I think time period is important.
Doug
On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 2:05 PM, Ronald Seagrave <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm interested in hearing how members on this list would describe a
> general terms a Virginia Plantation, and then a Virginia Planter?
>
>
> Wikipedia states...
>
> In the American South, antebellum plantations were centered on a
> "plantation house", the residence of the owner, where important business
> was conducted. Slavery and plantations had different characteristics in
> different regions of the South. As the Upper South of the Chesapeake Bay
> Colony developed first, historians of the antebellum South defined planters
> as those who held 20 or more slaves. Major planters held many more,
> especially in the Deep South as it developed. The majority of slaveholders
> held 10 or fewer slaves, often just a few to labor domestically. By the
> late 18th century, most planters in the Upper South had switched from
> exclusive tobacco cultivation to mixed crop production, both because
> tobacco had exhausted the soil and because of changing markets. The shift
> away from tobacco meant they had slaves in excess of the number needed for
> labor, and they began to sell them in the internal slave trade.
>
> The largest and wealthiest planter families, for instance, those with
> estates fronting on the James River in Virginia, constructed mansions in
> brick and Georgian style, e.g. Shirley Plantation. Common or smaller
> planters in the late 18th and 19th century had more modest wood frame
> buildings, such as Southall Plantation in Charles City County.
>
> In the Low Country of South Carolina, by contrast, even before the
> American Revolution, planters holding large rice and cotton plantations in
> South Carolina typically owned hundreds of slaves. In Charleston and
> Savannah, the elite also held numerous slaves to work as household
> servants. The 19th-century development of the Deep South for cotton
> cultivation depended on large plantations with much more acreage than was
> typical of the Chesapeake Bay area, and for labor, planters held hundreds
> of slaves.
>
>
> And then the word 'planter' Wikipedia notes...
>
> Until December 1865 slavery was legal in parts of the United States. Most
> slaves were employed in agriculture, and "planter" was a term commonly used
> to describe a farmer with many slaves.
> The term "planter" has no universally accepted definition but academic
> historians have defined it to identify the elite class, "a landowning
> farmer of substantial means." In the "Black Belt" counties of Alabama and
> Mississippi, the terms “"planter" and "farmer" were often synonymous.
> Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman define large planters as owning over 50
> slaves, and medium planters as owning between 16 and 50 slaves.In his study
> of Black Belt counties in Alabama, Jonathan Wiener defines planters by
> ownership of real property, rather than of slaves. A planter, for Wiener,
> owned at least $10,000 worth of real estate in 1850 and $32,000 worth in
> 1860, equivalent to about the top 8 percent of landowners.In his study of
> southwest Georgia, Lee Formwalt also defines planters in size of land
> holdings rather than slaves. Formwalt's planters are in the top 4.5 percent
> of landowners, translating into real estate worth $6,000 or more in 1850,
> $24,000 or more in 1860, and $11,000 or more in 1870.In his study of
> Harrison County, Texas, Randolph B. Campbell classifies large planters as
> owners of 20 slaves, and small planters as owners of between ten and 19
> slaves.In Chicot and Phillips Counties, Arkansas, Carl H. Moneyhon defines
> large planters as owners of twenty or more slaves, and six hundred or more
> acres."
>
>
> Ronald Seagrave
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> I'm interested in hearing how members on this list would describe a
> general terms a Virginia Plantation, and then a Virginia Planter?
>
>
> Wikipedia states...
>
> In the American South, antebellum plantations were centered on a
> "plantation house", the residence of the owner, where important business
> was conducted. Slavery and plantations had different characteristics in
> different regions of the South. As the Upper South of the Chesapeake Bay
> Colony developed first, historians of the antebellum South defined planters
> as those who held 20 or more slaves. Major planters held many more,
> especially in the Deep South as it developed. The majority of slaveholders
> held 10 or fewer slaves, often just a few to labor domestically. By the
> late 18th century, most planters in the Upper South had switched from
> exclusive tobacco cultivation to mixed crop production, both because
> tobacco had exhausted the soil and because of changing markets. The shift
> away from tobacco meant they had slaves in excess of the number needed for
> labor, and they began to sell them in the internal slave trade.
>
> The largest and wealthiest planter families, for instance, those with
> estates fronting on the James River in Virginia, constructed mansions in
> brick and Georgian style, e.g. Shirley Plantation. Common or smaller
> planters in the late 18th and 19th century had more modest wood frame
> buildings, such as Southall Plantation in Charles City County.
>
> In the Low Country of South Carolina, by contrast, even before the
> American Revolution, planters holding large rice and cotton plantations in
> South Carolina typically owned hundreds of slaves. In Charleston and
> Savannah, the elite also held numerous slaves to work as household
> servants. The 19th-century development of the Deep South for cotton
> cultivation depended on large plantations with much more acreage than was
> typical of the Chesapeake Bay area, and for labor, planters held hundreds
> of slaves.
>
>
> And then the word 'planter' Wikipedia notes...
>
> Until December 1865 slavery was legal in parts of the United States. Most
> slaves were employed in agriculture, and "planter" was a term commonly used
> to describe a farmer with many slaves.
> The term "planter" has no universally accepted definition but academic
> historians have defined it to identify the elite class, "a landowning
> farmer of substantial means." In the "Black Belt" counties of Alabama and
> Mississippi, the terms “"planter" and "farmer" were often synonymous.
> Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman define large planters as owning over 50
> slaves, and medium planters as owning between 16 and 50 slaves.In his study
> of Black Belt counties in Alabama, Jonathan Wiener defines planters by
> ownership of real property, rather than of slaves. A planter, for Wiener,
> owned at least $10,000 worth of real estate in 1850 and $32,000 worth in
> 1860, equivalent to about the top 8 percent of landowners.In his study of
> southwest Georgia, Lee Formwalt also defines planters in size of land
> holdings rather than slaves. Formwalt's planters are in the top 4.5 percent
> of landowners, translating into real estate worth $6,000 or more in 1850,
> $24,000 or more in 1860, and $11,000 or more in 1870.In his study of
> Harrison County, Texas, Randolph B. Campbell classifies large planters as
> owners of 20 slaves, and small planters as owners of between ten and 19
> slaves.In Chicot and Phillips Counties, Arkansas, Carl H. Moneyhon defines
> large planters as owners of twenty or more slaves, and six hundred or more
> acres."
>
>
> Ronald Seagrave
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ______________________________________
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>
--
Douglas Burnett
Satellite Beach
FL
As a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the
National Genealogical Society (NGS), the Florida State Genealogical
Society(FSGS) and the Virginia Genealogical Society(VGS), I support and
adhere to the APG's Code of Ethics.
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