TRUE

Historical records indicate that the Southern states which seceded from the Union were dominated by the Democratic Party at the onset of the American Civil War 9. Following the secession crisis, Southern Democrats controlled the political machinery of the Confederacy 14. The Democratic Party was long associated with the states of the former Confederacy 4. The party split fundamentally over the issue of slavery, with Southern Democrats calling for a federal slave code to regulate and permit the practice 7. After the Reconstruction Era ended in the late 1870s, Southern Democrats known as redeemers controlled all Southern states 3. Many white Southerners during the 1860s and 1870s were Democrats 10. This political control remained consistent for nearly a century, as all 22 U.S. Senators from the South were Democrats in 1960 2. The political leadership of most Southern states did not switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party until the late twentieth century 8 16.