A Plantation in early Florida

By the late 1700s, plantations lined the banks of tidal waterways and freshwater rivers in northeast Florida, where planters sought wealth from rice and indigo and later sea island cotton. Florida’s Spanish government offered free ownership of land to settlers after ten years of homesteading, but repeated raids and invasions destroyed most homesteaded plantations. Josiah Dupont and then Miguel Crosby owned Mala Compra, Spanish for Bad Bargain, and were plagued by raids and thefts. Joseph and Ana Maria Hernandez purchased the plantation in 1816. Mala Compra was one of the barrier island plantations, with the Atlantic Ocean on its eastern shore and the saltwater Matanzas River on its west. These waterways offered the best way to travel among the Hernandez properties and to St. Augustine, where a variety of goods were available and religious services, festivals, and political rallies were held. Later events continued the cycle of struggle, loss, and abandonment that made the plantation’s name seem fitting.

Florida · United States