Interesting.
A casual look at Orange county in Virginia would indicate that the "20 slaves" criteria might apply; however, in antebellum Augusta county it may be more like 12 slaves.
Dave Riddick
?"The name on the front of that jersey is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back!"
Herb Brooks 1980
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Finkelman <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:19 am
Subject: Re: definition of a planter
if the only definition is one who planted tobacco, then someone with two
servants and a slave who planted an acre of tobacco would be a "planter"
which is silly. In fact, there were VERY FEW planters even in the
antebellum period; that is why being a planter meant something -- power
and wealth. 20 may be arbitrary, especially for the early colonial
period when there were still (mostly white) indentured servants. But
after about 1710 in VA and SC planters were those with increasing
numbers of slaves; and of course what you planted is not solely the
issue. After the revolution some planters appear to have moved into
wheat (as well as tobacco); they were still planters.
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208-3494
518-445-3386
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 12/17/07 9:08 AM >>>
THIS has been a GREAT discussion! Thanks to all!
Dan
On Dec 17, 2007, at 12:31 AM, Hardin, David wrote:
> If 20 slaves was the threshold for a "plantation," there would have
> been very few of them in Virginia. The idea of a slave-number-
> threshold seeps back down into the colonial period by way of the
> antebellum cotton South and studies thereof. I went round and
> round about this in my master's thesis defense with a member of the
> committee who has studied antebellum plantations and modern
> neoplantations for decades. I agree with Harold Gill: the only
> distiction in Virginia was whether one "planted" tobacco - and thus
> a plantation - or whether one "farmed" corn or wheat - and thus a
> farm. Washington - who raised tobacco and other crops with
> considerably more than 20 slaves - began calling himself a farmer
> when he started raising large amounts of wheat.
> ___________________________________________
>
> Dr. David S. Hardin
> Assistant Professor of Geography
> Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
> Longwood University
> Farmville, Virginia 23909
> Phone: (434) 395-2581
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> ********************
> "For as Geography without History
> seemeth a carkasse without motion,
> so History without Geography
> wandreth as a Vagrant without a
> certaine habitation."
> John Smith, 1627
> ________________________________________
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [VA-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Finkelman
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 12:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: definition of a planter
>
> most scholars consisder a "planatation" as a farm with 20 or more
> slaves; otherwise the term becomes meaningless. After call, Rhode
> Island was known as "Prividence Plantation" but no one thinks of the
> whole colony as a plantation.
>
> Paul Finkelman
> President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
> and Public Policy
> Albany Law School
> 80 New Scotland Avenue
> Albany, New York 12208-3494
>
> 518-445-3386
> [log in to unmask]
>>>> [log in to unmask] 12/15/07 7:04 PM >>>
> In most records before about 1800 the word plantation was used in
> Virginia
> wills to mean any property which was planted. Testators with no slaves
> and
> less than 50 acres referred to their property as their plantation.
> Some
> referred to their "plantation and its crop of peas and corn," so
> whatever
> the actual definition, Virginians did not necessarily follow it.
>
> Also, it was common for the courts to order the churchwardens to
> bind an
> indigent child to become a "planter or sawyer." Early Registers of
> Free
> Negroes referred to the bearer as being a "planter."
>
> Starting about 1820 some testators referred to their property as their
> farm
> regardless of its size and how many slaves they owned, and it was
> common
> for
> the the courts to order the overseers of the poor to bind out an
> indigent
> child "to be a planter or farmer."
> Paul
>
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