Thompson - Plantation As A Social System

The Plantation as a Social System
Author(s): Edgar T. Thompson

Source: Revista Geogrfica, T. 25, No. 51 (2.o SEMESTRE 1959), pp. 41-56
Published by: Pan American Institute of Geography and History
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The Plantation
as a SocialSystem
By
Prof. Edgar T. Thompson
Duke University,
DurhamCarolinaof North.
isolateat varioustimesand
The plantationhas existedas an institutional
has
served
to
entire
social
orders. In the United
it
also
systematize
places;
States,"the South",forinstance,actuallyis or has been the name for a system
the south-eastern
and southcentralparts
of societywhichcame to characterize
was organizedin some degreearound
of the nationand which everywhere
Much has been writtenabout this societyand about
the plantationinstitution.
otherparticularsystems,
but I have foundverylittlein the literature
dealing
withtheconception"plantationsystem"itself. This is rathersurprisexplicitly
ing since the expressionis a fairlyold and widespreadone in both popular
and academiccircles.In whatfollowsI shall tryto give somemeaningto the
conception"plantationsystem"mainlyby generalizingfrom the facts of
Southernhistory.But first,since the conceptionof a social systemis derived
by analogyfromthe conceptionof systemin the physicaluniverse,let us take
a look at the natureof systems
generally.
A system
is a setof relationsforming
a whole,thatis forming
an aggregate
is thoughtto be truewhichis not trueof the member
aboutwhichsomething
partsor objects. It seems that consciousnessof the existenceof a unity
or whole does not automatically
of the constituent
carrywith it consciousness
relations
and partsof a whole. It is whenwe have movedthisone stepforward
in theconsciousanalysisof the whole,thatis, when we becomeaware of the
relationsand partsof the whole, that we begin to thinkcf the whole as
a system.Now perhapsthe dispositionto analyzea whole into
constituting
a systemof relation-ships
and partscomesmore readilywhen the whole has
greatersize or span thanhave otherwholes. The realizationof a solar system
comesmuch earlierthan the realizationof a molecularsystem.The greater
the span the quickerperhapsthe awarenessof the existenceof partsand their
relationto otherparts. Incidentally,
the conceptof span mightbe a very
usefulone in the studyof plantationsystemssincethe plantationareas of the
worldvaryso greatlyin size, l
1. I have elsewheresuggestedthat "in point of territory
coveredthe plantation
the largestthe worldhas even known. In addition
societyor the Southis undoubtedly
to manyotherfactorswhichhave shapedthe historyof this society,the factorof sheer
size (span) alone has beena highlyiimportant
one. The plantation
societyof the South
has been big enoughto have weightand mass and stabilityand to permitthe developmentof plantaion'system'whose parts cooperatedto maintaina certaintype of
in the South, like
agricultural
economyand social organization.All otherinstitutions
the familythe churchand the school,becamepartsof this systemand supportedit.
Millionsof people grewup withinthe systemand acceptedit because theyknew no
otherand rarelyif evercame into contactwithideas inconsistent
withit. "The Climatic
Theoryof the Plantaion",Agricultural
History,XV (January,1941), 49.
42
Revista
Geogrfica
As span increasesattention
tendsto shiftfromwhole to parts. As span
continuesto increaseattentiontendsto move frompartsto relationsbetween
the
parts until finally,perhaps,the relationsmay appear to be constituting
2
kind
are.
When
we
into
whaterver
of
have
como
to
center
partsthey
parts
of entities,and it does
way or anotherthe propositionthatrelationsare constitutive
appearthat recentadvancesin physicalsciencehave been based upon this principle,
attention
upon the networkof relationsratherthanprimarily
upon the things
relatedwe are attending
to a systemof one kind or another.
The effectof attention
upon a systemis to abstracta complexof relative
positions,or juncturesin the networkof relations,fromthe contestsof such
objets as occur at these junctures.A system,perhaps,is somethingmore
thana complex,someething
morethana seriesof interlaced
parts. In a system
of the complexeffecta juncture,
thereis a pointat whichall the relationship
at thispositiongovernsand namesand givescharacter
and theobjectconstituted
to the whole. The object in such a positionis thoughtof as being at the
the object
centerof a systemwhichis radial in form. It is not necessarily
per se thatdominatesbut the objectin sucha position,and whatdistinguishes
one systemfromanotheris the natureof the objectin the dominating
psition.
the relationsunder which otherobjects
This object dominatesby controlling
in the systemcan exist.
of the centerof a systempresents
I suppose,the identification
Ordinarily,
but theredoes seemto be a problemin definingthe outer
no greatdifficulty,
and mathematics
limitsof a system.Astronomy
ask, "Is the universefinite?"
and studentsof regionalism,or social systemslaid down upon territories,
disagreeon the questionof regionalboundariessince a regionfades off into
areas where it encountersinfluencesexertedby other regional systems.In
lead to the question
connectionwithour presentinterestsuch considerations
in the case of anyparticular
plantationsystem,"How far out does it extend?"
Plantations
have neverphysically
occupiedthe entireextentof the area known
as the South but presumably
the plantationsystemhas.
in thatmostfamiliarof all systems,
All thesepropositions
are illustrated
illustratedin the universeof
the solar system.They are less satisfactorily
societyyetwe can and do speakof social systems.We speakof a community
of institutions.
as a social systempresentingthe aspect of a constellation
Of course,the basic institutions
of modernsociety- the family,the school,
in the West. But it makes
the chuhch- are presentin all local communities
is centralin the community
whichof the institutions
a greatdeal of difference
system.In old New England thereis no doubt about the pivotal position
Church.3 In the Middle West, on the other hand,
of the Congregational
even in advance
whereeducationwas providedfor by the FederalGovernment
it was the school which tended to arrangeitself and other
of settlement,
into a community
institutions
system.4 In the westernMountainStatesit was
2 . Throughout
Scienceand the Modern World A.N. Whitehead'repeatsin one
The Expansionof New England,New York: Houghton
3. Lois KimballMatthews,
Miff
lin Company,1909.
in Illinois", in JohnsHopkins University
4. AlbertShaw, "Local Government
Studiesin Historyand PoliticalScience,I, No. 3, p. 10.
InstitutoPan-Americano
de Geografiae Historia
43
often the railwaystationthat nucleatedthe growingcommunity.The same

role was playedin the post-CivilWar Southby the generalstoreat the crossroads which, because of the impersonaland interracialcharacterof trade,
was the only institution
that whitesand Negroes alike could patronize.5
at the presenttime,the schoolappearsto be
Over the UnitedStatesgenerally,
over both the churchand the familyin local commuachievingan ascendency
of business.The "city
nity,but it has to yieldcentralplace to the institutions
of the largestbusinesses.How
center"is invariably
the area of concentration
different
were the communities
of the past when theywere centeredby the
palace, the catedralor the templewith the conductof tradeoftenrelegated
to the vicinityof the city'sgates.
Social systems
are notlimitedto the institutional
of a society
arrangements
but perhapstheyare moreoftenthoughtof as if theywere. We popularly
speak of the capitalisticsystem,the railwaysystem,the educationalsystem
as well as of the plantaionsystem.It seems we are more likelyto speak of
suchsystems
in connection
withmodernor civilizedsocietythan in connection
withprimitive
society.Perhapsthisis merelybecausewe know civilizedbetter
and are notpreparedto admitto the category
institution
certainsocialstructures
observedin primitivesociety.Yet civilizedsocietydoes appear to be distinguished fromprimitivesocietyby a sharperdegree of institutional
separateness.6
In any sort of societyinstitutions
are just those social structures
which
cut acrossand bind togetherthe generations
of men. If it is language and
otherformsof communication
that lift men above the level of the animals
it is the institutions
of societythatliterallylift men above themselves,
that
is, above the concernsof the immediatepresent,giving them an interest
in the past and a concernforthe future.The life of a societyis not possible
whithoutthe biologicallife of its individualmembersupon which it rests,
but institutions
add to the life of societya dimensionand a span whichbiological life does not have. It is no wonderthat the concernof a society
to protectits institutions
is a concernto protectits very life. When the
institutions
of a societyare destroyed
the societyceases to exist althoughits
be
transformed
a
into
new
people may
societyand decomea "new people."7
It is not surprising,therefore,that as nodal points in social organization
institutions
should more oftenthan not be the constituent
objects of social
5. Lewis E. Atherton,
The SouthernCountryStore, 1800-1860. Baton Rouge:
LouisianaState University
Press, 1949. ThomasD. Clark,Pills, Petticoatsand Plows,
Indianapolis:Bobbs Merrill and Company,1944.
6. In primitive
whithinare harderto discoverand
society"the lesserinstitutions
are understoodonly in relationto the whole. In our world the many institutional
units standout as objectiveand fiscallyseparateentities.It is the community
which
has to be discovered".EverettC. Hughesin RobertE. Park (ed.), An Outlineof the
Principlesof Sociology,New York: Barnesand Noble, Inc., 1939, p. 311.
7. See EverettC. Hughes,"New Peoples",in A. W. Lind (ed.), Race Relations
in World Prespective,
Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 1955. Ch. 5. Also see
MaryKingley'sremarkson "the murderof institutions"
and missionaries
by imperialists
in West AfricanStudies,London: Macmillanand Company,1901, p. 332.
44
Re v i s t a
G e o gr f i e a
systems.At anyrate,the kindof social systemin whichwe are hereinterested

is the kind in whichunityis achievedaroundan institutional
expressionof
centralaim and purpose.
in just as real a senseas the Catholic
Now the plantationis an institution
Churchis as institution.It too arisesto deal with certainseeminglyeternal
problemsof an orderedsociety.8 It is made up of people but, like the
church,it is an automatismimpersonaland implacablehaving a character
and a set of normswhich react back to controlthe people, includingthe
it. The plantationis a way of "reckoning
who constitute
highestfunctionaries,
together"a bodyof people all of whom,planterand laborersalike, "belong"
to the estateas thoughthe estatewere a thirdsomething
existingapart from
its people. The plantationdemandsthis and the plantationdictatesthat. As
in institutions
generallythe individualmembersacquire fromthe plantation
which becomepart of the very
particularbeliefs and ways of participating
thatfirmelement
fiberof theirlives. Furthertheyacquirefromthe plantation
their
and which
members
of assuredbehaviorwhich all institutions
give
so much towardsocial orderand stability.
contribute
from other institutions
However, the plantationdiffersfundamentally
like the school and the churchin that it cannot exist apart fromcertain
and necessities.Unlike the school or the churchthe
territorial
assumptions
to the city for it requiresnot just naked
plantationcannotbe transplanted
spacewithinwhichto operatebut land upon whichto operate.9 The plantation
breakthe connection
connectspeople and land and it existsin thisconnection;
and the institution
becomesonly a state of mind or a memory.The living
with the visible signs of its presence,
institution
not only coversa territory
signs which reflectits mannerof being and its power of action,but the
The plantationis, in other
itselfis an intrisicpartof the institution.
territory
institution.
words,a settlement
the plantationbelongs in a class with the
As a settlementinstitution
the
farm,the ranch,the manor and other social formsthat institutionalize
relationsbetweenhumangroupsand the land. Perhapsthe simplestsettlement
institution
is the familyfarm. As in the case of the plantationor of any
othersettlement
it is not sufficientto describethe land of the
institution
familyfarmin termsof its physicalpropertiesmerely"As WarrenWilson
once put it, the farmis "a humanunitof land", thatis, it is a piece of land
and made a memberof the
whichthefarmerand his familyhave domesticated
familyas a workingpartner. 10 The land entersthe familyalong with the
servantand the dog to influenceand even to determine
how the childrenare
8.
in D.
Laborin theSouth",
EdgarT. Thompson,"The NaturalHistoryof Agricultural
K.
Jackson,American Studies in Honor of William K. Boyd, Durham: Duke
Press, 1940. pp. 173-174.

University
of resources,
flora,
9 . "... area in the cityis strippedof its usual connotations
area reduced
fauna,and, one is temptedto say,evenclimate.It is area withoutcontent,
of space." Amos H. Hawley,"The Approachof Human Ecologyto
to the abstraction
Urban Areal Research,"The ScientificMonthly,LXXIII (July, 1951), p. 48.
10. See Reymont's
novel,The Peasants,New York: A. A. Knopf,Inc., 1925.
45
to be reared. It entersinto the kinshipsystemand helps definewho are kin

and who are not. ll
Then thereis the ranch.As we have commonlyunderstoodthis institution in the United States,the ranchrepresents
anotherdistinctive
orientation
towardthe land and anotherdistinctive
way of life. On the ranchthe relations
of men towardthe land are mediated,not throughcrops,but throughcattle
and sheep,and cattleand sheep move aroundand have to be followedand
watched.This introduces
the horseand the mountedlaborercalled a cowboy
whose prestigeis considerable
higherthanthat normallyaccordedthose who
do routineworken the land. It introduces
for competitive
also opportunities
heroicaction like trickriding,bull-dogging,and the like. All this defines
a role for the cowboyfar removedfrom that of peasant or farmer.The
cowboyworksen the land but he does not work the land itself,and he is
cf those who do; in the mind of the old-timecewboythere
contemptuous
scarcelyeverenterstresuggestionthathe mighteven temporarily
changecharacterand till the soil. 12
It is probablethatmen rardyif ever live directlyupon nature'sland as
the animalsdo. Men live in cultureand in institutions,
and the institutions
in theirturn,particularly
I am calling settlement
the kind of institutions
definethe land upon which men live and work. Apart from
institutions,
culturaland institutional
the so-calledman-landratiois a veryunreal
contexts,
conception.Now land as it appearsin natureis continuousexceptwhen it
comesto the water'sedge. Settlement
institutions
imposeupon the land some
of
which
be
principle discontinuity
may expressedby fencesand otherman-made
boundaries.They operateto breakup the land into nameableand countable
unitswhichthenmaybe recordedand transmitted
in formalways
as property
as well as in publicundestanding.
Settlement
thussortout. classify
institutions
and give meaningto the colorsand shapes and movements
in the landscape
and find names for them.
Of course,the processwherebythe untamedand unnamedsense data of
the naturallandscapeare broughtunder controldifferfrom one settlement
11. On the familyfarmthe husbandand fatheralso is the head of the farm
and the wife is not only a homemaker
but also has duties in connection
enterprise
withthe runningof the farm.The sons and daughters
also are farmworkers.There
may be a hiredman or girl. These are not merelyroomersand boardersas in city
roominghouses; theyare employeeson the farm. Nevertheless,
theyare merelyaccessories; the principalwork devolvesupon the membersof the family.
12. This attitudeappearsto be trueof ranching
area generally.Of earlyArgentina
Schmiedersays,"Aftera few generations
of life in the Argentine
plains the gaucho
looked with uttercontempton any kind of agricultural
work, althoughit had been
to a minimum,
the soil was restricted
farmsor chacrasbeing few in numberand
to providethe colonial populationwith agricultural
hardlysufficient
products.In the
mindof the colonialArgentine,
the Pampa had no otheruse than to providefodder
for cattle,horses and sheep". "Alterationof the ArgentinePampa in the Colonial
Period", University
of CaliforniaPublicationsin Geography,II (September27,1927),
p. 317.
46
Revista
Geogrfica
in the first
institution
institutions
to another.That is why theyare different
place althhoughtheyare similarenoughto competewith and to oppose one
another.There is conflict,and frequently
overt conflict,betweenthem as
witnessthe feuds in the westernpart of the UnitedStatesbetweencattlemen
witheach other.No small
and "nesters"and cattlemen
and sheepmen,
cattlemen
part of the cause of the Civil War in the United Stateswas the existence
of hostility
betweenplantationand farm,and manyof the farmshostileto the
it is not
were
in the SouthernStates. As one reads the literature
plantation
were
farmersand lumberjacks,
difficult
to concludethatplantersand ranchers,
and are furtherapart,in moreways than one, than are people separatedby
real
race, nationality,
religionor language. Indeed, these latterdifferences,
held bypeople connected
or alleged,seemoftento stemfromclashesof interest
We may be sure that politicianstake
institutions.
with different
settlement
differences
betweenpeople into accounteven when acadethese institutional
miciansdo not forpoliticianshave to live by such insights.Perhapsthe basic
of the land are
differences
betweenthe people who live in the institutions
but negative
them
the
blanket
obscuredby our dispositionto includeall of
13
one
Rural
group,however,only because they
category"rural".
people are
do not live in cities,but therethe unitybetweenthem ends. Rural people
in different
institutionalized
ways on the land are as variedas people in the
citiesare standardized.
all settlement
institutions
Nevertheless,
occupyfixed places on territory
an ingredient
which
regardednot merelyas site but as essentialingredient,
and
stable
of
the
to
the
institution
something
qualities
permanent
appropriates
of earthgenerally.By virtueof thisfacttheyappearto possessspecialadvaninstitutions.
They aid powerfullyin the origination
tages as system-building
of distinctiveculturessince cultureis, to a large extent,
and preservation
a geographicalexpression.And as fixed points on the land as well as in
so necessary
societytheyofferfirmbases for the spatial and social reckoning
thatsocial
of dailylife. It is not strange,therefore,
forthe orderlyregulation
which
center
institutions
settlement
are
so
often
the
designatedby
systems
themand thatwe shouldso oftenspeakof a manorialsystem,a farmsystem,
a ranchingsystemas well as of a plantationsystem.
Since the days of original Europeansettlementthe westwardmoving
for observfrontier
of theNew World has affordedan unrivaledoppportunity
It
their
was
and
institutions
the
careers
of
these
duringthe
systems.
ing
for
survival
between
occurred
that
the
bitterest
settlement
of
competition
period
launchedupon both continentsand upon
the manyschemesand movements
lived t become
the islandsog the West Indies. Many of thesemovements
but most did not, and the historyof the failuresis perhapsas
institutions
thatfailed
. One of the movements
of the successes
instructive
as is thehistory
13. W. H. Auden may have had this point in mind when he spoke of "the
anonymous country-side"and "the synonymouscities". Introduction to Hen.y James,
The American Scene, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946. p. xxiii.
47
was the effortto transplant

the manor.14 In view of the fact that many
travellersand historiansof the South have claimed directdescentof the
palntationfrom the manor15 it may be worthour while to considerthis
Old World institution
as it comparesand contrasts
withplantation.
Te manor underany one of its variousnames and in any one of its
various formsis a relativelylarge landed estatearising in a world which
is discontinuous
economically,
politicallyand culturally.It appears to arise
in thiskind of a world with the decayof the existingtypeof farmorganization. Sincetheguidingprincipleof the manoris the productionof a diverfor local consumption
sified agriculture
only it can exist only where all or
most of the essentialrequirements
of life can be obtainedon the spot. A
in theirpoliticalaspectsis security
institutions
primaryfunctionof settlement
of theorganization
lor the integrity
. The manorseeksto insureits continuity
and entailand to maintainits security
througheconomic
throughprimogeniture
and a high degreeof self-sufficiency
is not only a fact but
self-sufficiency,
becomesa tradition
and an ideal as well, an ideal whichlateris absorbedin the
largerstate of which the manor becomesa part.
the ideal of self-sufficiency
the manor is bound to be
Notwithstanding
of
trade which trace their
threads
There
economically
incomplete.
incipient
wayoutwardand in timethesethreadsbecomegreaterand stronger.As town
life arisesthere is offereda marketand a contrasting
way of life against
whichthemanorcannotcompete.Historically
its declinecame firstin England
a country
and whose
especiallyfavoredby accessto cheap watertransportation
thatmanorial
foreigntradesteadilyexpandedin consequence.It is significant
formstend to persistlongestin areas furthest
removedfromocean transpor16 With peace and tradethe
of the greatcontinentes.
tation,in the heartlands
manorbreaksdown into a systemof peasantproprietorships
or is transformed
into anotherformof estateeconomy.For the marketrelationshipholds in
it a different
principleof organization.
The plantationis based upon this principleand the essentialdifference
betweenit and the manorhas its originin this fact. The difference
would
seem to be enoughto defeatany effortto identify
the Americanplantation
withthe Europeanmanorof the past. In manyrespectsthe plantationis preciof coastselywhat the manoris not. It clings to the cheapertransportation
lands, islands and archipelagoesand is not to be found in the landlocked
partsof the earth. It is organizedaround the productionof a staple crop
in which it specializesand economicsufficiency
is a fact only to the extent
14. There were conscious effortsto introduce the manorial form into Virginia,
Carolina, and in the territory:hich later became Maine. Perhaps the most important
of these effortswas made by Lord Calvert in the colony of Maryland. Wilhelm, "Local
Institutionsof Maryland," Johns Hopkins UniversityStudies.
15. These include John Fiske, William Ellis, Alfred Lyell, A. de P. van Buren,
and the contemporaryhistorian Charles Embury Hedrick. See Hedrick's Social and
Economic Aspects of Slavery in the Transmontane Prior to 1830, Nashville: George
Peabody College for Teachers, 1927, p. 42.
16.
Wallace,
A History of Russia
Africa, 83-84, 202-203, and passim.
......
C.
W.
de Kewiet, A History of South
48
Revista
Geogrfica
suppliescannotbe importedfromelsewhere.And of coursethereis a great

deal of differencebetweengoverningan estate mainly to preserveorder
and to collectrentand taxeson the one hand and, on the other,to manage
labor and devise strategyto increaseand improvecrop production.On the
manorthereis an organizationof classeswhich,on the plantation,becomes
an organizationof races. Nevertheless
both lord and planterexercisejudicial
functions
and bothtendeventually
to becomeofficialsof the state. In neither
institution
is the feudal attitudelikely to be thereto begin with,since it
developswith the comingof a moralorder of which it is perhpasthe prinbut in both institutions
the attitudedevelopsgreatstrength.
cipal ingredient,
So faras Old Europewas concerned
the manorialsystemand the feudalsystem
cameto be aspectsof the same thing,and in themodernwolrdno otherinstitutionhas reproducedthe feudal attitudeso completely
as has the pantation.
The manorarisesin situ,in a world wherethe purposesand the means
thatcan easily
of life are close together.It is not the kind of an institution
a
conditions
were
be transplanted
to
situation
where
so
unfavorable
especially
forsurvivalas thosepresented
by coastalNorthAmerica. Lord Calvertmight
fora whilemaintainan estateresembling
themanorin Marylandbut a supportcould not be generatedthere. The release offered
ing systemof institutions
madethewholemanorialapparatus
bytheemptylandsof theAmericanfrontier
and copy holdersentirelyunreaof quitrents,
tenancies,rentrolls,freeholders
listic and finallyimpossible.
which
The plantationby contrastis a part of an economiccontinuity
For the past threehundredyears
has been describedas the worldcommunity.
this community
has been drawingdiverseand widespreadgeographicalareas
whole which has resultedin the disruption
into a wideninginterdependent
like that of the manorand in the impositionof
of indigenecusinstitutions
and economiccooperation.The plantation
anotherorderbasedupon competition
in the transition
to this new economic
has been one of the primeinstruments
and ecologicalworldorder. It of coursecan ariseonlywheresoil and climatic
conditions
permitits stapleto grow,but it does not followthatthe distribution
are detachableelements
of the staplealso describesthe distribution
technology
institution
of the institution
and may in factbe attachedto othersettlement
like the farmand the agricultural
mission.
One of the most important
questionsto be asked about an institution
or conditionscan it
or any other social formis: underwhat cirmunstances
surviveand grow?Indeed,thisis the fundamental
questionof humanecology.
and survivalof the
in
the
consideration
the
most
origination
important
Perhaps
ratherthan its
plantationis its positionor niche in the world community
as a network
described
be
world
location.
The
may
community
geographical
of positions,that is, as a complex of functionalrelationshipsbetween
that occupythesepositions. As comthe individuals,groupsand institutions
tendsto take the form
the
and transportation
munication
community
develop
of a spider'sweb organizedarounda centralpositionoccupiedby the instiand communication
tutionsof the market.The timeand costof transportation
betweenthe marketand its outlying
are reallymeasuresof the relationship
producingand consumingareas. The varioustypesof agricultureand other
49
formsof utilizingland competewith each other,within naturallimitations

of soil and climate,for the most economicrealtionshipwith the market.
with
thatthe varioustypesof agriculture
It is out of thiscompetition
together
themselves
which
their producinginstitutions
located.
get
Any advantage
at one place than at anotheris a
permitscheaperproductionand marketing
factorenteringinto the determination
of location17 but it is probablethat
the chieffactoris the cost of transportation
to the market.18
The competition
of agliculturalstaplesfor suitableland, for labor, and
for accessibility
to the marketrelegatesthe plantationinstitutions
producing
themto positionsalong the frontier
'"Frontier"is
of the world community.
a termusedhareto decribeand classify
thoseareasthatarein processof assuming
The conceptis not finallya
in
world
the
community.
positions
peripheral
geographicalone but an ecologicalone describinga degreeof relationship
with the metropolitanmarket,a relationshipdeterminedby the cost and
means of transport.Frontierareas are those areas toward which move
and whose productsare beginningto be swept into
capitaland management
the marketsof the world. They are therefore
areas in processof becoming
"lands thatmatter"and in someof them,in thoseof suitablesoil and climate,
the plantationplays a leading part in makingthem importantto the rest
of community.
At the timeof the Europeansettlement
of the New World the dominant
and
consuming,manufacturing
marketingareas of the world community
consistedof WesternEurope and especiallyEngland. At favorableplaces
circlearoundthis centralarea, a circle
along a frontier
describinga concentric
measuredin termsof costdistance,
theredevelopedbeltsof plantations
producing
variousstaples. Along an easternsegmentof this circleappearedlarge plantation-likeestatesbeyondthe Elbe River in Germany.19 To the west and
17. When a productis sold upon a marketit is oftenimpossibleto separate
and reciprocalprocesses
productionand marketingcosts for they are interpedendent
whichinvariably
reactupon each other. Besidesthe cost of transportation
otherfactors
in the cost of marketing
as well as of production
enterinto the determination
of cost
distanceand spatialrelations.Locationis affectedby all thesefactors.The marketing
systemis the firstto respondand readjustto changesin the positionof an area, and
an indexto futurepoliticaland social changesin the instimarketing
changesconstitute
tutionand its system.Thus the plantationcannot,unlike the manor,depend upon
entail an economicself-sufficiency
to maintainits
principlessuch as primogeniture,
and security.In its case institutional
of the
integrity
security
dependsupon the security
marketrelation.
18. This has been theoretically
demonstrated
withrespectto manufacturing
industry
by AlfredWeber, Theoryof Location of Industries,Chicago: University
of Chicago
1929.
Press,
19. Riistowsuggeststhat the plantationsof the New World actuallyformed
the modelfor theseestatesbut I thinkit morelikelytheydevelopedindependently
in
and circumstances
similarto thosefromwhichthe New World
responseto movements
plantations
sprang.He says,"This formsof agricultural
large scale operationworking
to supplythe marketwithunfreelabor thentakesover besidesthe tropicalcoloniesall
non-Islamic
of the
Europeeast of the Elbe and leads hereto a progressive
degeneration
legal positionof the peasantswho were originallyfree." AlexanderRiistow,Ortebesder Gegenwart,
Erlenbach-Zurich:
timmung
EugenRentsch,1950. Pp. 62,171-172.
50
Revista
Geogrfica
southwestalong a segmentaccessibleto the cheap transportation

offered
by the AtlanticOcean, the Caribbean,and the Gulf of Mexico theredeveloped
beltsof plantationswhichin turndevelopedthe classicplantationsystemsof
sectionof the UnitedStatesbecamepart
history.Later,whenthe northeastern
of the westernEuropeanarea of dominance,the plantationfrontierwas
extendedinto east centraland west centralAfrica,southernand southeast
Asia, and along the islandsof the Pacificto Hawaii to becomewhat Delaisi
called "the golden belt of plantations".20
fromthe point of view I am
The mostimportant
studyof agriculture
of
H.
von Thiinen.21 Von Thiinen
classic
work
is
the
here
J.
employing
shows, in termsof cost distance,that the productionof the various types
circlesaroundthe
take the formof concentric
of agriculture
and horticulture
marketcenter. Since von Thiinen'sday the developmentof cheaper means
extendedthe
has enormously
of transportation,
especiallyocean transportation,
the
the
but
to
of
market,
theoretically
tributary
geographicalrange territory
have remainedmuch the
relativepostionsof the varioustypesof agriculture
and even drasticshiftsin location.22 While
same whileundergoing
important
areas
theseagricultural
economieswereshiftingtheirlocationsthe geographical
involvedwere shiftingtheirpositionsin the world community.
distribution
of thevarioustypesof agriculture
is causally
Now the shifting
the
cultivate
to
of
the
relatedto the shiftingdistribution
populaionsrequired
world
of populationaround the
crops. In the courseof this redistribution
some areas are settledmoreclosely,othersare thinnedout. 23 In the course
of such changesthe plantationin some areas mayorganizewhithlabor drawn
fromnativesourcesbut is morelikelyto be settledwitha new laboringpopu20. F. Delaisi, Les Deux Europei: Europe Industrielle et Europe Agricole, Paris,
1929, Ch. X.
21. Der isolierte Staat in Beziehung au] Landwirtschaftund Nationalekcnomte,
Jena, 1921. 2nd ed.
22. The historyof Ceylon is especially interestingin this connection, lhe island
was firstknown to Europeans as a source of valuable spices. Then coffee became its
most importantexport crop only to be given up because of competition from Brazil
and the ravages of a coffee blight. Then came tea. Rubber succeeded tea as the
island's most importantstaple until the competitionof Malaya and other areas together
with prolonged over-productionof the staple brought tea back into the ascendency. S.
McCune, "Sequence of Plantation Agriculturein Ceylon", Economic Geography, XXXV
(July, 1949), 225-235. Present indications are that the plantation economy of Ceylon
is in for furtherimportantchanges.
23. Historically the thinning out of the rural population of England incident
to the enclosure movementin that country,and the "plantation" of America, were just
two aspects of one set of demographicchanges in an evolving world community. The
word plantation is used here in its original English sense of population migrationand
settlement.See Lord Bacon's essay "On Plantations".
de Geogtwfiae Historia
51
24 Ethnicsuccession
lation or with a successionof new laboringpopulations.
in agriculture
generallyappears to be coupled with the fact thatnew crops
in an area are morelikelyto be successfully
cultivatedby new workerscapable
of developinga new and different
set of workhabits.
of areas capable of producingcolonialwaren
At anyrate,the exploitation
a
settled
laboringpopulation.Plantations
maybe, as in Java,enclaved
requires
in a nativesocietyfromwhichit drawsits labor. In such a situationtheplantationdoes not centera plantationsystem,or not a veryelaborateone, even
evendrastic,changesin thelife of thenative
thoughit mayintroduce
important,
25
in number
the
it.
It
is
where
nativepeople are not sufficient
about
society
or cannotbe inducedor coercedto supplythe necessarylabor that laborers
are importedas slaves or under contract.It is such an industrialarmyof
occupationthat gives its characterto the plantationand to the plantation
system.It is whenthe nativesof the area are eliminatedor pushedaside and
when
assortedfamilyless
laboringpopulationsfromdistantplacesare introduced,
tribalchietsand village headmenand hut taxes cannotbe utlized to secure
and controllabor, that the plantationhas to elaboratesome entirelynew
the elaboration
principleof social orderabout itself. Under the circumstances
of a systemof cooperating
becomesessentialto the survivalof the
institutions
plantationitself. The plantationsystemis a plantationsurvivalsystem.In
those areas of the New World where the nativeIndians were shoved aside
and Negroes by the millionswere importedto work,to breed,but neverto
of all time.
elaboratedthe classicplantationsystems
governthe institution
The plantationsof the South,and perhapsthose of the New World
generally,cannot be accountedfor as mixturesof elementsbroughtto the
or alreadythere. The land of the Indians,the labor of firstwhite
frontier
indentured
servantsfromEnglandand thenNegro slavesfromAfrica,and the
all interacted
to procapitaland purposesof the West Europeanentrepreneur
duce a different
not to be foundbeforethattimein England,Africa
something
or America.26 The resultwas an institution
as naturally
and as indigeneously
Americanas was the squatterfarmthatlater appearedin the Middle West.
For an explanationof how it became so naturallyand perhapsinevitablya
no singlefactorin the situationappearsso
productof the Americanfrontier
as thatof the planterand his activities. Let me tryto restatesome
important
24. Edgar T. Thompson,"PopulationExpansion and the PlantationSystem"
AmericanJournalof Sociology,LXI (November,1935), 314-326. Succesivewaves of
were broughtto Hawaii for work on the plantationsthere: Gilbert
immigrations
Islanders(1859-1885), Chinese (1876-1885, 1890-1897), Portuguese(1901), Koreans
(1904-1905), Spaniards(1906-1913), Russians(1909-1914), Japanese(
), and
Filipinos(1907-1931), and othernationals. See AndrewW. Lind, An Island Comof ChicagoPress, 1938.
munity,Chicago: University
25. J. H. Boeke speaksof the "dual economies"in such areas in the Middle
East. See The Evolutionof the Netherlands
East Indian Economy,New York: Institute
of PacificRelations.
26. For an elaboration
of thispointof view in the genesisof colonialinstitutions
see B. Malinowski,
Methodsof Studyof CultureContactin Africa,Memorandum
XV,
International
of AfricanLanguagesand Cultures,1938. Also see Max GluckInstitute,
man's criticismin his Malinowski'
s SociologicalTeories.
52
Revista
Geografica
of the points I have already made but this time from the point of view
of the type of entrepreneurfrom whose trial and error effortsthe Southern
plantation at least seems to have arisen.
The social ancestor of the planter is certainlynot the lord passively
content to receive rents from tenantsor the knightlywarrior politician of the
European manorial system. His spirit and outlook is more likely traced from
the merchants and factors in the trading factories established by economic
interestsin Western European states along the Baltic, the Levant, and the coats
of India. In a highly elaborated form the spheres of influence and zones of
political dominance which these states later divided up among themselveswere
simply extensionsof the trading factoriesof their nationals. There were social
and political systemsintendedto make the trade of the factoriessecure. Now
the institutionof the trading factorywas set up in the New World after its
- but unlike the manor
discovery- at Jamestownin Virginia for instance
it did not completelyfail but survived in modified form. In those areas where
the European party to the trade relationship made demands which the agricultural productiveorganization of the natives was unable to meet it became
necessaryfor the Europeans to organize production as well as trade. In such
areas a new type merchantfactor along with the planter were differentiated
out of the trading factorytradition.
It was perhaps out of this tradingfactorytraditionthat the planterinherited
his incentiveto material profit and gain. He had little concern to maintain
the rural way of life of either Old World peasant or squire. He had little
inte-est in the folk or traditional agriculture of the past. Instead he was
interestedin new crops, crops that promised immediate cash profit, and it is
significant that most if not all the export crops of plantation agriculture,
what are called plantation crops, lie outside the Old World experience of the
European settler. There is some evidence to suggest that the early distinction
between planter and farmer in the South was bound up with this fact, that
is, the planter experimentedwith new crops whereas the farmer pursued a
traditionalagriculture. Probably the planter usually operated on a larger scale
than the farmerbut scale of operation did not define the essential difference
between them. 27
It has been suggested that the agriculturalenterprisesof the South have
been in the hands of men who did not like to farm. The planter, like his
forerunnerthe merchantfactor, wanted to make money. In the situation in
27. Krapp says, "Some uncertaintyattaches... to the names for the most common
of the occupations of Colonial America, that of tilling the land. The term yeoman
is frequentlyfound in town records down into the eighteenth century. Yet besides
in a way which
it will be found the termsplanter and farmer,the three differentiated
perhaps was vitally important in the social communitiesin which the term passed
currentbut which now escapes us." The English Language in America, p. 206. Isaac
Weld stated that in early Virginia "those who raise tabacco and Indian corn are
called planters, and those who cultivate small grain, farmers". Travel Through the
States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada During the
Years of 1795, 1796, and 1797. London, 1807. 4th edition, II, 156. Perhaps this
statementwill throw light upon a distinction"which now escapes us".
Instituto Pan-Americano de Geografia e Historia
53
which he found himself it was necessary to turn producer of an agricultural

staple in order to do so but, again like the merchantfactor,he had no intention
of engaging in the manual labor of field work himself if he could avaid it.
He conveived his role as a director of the labor of others and it was this
self-conceptionalong with his role as a pioneer in the development of new
crops that constitutedhim into a planter ratherthan a farmer. Again let me
emphasize that it was this role of the planter rather than the scale of his
agriculturaloperations which was essential. The planter with slaves might
actually operate on a smaller scale than a farmer without slaves.
These remarks may suggest something of the role of the entrepreneur
turned planter but they do not tell nearly enough about the kind of man
from whose activities on a frontiercame not only an institutionbut also
a whole social system. It was not enough for the entrepreneurto have the
requisite purpose and capital in order to decome a planter in the Colonial
South. As we put it today, he had to "have what it takes" and it took much
. The man who
more than this. What it took was a determinedruthlessness
became a planter was of necessity a man of hard character,a creator rather
than an accepter of social relationships. He could not move into the situation
in the manner of a New England textile manufacturerin piedmont North
Carolina who finds there a set of laws and customs almost ready-made for
his purposes. In Hawaii the men who became planters did not find conditions
entirelyto their liking but they had for long to conform to the customs
of the countryand to the rule of a native monarchy. But even in Hawaii,
and even more in other parts of the world, where the planter did not find
in the local society the basic matrix of law, institutions,and ideologies it
became necessaryto mould the social environmentto suit his purposes. In the
South and in the New World generally the planter was free almost from
the outset to break up native society or to import laborers whom he might
subject to new forms of discipline and into whom he might instil new habits
of labor. In this situation the planter became par excellence the type of
entrepreneurwho must first destroyin order to creat. 28
The destructionof a society and the reductionof its members to a state
of slavery is one point at which the planter can begin to reconstitutehuman
material into a social order consistentwith his purpose. Every New World
plantation society passed through the stage of slavery on its way to systembuilding, and plantations elsewhere employed other forms of unfree labor.
To build the institutionand its systemthe planter undertook first to secure
broken, fragmentedand degraded laborers in order to put them together
again in a new and differentcombination. Merely to command the labor
of the slave was not sufficient;it was much more important to be able to
order the kind of relations that a slave might have with all other men (and
28. This statementis suggested by Paul Tillich's concept of the daimonic in
whom "the destructivepower is essentially connected with the creative power". Interpretationof History, New York, 1916, pp. 77ff. See also Fritz Redlich, "The Business
Leader as a 'Diamonic' Figure", AmericanJournal of Economics and Sociology, XII (January, 1953), 163-178. Also Schumpeterp
54
Revista
Geogrfica
to his utilityand the utilityof his chilrenas more

womem) with reference
or less permanent
cogs in an industrialmachine.
One thingis apparent:the plantationis opposed to the familyas it is
and instifoundin a societyof potentiallaborers.All new social movements
tutionsseemto be mereor less opposedto the existingtypeof familystructure.
the traditionalorder,the order of accustomedwork
The familyrepresents
and values, againstwhichthe plantationand new institutions
generallyare
it would appearto be more
at war. From the pointof view of the institution
or
effectiveto recruitadult familylessmembersby conversion,employment
enslavementthan to use individualsstill immersedin a traditionalorder.
and
Later,however,a new familytype grows up within the institutions
as timegoes on the membersbornwithinget to be morenumerousthanthose
recruitedfrom, without.Eventuallythe institution
gets all its membersby
or enslavement.When the programoriginally
birthratherthan by conversion
initiatedby the planteris establishedin some considerablemeasureby the
to the
has returned
familyin the habitsof its new membersthe institution
moreseventhoughtheyare not exactlythe same moresfromwhichit started,
rules and regulations
and the processis complete.In the moresthe necessary
of the new orderwill more or less enforcethemselves.A moral orderhas
thenbeen establishedon the plantation.
While an appropriate
familytypeis emergingin the plantation'slaboring
populationthe planter'sown immediatefamilyis takingform. As the family
of the master,the familyin which authorityresidesand the familywhich
the institution
itself,it is definedas havingas upper
expressesand represents
classe status.29 It is the conceptionof his role and the roles of members
of his familyas upper class that providesthe point of contactbetweenthe
planterand theplantationand the plantationsystem.The factthatthe planter
does not performthe manual labor whichthe farmerperformsas a matter
of course does not mean tthatthe planter does not posses considerable
the crop. Without
and havesting
knowledgeof the artsof planting,cultivating
such knowledgehe could not survivias a planter. It is, in fact,the original
an presentbasis of his status. I shall tryto suggestwhythis is so.
a warriorbut the planter
the masterof slaves is essentially
Historically
in thetradingfactory
a warrior.Originallyhe was a merchant
is not originally
traditionand as such he did not capturehis own labor. Instead he bought
his slaves in the school of the
it as slaves. He thenundertookto instruct
a
level
of knowledgeand efficiency
them
to
in
order
to
bring
plantation
that
as a going concern.It will be rememberered
to carryon the institution
theplanterbeganhis careerin the Southas a masterof indentured
agricultural
that is, as a teacher.30 Coupled with the fact that he arrived
apprentices,
an old-timer
or "ancient
earlierthatthe indentured
servant,and was therefore
29. "An upper class is institutionalin its very essence, since it is control of
institutionsthat makes it an upper classe, and men can hardly keep this control except
as they put their hearts into it." C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, p. 140.
30. Thompson, "The Natural History of Agricultural History in the South in
D. K. Jackson (ed.), op. cit., pp. 127-133.
Instituto Pan-Americano de Geogwfia e Historia
55
planter",31 this was his original basis of superiority. Although he did not
originally know much more about the cultivation of tobacco and other new
crops than those adult apprentices known as indentured servantshe had, of
course, a much greater interestthan they in accumulating a fund or technical
knowledge. In time this original basis of superioritypassed over into a superior
capacity to direct a total enterprisewhich included affairs of marketing,of
governing, and of keeping the peace generally, affairs normally outside the
view of servant and slave. Thus it appears that originally the superiority
of the planter is not the superiorityof the bully but the superiorityof the
teacher and the administratoreven when he discharges these functionsruthlessly. The planterrealizes himselfnot simply in his physical power over others
but in what he knows that others do not know and in what he is able to do
that others cannot do. It requires the exercise of superior capacities of this
sort operating upon the raw human material at his disposal that enables the
planter to build up attitudesand work habits adequate to give the plantation
institutionalstanding.
It appears from all this the central fact about the plantation is the acquisition and exercise of authorityon the part of the planter in the interestof
agriculturalproduction. The plantation is a political institution;like the state
it secures collective action on the basis of authority. The plantaion system
represents an extension of political control into the larger society whose
institutionscooperate to maintain it. On the particular plantation authority
is immediate and control is expressed in concrete acts of command and obedience. In the plantation system authorityand control become diffuse and
abstract. It becomes diffuse and abstractas the plantation extends its interests
and influence beyond the concrete relations characterizingthe local group
into the institutionsof the larger society,and the greaterthe span of extension
the more abstractthey become.
The planter and his fellows may begin mobilizing personnel and institutions in the larger societyby promotingcooperative arrangementsto transport,
finance and marketthe crop. There will not be much inter-plantationcooperation at the level of planting, cultivatingand harvestingsince these operations
come about the same time each year on each plantation producing the same
staple. But there will be a great deal of intermarriageamong the planter
families, and a condition of "familism" is likely to come about in which
a memberof one planter familyis almost equally at home in the home of any
other planter family. But what is far more importantthan the elaboration
of economic and family and social relations of this sort is for the planter
and his fellows to gain control of the state. 32 The educational institutions
of the society also mut be brought into line and in the South the academies,
the military colleges of the states, and the state universities undertook not
31. Edgar T. Thompson, "The Planter in the Pattern of Race Relations in the
South". Social Forces.
32. For a clear and complete account of how this was accomplished in Virginia
before and after the RevolutionaryWar period see Charles S. Sydnor's. Gentlemen
Freeholders of Virginia.
56
Revista
Geogrfica
only to rationalize and to naturalize the planter's authorityin formal terms

but also to transmitthe doctrinesfrom generation to generation. The institutions of religion added moral and supernaturalsanctions and carried over the
moral orders of particular plantations into the larger society. By extending
the relations of control which were worked out in concrete form on the
particularplantation to the institutionsof the larger society the planter was
put in a position of authorityand controlwith an indefinitenumber of persons
throughoutthe larger social order. It was this extension and abstractionof the
relation system. In its extended and abstract form the relations of control
underlyingthe plantation system on the South and other parts of the New
World took form of an idea. But that is anotherstory.
RESUMEN
El Dr. Edgar T. Thompson (Universidad de Duke, Durham, Carolina
del Norte) as resumi su trabajo It plantacin como sistema social. La plantacin constituyeun sistema social, extendido por muchas partes del mundo.
Introdujo en el Nuevo Mundo una disciplina de trabajo en la cual la pereza
de los nativos oblig a reclutar trabajadores de otras partes. Los dueos de
las plantaciones retenan a los hijos de sus trabajadores para evitar que stos
escapasen a zonas fronterizaso se convirtierenen cultivadores libres. Las
a modelar nuevas
facilidades de transportesentre las plantaciones contribuyeron
formas de comunidad y de formas polticas y un control del Estado. La
Iglesia y la educacin al racionalizar luego ese orden y sus controles; han
contribuidoas a generar la plantacin.

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The Plantation as a Social System

Author(s): Edgar T. Thompson

often the railwaystationthat nucleatedthe growingcommunity.The same

systems.At anyrate,the kindof social systemin whichwe are hereinterested

Jackson,American Studies in Honor of William K. Boyd, Durham: Duke

Press, 1940. pp. 173-174.

to be reared. It entersinto the kinshipsystemand helps definewho are kin

was the effortto transplant

Africa, 83-84, 202-203, and passim.

de Kewiet, A History of South

suppliescannotbe importedfromelsewhere.And of coursethereis a great

formsof utilizingland competewith each other,within naturallimitations

southwestalong a segmentaccessibleto the cheap transportation

Instituto Pan-Americano de Geografia e Historia

which he found himself it was necessary to turn producer of an agricultural

to his utilityand the utilityof his chilrenas more

Instituto Pan-Americano de Geogwfia e Historia

only to rationalize and to naturalize the planter's authorityin formal terms

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