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Plantations were an important aspect of the history of the American South, particularly the antebellum (pre-American Civil War) South. The mild subtropical climate, plentiful rainfall, and fertile soils of the American south allowed large plantations to flourish, and large numbers of workers, typically slaves, were required for farm operations. ==Planter (plantation owner) == An individual owning a plantation was known as a planter. Historians of the antebellum South have generally defined it in the strictest definition as a person owning property and 20 or more slaves.〔Peter Kolchin, ''American Slavery 1619–1877'', New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, xiii〕 The wealthiest planters, such as the Virginia elite with plantations near the James River, owned more land and slaves than other farmers. Tobacco was the major cash crop in the Upper South, the original Chesapeake Bay Colonies of Virginia and Maryland; and in parts of the Carolinas. The later development of cotton and sugar cultivation in the Deep South in the early 18th century also led to the establishment of large plantations which had hundreds of slaves. The great majority of Southern farmers owned no slaves or owned fewer than five slaves. Slaves were much more expensive than land. In the "Black Belt" counties of Alabama and Mississippi, the terms "planter" and "farmer" were often synonymous.;〔Oakes, Ruling Race, 52.〕 a "planter" was generally a farmer who owned many slaves. While most Southerners were not slave-owners, and while the majority of slaveholders held ten or fewer slaves, planters were those who held a significant number of slaves, mostly as agricultural labor. Planters are often spoken of as belonging to the planter elite or planter aristocracy in the antebellum South. The historians Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman define large planters as owning over 50 slaves, and medium planters as owning between 16 and 50 slaves. Historian David Williams, in ''A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom'' suggests that the minimum requirement for planter status was twenty slaves, especially since a southern planter could exempt Confederate duty for one white male per twenty slaves owned.〔David Williams, "A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom," New York: The New Press, 2005.〕 In his study of Black Belt counties in Alabama, Jonathan Weiner defines planters by ownership of real property, rather than of slaves. A planter, for Weiner, owned at least 10,000 dollars' worth of real estate in 1850 and 32,000 dollars' worth in 1860, equivalent to about the top 8 percent of landowners. In his study of southwest Georgia, Lee Formwalt defines planters in size of land holdings rather than slaves. Formwalt's planters are in the top 4.5 percent of landowners, translating into real estate worth six thousand dollars or more in 1850, 24,000 dollars or more in 1860, and eleven-thousand dollars or more in 1870. In his study of Harrison County, Texas, Randolph B. Campbell classifies large planters as owners of 20 slaves, and small planters as owners of between ten and 19 slaves. In Chicot and Phillips Counties, Arkansas, Carl H. Moneyhon defines large planters as owners of twenty or more slaves, and six hundred or more acres. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Plantations in the American South」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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