Plantations of Leon County
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The plantations of Leon County were numerous and vast. Leon County, in the
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of
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, was a true
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
kingdom. From the 1820s through 1850s Leon County attracted cotton planters from
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,
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,
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,
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and
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, plus other states and abroad to its fertile red clay soils and long growing season.


Slaves in Leon County

For some time and up until the early stages of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, Leon County was the fifth-largest producer of cotton among all counties in Georgia and Florida. ''(C. Paisley)''. Another source states that Leon County led the state in cotton production. Because of this, in 1840, there were 654 adult white males, but 3980 "engaged in agriculture". In 1860, 73% of the population of Leon County consisted of enslaved black persons; as was true elsewhere in the South, the value of those enslaved persons far exceeded the value of all the land in the county. Leon County had more people enslaved than any other county in Florida,Julia Floyd Smith, ''Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida 1821-1860'', Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1973, , Appendix B, "Excerpts from County Tax Books in Florida Showing Ownership in Acreage and Slaves", pp. 213-222. and it was, therefore, the wealthiest county in Florida.Smith, p. 140. It was also the center of Florida's slave trade.


Plantations in 1860

Note: Value = plantation value in
United States dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
s. TA = total area. IA = improved area. UA = unimproved area. Corn = in bushels. Cotton = bales of cotton Note: Value = Plantation Value. IA = Improved Acres. UA = Unimproved Acres. Enslaved People = Number of persons enslaved. Machinery = Worth of machinery. Livestock = Worth of livestock.


See also

* List of plantations in the United States *
Slavery in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...


References


Further reading

* * * * {{coord missing, Florida * History of Leon County, Florida African-American history of Florida