Agriculture

This historic theme deals with the practice of plant and animal husbandry within the present territory of the United States. Emphasized are the development of various farming techniques and the varieties of crops, livestock, and implements employed over time and in differing regions.

  • Era of Adaptation, 1607-1763
  • Plantation Agriculture, 1607-1860
  • Era of Subsistence Agriculture, 1763-1820
  • The Plantation Breaks up, Sharecropping, and Tenant Farming, 1860-
  • Mechanical Agriculture as Business Enterprise Beyond Self-Sufficiency, 1820-
  • Farming on the East Coast for Local Markets (Dairying, Fruits, and Vegetables)
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Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: Kingsley Plantation

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is an example of a National Park Service unit that is representative of the Agriculture historical theme. Nestled between northeast Florida's lower St. Johns and Nassau Rivers, the 46,000 acre Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve was established in 1988 to protect the natural resources of one of the last unspoiled coastal wetlands on the Atlantic Coast and to preserve historic and prehistoric sites within the area. The estuarine ecosystem within the Preserve includes salt marsh, coastal dunes, hardwood hammock, as well as salt, fresh, and brackish waters, all rich in native vegetation and animal life. The Preserve, site of one of the first attempts (in 1564) by Europeans to establish a permanent colony in North America, was inhabited by the Timucuan people for more than four thousand years before the arrival of the first Europeans, and it has seen more than four centuries of exploration, colonization, agriculture, and commercial exploitation under the flags of France, Spain, England, the Confederacy, and the United States.

The links below will take you to other NPS units which contain additional information regarding this historical theme. Following that are links to related materials, which will provide more detailed Web sites that discuss selected aspects of this historical theme.

National Park Service units

Related Links