Daniel B. Meginniss Plantation

Daniel B. Meginniss Plantation was a large agricultural property in Leon County, Florida, established by Daniel B. Meginniss and operated through enslaved labor before the abolition of slavery in the United States. The property occupied approximately 1,610 acres, or about 650 hectares, and formed part of the antebellum plantation economy of North Florida. Its principal cash crop was cotton, while corn was also produced for agricultural use and sustenance. The plantation's documented scale is recorded in the 1860 Leon County agricultural census. At that time, approximately 800 acres were classified as improved land and 810 acres as unimproved land. Seventy enslaved people were recorded as working on the property. The census also listed 150 bales of cotton and 3,000 bushels of corn, indicating a mixed agricultural operation centered on cotton but supported by food and feed production. The census further recorded farm implements and machinery, livestock, and the plantation's assessed cash value, although these figures describe the historical agricultural census rather than a modern company valuation. Daniel B. Meginniss, the plantation's namesake and owner, was born in Maryland in 1820. Historical material identifies him as a voter in Florida's first election in 1845, placing him within the political and settler community that developed in the territory before statehood. The plantation's history is therefore connected both to the expansion of cotton agriculture in Florida and to the legal and economic systems of slavery that made such operations possible. As a historical plantation rather than a continuing commercial enterprise, Daniel B. Meginniss Plantation has no documented modern product portfolio, corporate parent, public listing, or operating market. Its significance lies in the evidence it provides about landholding, agricultural production, enslaved labor, and the regional economy of Leon County in the period immediately preceding the American Civil War. The available reference material does not establish a precise founding year, the plantation's later ownership history, its exact surviving buildings, or its present physical condition.

Daniel B. Meginniss Plantation was an agricultural property in Leon County, Florida, associated with Daniel B. Meginniss, who established and owned the plantation during the antebellum period. The available historical record identifies Meginniss as having been born in Maryland in 1820. It also records him as a voter in Florida's first election in 1845, reflecting his presence in the territory during the period when Florida's political and agricultural institutions were developing. The plantation belonged to the cotton-producing system that shaped much of North Florida before the Civil War. Its total area was approximately 1,610 acres, divided in 1860 between 800 acres of improved land and 810 acres of unimproved land. Improved land generally denoted acreage prepared for cultivation or otherwise developed for agricultural use, while unimproved acreage had not been brought into comparable production. This division indicates a substantial property with both active farmland and land held outside intensive cultivation. The plantation's workforce was composed of enslaved people. The 1860 agricultural census recorded 70 enslaved people on the property. This was not ordinary wage labor: the plantation's production depended on a system in which enslaved people were legally treated as property and compelled to work. Any account of the plantation's agricultural scale must therefore place its output within the history of slavery, racial exploitation, and coerced labor in the United States. Cotton was the plantation's principal cash crop. In 1860, the census recorded 150 bales of cotton. Cotton production connected the property to regional, national, and international markets that made the crop central to the antebellum Southern economy. The plantation also produced 3,000 bushels of corn. Corn could support people and livestock and helped sustain plantation operations, making the property a mixed agricultural enterprise rather than a site devoted exclusively to cotton. The census additionally documented the plantation's land, implements and machinery, and farm animals. These entries provide a snapshot of its agricultural resources at a particular historical moment. The property was recorded as having a cash value of $40,000, while its implements and machinery and farm animals were assessed separately. Because those figures come from the 1860 agricultural census, they should be understood as period records and not as current financial information. The available sources do not provide a precise establishment date, a complete succession of owners, detailed information about the enslaved individuals who lived and worked there, or a reliable account of what happened to the property after emancipation and the Civil War. They also do not establish whether plantation buildings or other physical traces survive. The plantation is best understood as a documented historical agricultural site whose principal importance is its connection to the economy and labor system of antebellum Leon County.

• 1860

  Agricultural census documents the plantation

  [1]Daniel B. Meginniss Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The Leon County agricultural census recorded a 1,610-acre property with 800 acres of improved land, 810 acres of unimproved land, 70 enslaved people, 150 bales of cotton, and 3,000 bushels of corn.

• 1845

  Daniel B. Meginniss recorded as a Florida voter

  [1]Daniel B. Meginniss Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Historical material identifies Daniel B. Meginniss as a voter in Florida's first election, documenting his presence in the territory before the plantation's 1860 agricultural census record.

Historical plantation property and antebellum agricultural operation, documented primarily through its cotton production and reliance on enslaved labor.

• Cash crop

  Cotton

  Cotton was the plantation's principal commercial crop and the agricultural product most closely associated with its role in the antebellum economy. The 1860 agricultural census recorded production of 150 bales. This output was generated through the labor of enslaved people and connected the property to the wider cotton economy of Florida and the Southern United States.

• Food and feed crop

  Corn

  Corn was a significant secondary agricultural product at the plantation. The 1860 census recorded 3,000 bushels, suggesting production for use within the plantation system as food and feed as well as potentially for local exchange. The available sources do not specify the exact distribution of the crop.

1. 1Daniel B. Meginniss Plantationen.wikipedia.org