What did planters do in the South?
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journal article Planters and the Southern Community: A Review EssayThe Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 94, No. 4 (Oct., 1986) , pp. 387-408 (22 pages) Published By: Virginia Historical Society https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248909 Read and download Log in through your school or library Alternate access options For independent researchers Read Online Read 100 articles/month free Subscribe to JPASS Unlimited reading + 10 downloads Purchase article $10.00 - Download now and later Journal Information Established in 1893 and published continuously since then, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography is the quarterly journal of the Virginia Historical Society, a privately supported and endowed educational institution headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The journal publishes peer-reviewed articles and edited primary documents on all aspects and time periods of Virginia history and related topics. The VMHB also publishes reviews of books on Virginia history and biography. Publisher Information The VMHB is published by the Virginia Historical Society, a privately supported and endowed educational institution founded in 1831 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The mission of the VHS is to collect, preserve, and interpret the commonwealth's past for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations. With education as its primary focus, it offers public lectures, seminars, conferences, and consulting services; publishes teacher resource materials; conducts teacher training and recertification workshops both on- and off-site; arranges school and general group tours and activities; supports scholarly research through an endowed fellowship program and minority internships; maintains a museum of changing, permanent, and traveling exhibitions; operates a research library and a publications program that has functioned uninterrupted for more than 100 years. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. The following educational document corresponds with Unit One: Giving Meaning to Freedom in the After Slavery exhibition. Note the "Questions to Consider" section included at the end of the document. Context Although the following contract was drawn up by a planter in Austin County, Texas, landowners across the South produced similar agreements in late spring and summer of 1865. Usually read aloud by planters in the same speeches in which they announced emancipation to their former slaves, contracts like this one used by A. T. Oliver speak volumes about the kind of social, economic, and political system that the South's planters hoped to enforce after emancipation. A Planter's Vision of Freedom and Free Labor July 1st 1865 Copy of contract We the following named negroes, formerly belonging to A. T. Oliver, do agree to remain as heretofore, and work as heretofore, for A. T. Oliver on his plantation; to cultivate and save his crop on said plantation from this date July 1st 1865, until the 1st of January 1866; the said Oliver agrees to furnish them, the following named negroes, their usual clothing, medicines, and attention when sick for themselves and children; and at the end of the year, he agrees to pay them what he thinks is right for each one according to his value in making, and saving said crop; the said negroes are to do good, and faithful work under the control, and direction of said A. T. Oliver or agent, and not to leave the plantation without a pass from said Oliver, and conform to all the rules of the plantation as heretofore, Cummins, Lidia, Moses, Eli, Manda Andrew, Georgiana, Dave, Harreitt & 3 children, Bene & 1 child, Billy, Jane & 2 children, Martha Hobson, Rena, Marsh, Quince, Louisa & 4 children Jack, Mariah & 1 child, Thomas, Lucy & 1 child, Israel Frank, Mitchel, Clary & 1 child, John, Charlotte & 3 children, Dorrick, Helen & 3 children, Edmond Watson, Jane & 2 children, Paddy 7 years old, Frank Isaac, Mariah, Asaline & 5 children, Louis, Lina, & 2 children, Aggy, worthless, two boys Osca, & Virgil, Jacob Emily & 3 children, Primus, Isham, Docia & 3 children Frances, Ham, Vina, Eliza & 2 children, Crockett, Martha & 3 children, Henry (boy) Mat, Sam, Rachael, Jerry, America Taylor, Kitty, Amonette & 3 children, Stephen 2 children, Charles, Sally & 2 children In testimony whereof I hereunto sign my name, and affix my seal, using scroll for seal, this the day and date above mentioned. [signed] A. T. Oliver Source: Contract between A. T. Oliver and Cummins et al., 1 July 1865, filed with 1st Lt Levi Jones to Col W. H. Sinclair, 26 Mar. 1866, J 1 1866, Registered Letters Received, ser. 3620, TX Asst. Comr., RG 105. Questions to Consider 1. With whom is A. T. Oliver contracting? 2. What are the terms of employment as Oliver lays them out? What does he expect Cummins, Lidia, Moses, and all the rest to do? What does he obligate himself to do? 3. The contract stipulates that the black women and men "to remain as heretofore, and work as heretofore." Why do you think this phrase appears in the first line of the contract? What does it tell us about Oliver's expectations? How do those expectations compare to the ideas put forward by Charles Soule (Document 4)? 4. Who signs this contract? What does that suggest about whose ideas are imbedded in it? 5. Why would Cummins, Lidia, Moses, and all the rest decide to stay (and we know that they do)? What sort of advantages do you see accruing to them when they agree to stay on Oliver's plantation? What might be some of the costs in leaving? How do your answers help us understand at least these black women and men's ideas about and expectations for freedom? 6. It is all too tempting to view all forms of inequality and oppression as the same. It is a tendency that often leads scholars of the post-emancipation period to see slavery lurking behind every corner, especially when they consider contracts like the one drawn up by A. T. Oliver. Yet is this a valid conclusion? Do you see in this contract an effort by Oliver to reinstate slavery on its antebellum terms? Why or why not? 7. Can you see any commonalities between the terms of this contract and the labor regulations spelled out by South Carolina lawmakers in the 1865 "Black Codes"? (See Unit 3, Document 8.) Return to Exhibit: Unit One What was plantation life like in the South?Life on Southern Plantations represented a stark contrast of the rich and the poor. Slaves were forced to work as field hands in a grueling labor system, supervised by an overseer and the strict rules of the plantation owners. However, only a small percentage of Southerners were actually wealthy plantation owners.
What was the goal of wealthy planters in the South?Wealthy plantation owners like Lloyd came close to forming an American ruling class in the years before the Civil War. They helped shape foreign and domestic policy with one goal in view: to expand the power and reach of the cotton kingdom of the South.
What did the planters do?The Atlantic slave trade permitted planters access to inexpensive African slave labor for the planting and harvesting of crops such as tobacco, cotton, indigo, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, hemp, rubber trees, and fruits. Planters were considered part of the American gentry.
What is a planter in slavery?A "planter" was generally a farmer who owned many slaves. Planters are often spoken of as belonging to the planter elite or planter aristocracy in the antebellum South.
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