Hening's Statutes seems to define a "plantation" as any sized parcel on land which has some attempt at agriculture made upon it. For instance, http://vagenweb.org/hening/vol07-24.htm


________________________________
 From: Paul Finkelman <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] A Virginia Plantation means?
 
Most historians use 20 slaves as the minimum number of slaves for a plantation for the antebellum period.

In the 17th century it was used in all kinds of ways, including just a settlement or colony -- Providence Plantation (what became Rhode Island) had nothing to with slavery when Roger Williams founded it; similarly, Plimouth (or Plymouth) Planation.  English documents talk about "plantations in the new world."
I suspect (just guessing) there might be references to Jamestown Plantation (like Plymouth PLantation)  as a settlement rather than a huge farm.

 
----
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY  12208


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________________________________
From: John Carter <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 8:29 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] A Virginia Plantation means?

The term "plantation" originally referred to the area of land granted to a proprietor, where people were to be brought over to the colony to settle on those lands. The term could also be applied to larger tracts of land including the entire colony (Virginia, Massachusetts, Ulster). The largest and most successful plantations eventually became the county seats and the centers of power for the colonies. In a colony, like Virginia, with a dispersed population, the plantations became the focal point for all aspects of daily life: the site of the justice of the peace and the county court, the muster site for the militia, the economic producer, the source for capital and credit, and the site for most of the necessary services for the colony. The largest and most successful of the individually-run plantations were in the hands of the most powerful and prominent men in the colony. They served on the Virginia Council, led the colonial militias, held court in
their homes, and controlled the colonial trade with the Indians and with England. In 17th century Virginia, men like William Claiborne, Edward Hill, and William Byrd had developed had obtained power through their "plantations" by combining agricultural production with the control of the fur trade in the Atlantic trade community. This was the base of their power- economically and politically- that put them into the highest levels of government. I would refer to these men, and the ones who followed them in the 18th century, as "Great Planters." These elites had the most acreage, the most slaves, and the most political influence. While many built great mansions, like Shirley and Westover, the true mark of a great planter was the amount of power he wielded in the colony and in the Atlantic market. In 19th century Limestone County Alabama, one of the largest plantation owners, Nicholas Davis, lived in the same log-style cabin (a very large log cabin) that he
had built when he first came to Alabama from Virginia.

Small plantations and small planters were a step below these men. They were great planter-wanna-bees, and with a few breaks, they too could be a great planter. Likewise, the small common farmer, on just a few acres, could aspire one day to be a planter with a slave or two. I would say, If you're going to assign the number of slaves and the number of acres to the definition of a planter, you need to at least do it from the perspective of the individual county and state where they resided, and their relationship to each other in the power that they wielded locally and within their state. 

The cotton plantations of the deep South are probably what we first think of when we hear the word plantation. They were emblematic of a "class" of people- an elite class- much the way they were in colonial Virginia. The plantation house of these men were visual representations of the power that they held and used. In both cases, however, there was a small planter class just below them who, while sharing many aspects of great planter culture, often had their own agendas and economic ties. Virginia supplied the model for these southern plantations. As plantation soil wore out in Virginia from overuse, the great planters not only started selling their slaves to plantation owners in Alabama and Mississippi, they moved south themselves. Virginia's elite great planters hit the ground running when they moved from Virginia (as did others from Georgia and South Carolina) to Alabama and Mississippi in the 1820s and 1830s. They brought successful enterprise and
capital with them, banded together with other land speculators, bought up the best lands, and immediately built brick mansions. The smaller planters came south with less capital and fewer connections and had to work their way upward. 

I had a ninth grade history teacher who once told me, when writing a term paper, "Do not use the encyclopedia as one of your references." I would say the same applies to Wikipedia.

John

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John C. Carter

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On 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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