In modern use, the term usually refers only to large-scale estates. Before about 1860, it was the usual term for a farm of any size in the southern parts ofBritish North America, with, asNoah Webster noted, "farm" becoming the usual term from aboutMaryland northward. Theenslavement of people was the norm in Maryland and states southward. The plantations there were forced-labor farms. The term "plantation" was used in most British colonies but very rarely in the United Kingdom itself in this sense. There it was used mainly fortree plantations, areas artificially planted with trees, whether purely for commercialforestry, or partly for ornamental effect in gardens and parks, when it might also cover plantings of garden shrubs.[1]
Among the earliest examples of plantations were thelatifundia of theRoman Empire, which produced large quantities of grain, wine, and olive oil for export. Plantation agriculture proliferated with the increase in international trade and the development of aworldwide economy that followed the expansion ofEuropean colonialism.
Tree plantations, in the United States often calledtree farms, are established for the commercial production of timber or tree products such aspalm oil,coffee, orrubber.
Teak and bamboo plantations in India have given good results and an alternative crop solution to farmers of central India, where conventional farming was widespread. But due to the rising input costs of agriculture, many farmers have done teak and bamboo plantations, which require very little water (only during the first two years). Teak and bamboo have legal protection from theft. Bamboo, once planted, gives output for 50 years till flowering occurs. Teak requires 20 years to grow to full maturity and fetch returns.
These may be established for watershed or soil protection. They are established for erosion control, landslide stabilization, and windbreaks. Such plantations are established to foster native species and promote forest regeneration on degraded lands as a tool ofenvironmental restoration.
Sugar plantations were highly valued in the Caribbean by the British and French colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the use of sugar in Europe rose during this period. Sugarcane is still an important crop in Cuba. Sugar plantations also arose in countries such as Barbados and Cuba because of the natural endowments that they had. These natural endowments included soil conducive to growing sugar and a high marginal product of labor realized through the increasing number of enslaved people.
Probably the most critical factor a plantation has on the local environment is the site where the plantation is established. In Brazil, coffee plantations would use slash-and-burn agriculture, tearing down rainforests and planting coffee trees that depleted the nutrients in soil.[3] Once the soil had been sapped, growers would move on to another place. If a natural forest is cleared for a planted forest, then a reduction inbiodiversity andloss of habitat will likely result. In some cases, their establishment may involve drainingwetlands to replace mixedhardwoods that formerly predominated with pine species.If a plantation is established on abandoned agricultural land or highly degraded land, it can increase both habitat and biodiversity. A planted forest can be profitably established on lands that will not support agriculture or suffer from a lack of natural regeneration.
The tree species used in a plantation are also an important factor. Where non-native varieties or species are grown, few native faunas are adapted to exploit these, and furtherbiodiversity loss occurs. However, even non-native tree species may serve ascorridors for wildlife and act as a buffer for native forests, reducingedge effect. In Europe, tree plantations have the potential to enhance local land-use diversity, especially when they are located in agricultural or otherwise homogeneous landscapes. However, their capacity to increase diversity depends heavily on spatial context: plantations inserted into predominantly agricultural areas contribute more to diversity than those surrounded by forest.[4]
Once a plantation is established, managing it becomes an important environmental factor. The most critical aspect of management is the rotation period. Plantations harvested on more extended rotation periods (30 years or more) can provide similar benefits to a naturally regenerated forest managed for wood production on a similar rotation. This is especially true if native species are used. In the case of exotic species, the habitat can be improved significantly if the impact is mitigated by measures such as leaving blocks of native species in the plantation or retaining corridors of natural forest. In Brazil, similar measures are required by government regulation.
1913 photo: African-Americans picking cotton on a plantation in theSouth
Plantation owners extensively used enslaved Africans to work on early plantations (such as tobacco, rice, cotton, hemp, and sugar plantations) in the American colonies and the United States, throughout the Caribbean, the Americas, and in European-occupied areas of Africa.
In modern times, the low wages typically paid to plantation workers are the basis of plantation profitability in some areas.
In more recent times, overt slavery has been replaced bypara-slavery orslavery-in-kind, including thesharecropping system, and even that has been severely reduced. At its most extreme, workers are in "debt bondage": they must work to pay off a debt at such punitive interest rates that it may never be paid off. Others work unreasonably long hours and are paid subsistence wages that (in practice) may only be spent in thecompany store.
In Brazil, a sugarcane plantation was termed anengenho ("engine"), and the 17th-century English usage for organized colonial production was "factory." Such colonial social and economic structures are discussed atPlantation economy.
Sugar workers on plantations inCuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean lived incompany towns known asbateyes.
Stratford Hall is a classic example of Southern plantation architecture, built on an H-plan and completed in 1738 nearLerty, Virginia.The Seward Plantation is a historic Southern plantation-turned-ranch inIndependence, Texas.
Plantation complexes were common on agricultural plantations in theSouthern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to thepens forlivestock. Until the abolition ofslavery, such plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on theforced labor of enslaved people.
Today, as was also true in the past, there is a wide range of opinion as to what differentiated a plantation from afarm. Typically, the focus of a farm wassubsistence agriculture. In contrast, the primary focus of a plantation was the production ofcash crops, with enoughstaple food crops produced to feed the population of the estate and the livestock.[6] 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.[7] Other scholars have attempted to define it by the number of enslaved persons.[8]
WhenNewfoundland was colonized byEngland in 1610, the original colonists were called "planters", and their fishing rooms were known as "fishing plantations". These terms were used well into the 20th century.
Sea-Forest Plantation was a 17th-century fishing plantation established at Cuper's Cove (present-dayCupids) under aroyal charter issued byKing James I.
Mockbeggar Plantation is an 18th-century fishing plantation atBonavista.
Pool Plantation a 17th-century fishing plantation maintained bySir David Kirke and his heirs atFerryland. The plantation was destroyed byFrench invaders in 1696.
Other fishing plantations:
Bristol's Hope Plantation, a 17th-century fishing plantation established at Harbour Grace, created by the Bristol Society of Merchant-Adventurers.
Benger Plantation, an 18th-century fishing plantation maintained by James Benger and his heirs at Ferryland. It was built on the site of a Georgia plantation.
Piggeon's Plantation, an 18th-century fishing plantation maintained by Ellias Piggeon at Ferryland.
^Guelzo, Allen C. (2012).Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 33–36.ISBN978-0-19-984328-2.
^Robert J. Vejnar II (November 6, 2008)."Plantation Agriculture".The Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. RetrievedApril 15, 2011.
^Vlach, John Michael (1993).Back of the Big House, The Architecture of Plantation Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 8.ISBN978-0-8078-4412-0.
Bibliography
Aldhous, J. R. & Low, A. J. (1974). The potential of Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Grand Fir, and Noble Fir in Britain.Forestry Commission Bulletin 49.
Everard, J. E. & Fourt, D. F. (1974). Monterey Pine and Bishop Pine as plantation trees in southern Britain.Quarterly Journal of Forestry 68: 111–25.
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