Concept

Plantation complexes in the Southern United States

Overview

Plantation complexes, large-scale, self-sufficient estates which produced cash crops for profit, were common on agricultural plantations in the Southern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to the pens for livestock. Until the abolition of slavery, such plantations were generally reliant on the forced labor of enslaved people.

Plantations are an important aspect of the history of the Southern United States, particularly before the American Civil War. The mild temperate/subtropical climate, plentiful rainfall, and fertile soils of the Southeastern United States allowed the flourishing of large plantations, where large numbers of enslaved Africans were held captive and forced to produce crops to create wealth for the planter class, a white elite.

Today, as was also true in the past, there is a wide range of opinion as to what differentiated a plantation from a farm. Typically, the focus of a farm was subsistence agriculture. In contrast, the primary focus of a plantation was the production of cash crops, with enough staple food crops produced to feed the population of the estate and the livestock. A common definition of what constituted a plantation is that it typically had 500 to 1,000 acres (2.0 to 4.0 km2) or more of land and produced one or two cash crops for sale. Other scholars have attempted to define it by the number of enslaved persons. The term "plantation complex" is not universally agreed-upon; in the 21st century, some historians have proposed enslaved labor camp or forced labor camp as alternative terms that center the role of enslaved workers.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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He is apt to denominate, however, his whole gain, profit, and thus confounds rent with profit, at least in common language. The greater part of our North American and West Indian planters are in this situation. They farm, the greater part of them, their own estates: and accordingly we seldom hear of the rent of a plantation, but frequently of its profit. Common farmers seldom employ any overseer to direct the…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
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The proprietor furnished them with the seed, cattle, and instruments of husbandry, the whole stock, in short, necessary for cultivating the farm. The produce was divided equally between the proprietor and the farmer, after setting aside what was judged necessary for keeping up the stock, which was restored to the proprietor, when the farmer either quitted or was turned out of the farm. Land occupied by such tenants…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
States what Plantation complexes in the Southern United States is.
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For example:-- "The revenue derived from labor is called wages; that derived from stock by the person who manages or employs it is called profit. The revenue which proceeds from land is called rent and belongs altogether to the landlord. The revenue of the farmer is derived partly from his labor and partly from his stock....
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
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Philosophers who discussed Plantation complexes in the Southern United States

Roger Scruton

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Roger Scruton.

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