Plantation Owners

Definition

Plantation owners were wealthy individuals who owned large agricultural estates, typically in the Southern United States, where enslaved people were forced to work.

Analogy

Think of plantation owners as the CEOs of big corporations today. They own vast resources (in this case, land and slaves), control production (of crops like tobacco and cotton), and make significant profits from their operations.

Related terms

Slavery: A system where individuals known as slaves are treated as property to be bought, sold, and worked forcibly.

Cotton Gin: An invention by Eli Whitney that revolutionized the cotton industry by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.

Antebellum South: The period in the history of the southern United States, from the late 18th century until the start of the American Civil War in 1861, marked by slavery and large plantations.