Some move to Paynes Prairie and round up cattle. Chief Micanopy, for whom the town is named, was a Seminole leader. Famed naturalist William Bartram visits Alachua County in 1774. Micanopy is settled in 1820. White settlers trickle in.
Planters bring slaves, anticipating fortunes from cotton.
The landscape begins shifting rapidly from forest to farm. Alachua becomes Florida's 11th county in 1824. It stretches from Georgia to the Gulf, with its southern tip at Port Charlotte. When Florida becomes a state in 1845, Alachua County has 1,866 people. Florida has 70,000, half of them slaves.