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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 60/340
Chapter IV
AN EXPANDING COUNTY IN A NEW STATE: 1845-1860
The end of the Second Seminole War and Florida’s admission
into the Union ushered in a new period of growth and develop
ment. Population of the new state advanced from some 70,000 in
1845 to 140,424 in 1860. Columbia County’s population more than
doubled in the same period increasing from 2,102 in 1840 to 4,646
in 1860. Of that number, 2,583 were white—1,368 male and 1,215
female. All but 19 were native-born Americans. Of the 2,062
slaves, 923 were black males and 870 were black females. There
were also 135 mulatto male and 135 mulatto female slaves. Lake
City’s population consisted of 332 whites, 326 ^blacks and 1 free
mulatto.1
Much of the prosperity and growth of this period was associ
ated with the expansion of cotton growing. The economic uncer
tainties of the late 1830’s were over, and the textile mills of
England and New England were again clamoring for southern
cotton. In Florida the most rapid expansion of cotton growing
occurred in that belt of Middle Florida between the Apalachicola
and Suwannee rivers. This area, including Gadsden, Leon, Jeffer
son, and Madison counties, plus Jackson County in West Florida
was also the region of the largest plantations and heaviest con
centrations of slaves in the new state. This region produced over
seventy-five percent of the state’s cotton, and slaves outnumbered
whites. In 1845, when Florida became a state, close to fifty percent
of the wealth and population was found in Middle Florida, and the
large planters of the region constituted the state’s most powerful
political and economic group. William D. Moseley, Florida’s first
governor, was a Jefferson County planter, while his successor
Thomas Brown was a large planter in Leon County. The third
1 Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Population, Vol. I, pp. 50-52.
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