Editing Tallahassee, Florida (section)

===State capital===
[[File:Cascadespark.jpg|thumb|A hand-colored photograph of [[Cascades Park (Tallahassee)|Cascades Park]] in 1912]]
Florida became an American territory in September 1821, in accordance with the [[Adams-Onís Treaty]] of 1819.

The first session of the [[Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida]] met on July 22, 1822, at Pensacola, the former capital of [[West Florida]]. Members from St. Augustine, the former capital of [[East Florida]], traveled 59 days by water to attend. The second session was in St. Augustine, and western delegates needed 28 days to travel perilously around the peninsula to reach St. Augustine. During this session, delegates decided to hold future meetings at a halfway point. Two appointed commissioners selected Tallahassee, then an Apalachee settlement ([[Anhaica]]) virtually abandoned after [[Seminole Wars#East Florida (east side of Apalachicola River)|Andrew Jackson burned it in 1818]], as a halfway point. In 1824, the third legislative session met there in a crude log building serving as the capitol.<ref>''Florida: A Short History,'' Michael V. Gannon, {{ISBN|0-8130-1167-1}}, 1993</ref>

From 1821 through 1845, during Florida's territorial period, the rough-hewn frontier capital gradually developed as a town. The [[Marquis de Lafayette]], French hero of the American Revolution, returned to the United States in 1824 for a tour. The [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] voted to give him $200,000 (the same amount he had given the colonies in 1778), US citizenship, and the [[Lafayette Land Grant]], {{convert|36|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}} of land that today includes large portions of Tallahassee. In 1845, a [[Greek revival]] masonry structure was erected as the Capitol building in time for statehood. Now known as the "old Capitol", it stands in front of the high-rise Capitol building built in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cfhf.net/maps/1839.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040620001604/http://www.cfhf.net/maps/1839.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 20, 2004 |title=Mosquito County 1842 |access-date=May 10, 2006}}</ref>

Tallahassee was in the heart of Florida's [[Cotton Belt (region)|Cotton Belt]]—Leon County led the state in cotton production—and was the center of the [[History of slavery|slave trade]] in Florida.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.questia.com/read/259813?title=3%3a%20Slave%20Trading |title=Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum, Florida, 1821–1860 |publisher= |date=July 30, 2012 |access-date=August 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812132531/http://www.questia.com/read/259813?title=3%3a%20Slave%20Trading |archive-date=August 12, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> During the [[American Civil War]], Tallahassee was the only Confederate state capital east of the [[Mississippi River]] not captured by Union forces, and the only one not burned. A small engagement, the [[Battle of Natural Bridge]], was fought south of the city on March 6, 1865, just a month before the war ended.

[[File:First reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge of 1865 in 1975.jpg|thumb|A reenactment of the 1865 [[Battle of Natural Bridge]]]]
During the 19th century, the institutions that later developed into [[Florida State University]] were established in Tallahassee; it became a university town. These included the [[Tallahassee Female Academy]] (founded 1843) and the Florida Institute (founded 1854). In 1851, the Florida legislature decreed two seminaries be built on either side of the [[Suwannee River]], [[East Florida Seminary]] and [[West Florida Seminary]]. In 1855, West Florida Seminary was transferred to the Florida Institute building (which had been established as an inducement for the state to place the seminary in Tallahassee). In 1858, the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy and became coeducational.<ref name="fshist">{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.fsu.edu/about/history.html |publisher=Office of University Communications, Florida State University |access-date=December 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107061306/https://www.fsu.edu/about/history.html |archive-date=January 7, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Its main building was near the northwest corner of South Copeland and West Jefferson streets, approximately where FSU's [[Westcott Building]] is today.

[[File:HistoricTallahassee.jpg|thumb|Tallahassee in 1885]]
In 1887, the Normal College for Colored Students, the ancestor of today's [[Florida A&M University|FAMU]], opened its doors. The legislature decided Tallahassee was the best location in Florida for a college serving African-American students; the state had segregated schools. Four years later, its name was changed to [[State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students]], to teach teachers for elementary school children and students in industrial skills.

After the Civil War, much of Florida's industry moved south and east, a trend that continues today. The end of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and the rise of free labor reduced the profitability of the cotton and tobacco trades, at a time when world markets were also changing. The state's major industries shifted to citrus, lumber, [[naval stores]], cattle ranching, and tourism. The latter was increasingly important by the late 19th century. In the post-Civil War period, many former [[plantation]]s in the Tallahassee area were purchased by wealthy northerners for use as winter hunting preserves. This included the hunting preserve of Henry L. Beadel, who bequeathed his land for the study of the effects of fire on wildlife habitat. Today the preserve is known as the [[Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy]], nationally recognized for its research into [[fire ecology]] and the use of [[prescribed burning]].