From the 1780s the growing demand for cotton and the rich soil of the ‘Red Hills’ region near Tallahassee led to the establishment of many large plantations. You can visit a notable one at the Goodwood Museum and Gardens goodwoodmuseum.org. At the time slavery was an integral part of this form of intensive agriculture. Many of the slaves had been forcibly separated from families and transported from Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas, where changes in farming had diminished demand for slave labour there. [Read more...]