how many plantation houses are left

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How many plantation homes are left in Georgia?

More than 70 plantation homes remain in the area that includes the border counties of Grady and Thomas in Georgia and Jefferson and Leon in Florida. The area became a winter destination for Northerners who bought and preserved many of the homes after the Civil War.

What happened to plantation houses after the Civil War?

Sometimes the plantation owners would sell or give parcels to former slaves. Plantation houses, made of wood, often burned for reasons unrelated to the Civil War, and they were subject to storms and lightning.

What are plantations?

Plantations are an important aspect of the history of the Southern United States, particularly the antebellum era (pre- American Civil War ).

What kind of houses did slaves live in plantations?

Most of the larger slave plantations had a central home or mansion that was for the slave owner and his or her family. In general, the main house of the slave owner was a farmhouse. Some were grander and elaborate than others, but they all functioned as a home for the slave owner’s family.

How many plantations are there?

At the height of slavery, the National Humanities Center estimates that there were over 46,000 plantations stretching across the southern states. Now, for the hundreds whose gates remain open to tourists, lies a choice. Every plantation has its own story to tell, and its own way to tell it.

Are plantation houses still around?

Though some plantation homes remain private residences—most on far smaller properties—many were transformed into historic sites for tourists. But they're often romanticized as beautiful houses set among elegant gardens, disregarding the darker side of their history.

Where are the most plantations located?

Most plantations are clustered along a stretch of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

Does America still have plantations?

Plantation complexes in the 21st century Not only Monticello and Mount Vernon but some 375 former plantation houses are museums that can be visited. There are examples in every Southern state. Centers of plantation life such as Natchez run plantation tours.

Are there still plantations in Alabama?

Alabama has some of the most beautiful plantation homes in the South and these homes allow us to better understand the lifestyles of the past. Even though each plantation home is unique, the style is recognizable.

Which states have the most plantations?

Which state has the most plantation homes? Most plantations are clustered along a stretch of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

What states still have plantations?

All of the Southern states had plantations, including what Matrana refers to as the Upper South: Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of the plantations you can visit today are located in the Deep South, including South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Are there still plantations in Florida?

But perhaps the most interesting plantation house we've ever seen is the Robert Gamble House in Ellenton, Florida. Located off U.S. 301, it overlooks the Manatee River and is the only surviving plantation house on the Florida peninsula.

Who was the richest plantation owner?

He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Territory in 1808 and became the wealthiest cotton planter and the second-largest slave owner in the United States with over 2,200 slaves....Stephen DuncanEducationDickinson CollegeOccupationPlantation owner, banker7 more rows

Does Texas have plantations?

The Levi Jordan Plantation is a historical site and building, located on Farm to Market Road 521, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of the city of Brazoria, in the U.S. state of Texas.

Are there still plantations in Georgia?

The Wormsloe Historic Site, also known as the Wormsloe Plantation, is one of the only actual plantations you are able to visit in Savannah. This 882-acre property is home to a rich history that you can spend hours exploring.

Are there still slaves in Louisiana?

Louisiana had 244 cases of human trafficking in 2015, DCFS data shows. One hundred and four of those cases involved children. “If you look at the data, there's more slaves in the world today than at any time in history,” said George Mills, Trafficking Hope in Baton Rouge's executive director.

What are plantation style homes called?

Antebellum homesAntebellum homes refer to the large, elegant mansions — usually plantation homes — built in the American South during the 30 years or so before the American Civil War (1861-1865). Antebellum means "before war" in Latin.

What is a plantation style house?

A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole.

Why are plantation houses so big?

​Plantation House Features ​Not all Southern plantation homes were grandiose mansions. Some started out as practical farmhouses, while others were built to be decadent from the start. As plantation owners made more money, they often added to their homes to make them larger and more imposing.

What is considered a plantation?

Definition of plantation 1 : a usually large group of plants and especially trees under cultivation. 2 : a settlement in a new country or region Plymouth Plantation. 3a : a place that is planted or under cultivation. b : an agricultural estate usually worked by resident labor.

How many plantations are there in South Carolina?

Plantations in South Carolina. The Charleston area is home to 10 plantations, including Boone Hall, which claims to be the most photographed plantation in the U.S. Established in 1681 and still a working plantation, the grounds feature an oak alley leading to the home, slave quarters and extensive gardens.

What is an outbuilding in Natchez?

An outbuilding contains a toilet and bathtub, uncommon accouterments for a 19th-century building. Monmouth Plantation, built in 1818, became housing for Union forces during the occupation of Natchez. Household slaves fled Monmouth to join the Union army.

How many plantation homes are there in Georgia?

More than 70 plantation homes remain in the area that includes the border counties of Grady and Thomas in Georgia and Jefferson and Leon in Florida. The area became a winter destination for Northerners who bought and preserved many of the homes after the Civil War.

What is Magnolia Plantation?

Magnolia Plantation, founded in 1676 offers a nature boat tour and a train tour in addition to tours of the house and gardens. Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site in Union preserves the home of South Carolina's "Secession Governor" William H. Gist.

How many acres were slave farms?

The 600-acre property, farmed with slave labor before the Civil War, grew to a 1,000-acre plantation farmed by free blacks after the war. Tours feature the main house and numerous outbuildings, including a cotton gin and sugar cane press.

How many acres are there in Pebble Hill Plantation?

The 3,000-acre Pebble Hill Plantation, established in 1827 includes the main house furnished with Victorian antiques, a collection of carriages and a school. Jarrell Hill Plantation Historic Site north of Macon preserves a cotton plantation built in 1847.

Where are oak trees planted in Louisiana?

Plantations in Louisiana. Louisiana's Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie is one of the most recognizable in the South. Three-hundred-year-old live oak trees form a canopy over an avenue leading to the pillared front porch.

How much real estate did Weiner own?

A planter, for Weiner, owned at least $10,000 worth of real estate in 1850 and $32,000 worth in 1860, equivalent to about the top eight percent of landowners. In his study of southwest Georgia, Lee Formwalt defines planters in terms of size of land holdings rather than in terms of numbers of slaves.

What was the overseer's house?

The overseer was largely responsible for the success or failure of an estate, making sure that quotas were met and sometimes meting out punishment for infractions by the enslaved. The overseer was responsible for healthcare, with slaves and slave houses inspected routinely. He was also the record keeper of most crop inventories and held the keys to various storehouses.

How many slaves were there in 1860?

These farmers tended to work the fields alongside the people they enslaved. Of the estimated 46,200 plantations existing in 1860, 20,700 had 20 to 30 enslaved people and 2,300 had a workforce of a hundred or more, with the rest somewhere in between.

What is the focus of 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.

Why was the Smokehouse bulldozed?

One of the most ornate and complete plantation complexes left at that time, it was bulldozed in 1940 for levee construction. The smokehouse was utilized to preserve meat, usually pork, beef, and mutton. It was commonly built of hewn logs or brick.

What were the most common structures that survived the plantation economy?

Although the majority have been destroyed, the most common structures to have survived are the plantation houses.

What were the Southern plantations?

Southern plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that often relied on the forced labor of enslaved people . Plantations are an important aspect of the history of the Southern United States, particularly the antebellum era (pre- American Civil War ).

How many towns were there in the Confederacy in 1861?

Reconstruction played out against a backdrop of a once prosperous economy in ruins. The Confederacy in 1861 had 297 towns and cities with a combined population of 835,000; of these, 162 locations with 681,000 total residents were at one point occupied by Union forces.

Why did Charleston burn?

The city burned for reasons having nothing to do with the war. What was left of Charleston was largely depopulated by a yellow fever epidemic. There wasn't a whole lot left of the city when the long Union blockade began. All of this is detailed in the history of the city.

What were the jobs that African Americans were relegated to during the Civil War?

In the cities, African Americans were relegated to the lowest paying jobs such as unskilled and service labor. Men worked as rail workers, rolling and lumber mills workers, and hotels workers.

How much did the Confederacy cost in the Civil War?

The direct costs to the Confederacy in human capital, government expenditures, and physical destruction from the war totaled $3.3 billion.

Why was the Confederate dollar worthless?

By 1865, the Confederate dollar was worthless due to massive inflation, and people in the South had to resort to bartering services for goods, or else use scarce Union dollars. With the emancipation of the southern slaves, the entire economy of the South had to be rebuilt.

What was the name of the street that was destroyed during the Civil War?

Broad Street, Charleston, South Carolina. This photograph of Broad Street , in Charleston, South Carolina, taken in 1865, shows the devastation of the South following the Civil War. Many of the South's largest cities, and much of its human and material resources, were destroyed during the Civil War by the Union armies.

What did men do during the antebellum?

Men worked as rail workers, rolling and lumber mills workers, and hotels workers. The large population of slave artisans during antebellum had not translated into a large number of freemen artisans during the Reconstruction. Black women were largely confined to domestic work employed as cooks, maids, and child nurses.

Why did the former slaves refuse to work for wages for their owners?

Continue Reading. In most cases the former slaves refused to work for wages for former owners as they refused to be controlled by masters or overseers. The slaves wanted to have the lands transferred to them. But President Johnson returned the confiscated plantations to former owners.

Why did plantations burn?

Plantation houses, made of wood, often burned for reasons unrelated to the Civil War, and they were subject to storms and lightning. Many plantations stayed in the families of their pre-Civil War owners, but were subject to the subdivision naturally occurring when wills leave property to multiple children or heirs.

What was the name of the compromise that was worked out by President Johnson?

But President Johnson returned the confiscated plantations to former owners. Eventually a kind of compromise was worked out called sharecropping. This meant the plantation owner broke his plantation up into parcels and let them to ex-slaves (or poor whites) to work. The rent was a share in the crop.

What was the movement that fought against slavery in the South before the Civil War?

However, well before the Civil War there were strong abolitionist movements in many northern states, and even stronger “Free Soil” movements - which cared little about the existence of slavery in the South, but insisted that slavery as an institution not be allowed to expand into additional territory or future states.

What is real estate agent?

Simply put, real estate agents help you buy a house. The best ones eat, sleep and breathe real estate for a living—meaning, they’re in it every single day. Buying a piece of prope(Continue reading) Slave plantations arose on the best soil in river valleys, in plains, in the Black Belt of Alabama and adjoining states.

What was the 3/5 compromise?

Some saw the 3/5 compromise of the Constitution - counting 3/5 of a state’s slave population in determining its representation in Congress and its weight in the Electoral College - as giving southern states undue influence in the Federal government and the presidency.

Did slave plantations lose their slaves?

Slave plantations lost their slaves, of course, although large numbers of former slaves stayed on their old plantations for several years after the Surrender. The Union Army burned down many plantation houses in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and elsewhere. General Fisk of the Freedman. Continue Reading.

When was the Antes House built?

The Henry Antes House was built in the traditional Moravian style in 1736 by local political and religious leader Henry Antes. The rubble-stone home has a storied past: It served as George Washington's headquarters when the British were trying to gain control of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War.

What happened at the Alston House?

During the Revolutionary War, the Alston House was the site of a dramatic encounter between British loyalists and the family of Philip Alston, which ended with Alston surrendering and his wife negotiating the terms.

What is the Josiah Dwight House?

The Josiah Dwight House, built around 1725, features striking architectural elements, such as window, door, and dormer pediments as well as a brightly colored facade. Once used as a rooming house, the home originally stood in Springfield, Massachusetts, but was later moved to Deerfield after the structure was threatened with demolition. The restored home now serves as a museum that offers demonstrations of colonial-era trades like weaving and woodworking.

Where is William Brown House?

William Brown House (Edgewater, Maryland) 4 /14. Built in 1760, the London Town Publik House in Edgewater, Maryland —also known as the William Brown House—was a colonial-era inn conveniently located on the main road that connected Williamsburg, Virginia, to Philadelphia. Travelers rested their weary heads (and likely enjoyed many an ale by ...

When was Pursley's Ferry House built?

Constructed around 1750, this trim stone farmhouse with impressive views of the river has since been fully remodeled and is now a private residence.

Where is Richard Jackson House?

Richard Jackson House (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) The Richard Jackson House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the oldest surviving wooden house in the state and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Richard Jackson, a woodworker, farmer, and mariner, built the home in an English post-Medieval style in 1664, ...

Where is Thomas Nelson's house?

Thomas Nelson House (Yorktown, Virginia) The Nelson House in Yorktown, Virginia, built in 1730, was once occupied by Thomas Nelson, Jr., a soldier in the Revolutionary War who became quite the statesman. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress, ...

What was the purpose of slave plantations?

On the slave plantation, slaves were used to harvest cash crops and complete other related agricultural work. The slave plantations were significant to the life and economics of the United States in the time before the outbreak of the American Civil War . This was especially true in the Southern states of the United States, where slave plantations were most common. Therefore, the development of slave plantations was important to the history of slavery in the United States.

What were the most common crops that were harvested on the plantations?

Throughout the timeframe of slavery in the United States, the most common crops that were harvested on the plantations were cotton, rice, indigo and tobacco. These crops were especially labor intensive and as such, African slave labor made the most economical sense for many of the plantation owners. As well, these crops were ‘cash crops’.

What was the main building on the slave plantations?

Another important building on some of the slave plantations was the house for the overseer. An overseer worked on the plantation as a manager of the agricultural operation.

What were slaves used for?

On the slave plantation, slaves were used to harvest cash crops and complete other related agricultural work. The slave plantations were significant to the life and economics of the United States in the time before the outbreak of the American Civil War . This was especially true in the Southern states of the United States, ...

Why was the overseer house important?

This was so that the overseer could keep an eye on the slaves. The overseer house was usually a small structure made out of logs, but better equipped than the slave houses. The next important set of structures on slave plantations in the United States was the housing for the slaves.

Why was cotton important to the Southern states?

Cotton became an important crop in the Southern states and was heavily reliant on the practise of slavery. In fact, the harvesting of cotton was extremely labor-intensive, and the use of slaves allowed it to be a profitable industry by keeping labor costs low for plantation owners.

What is the picture to the side of Solomon Northup?

The image to the side of Solomon Northup shows a typical set of clothing for a slave that worked on a plantation. The regular food and diet of slaves varied between the different plantations, but there were several main similarities throughout the timeframe of slavery in the United States.

Overview

The plantation complex

Plantation complexes in the 21st century

Personnel

See also

Further reading