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In the Southern
Colonies, there were many large farms called plantations. Farmers
who owned plantations were called planters. Crops grown on plantations
included rice and tobacco.
As planters
became wealthy, they became dissatisfied with their old houses.
They started building two-story houses. Some of them were even
made of brick. Rough, hand-made furniture was replaced with
nicely made tables and chairs, some of them ordered from England.
Wooden plates, bowls, and spoons were replaced by ones made
of pewter, a silvery metal made from tin and lead. Silver was
expensive in those days, and a family might have bought silverware
piece by piece.
After a
new house was built, the old house might be used as a kitchen.
Servants carried food in covered dishes to the dining room in
the new house.
Southern
colonists could not expect help from their neighbors, because
they were spread far apart. They had to be able to produce almost
everything they needed on their plantations. Of the few things
they could not produce themselves, most came directly from England
to their plantations. Plantations often had their own ships
and piers on the river.
Rich planters
might have owned hundreds of slaves. All these slaves had to
work hard from early morning to evening and slept in crowded
slave quarters. Unskilled slaves worked in the fields. Trusted
slaves worked in the house. Trained slaves worked as carpenters,
weavers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, furniture makers, and cooks.
In those days, plantations were like small towns.
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