2 Farms and plantations
Few farms in North Carolina were the great plantations we see in movies, and even plantation life was not always so grand as it may seem. Image source. About the photograph
The great majority of free North Carolinians, rich and poor, lived and worked on farms before the Civil War. In this chapter, we’ll examine a variety of primary sources — from letters and diaries to recipes and novels — that show what life and work were like for these people.
- 2.1Crops and livestock
- 2.2Seasons on a farm
- 2.3Diary of a planter
- 2.4Diary of a farm wife
- 2.5The duties of a young woman
- 2.6Southern cooking, 1824
- 2.7Southern honor
- 2.8Court days
- 2.9A bilious fever
- 2.10Bright leaf tobacco
- 2.11Naval stores in antebellum North Carolina
- 2.12Managing a plantation: Expenses
- 2.13Managing a plantation: Property
- 2.14Setting up a plantation
- 2.15Antebellum homes and plantations
