Smugglers

The Smugglers are one of the major factions of the setting. Unscrupulous traders and criminals, they are arguably hostile to any organised faction.

Introduction
The expansion of the Confederacy has been a great boon for the wealthy and powerful, and also for a government bent on gaining prestige and becoming a leading world power. The costs necessary to fulfil these great power dreams, however, have fallen squarely on the rest of the populace.

Goaded by the Temperance movements, the CSA has instituted heavy taxes on alcohol as well as tobacco and other vices, as well as clamping down on activities that 'sap the spirit of the Confederate man', such as gambling and prostitution. The reaction to these heavy taxes and bans is predictable - the activities did not disappear, but simply went underground, or more specifically out to sea.

The Caribbean Sea, beautiful and with a tropical climate, has therefore become a playground for plenty of Confederates, and a feeding trough for criminals of all sorts - smuggling liquor and tobacco to avoid taxes, opening illicit brothels, speakeasies and casinos that can slip away on the sea to avoid notice, and so on.

In-Game
The smugglers and criminal organisations around the CSA's shores are an odd and violent bunch. Working only for their own interests, they cross paths with all of the other factions, and their relations with each change drastically with time.

The gangs that operate within the Confederacy have a complex relationship with the authorities, especially given the thinly stretched resources of the Confederacy in 1910. On one hand, many such outfits characterise themselves as 'patriots', capturing slaves and fighting other 'criminals', or even joining the State Militias. However, their loyalty is really only to their own enrichment.

With the signing of the Bragg Act in 1907, beginning the era of Confederate Prohibition, smuggling activity has only become even more extensive, becoming not only a matter of tax evasion but of sheer availability.

Smuggling organisations are generally secretive, but some have nonetheless gained notoriety with society at large. Some known organisations include:


 * Malacrino Gang, named after Calabrian-Unionist Andrea Malacrino, mainly operating from Florida
 * The Two Waters Gang, a gang mainly run by Alabaman residents, operating mainly out of Alabama and Cuba
 * The Coulsdon Group, a family-run outfit now mainly based in western Florida
 * The Freeport Firm, a loosely organised group operating mainly from the Bahamas
 * The Peninsula Group, a gang formed by an alliance between a Louisianan gang and a group of Texans, operating mainly out of Yucatan