Plantations More than just a house

1
Plantations- More than just a house!

• A plantation is a large agricultural business
  which produces a cash crop for sale.
• Different from a family farm
• ITEMS NEEDED
• A large amount of good, fertile land
• A cash crop in demand on the world market, like
  cotton or sugar
• A large group of laborers
• A large number of working buildings to run the
  plantation
• Easy bulk transport available to take the cash
  crop to market
• A way of selling the cash crop on the world market

2
CULTURE OF THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD

• In the US, interest in Greek things developed for
  several reasons
• "Discovery" of Greek temples
• US support for the Greek war for independence
  from Turkey
• US wish to identify with the ancient Greek
  democracies 
• More than just architecture!
• Hugely popular movement in US embracing many
  aspects of life  
• Greek Revival gave the long-lasting stereotype of
  the white-pillared mansion

3
PLANTATION MANSIONS

• Popular image of plantations
• Not too many existed
• Usually 2 stories high
• Columns on front or all the way around
• Owned by wealthiest planters

4
PLANTATION COTTAGES

• Most typical type
• Many existed
• One one and a half stories high
• Less elaborate than mansions
• Columns on front gallery
• Owned by moderately wealthy planters

5
THE GREEK REVIVAL STYLE

• Interiors
• Walls were generally bare (no wallpaper)
• Ceilings were ornamented with plaster cornices
  and medallions
• Heavily proportioned mantels featuring thick
  entablatures supported by pillars
• Could be sparsely or elegantly furnished

• Exteriors
• different sizes, shapes, and degrees of luxury
• symmetrical
• galleries on at least the front
• Square openings for windows and doors
• Huge entrances
• Doric, Ionic and Cornithian Columns
• Entablature - The horizontal member supported by
  columns

6
PLANTATION OUTBUILDINGSPlantations always had
functional outbuildings to help do the work of
the plantation.

• Barns-Buildings to shelter livestock, harvested
  crops and tools and to provide general storage

• Carriage House-Building where carriages used by
  the family were stored

• Cotton Gin-A machine which picked the seeds out
  of cotton boles

• Kitchen-A small building built separately,
  containing a large fireplace in which meals for
  the plantation's family were cooked

7
PLANTATION OUTBUILDINGS

• Plantation Store-Building, often owned by the
  planter, where post-Civil War tenant farmers or
  sharecroppers could buy supplies

• Overseer's House-Home of the overseer and his
  family

• Pigeonnier-A one- or two-story building
  resembling a square or octagonal tower, with
  nesting boxes with small openings for pigeons

• Privy-Small building for the outdoor toilets with
  one to three seats

8
PLANTATION OUTBUILDINGS

• Quarters-Small, usually poor quality houses where
  enslaved peoples and post-Civil War tenant
  farmers and sharecroppers lived

• Wash House-Building where the clothing and linens
  of the planter's family were cleaned

• Sugar Mill-Building where sugar cane was
  processed into raw sugar

• Stable-Building with stalls where horses and
  mules were sheltered

9
CASH CROPS

• Cotton 
• Cotton was grown in the central and northern
  sections of the state
• Factories in England and the North wanted cotton
  to turn into cloth
• Cotton was grown by planters on large plantations
  with many slaves and families on small farms
  with only a few slaves
• Cotton Gin quickly and efficiently removed seeds
  from the cotton fibers

• Sugar cane
• South Louisiana's climate was ideal for producing
  sugar cane
• Before the Civil War, sugar was primarily
  planted, harvested and processed by enslaved
  peoples
• Sugar plantations made more money than cotton
  plantations
• A special sugar mill was needed to process sugar
  cane into raw sugar.

10
ENSLAVED PEOPLES -- THE PLANTATION'S WORKERS

• Slaves were very valuable not used for dangerous
  work
• Most worked in the fields
• Some were skilled craftsmen  
• Slaves lives were difficult and sometimes very
  uncomfortable
• Some owners were fair, while others acted
  brutally