The article explores economic processes in Florida during several decades before the Civil War. The author attempts at analyzing algorithms of settlement and development of the peninsula territories. Florida was one of the youngest states of the Old South remotely located from other territories. At the same time, thanks to extreme fertility of its land and relatively small population, Florida has become the focus of attention from other states’ residents, suffering from the shortage of land that in most cases was less fertile. The article makes a conclusion that with traditional plantation households focused on cultivation of cotton and sugar, the economic development processes in the most arable area of Florida - the central part of the peninsula - were similar with those of other southern states. Lucrative harvests have attracted a lot of migrants who settled in Florida within a short period of time driving out Native Americans and less numerous Spaniards. Development of plantation households triggered deve