Plantation

Definition

A large agricultural estate producing crops for sale, often by enslaved labour in the Atlantic world. Sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo, coffee and cotton were among the main plantation crops, and a sugar plantation worked like an agricultural factory, with cane grown, cut, crushed and boiled on the same estate. Plantation records list names and values but rarely tell the lives of the enslaved. See also: commodity, provision grounds, and the guide Commodities and the Atlantic Economy.