Quincy's economy was based on agriculture, including farming tomatoes, tobacco, mushrooms, soybeans and other crops.

[10] One of the most important anti-secession organizations in Florida leading up to the Civil War was the Constitutional Union Party.

[11] William Tennent Stockton, once mayor of Quincy, raised a cavalry company following secession called the Gadsden Dragoons.

To facilitate the supply chain, the state was divided into five commissary districts under the overall command of Major Pleasant W. White of Quincy.

As a result, the culture of shade-grown cigar wrapper tobacco was a dominant factor in the social and economic development of Gadsden County.

Early European explorers discovered Native Americans growing the plant when they set foot on their soil.

When Smith ventured southward he brought with him a type of tobacco seed which was used for chewing and pipe smoking.

Ultimately in 1950, the white cheesecloth was replaced with a treated, longer lasting, yellow cloth that provided perfect shade.

Colonel Henry DuVal, president of the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad, shipped samples of Gadsden County tobacco to New York for leaf dealers and cigar manufacturers to inspect.

– discuss] It also had a Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia Lodge that was attacked, burned, and members murdered by the Ku Klux Klan reportedly because members were required to pay poll taxes and register to vote.

[16] In 1929, Will Larkins was accused of an attack on a white 13 year old Quincy school girl, for which he was quickly indicted.

[17] As Larkins was being transferred he was taken by a mob of 40 masked men from Sheriff Gregory of Gadsden county,[18] near Madison and Live Oak.

When he was kidnapped by the mob he was being taken to the Duval county jail in a series of moves that newspapers claimed were for his safe keeping.

[19] After his capture by the mob Larkins was carried back to Quincy, near the railroad grade crossing, shot to death and hanged with wire,[20] his body was then dragged through the street tied to an automobile and burned at the area where the mob thought the accused committed his crime.

[21] Though Governor Carlton promised an inquiry and investigators were put on the case in late 1929, no mention of Will Larkins, except for the NAACP lynching lists of 1929, is made again in newspapers of the time.

[23][24] In the 1920s, blacks in Quincy including A. I. Dixie repeatedly tried to form political organizations and vote, and protest brutal labor conditions, but were suppressed by violence from whites.

[43] The Florida A&M Research and Extension Center is located on Old Bainbridge Road in the St. John community of Quincy.

Shuttle-bus and van transportation between Quincy and Chattahoochee, Havana, and Tallahassee is provided by Big Bend Transit, which operates three routes serving the area.

[51] Freight service is provided by the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, which acquired most of the former CSX main line from Pensacola to Jacksonville on June 1, 2019.

Quincy investors were largely responsible for the development of its local Coca-Cola company into a worldwide conglomerate.

Mark Welch “Mr Pat” Munroe, a local banker, father of 18 children by two wives, and W.C. Bradley were among the stockholders of three of the banks that released 500,000 shares of new Coca-Cola common stock.

[58] A single share of Coca-Cola stock bought in 1919 for $40 would be worth $6.4 million today, if all dividends had been reinvested.