Plantation life . Life on an American antebellum plantation was framed by social forces such as one's race and social caste; by environmental forces such as the plantation's region, the season of the year, the plantation owner's choice of crop or dominant economic activity; and by the nature of the interaction between the owners, managers, and laborers. Plantation Life. To address these questions, we first view photographs of a Virginia plantation taken in the 1960s. Keep these images in mind while reading the detailed descriptions of plantation life written by two formerly enslaved men. The slave family was the crucible from which slave culture developed. In the early 17th century, when the British colonized what would later become the United States of America, the crown offered large plots of land to settlers Partners settled into family units, rearing offspring in their own homes. However basic these homes might be, they became the focal point for raising new generations, born into slavery, who were taught the dangers and risks of life on a plantation and in the world at large. Explore the contrast between the wealthy tidewater aristocrats and the poor yeoman farmers, indentured servants, and slaves. On the plantation, enslaved people continued their harsh existence, as growing sugar was gruelling work. Green Hill plantation, Virginia. Life on the plantation. Gangs of enslaved people, consisting of men, women, children and Nov 11, 2020 ยท The Origins of the Plantation System. Life on a Southern Plantation, 1854 Return of a Fugitive Slave, 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854 Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls, 1855 Andrew Carnegie Becomes a Capitalist, 1856 Slave Auction, 1859 Good Manners for Young Ladies, 1859 The Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868 The Ku Klux Klan, 1868 Building the Brooklyn Bridge, 1871 Learn how plantation life created a society with clear class divisions, changes for women and family structures, and few cities and schools in the South. In 1860, this plantation was home to 81 enslaved African Americans.