Social Life in Tallahassee 1824 - 1845

Step into social activities that made Florida’s capital famous 200 years ago – storytelling, stickball games, lessons in Tallahassee’s signature Spanish Dance, land sales, election fights, and all the excitements of a holiday weekend.

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This project is sponsored in part by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida.

First-Person Testimony

Extracts from diaries, letters, newspaper stories, and novels by Territorial Tallahassee’s residents, immigrants, and visitors – eyewitnesses to social activities.

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Historians' Publications

Perspectives from present-day historians – research into census data, court documents, crop sales, property ownership, labor practices, banking records, family papers, church registers, oral histories, cookbooks, music collections, and dance manuals that provides a nuanced view of social life among Tallahassee’s planters, merchants, Crackers, Free Blacks, enslaved Blacks, and Native Americans.

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Historians' Lectures

Research from 21st century scholars who have served as consultants for this booklet – Drs. Larry E. Rivers, Jane Landers, and Tracy J. Revels, whose studies of Black history, Cracker lives, and women’s presence are reshaping how scholars understand Florida’s Territorial period.

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Bibliography

Territorial Tallahassee’s rich and varied history recorded in many forms by people from a wide range of backgrounds – reminiscences from residents, contributions from culinary historians, information from Native Americans, extracts from publications, video of lectures and reenactments.

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