843-936: The Southern States , the American South , the Southland , Dixieland , or simply the South ) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau . It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western United States , with the Midwestern and Northeastern United States to its north and the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to its south. Historically, the South was defined as all states south of

1940-596: The United States Census Bureau , A survey conducted by social geographers in 2010 selected thirteen states as the cultural south; Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. The Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty seven percent of all U.S. residents, lived in

2037-461: The green anole , the venomous cottonmouth snake, and the American alligator , mammals like the American black bear , the swamp rabbit , and the nine-banded armadillo , and birds such as the roseate spoonbill and the extinct but symbolic carolina parakeet . The question of how to define the boundaries and subregions in the South has long been the focus of research and debate. As defined by

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2134-531: The south-central and southeastern states. For example, California, which is geographically in the southwestern part of the country, is not considered part of the South. However, the geographically southeastern state of Georgia is. The South, being home to some of the most racially diverse areas in the United States, is known for having developed its own distinct culture , with different customs, fashion, architecture , musical styles , and cuisines , which have distinguished it in many ways from other areas of

2231-454: The 12,868,982 shares outstanding had been tendered to Pennzoil, with additional shares continuing to be tendered. Because of the volume of shares tendered, Pennzoil was forced to arrange over $ 200,000,000 in debt financing, using United's own assets as collateral . When the dust cleared, and although United fought Pennzoil every step of the way, Pennzoil owned 42% of United Gas Corporation with well over $ 1,000,000,000 in revenues. The takeover

2328-606: The 16th century, reaching a peak in the late 17th century, but the population was small because the Spaniards were relatively uninterested in agriculture, and Florida had no mineral resources. There were regional differences in the Southern colonies, with the three main regions of Tidewater , the Deep South , and Appalachia . The first region to be settled was Tidewater, containing the low-lying plains of southeast Virginia , northeastern North Carolina , southern Maryland and

2425-621: The 18th-century Mason–Dixon line , the Ohio River , and 36°30′ parallel . Within the South are different subregions such as the Southeast , South Central , Upper South , and Deep South . Maryland , Delaware , Washington, D.C. , and Northern Virginia have become more culturally, economically, and politically aligned in certain aspects with the Northeastern United States and are sometimes identified as part of

2522-477: The 1930s, an FTC investigation revealed that four dominant holding companies controlled 60% of natural gas produced and 58% of total pipeline mileage. One of these big four companies was the United Gas Corporation. On January 19, 1940, United Gas Pipe Line Company became the first pipeline company to handle 1,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas in one day. United proved to be a pioneer in

2619-741: The British Governor Dunmore of Virginia's promise of freedom for service. Many others were removed by Loyalist owners and became slaves elsewhere in the British Empire. Between 1770 and 1790, there was a sharp decline in the percentage of blacks – from 61% to 44% in South Carolina and from 45% to 36% in Georgia. In addition, some slaveholders were inspired to free their slaves after the Revolution. They were moved by

2716-737: The British Navy. The British Navy did arrive, but so did a stronger French fleet, and Cornwallis was trapped. American and French armies, led by George Washington, forced Cornwallis to surrender his entire army in Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781, effectively winning the North American part of the war. The Revolution provided a shock to slavery in the South and other regions of the new country. Thousands of slaves took advantage of wartime disruption to find their own freedom, catalyzed by

2813-637: The British at the Battle of Kemp's Landing in Virginia. Led by Nathanael Greene and other generals, the Americans engaged in Fabian tactics designed to wear down the British invasion force and to neutralize its strong points one by one. There were numerous battles large and small, with each side claiming some victories. By 1781, however, British General Cornwallis moved north to Virginia, where an approaching army forced him to fortify and await rescue by

2910-697: The Census definition, two U.S. territories located southeast of Florida ( Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands ) are sometimes included as part of the Southern United States. The Federal Aviation Administration includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the South, as does the Agricultural Research Service and the U.S. National Park Service . The first well-dated evidence of human occupation in

3007-479: The Civil War, the South was devastated in terms of infrastructure and economy. Because of states' reluctance to grant voting rights to freedmen, Congress instituted Reconstruction governments. It established military districts and governors to rule over the South until new governments could be established. Many white Southerners who had actively supported the Confederacy were temporarily disenfranchised. Rebuilding

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3104-553: The Confederacy. Though early in the war, the Confederacy controlled more than half of Kentucky and the southern portion of Missouri. By March 1862, the Union largely controlled all the border state areas, had shut down all commercial traffic from all Confederate ports, had prevented European recognition of the Confederate government, and was poised to seize New Orleans. The rugged mountainous East Tennessee region attempted to rejoin

3201-642: The East Coast to the Great Lakes. Some noted explorers who encountered and described the Mississippian culture, by then in decline, included Pánfilo de Narváez (1528), Hernando de Soto (1540), and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (1699). Native American descendants of the mound-builders include Alabama , Apalachee , Caddo , Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek , Guale , Hitchiti , Houma , and Seminole peoples, all of whom still reside in

3298-723: The Jackson Gas Field, soon controlling most of the gas in that play and recognizing in the Field a cheap source of gas for Mississippi , Alabama , and Florida . Through subsidiaries, United began entering and dominating more markets south of Jackson, building out its pipeline along the way. In 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression , United's efforts ended with a monopoly of the Jackson Gas Field, having bought all of Gulf Refining Company's rights, including gas wells and over 14,000 acres of leases for $ 500,000 and

3395-586: The Mississippi River in 1863. In the East, however, the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee beat off attack after attack in its defense of their capital at Richmond. But when Lee tried to move north, he was repulsed (and nearly captured) at Sharpsburg (1862) and Gettysburg (1863). The Confederacy had the resources for a short war, but was unable to finance or supply a longer war. It reversed

3492-471: The Northeast or Mid-Atlantic . The United States Census Bureau continues to define all four places as formally being in the South. To account for cultural variations across the region, some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries. The South does not precisely correspond to the entire geographic south of the United States, but primarily includes

3589-589: The Palmer Corporation, secured control of a number properties in the newly discovered Monroe Gas Field. McGowen continued to add smaller companies, culminating in the merger of the Palmer Corporation and Electric Power & Light to form the Louisiana Gas and Fuel Company, now having operations in Texas and Mississippi , among other states. Louisiana Gas and Fuel was still, however, a subsidiary of

3686-511: The Pennzoil name. Through business associates, Hugh Liedtke became aware of United Gas, by 1965 the nation's busiest pipeline operator, conveying 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas (3.2 × 10 MJ) across the country every day, making up 8% of the nation's supply. In researching the company, Liedtke also discovered United's vast oil reserves and large deposits of copper, sulphur , and other materials. United was, however, eight times

3783-409: The South and Eastern United States and were sent to Oklahoma. By 1856, the South had lost control of Congress, and was no longer able to silence calls for an end to slavery – which came mostly from the more populated, free states of the North. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, pledged to stop the spread of slavery beyond those states where it already existed. After Abraham Lincoln

3880-518: The South generally has a reputation as hot and humid, with long summers and short, mild winters. Most of the South—except for the areas of higher elevations and areas near the western, southern, and some northern fringes—falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. Crops grow readily in the South due to its climate consistently providing growing seasons of at least six months before the first frost. Some common environments include bayous and swamplands,

3977-445: The South include: Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th century Mason–Dixon line , the Ohio River , and 36°30′ parallel . Newer definitions of the South today are harder to define, due to cultural and sub-regional differences throughout the region; however, definitions usually refer to states that are in the southeastern and south central geographic region of the United States. Although not included in

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4074-620: The South, the College of William & Mary , was founded in 1693 in Virginia; it pioneered in the teaching of political economy and educated future U.S. Presidents Jefferson , Monroe and Tyler , all from Virginia. Indeed, the entire region dominated politics in the First Party System era: for example, four of the first five presidents – Washington , Jefferson , Madison and Monroe  – were from Virginia. The two oldest public universities are also in

4171-449: The South, the nation's most populous region. The Census Bureau defined three smaller divisions: The Council of State Governments , an organization for communication and coordination between states, includes in its South regional office the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Other terms related to

4268-711: The South. Other peoples whose ancestral links to the Mississippian culture are less clear, but those who were in the region before the European incursion include the Catawba and the Powhatan . The arrival of European settlers caused a massive population decline in Native Americans , due to Europeans unknowingly spreading diseases that the natives had no immunities towards, numerous violent conflicts, and forcibly relocating them. The predominant culture of

4365-662: The South: the University of North Carolina (1789) and the University of Georgia (1785). Slavery was legal in all of the Thirteen Colonies prior to the American Revolution in 1776. Britain had slave island colonies in the Caribbean , including Jamaica , Barbados , Nevis , and Antigua , which provided a steady flow of profits from the slave labor that produced sugar. The Southern Colonies differed in that

4462-481: The Southern United States as being authoritarian enclaves from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . When looked at broadly, studies have shown that Southerners tend to be more conservative than most non-Southerners, with liberalism being mostly predominant in places with a Black majority or urban areas in the South. Although historically a Democratic stronghold , most states in

4559-458: The Southern transportation system depended primarily on river and coastal traffic by boat; both were shut down by the Union Navy . The small railroad system virtually collapsed, so that by 1864 internal travel was so difficult that the Confederate economy was crippled. The Confederate cause was hopeless by the time Atlanta fell and William T. Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864, but

4656-547: The Union as a new state , having opposed secession and slavery compared to most of Tennessee. In the four years of war 1861–65 the South was the primary battleground, with all but two of the major battles taking place on Southern soil. Union forces led numerous campaigns into the western Confederacy, controlling the border states in 1861, the Tennessee River, the Cumberland River and New Orleans in 1862, and

4753-639: The United States. From 1860 to 1861, eleven Southern states plus an additional two Southern states that were claimed and partially controlled seceded from the Union , forming the Confederate States of America . Following the American Civil War , these states were subsequently added back to the Union. Sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, historical, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from

4850-479: The approximately 18 pipeline systems built in the region, United owned five. Pennzoil was founded in Los Angeles, California , in 1913. In 1955, it was acquired by Oil City, Pennsylvania , company South Penn Oil , a former branch of Standard Oil . In 1963, South Penn Oil merged with Zapata Petroleum , a company founded by brothers, William Liedtke, Jr. and J. Hugh Liedtke , Thomas J. Devine, and future U.S. President George H. W. Bush . The merged company took

4947-411: The arguments over states' rights that culminated in secession and the Civil War. One of these issues concerned the protective tariffs enacted to assist the growth of the manufacturing sector, primarily in the North. In 1832, in resistance to federal legislation increasing tariffs, South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification , a procedure in which a state would, in effect, repeal a Federal law. Soon

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5044-454: The cash tender offer, a practice unheard of in the United States but widely used in the United Kingdom . The move would cement the Liedtkes' legacy in the oil and gas industry, and result in Bush's Pennzoil stock increasing in value 10,000%. Accordingly, on November 22, 1965, Pennzoil made a public offer to the United common stockholders to purchase a minimum of 1,000,000 shares of United common stock at $ 41 per share. As of that date, United

5141-445: The codes are not an exact copy, such as Virginia and Maryland , the influence of the Barbados Slave Code can be traced throughout various provisions. In the mid-to-late-18th century, large groups of Ulster Scots (later called the Scotch-Irish ) and people from the Anglo-Scottish border region immigrated and settled in the back country of Appalachia and the Piedmont . They were the largest group of non-English immigrants from

5238-454: The crash were Hargrove, financier Justin R. Querbes, Sr., Interstate Electric President Randolph Querbes, Sr., Atlas Processing Chairman John B. Atkins, Sr., Goldring’s Vice President E. Bernard Weiss, and independent oil producer J.P. Evans. Henry Goodrich , another United Gas alumnus employed by subsidiary Union Producing as an exploration geologist, would go on to form Goodrich Petroleum Corporation . On July 6, 1949, United Gas Corporation

5335-523: The eleven Confederate states, states such as Tennessee (especially East Tennessee ), Virginia (which included West Virginia at the time), and North Carolina were home to the largest populations of Unionists. Many areas of Southern Appalachia harbored pro-Union sentiment as well. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control would serve in the Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although Southern Unionists came from all classes, most differed socially, culturally, and economically from

5432-411: The end of the 15th century – the Mississippian culture . The Mississippian culture was a complex, mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Southeastern United States from approximately 800 AD to 1500 AD. Natives had elaborate and lengthy trading routes connecting their main residential and ceremonial centers extending through the river valleys and from

5529-583: The event is a classic example of the leveraged buyout and corporate raid and resulted in numerous lawsuits and regulatory investigations. The earliest company making up what would be United Gas Corporation entered Shreveport prior to 1915 as The Palmer Corporation of Shreveport, owned by Honore and Potter Palmer of Chicago . The Palmer Corporation sent 22-year-old Canadian Norris Cochran "N.C." McGowen to Shreveport to manage its gas wells and short pipeline to Shreveport. McGowen set to work in Vivian, Louisiana . By 1916, McGowen, still operating on behalf of

5626-717: The gas delivery industry. To provide raw supplies to its markets, United and its pipeline contractors pioneered the construction of natural-gas gathering lines across marshlands and open water. In 1941, United Gas and Houston firm, Brown & Root built the first large-diameter submarine pipeline, spanning 25 miles across Lake Pontchartrain , near New Orleans . The techniques employed by United and Brown & Root became industry standard. United then turned its attention offshore , extending its pipeline to Eugene Island south of St. Mary Parish . The Post-World War II era saw United's rise accelerate, as regional markets for cheap natural gas appeared and expanded. By 1947, United Gas

5723-400: The huge United Gas Pipe Line Company. The Liedtkes' handling of the affair resulted in a barrage of lawsuits and an investigation by the Federal Power Commission . The absorption of the United companies turned Pennzoil into a large and diversified natural-resources company. Its 1970 sales hit $ 700 million, up tenfold from 1963, and its Duval Corporation mining subsidiary went on to make

5820-450: The institution became even more deeply an integral part of the South's economy. With the opening up of frontier lands after the government forced most Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi, there was a major migration of both whites and blacks to those territories. From the 1820s through the 1850s, more than one million enslaved Africans were transported to the Deep South in forced migration, two-thirds of them by slave traders and

5917-499: The invention of the cotton gin , short staple cotton could be grown more widely. This led to an explosion of cotton cultivation, especially in the frontier uplands of Georgia, Alabama and other parts of the Deep South, as well as riverfront areas of the Mississippi Delta. Migrants poured into those areas in the early decades of the 19th century, when county population figures rose and fell as swells of people kept moving west. The expansion of cotton cultivation required more slave labor, and

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6014-454: The labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco, the first cash crop of Virginia. Tobacco exhausted the soil quickly, requiring that farmers regularly clear new fields. They used old fields as pasture, and for crops such as corn wheat, or allowed them to grow into woodlots. The Barbados Slave Code served as the basis for the slave codes adopted in the British American colonies, including Carolina , Georgia , and Antigua . In other colonies where

6111-574: The land in return for their financial and political assistance in restoring him to the throne in 1660. The granted lands included all or part of the present-day U.S. states of North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. In the British colonies, immigration began in 1607 and continued until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775. Settlers cleared land, built houses and outbuildings, and on their own farms. The Southern rich owned large plantations that dominated export agriculture and used slaves. Many were involved in

6208-444: The land to farm for a while. Some freedpeople left the South altogether for states such as Ohio and Indiana, and later, Kansas. Thousands of others joined the migration to new opportunities in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta bottomlands, and Texas. With passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (which outlawed slavery), the 14th Amendment (which granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans) and

6305-430: The many entities owned by United Gas were reorganized to form Union Producing Company for exploration and production, Atlas Processing for refining, United Gas Pipeline Company for long-distance transmission, and parent, United Gas Corporation, as the distributor for cities. Through mergers with eight other companies, Atlas Processing Company became one of the largest refineries in the Southern United States . The plant

6402-439: The mid-to-late-1870s, some upper class Southerners created increasing resistance to the altered social structure. Paramilitary organizations such as the White League in Louisiana (1874), the Red Shirts in Mississippi (1875) and rifle clubs, all "White Line" organizations, used organized violence against Republicans , both black and white, to remove Republicans from political office, repress and bar black voting, and restore

6499-412: The much larger Electric Bond and Share Company , a company McGowen rapidly rose through the ranks of. Edmundson Parkes would join the company in 1928. Then, between 1928 and 1930, McGowen and Parkes combined the assets of five major groups, representing more than 40 power, fuel and utility companies, to form a holding company christened the United Gas Corporation on June 30, 1930. United next entered

6596-451: The number of immigrants arriving at Southern ports began to increase, although the North continued to receive the most immigrants. Huguenots were among the first settlers in Charleston, along with the largest number of Orthodox Jews outside of New York City. Numerous Irish immigrants settled in New Orleans, establishing a distinct ethnic enclave now known as the Irish Channel . Germans also went to New Orleans and its environs, resulting in

6693-635: The original Southern states was English . In the 17th century, most voluntary immigrants were of English origin and settled chiefly along the eastern coast but had pushed as far inland as the Appalachian Mountains by the 18th century. The majority of early English settlers were indentured servants , who gained freedom after working off their passage. The wealthier men, typically members of the English landed gentry , who paid their way received land grants known as headrights to encourage settlement. The Spanish and French established settlements in Florida , Texas , and Louisiana . The Spanish settled Florida in

6790-499: The others by masters who moved there. Planters in the Upper South sold slaves in excess of their needs as they shifted from tobacco to mixed agriculture. Many enslaved families were broken up, as planters preferred mostly strong males for field work. Two major political issues that festered in the first half of the 19th century caused political alignment along sectional lines, strengthened the identities of North and South as distinct regions with certain strongly opposed interests, and fed

6887-409: The principles of the Revolution, along with Quaker and Methodist preachers who worked to encourage slaveholders to free their slaves. Planters such as George Washington often freed slaves by their wills. In the Upper South , more than 10% of all blacks were free by 1810, a significant expansion from pre-war proportions of less than 1% free. Cotton became dominant in the lower South after 1800. After

6984-463: The proportion of their populations that were African American slaves was much higher than in the Middle Colonies and New England Colonies , as shown on the map. According to Bertram Wyatt-Brown , "Bondage was an answer to an economic need. The South was not founded to create slavery; slavery was recruited to perpetuate the South." The Barbados Slave Code of 1661 served as the basis for

7081-572: The rebels fought on until Lee's army surrendered in April 1865. Once the Confederate forces surrendered, the region moved into the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877), in a partially successful attempt to rebuild the destroyed region and grant civil rights to freed slaves. Southerners who were against the Confederate cause during the Civil War were known as Southern Unionists . They were also known as Union Loyalists or Lincoln's Loyalists. Within

7178-624: The region have in recent decades come to favor Republicans , although both the Republican and Democratic Party are competitive in certain Southern swing states . The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt , an area of high Protestant church attendance, especially evangelical churches such as the Southern Baptist Convention . Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture as its main economic base and

7275-446: The region were historically dominated by a small rural elite. The historical and cultural development of the South has been profoundly influenced by the institution of slave labor , especially in the Deep South and coastal plain areas, from the early 1600s to mid-1800s. This includes the presence of a large proportion of African Americans within the population, support for the doctrine of states' rights , and legacy of racism magnified by

7372-444: The regions dominant pre-war planter class . The South suffered more than the North overall, as the Union strategy of attrition warfare meant that Lee could not replace his casualties, and the total war waged by Sherman, Sheridan and other Union armies devastated the infrastructure and caused widespread poverty and distress. The Confederacy suffered military losses of 95,000 soldiers killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease, for

7469-429: The rest of the United States; however, this has declined since around the late 20th century, with many Southern areas becoming a melting pot of cultures and people. Ethnic groups in the South were the most diverse among American regions, and include strong European (especially English , Scots-Irish , Scottish , Irish , French , and Spanish ), African , and Native American ancestries. The politics and economy of

7566-472: The size of the fledgling Pennzoil. Undaunted, Pennzoil began slowly accumulating shares of United Gas on the open market. By October 1965, Pennzoil owned 275,000 shares of United common stock which it had acquired under an investment program initiated in May 1965. Word of a possible takeover leaked, however, and shares of United Gas soared. Then, Pennzoil hit upon a method for acquiring United in one fell swoop,

7663-685: The slave codes adopted in the British American colonies of the Province of Carolina and the Province of Georgia . In other colonies where the slaves codes were not an exact copy, such as the Colony of Virginia and the Province of Maryland , the influence of the Barbados Slave Code can be traced throughout various provisions. During the American Revolutionary War , the Southern colonies helped embrace

7760-595: The smaller Pearl Valley Oil & Gas Company's Jackson assets. Now positioned atop the heap and with ready access to cheap natural gas, United offered to buy the Southern Natural Pipeline at considerably below market value. With no way to compete, Southern was forced to sell. United's purchase included miles of pipeline stretching from Jackson, Mississippi to Mobile, Alabama , with an extension to Pensacola, Florida under construction. The company continued to add assets and expand until 1937 when

7857-513: The south United States occurs around 9500 BC with the appearance of the earliest documented Americans, who are now referred to as Paleo-Indians . Paleoindians were hunter-gatherers that roamed in bands and frequently hunted megafauna . Several cultural stages, such as Archaic ( c.  8000 –1000 BC) and the Woodland ( c.  1000 BC – AD 1000), preceded what the Europeans found at

7954-532: The southern pine forests , the warm temperate montane forest of the Appalachians, the savannas of the southern Great Plains, and the subtropical jungle and maritime forests along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Unique flora include various species of magnolia, rhododendron, cane, palm, and oak, among others. Fauna of the region is also diverse, encompassing a plethora of amphibian species, reptiles such as

8051-444: The state of Kentucky attempted to remain neutral, and it could only do so briefly. When Lincoln called for troops to suppress what he referred to as "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" judicial or martial means, four more states decided to secede and join the Confederacy (which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia). Although the Confederacy had large supplies of captured munitions and many volunteers, it

8148-481: The time of its takeover by Pennzoil, United operated the busiest pipeline network in the United States , carrying 8% of the nation's supply, and was eight times the size of its buyer. The dramatic takeover, accomplished by a cash tender offer using vast amounts of borrowed money and United's own assets as collateral, was the first of its kind in the United States, and, together with the subsequent asset spin-off,

8245-462: The traditional low-tariff policy of the South by imposing a new 15% tax on all imports from the Union. The Union blockade stopped most commerce from entering the South, and smugglers avoided the tax, so the Confederate tariff produced too little revenue to finance the war. Inflated currency was the solution, but that created distrust of the Richmond government. Because of low investment in railroads,

8342-552: The two companies would interest the Justice Department over the ensuing years. Hargrove would ultimately perish in a tragic airplane accident, occurring when a seaplane owned by United Gas crashed into the treetops outside of Shreveport during the return from a three-day duck hunting trip hosted by United Gas. The crash killed 12 people, including six prominent Shreveporters and Dallas resident Thomas E. Braniff , president of Braniff Airways . Shreveport leaders killed in

8439-402: Was a cosmopolitan port with a variety of jobs that attracted more immigrants than other areas of the South. Because of lack of investment, however, construction of railroads to span the region lagged behind the North. People relied most heavily on river traffic for getting their crops to market and for transportation. Between 1830 and 1850, Native Americans were removed from their home states in

8536-639: Was cited as a textbook example of a corporate raid and was described as "an aggressive Lilliputian capturing a sleeping giant," and "the minnow swallowing the whale. Pennzoil then deposed the old board of directors of both United Gas Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, United Gas Pipeline Company, appointing Hugh Liedtke as chairman of the board and William Liedtke as chairman of the executive committee. The executive committee consisted of Messrs. Boviard, Everett, Haslanger, Kerr, Hugh Liedtke, William Liedtke, and Edmundson Parkes . These new board members, most of whom were also directors of Pennzoil, constituted

8633-514: Was difficult as people grappled with the effects of a new labor economy of a free market in the midst of a widespread agricultural depression. In addition, the limited infrastructure the South had was mostly destroyed by the war. At the same time, the North was rapidly industrializing. To avoid the social effects of the war, most of the Southern states initially passed black codes . During Reconstruction, these were mostly legally nullified by federal law and anti-Confederate legislatures, which existed for

8730-412: Was elected the first Republican president in 1860, seven cotton states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America before Lincoln was inaugurated. The United States government, both outgoing and incoming, refused to recognize the Confederacy, and when the new Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, war broke out. Only

8827-469: Was initially finessed by political compromises designed to balance the number of "free" and "slave" states. The issue resurfaced in a more virulent form, however, around the time of the Mexican–American War , which raised the stakes by adding new territories primarily on the Southern side of the imaginary geographic divide. Congress opposed allowing slavery in these territories. Before the Civil War,

8924-571: Was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with an initial listing of 10,700,000 shares. By the early 1950s, United Gas owned and operated an extensive pipeline system stretching across the Gulf South . Annual reports indicated that, in 1953, United owned and operated more than 9,000 field and transmission lines that distributed more than 800,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas annually to 309 cities, towns, and communities. Of

9021-470: Was predominantly rural until after World War II . Since the 1940s, the region has become more economically diversified and metropolitan , helping attract both national and international migrants. In the 21st century, it is the fastest-growing region in the United States, with Houston being the region's largest city. The South is a diverse meteorological region with numerous climatic zones, including temperate , sub-tropical , tropical , and arid —though

9118-463: Was selling at $ 35.75 on the open market. Liedtke, according to The Wall Street Journal , waited until the day before Thanksgiving to make the unwelcome offer, "knowing that many United executives would be off for the long weekend duck hunting ". United's management was indeed caught off guard, and, although leadership advised against the tender, the response to the Pennzoil offer was much greater than anticipated. By December 7, 1965, 4,982,096 out of

9215-516: Was slower than the Union in dealing with the border states. While the Upland South border states of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as the District of Columbia , continued to permit slavery during the Civil War, they remained with the Union though Kentucky and Missouri both had rival Confederate governments that formed that were admitted and recognized by

9312-541: Was the largest gas company in the Southwest . In that same year, several United employees left the company to form Texas Eastern Transmission Co. , including manager, Reginald Hargrove , general counsel, George Naff, and assistant chief engineer, Baxter Goodrich. Texas Eastern became a dominant pipeline player in its own right, and, in exchange for releasing the employees, United was guaranteed another market for its gas production and supply. The close relationship between

9409-414: Was the wealthiest city in the country and the third largest in population. The success of the city was based on the growth of international trade associated with products being shipped to and from the interior of the country down the Mississippi River. New Orleans also had the largest slave market in the country, as traders brought slaves by ship and overland to sell to planters across the Deep South. The city

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