Mala Compra Plantation Archeological Site

The Mala Compra Plantation Archeological Site is an archaeological site in Palm Coast, Florida, on the east bank of the Matanzas River. It is located west of the intersection of State Road A1A and Mala Compra Drive at Bings Landing County Park in Flagler County. On March 5, 2004, it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places. Mala Compra (Spanish for "bad bargain" or "bad purchase") was formerly part of one of northeastern Florida's largest plantation systems (totaling 2,265 acres). Situated on the coast, it belonged to Joseph Marion Hernández (1788–1857), and was worked primarily as a slave-based cotton plantation from 1816 through 1836, when the Seminoles burned it down near the beginning of the Second Seminole War. Preliminary archaeological investigations were conducted at the Mala Compra site in 1999. The study identified the house where Hernández and his family resided when they were not at their home in St. Augustine, and the detached kitchen was also found. The land for the plantation was purchased by Hernández in 1816; cotton and corn were grown there until the settlement was destroyed by marauding Native Americans. The main dwelling-house was described in historical accounts as a 1 1/2-story framed structure with a masonry foundation. Investigations revealed that the building had a coquina block foundation in the eastern part while masonry foo

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).