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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