Madison County is a county located in the north central portion of the state of Florida, and borders the state of Georgia to the north. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,968. Its county seat is also called Madison.
History
Located in what is known as the Florida Panhandle, Madison County was created in 1827. It was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America, who served from 1809 to 1817. It was developed as part of the plantation belt, with cotton cultivated and processed by enslaved African Americans.
In the period after Reconstruction, racial violence rose in the state, reaching a peak at the end of the 19th century and extending into the difficult economic years of the 1920s and 1930s. According to the Equal Justice Institute's 2015 report, Lynching in America: Confronting Racial Terror, from 1877 to 1950, Madison County had 16 lynchings in this period, the 6th highest of any county in the state.
In 1945, the county's population of 15,537 was divided evenly between black and white.
As of August 2012, Madison became a wet county, meaning that voters had approved the legal sale, possession, or distribution of alcoholic beverages.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.8%) is water.
Adjacent counties
- Brooks County, Georgia – north
- Lowndes County, Georgia – northeast
- Hamilton County – east
- Suwannee County – southeast
- Lafayette County – southeast
- Taylor County – southwest
- Jefferson County – west