Plantation (farm)

Plantation (farm), originally, a self-contained settlement or estate in the American South on which staple crops, chiefly cotton and tobacco, were planted by laborers or slaves. The first colonial plantations were established by farmers in the 17th century. At first they employed indentured white labor for growing tobacco. After the importation of the first black slaves into Virginia in the 17th century, the growth of plantations became inextricably connected with slavery. The plantation system spread quickly from the eastern seaboard to the deep South in the 19th century after Eli Whitney invented (1793) the cotton gin. Large, often elegant, plantations growing cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, and hemp flourished until the American Civil War and the emancipation of slaves in 1863. Exploitation of sharecroppers and laborers on so-called free-labor plantations continued, however, under a soil-exhausting, one-crop system. Since the 1930s federal programs, mechanization, and growing urbanization have made the institution of the plantation obsolete. The term is still used for large tropical farms with hired labor, particularly in South America, on which sugar-cane, cacao, rubber, coffee, cotton, and fruit are grown.

See Agriculture; African American History.