Thompson - Plantation as a Social System

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The Plantation as a Social SystemAuthor(s): Edgar T. ThompsonSource: Revista Geogrfica, T. 25, No. 51 (2.o SEMESTRE 1959), pp. 41-56Published by: Pan American Institute of Geography and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40996531Accessed: 26-08-2014 19:32 UTC

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The Plantation s a SocialSystemBy

Prof. Edgar T. ThompsonDuke University, urham

Carolinaof North.

The plantation as existed s an institutional solate t various imes ndplaces; it also has served to systematize ntire ocial orders. In the UnitedStates, the South , for nstance, ctually s or has been the name for a systemof societywhich cameto characterize he south-eastern nd south central artsof the nation and which everywhere as organized n some degree aroundthe plantation nstitution. uch has been written bout this society nd aboutother particular ystems, ut I have found very ittle n the literature ealingexplicitly ith he conception plantation ystem tself. This is rather urpris-ing since the expression s a fairly ld and widespread ne in both popularand academic ircles. n what follows shall try o give somemeaning o theconception plantation ystem mainly by generalizing rom the facts ofSouthern istory. But first, ince the conception f a social system s derivedby analogy rom he conception f system n the physical niverse, et us takea look at the nature f systems enerally.

A system s a set of relations orming whole, hat s forming n aggregateaboutwhich omething s thought o be true which s not true f the memberparts or objects. It seems that consciousness f the existence f a unityor whole does not automatically arry with t consciousnessf the constituentrelations nd parts f a whole. It is when we have moved hisone step forwardin the conscious nalysis f the whole, that s, when we become ware of therelations nd parts of the whole, that we begin to think f the whole asconstituting system. Now perhaps he disposition o analyze a whole intoa system f relation-ships nd parts comesmore readily when the whole hasgreater ize or span than have other wholes. The realization f a solar systemcomes much earlier han the realization f a molecular ystem. The greaterthe span the quicker erhaps he awareness f the existence f parts nd theirrelation o other parts. Incidentally, he concept f span might be a veryuseful ne in the study f plantation ystems incethe plantation reas of theworld vary o greatly n size, l

1 I have elsewhere uggested hat in point of territory overed he plantationsociety r the South s undoubtedly he argest he world has even known. n additionto many ther actors hichhave shaped he history f this society, he factor f sheersize (span) alone has been a highly important ne. The plantation ociety f the Southhas been big enough o have weight nd mass and stability nd to permit he deve-lopment f plantaion system' whose parts cooperated o maintain certain ype ofagricultural conomy nd social organization. ll other nstitutions n the South, ikethe family he church nd the school,becameparts of this system nd supported t.Millionsof people grew up within he system nd accepted t becausethey knew noother nd rarely f ever ame nto contact ith deas inconsistent ith t. The ClimaticTheory of the Plantaion , Agricultural istory, XV (January, 941), 49.

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42 Revista Geogrfica

Asspan

increases ttention ends o shift from whole toparts.

Asspancontinues o increase ttention endsto move from parts to relations etween

parts until finally, erhaps, he relations may appear to be constituting heparts nto whaterver ind of parts they re. 2 When we have como to centerway or another he proposition hat relations re constitutive f entities, nd it doesappear that recent dvances n physical ciencehave been based upon this principle,attention pon the network f relations ather han primarily pon the thingsrelatedwe are attending o a system f one kind or another.

The effect f attention pon a system s to abstract complex f relativepositions, r junctures n the network f relations, rom he contests f suchobjets as occur at these unctures. A system, erhaps, s somethingmorethan complex, omeething ore han series f interlaced arts. In a systemthere s a

pointt which ll the

relationshipf the

complexffect

juncture,and the object onstituted t this osition overns nd names nd givescharacterto the whole. The object in such a position s thought f as being at thecenter f a systemwhich s radial in form. It is not necessarily he objectper se that dominates ut the object n such a position, nd what distinguishesone system rom nother s the nature f the object n the dominating sition.This object dominates y controlling he relations nder which other objectsin the system an exist.

Ordinarily, suppose, he dentification f the center f a system resentsno great difficulty, ut there oes seemto be a problem n defining he outerlimits f a system. Astronomy nd mathematics sk, Is the universe inite?and students f regionalism, r social systems aid down upon territories,disagree n the question f regional oundaries ince a region fades off intoareas where t encounters nfluences xerted y other regional systems. nconnection ith our present nterest uch considerations ead to the questionin the case of any particular lantation ystem, How far out does it extend?Plantations ave never hysically ccupied he entire xtent f the area knownas the South but presumably he plantation ystem as.

All these propositions re illustrated n that most familiar f all systems,the solar system. They are less satisfactorily llustrated n the universe fsociety et we can and do speakof socialsystems.We speakof a communityas a social system resenting he aspect of a constellation f institutions.Of course, he basic institutions f modern ociety the family, he school,the chuhch are

presentn all localcommunitiesn the West. But it makes

a great deal of difference hich f the nstitutions s central n the communitysystem. n old New England there s no doubt about the pivotal positionof the Congregational hurch. In the Middle West, on the other hand,where ducation was provided or by the Federal Government ven n advanceof settlement, t was the school which tended to arrange tself and otherinstitutions nto a community ystem. In the westernMountain tates t was

2 Throughout cience nd the Modern World A.N. Whitehead repeats n one3. LoisKimballMatthews, he Expansion f New England,New York: Houghton

Miff in Company, 909.4. Albert Shaw, Local Government n Illinois , n Johns Hopkins University

Studies n History nd Political cience, , No. 3, p. 10.



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Instituto an-Americano e Geografia Historia 43

often therailway

tation hat nucleated hegrowing ommunity.

he samerole was played n the post-CivilWar South by the general tore t the cross-roads which, becauseof the impersonal nd interracial haracter f trade,was the only institution hat whites and Negroes alike could patronize.Over the United States enerally, t the present ime, he school ppears o beachieving n ascendency ver both the church nd the family n local commu-nity, ut it has to yield centralplace to the nstitutions f business. The citycenter s invariably he area of concentration f the largest usinesses.Howdifferent ere the communities f the past when they were centered y thepalace, the catedral r the temple with the conduct f trade often relegatedto the vicinity f the city's gates.

Socialsystems re not imited o the institutional rrangements f a societybut perhaps hey re more often thought f as if they were. We popularlyspeak of the capitalistic ystem, he railway ystem, he educational ystemas well as of the plantaion ystem. t seems we are more ikely o speak ofsuchsystems n connection ith modern r civilized ociety han n connectionwith primitive ociety. Perhaps his s merely ecausewe know civilized etterand are not prepared o admit o the category nstitution ertain ocialstructuresobserved n primitive ociety. Yet civilized ociety oes appear to be distin-guished from primitive ociety y a sharper degree of institutional sepa-rateness.

In any sort of society nstitutions re just those social structures hichcut across and bind together he generations f men. If it is language and

other forms f communication hat ift men above the level of the animalsit is the institutions f society hat iterally ift men above themselves, hatis, above the concerns f the immediate resent, iving them an interestin the past and a concern or the future. The life of a society s not possiblewhithout he biological ife of its individual members pon which it rests,but institutions dd to the life of society dimension nd a span which bio-logical life does not have. It is no wonder that the concern f a societyto protect ts institutions s a concern o protect ts very ife. When theinstitutions f a society re destroyed he society easesto exist although tspeople may be transformed nto a new society nd decome new people. 7It is not surprising, herefore, hat as nodal points in social organizationinstitutions hould more often han not be the constituent bjects of social

5. Lewis E. Atherton, he Southern Country tore, 1800-1860. Baton Rouge:LouisianaState University ress, 1949. ThomasD. Clark, Pills, Petticoats nd Plows,Indianapolis:Bobbs Merrill and Company, 944.

6. In primitive ociety the lesser nstitutions hithin re harder o discover ndare understood nly n relation o the whole. In our world the many nstitutionalunits stand out as objective nd fiscally eparate ntities. t is the community hichhas to be discovered . verett . Hughes n Robert . Park ed.), An Outline f thePrinciples f Sociology, ew York: Barnes nd Noble, Inc., 1939, p. 311.

7. See Everett . Hughes, New Peoples , n A. W. Lind (ed.), RaceRelationsin World Prespective, onolulu: University f Hawaii Press, 1955. Ch. 5. Also seeMary Kingley's emarks n the murder f institutions y imperialists nd missionaries

in West African tudies, ondon: Macmillan nd Company, 901, p. 332.



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44 Re v s t a G e o gr f i e a

systems.At

any rate,hekind of social

systemn which we are here nterested

is the kind in which unity s achieved round n institutional xpression fcentral im and purpose.

Now the plantation s an institution n just as real a senseas the CatholicChurch s as institution. t too arises to deal with certain eemingly ternalproblems f an ordered ociety. It is made up of people but, like thechurch, t is an automatism mpersonal nd implacablehaving a characterand a set of norms which react back to control he people, including hehighest unctionaries, ho constitute t. The plantation s a way of reckoningtogether body of peopleall of whom, lanter nd laborers like, belongto the estate s though he estate were a third omething xisting part fromits

people.The

plantationemands his and the

plantationictates hat. As

in institutions enerally he individual members cquire from he plantationparticular eliefs and ways of participating hich becomepart of the veryfiber f their ives. Further hey cquirefrom he plantation hat firm lementof assured behavior which all institutions ive their members nd whichcontribute o much toward ocial order and stability.

However, the plantation differs fundamentally rom other institutionslike the school and the church n that it cannot exist apart from certainterritorial ssumptions nd necessities.Unlike the school or the church heplantation annot be transplanted o the city for it requires not just nakedspacewithinwhich o operate ut and upon which ooperate. The plantationconnects eopleand land and it exists n this connection; reak he connectionand the institution ecomes nly a state of mind or a memory. he livinginstitution ot only covers territory ith the visible signs of its presence,signs which reflect ts manner of being and its power of action, but theterritory tself s an intrisic art of the institution. he plantation s, in otherwords, settlement nstitution.

As a settlement nstitution he plantation elongs in a class with thefarm, he ranch, he manor and other social forms hat institutionalize herelations etween uman groups nd the and. Perhaps he simplest ettlementinstitution s the family arm. As in the case of the plantation r of anyother ettlement nstitution t is not sufficient o describe he land of thefamily arm n terms f its physical roperties merely As Warren Wilson

onceput it, the farm s a human unit of land , that s, it is a pieceof landwhich hefarmer nd his family ave domesticated nd made a member f thefamily s a working artner. 10 The land enters he family long with theservant nd the dog to influence nd even to determine ow the children re

8. EdgarT. Thompson, The NaturalHistory f Agricultural abor n the South ,in D. K. Jackson, American Studies in Honor of William K. Boyd, Durham: DukeUniversity ress, 1940. pp. 173-174.

9 ... area in the city s stripped f its usual connotations f resources, lora,fauna, nd, one is tempted o say, evenclimate. t is area without ontent, rea reducedto the abstraction f space. Amos H. Hawley, The Approach f Human Ecology oUrban Areal Research, he ScientificMonthly, XXIII (July, 1951), p. 48.

10. See Reymont's ovel,The Peasants,New York: A. A. Knopf, nc., 1925.



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to be reared. t enters nto thekinship ystem

ndhelps

define who are kinand who are not. ll

Then there s the ranch As we have commonly nderstood his institu-tion in the United States, he ranch represents nother istinctive rientationtoward he and and another istinctive ayof life. On the ranch herelationsof men toward he land are mediated, ot through rops, but through attleand sheep, nd cattle nd sheep move around nd have to be followed ndwatched. This introduces he horse nd the mounted aborer alled a cowboywhoseprestige s considerable igher han that normally ccorded hosewhodo routine work n the land. It introduces lso opportunities or competitiveheroic action ike trick riding, bull-dogging, nd the like. All this defines

a role for the cowboyfar removed from that of peasant or farmer. Thecowboyworks en the land but he does not work the land itself, nd he iscontemptuous f those who do; in the mind of the old-time ewboy herescarcely ver enters re suggestion hat he might ven temporarily hange ha-racter nd till the soil. 12

It is probable hat men rardy f ever ive directly pon nature's and asthe animals do. Men live in culture nd in institutions, nd the institutionsin their turn, particularly he kind of institutions am calling settlementinstitutions, efine the land upon which men live and work. Apart fromcultural nd institutional ontexts, he so-calledman-land atio s a very unrealconception. Now land as it appears n nature s continuous xcept when itcomesto the water's dge. Settlement nstitutionsimposeupon the land someprinciple f discontinuity hichmaybe expressed y fences nd other man-madeboundaries. They operate o break up the land into nameable nd countableunits which hen may be recorded nd transmitted s property n formal waysas well as in publicundestanding. ettlement nstitutions hus ort out. classifyand give meaning o the colors nd shapes and movements n the landscapeand find names for them.

Of course, he processwhereby he untamed nd unnamed ense data ofthe natural landscape are brought nder control differ from one settlement

11. On the family arm he husband nd father lso is the head of the farmenterprise nd the wife is not only a homemaker ut also has duties in connectionwith the running f the farm. The sons and daughters lso are farm workers. Theremay be a hired man or girl. These are not merely oomers nd boarders s in cityrooming ouses;they re employees n the farm. Nevertheless, hey re merely cces-sories; the principalwork devolvesupon the members f the family.

12. This attitude ppears o be true f ranching rea generally. f earlyArgentinaSchmieder ays, After few generations f life in the Argentine lains the gaucholooked with utter ontempt n any kind of agricultural ork, although t had beenthe soil was restricted o a minimum, arms or chacras being few in number ndhardly ufficient o provide he colonialpopulationwith agricultural roducts. n themind of the colonial Argentine, he Pampa had no other use than to provide odderfor cattle, horses and sheep Alteration f the Argentine ampa in the ColonialPeriod , University f California ublications n Geography, I (September 7,1927),p. 317.



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institution o another. That iswhy they

re different nstitutions n the firstplace althhough hey re similar nough o competewith and to opposeoneanother. There is conflict, nd frequently vert conflict, etween hem aswitness he feuds n the westernpart of the United Statesbetween attlemenand sheepmen, attlemen nd nesters nd cattlemen ith ach other. No smallpart of the cause of the Civil War in the United Stateswas the existenceof hostility etween lantation nd farm, nd many f the farms ostile o theplantationwere n the Southern tates. As one reads the literature t is notdifficult o conclude hatplanters nd ranchers, armers nd lumberjacks, ereand are further part, n more ways than one, than are people separated yrace, nationality, eligionor language. Indeed, these latter differences, ealor alleged, eemoften ostem rom lashes f interest eld by peopleconnectedwith different ettlement nstitutions. We may be sure that politicians akethese nstitutional ifferences etweenpeople into account ven when acade-micians o not for politicians aveto live by such nsights. erhaps he basicdifferences etween he people who live in the institutions f the land areobscured y our disposition o include ll of them he blanket ut negativecategory rural . 13 Rural people are one group, however, nly becausetheydo not live in cities, but there the unity etween hem ends. Rural peopleinstitutionalizedn different ays on the land are as varied s people in thecities are standardized.

Nevertheless, ll settlement nstitutions ccupyfixed places on territory

regarded ot merely s site but as essential ngredient, n ingredient hichappropriates o the nstitution omething f the permanent nd stable qualitiesof earth enerally. y virtue f this fact hey ppear to possess pecial dvan-tages as system-buildingnstitutions. hey aid powerfully n the originationand preservation f distinctive ultures ince culture s, to a large extent,a geographical xpression. And as fixed points on the land as well as insociety hey ffer irm asesfor the spatial and social reckoning o necessaryfor the orderly egulation f daily ife. It is not strange, herefore, hat ocialsystems re so often designated y the settlement nstitutions hich centerthem nd that we should o often peakof a manorial ystem, farm ystem,a ranching ystem s well as of a plantation ystem.

Since the days of original European settlement he westward movingfrontier f the New World has afforded n unrivaled ppportunity or observ-ing the careers f these institutions nd their systems. t was during heperiod f settlement hat he bitterest ompetition or urvival ccurred etweenthe many chemes nd movements aunchedupon both continents nd uponthe islands og the West Indies. Many of these movements ived t becomeinstitutions ut most did not, and the history f the failures s perhaps asinstructive s is the history f the successes One of the movements hat failed

13. W. H. Auden may have had this point in mind when he spoke of theanonymous country-side nd the synonymous ities Introduction to Hen.y James,

The American Scene, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946. p.xxiii.



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was the effort otransplant

he manor. 14 In view of the fact thatmanytravellers nd historians f the South have claimed direct descent of the

palntation rom the manor 5 it may be worth our while to consider hisOld World institution s it compares nd contrasts ith plantation.

Te manor under any one of its various names and in any one of itsvarious forms s a relatively arge landed estate arising n a world whichis discontinuous conomically, olitically nd culturally. t appears to arisein this kind of a world with the decayof the existing ypeof farm organi-zation. Sincethe guiding principle f the manor s the production f a diver-sified agriculture or local consumption nly it can exist only where all ormost of the essential equirements f life can be obtained n the spot. Aprimary unction f settlement nstitutions n their political spects s securitylor the integrity f the organization The manor eeks to insure ts continuitythrough rimogeniture nd entail nd to maintain ts security hrough conomicself-sufficiency,nd a high degree of self-sufficiencys not only a fact butbecomes tradition nd an ideal as well, an ideal which ater s absorbed n thelarger tate of which the manor becomes part.

Notwithstanding he ideal of self-sufficiency he manor s bound to beeconomicallyncomplete. There incipient hreads f trade which trace theirwayoutward nd in time these hreads ecome greater nd stronger. As townlife arises there s offered market nd a contrasting ay of life againstwhich hemanor annot ompete.Historically ts decline amefirst n Englanda country specially avored y accessto cheap water ransportationnd whose

foreign rade teadily xpanded n consequence. t is significant hat manorialforms end to persist ongest n areas furthest emoved rom cean transpor-tation, n the heartlands f the great ontinentes. 6 With peace and trade hemanor reaksdown nto a system f peasant proprietorships r is transformedinto another orm of estate conomy. For the market elationship olds init a different principle f organization.

The plantation s based upon this principle nd the essential ifferencebetween t and the manor has its origin n this fact. The difference ouldseem to be enough o defeat ny effort o identify he American lantationwith he Europeanmanor f the past. In many espects heplantation s preci-selywhat the manor s not. It clings to the cheaper ransportation f coast-lands, slands and

archipelagoesnd is not to be found in the landlocked

parts f the earth. It is organized round the production f a staple cropin which t specializes nd economic ufficiency s a fact only to the extent

14. There were conscious efforts o introduce the manorial form into Virginia,Carolina, and in the territory hich later became Maine. Perhaps the most importantof these efforts was made by Lord Calvert in the colony of Maryland. Wilhelm, LocalInstitutions of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University Studies.

15. These include John Fiske, William Ellis, Alfred Lyell, A. de P. van Buren,and the contemporary istorian Charles Embury Hedrick. See Hedrick's Social andEconomic Aspects of Slavery in the Transmontane Prior to 1830, Nashville: GeorgePeabody College for Teachers, 1927, p. 42.

16. Wallace, A History of Russia ...... C. W. de Kewiet, A History of South

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



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suppliesannot e

importedrom lsewhere. And of course here s a

greatdeal of difference etween governing n estate mainly to preserve orderand to collect rent nd taxes on the one hand and, on the other, o managelabor and devise strategy o increase nd improve rop production. On themanor here s an organization f classeswhich, n the plantation, becomesan organization f races. Nevertheless oth ord and planter xercise udicialfunctions nd both tend eventually o become fficials f the state. In neitherinstitution s the feudal attitude ikely to be there o begin with, since itdevelopswith the coming f a moral order of which t is perhpas he prin-cipal ingredient, ut in both nstitutions he attitude evelopsgreat trength.So far as Old Europewas concerned hemanorial ystem nd the feudal ystemcame to be aspects f the same thing, nd in the modern wolrd no other nsti-

tution has reproduced he feudal attitude o completely s has the pantation.The manor rises n situ, n a world where the purposes nd the meansof life are closetogether. t is not the kind of an institution hat can easilybe transplanted specially o a situationwhere conditions ere so unfavorablefor survival s those presented y coastalNorth America. Lord Calvert mightfor whilemaintain n estate esemblinghemanor n Maryland ut a support-ing system f institutions ould not be generated here. The release offeredby the empty andsof the American rontier ade the wholemanorialapparatusof quitrents, enancies, ent rolls, freeholders nd copy holders ntirely nrea-listic and finally mpossible.

The plantation y contrast s a part of an economic ontinuity hich

has been described s the world community. or the past three hundred earsthis community as been drawing diverse nd widespread eographical reasinto a widening nterdependent hole which has resulted n the disruptionof indigenecus nstitutions ike that of the manor and in the imposition fanother rder ased upon competition nd economic ooperation. he plantationhas been one of the prime nstruments n the transition o this new economicand ecologicalworld order. t of course an arise onlywhere oil and climaticconditions ermit ts staple ogrow, but t doesnot follow hat he distributionof the staple lso describes he distribution echnologyre detachable lementsof the institution nd may n fact be attached o other ettlement nstitutionlike the farm nd the agricultural ission.

One of the most important uestions o be asked about an institutionor any other social form s: under what cirmunstances r conditions an itsurvive nd grow? ndeed, his s the fundamental uestion f human cology.Perhaps he most mportant onsiderationn the origination nd survival f theplantation s its position r niche in the world community ather han itsgeographicalocation. The world community ay be described s a networkof positions, hat is, as a complex of functional elationships etweenthe individuals, roups nd institutions hat occupy hesepositions. As com-munication nd transportation evelopthe community ends to take the formof a spider's web organized round a central osition occupiedby the insti-tutions f the market. he time nd cost of transportation nd communicationare really measures f the relationship etween he market nd its outlying

producing nd consumingreas.

The various typesf

agriculturend other



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forms futilizing

andcompete

with eachother,

within natural imitationsof soil and climate, for the most economic ealtionship ith the market.It is out of this ompetition hat he various ypes f agriculture ogether iththeir producing nstitutions et themselves ocated. Any advantage whichpermits heaper production nd marketing t one place than at another s afactor ntering nto the determination f location 7 but it is probable thatthe chief factor s the cost of transportation o the market. 8

The competition f aglicultural taples for suitable and, for labor, andfor accessibility o the market elegates he plantation nstitutions roducingthem to positions long the frontier f the world community. Frontier sa term sedhare odecribe nd classify hose reas hat re n process f assumingperipheral ositions n the world community. he concept s not finallygeographical ne but an ecologicalone describing degree of relationshipwith the metropolitan market, relationship etermined y the cost andmeans of transport. Frontier reas are those areas toward which movecapital nd management nd whose products re beginning o be swept ntothe markets f the world. They are therefore reas in processof becominglands that matter nd in someof them, n those f suitable oil and climate,

the plantation lays a leading part in making them important o the restof community.

At the time of the European ettlement f the New World the dominantconsuming, manufacturing nd marketing reas of the world communityconsisted f Western Europe and especially ngland. At favorable placesalong a frontier escribing concentric ircle round his central rea, a circlemeasuredn terms f costdistance, here eveloped elts f plantations roducingvarious taples. Along an eastern egment f this circle appeared arge plan-tation-like states beyond the Elbe River in Germany. 9 To the west and

17. When a product s sold upon a market t is often mpossible o separateproduction nd marketing osts for they are interpedendent nd reciprocal rocesseswhich nvariably eactupon each other. Besidesthe cost of transportation ther factorsin the cost of marketing s well as of production nter nto the determination f costdistance nd spatialrelations. ocation s affected y all these factors. The marketingsystem s the first o respond nd readjust o changes n the position f an area, andmarketing hanges onstitute n index to future olitical nd social changes n the nsti-tution nd

its system. Thus the plantation annot, unlike the manor, epend uponprinciples uch as primogeniture, ntail an economic elf-sufficiencyo maintain tsintegrity nd security. n its case institutional ecurity epends pon the security f themarket elation.

18. This has been theoretically emonstrated ith respect o manufacturingndustryby Alfred Weber, Theory of Locationof Industries, hicago: University f ChicagoPress,1929.

19. Riistow uggests hat the plantations f the New World actually formedthe model for these estates ut think t more ikely hey developed ndependentlynresponse o movements nd circumstancesimilar o those from which the New Worldplantations prang. He says, This forms f agricultural arge scaleoperation orkingto supply hemarket ith unfree abor then akesover besides he tropical olonies llnon-Islamic urope ast of the Elbe and leads here to a progressive egenerationf thelegal position f the peasantswho were originally ree. Alexander iistow, Ortebes-

timmung er Gegenwart, rlenbach-Zurich:ugen Rentsch, 950. Pp. 62,171-172.



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southwestlong

asegment

ccessible to thecheap transportation

fferedby the Atlantic cean, the Caribbean, nd the Gulf of Mexico there evelopedbelts of plantations hich n turn developed he classicplantation ystems fhistory. ater, when the northeastern ection f the United States becamepartof the western European area of dominance, he plantation rontier wasextended nto east central nd west central Africa, outhern nd southeastAsia, and along the islandsof the Pacific o Hawaii to become what Delaisicalled the golden belt of plantations . 0

The most important tudy f agriculture rom he point of view I amemploying ere is the classic work of J. H. von Thiinen. 1 Von Thiinenshows, n terms f cost distance, hat the production f the various typesof agriculture nd horticulture ake the form f concentric ircles round themarket enter. Since von Thiinen's day the development f cheaper meansof transportation, specially cean transportation, as enormously xtended hegeographical angeof territory ributary o the market, ut theoretically herelativepostions f the various types f agriculture ave remainedmuch thesame while undergoing mportant nd even drastic hifts n location. 2 Whilethese gricultural conomies ere hifting heir ocations hegeographical reasinvolvedwere shifting heir positions n the world community.

Now the shifting istribution f the various ypes f agriculture s causallyrelated o the shifting istribution f the populaions equired o cultivate hecrops. In the course of this redistribution f population round the worldsome areas are settled more closely, thers re thinned ut. 23 In the courseof such changes heplantation n some areas may organizewhith abor drawnfrom ative ources ut is more ikely o be settledwith new laboring opu-

20. F. Delaisi, Les Deux Europei: Europe Industrielle et Europe Agricole, Paris,1929, Ch. X.

21. Der isolierte Staat in Beziehung au] Landwirtschaft nd Nationalekcnomte,Jena, 1921. 2nd ed.

22. The history of Ceylon is especially interesting n this connection, lhe island

was first known to Europeans as a source of valuable spices. Then coffee became itsmost important xport crop only to be given up because of competition from Braziland the ravages of a coffee blight. Then came tea. Rubber succeeded tea as theisland's most important taple until the competition f Malaya and other areas togetherwith prolonged over-production f the staple brought tea back into the ascendency. S.McCune, Sequence of Plantation Agriculture n Ceylon , Economic Geography, XXXV(July, 1949), 225-235. Present indications are that the plantation economy of Ceylonis in for further mportant changes.

23. Historically the thinning out of the rural population of England incidentto the enclosure movement n that country, nd the plantation of America, were justtwo aspects of one set of demographic changes in an evolving world community. Theword plantation s used here in its original English sense of population migration and

settlement. See Lord Bacon's essay OnPlantations .



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Instituto an-Americano e Geogtwfia Historia 51

lation or with a succession f newlaboring populations.

4 Ethnic uccessionin agriculture enerally ppears to be coupled with the fact that new cropsin an area are more ikely o be successfullyultivated y new workers apableof developing new and different et of work habits.

At any rate, he exploitation f areas capableof producing olonialwarenrequires settled aboring opulation. Plantationsmay be, as in Java, nclavedin a native ociety romwhich t draws ts abor. In such a situation heplan-tation does not center plantation ystem, r not a very laborate ne, eventhough t may ntroduce mportant, vendrastic, hanges n the ife of the nativesociety bout t. 25 It is where he native people are not sufficient n numberor cannot be induced or coerced to supply the necessary abor that aborersare imported s slaves or under contract. t is such an industrial rmy ofoccupation hat gives its character o the plantation nd to the plantationsystem. t is when the natives f the area are eliminated r pushed asideandassorted amilylessaboring opulations rom istant lacesare introduced, hentribal chiets nd village headmen nd hut taxes cannot be utlized to secureand control abor, that the plantation as to elaborate ome entirely ewprinciple f social order bout tself. Under the circumstances he elaborationof a system f cooperating nstitutions ecomes ssential o the survival f theplantation tself. The plantation ystem s a plantation urvival ystem. nthose areas of the New World where the native ndians were shoved asideand Negroes by the millionswere imported o work, to breed, but never ogovern he nstitution laborated heclassicplantation ystems f all time.

The plantations f the South, and perhaps hose of the New Worldgenerally, annot be accounted or as mixtures f elements brought o thefrontier r already here. The land of the Indians, he labor of first whiteindentured ervants rom ngland nd then Negro slavesfrom Africa, nd thecapital nd purposes f the West European ntrepreneur ll interacted o pro-ducea different omething ot to be found before hat ime n England,Africaor America. 6 The result was an institution s naturally nd as indigeneouslyAmerican s was the squatter arm hat ater appeared n the Middle West.For an explanation f how it became so naturally nd perhaps nevitablyproduct f the American rontier o single factor n the situation ppears oimportant s that f the planter nd his activities. Let me try o restate ome

24. Edgar T. Thompson, Population Expansion and the Plantation ystemAmerican ournal f Sociology, XI (November, 935), 314-326. Succesivewavesofimmigrations ere brought o Hawaii for work on the plantations here: GilbertIslanders 1859-1885), Chinese 1876-1885, 1890-1897), Portuguese 1901), Koreans(1904-1905),Spaniards 1906-1913), Russians 1909-1914),Japanese ), andFilipinos 1907-1931), and other nationals. See Andrew W. Lind, An Island Com-munity, hicago: University f ChicagoPress, 1938.

25. J. H. Boeke speaksof the dual economies n such areas in the MiddleEast. See The Evolution f the Netherlands ast Indian Economy, ew York: Instituteof PacificRelations.

26. For an elaboration f this point of view n the genesis f colonial nstitutionssee B. Malinowski, ethods f Study f CultureContact n Africa,Memorandum V,International nstitute, f African anguages nd Cultures, 938. Also see Max Gluck-man's criticism n his Malinowski' SociologicalTeories.



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52 Revista Geografica

of thepoints

I havealready

made but this time from thepoint

of viewof the type of entrepreneur rom whose trial and error efforts the Southernplantation at least seems to have arisen.

The social ancestor of the planter is certainly not the lord passivelycontent to receive rents from tenants or the knightly warrior politician of theEuropean manorial system. His spirit and outlook is more likely traced fromthe merchants and factors in the trading factories established by economicinterests n Western European states along the Baltic, the Levant, and the coatsof India. In a highly elaborated form the spheres of influence and zones ofpolitical dominance which these states later divided up among themselves weresimply extensions f the trading factories of their nationals. There were socialand political systems ntended to make the trade of the factories ecure. Nowthe institution f the trading factory was set up in the New World after itsdiscovery at Jamestown n Virginia for instance - but unlike the manorit did not completely ail but survived n modified form. In those areas wherethe European party to the trade relationship made demands which the agri-cultural productive organization of the natives was unable to meet it becamenecessary or the Europeans to organize production as well as trade. In suchareas a new type merchant factor along with the planter were differentiatedout of the trading factory tradition.

It was perhaps out of this trading factory radition hat the planter nheritedhis incentive to material profit and gain. He had little concern to maintainthe 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 wasinterested n new crops, crops that promised immediate cash profit, and it issignificant that most if not all the export crops of plantation agriculture,what are called plantation crops, lie outside the Old World experience of theEuropean settler. There is some evidence to suggest that the early distinctionbetween planter and farmer n the South was bound up with this fact, thatis, the planter experimented with new crops whereas the farmer pursued atraditional griculture. Probably the planter usually operated on a larger scalethan the farmer but scale of operation did not define the essential differencebetween them. 27

It has been suggested that the agricultural nterprises f the South have

been in the hands of men who did not like to farm. The planter, ike hisforerunner he merchant factor, wanted to make money. In the situation n

27. Krapp says, Some uncertainty ttaches... to the names for the most commonof the occupations of Colonial America, that of tilling the land. The term yeomanis frequently found in town records down into the eighteenth century. Yet besidesit will be found the terms planter and farmer, he three differentiated n a way whichperhaps was vitally important n the social communities n which the term passedcurrent but which now escapes us. The English Language in America, p. 206. IsaacWeld stated that in early Virginia those who raise tabacco and Indian corn arecalled planters, and those who cultivate small grain, farmers . Travel Through theStates of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada During theYears of 1795, 1796, and 1797. London, 1807. 4th edition, II, 156. Perhaps this

statement will throw light upon a distinction which now escapes us .



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Instituto Pan-Americano de Geografia e Historia 53

which he found himself it wasnecessary

to turnproducer

of anagriculturalstaple in order to do so but, again like the merchant actor, 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 thisself-conception long with his role as a pioneer in the development of newcrops that constituted him into a planter rather than a farmer. Again let meemphasize that it was this role of the planter rather than the scale of hisagricultural operations which was essential. The planter with slaves mightactually operate on a smaller scale than a farmer without slaves.

These remarks may suggest something of the role of the entrepreneurturned planter but they do not tell nearly enough about the kind of manfrom whose activities on a frontier came not only an institution but alsoa whole social system. It was not enough for the entrepreneur o have therequisite purpose and capital in order to decome a planter in the ColonialSouth. As we put it today, he had to have what it takes and it took muchmore than this. What it took was a determined ruthlessness The man whobecame a planter was of necessity a man of hard character, creator ratherthan an accepter of social relationships. He could not move into the situationin the manner of a New England textile manufacturer n piedmont NorthCarolina who finds there a set of laws and customs almost ready-made forhis purposes. In Hawaii the men who became planters did not find conditionsentirely to their liking but they had for long to conform to the customsof the country nd 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 findin the local society the basic matrix of law, institutions, nd ideologies itbecame necessary o mould the social environment o suit his purposes. In theSouth and in the New World generally the planter was free almost fromthe outset to break up native society or to import laborers whom he mightsubject to new forms of discipline and into whom he might instil new habitsof labor. In this situation the planter became par excellence the type ofentrepreneur who must first destroy n order to creat. 28

The destruction f a society and the reduction of its members to a stateof slavery s one point at which the planter can begin to reconstitute umanmaterial into a social order consistent with his purpose. Every New Worldplantation society passed through the stage of slavery on its

wayto

system-building, and plantations elsewhere employed other forms of unfree labor.To build the institution nd its system the planter undertook first to securebroken, fragmented nd degraded laborers in order to put them togetheragain in a new and different ombination. Merely to command the laborof the slave was not sufficient; t was much more important to be able toorder the kind of relations that a slave might have with all other men (and

28. This statement s suggested by Paul Tillich's concept of the daimonic inwhom the destructive power is essentially connected with the creative power . Inter-pretation f History, New York, 1916, pp. 77ff. See also Fritz Redlich, The BusinessLeader as a 'Diamonic' Figure , American Journal of Economics and Sociology, XII (Ja-nuary, 1953), 163-178. Also Schumpeterp



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womem)with reference o his

utilitynd the

utilityf his chilren s more

or less permanent ogs in an industrialmachine.One thing s apparent: he plantation s opposed to the family s it is

found n a society f potential aborers. All new socialmovements nd insti-tutions eem obe mere or lessopposed o the existing ype f family tructure.The family epresents he traditional rder, he order of accustomed orkand values, against which the plantation nd new institutions enerally reat war. From the point of view of the institution t would appear to be moreeffective o recruit dult familylessmembers y conversion, mployment renslavement han to use individuals till immersed n a traditional rder.Later, however, new family type grows up within the institutions ndas time goes on the members orn within et to be more numerous han thoserecruited rom, without. Eventually he institution ets all its members ybirth ather han by conversion r enslavement. When the program riginallyinitiated y the planter s established n some considerablemeasureby thefamily n the habits of its new members he institution as returned o themores ven though hey re not exactly he samemores from which t started,and the process s complete. n the mores he necessary ulesand regulationsof the new order will more or less enforce hemselves.A moral order hasthen been established n the plantation.

While an appropriate amily ype s emerging n the plantation's aboringpopulation heplanter's wn immediate amily s taking orm. As the familyof the master, he family n which authority esidesand the family which

expresses nd represents he institution tself, t is defined s having s upperclassestatus. 9 It is the conception f his role and the roles of membersof his family s upper class that provides he point of contact etween heplanter nd the plantation nd the plantation ystem. he fact hat he planterdoes not perform he manual abor which the farmer erforms s a matterof course does not mean tthat the planter does not posses considerableknowledge f the arts f planting, ultivating nd havesting he crop. Withoutsuch knowledge e could not survivi s a planter. t is, in fact, he originalan present asis of his status. I shall try o suggestwhy this is so.

Historically he master f slaves is essentially warrior ut the planteris not originally warrior. Originally e was a merchant n the trading actorytradition nd as such he did not

capturehis own labor. Instead he

boughtit as slaves. He then undertook o instruct is slaves in the school of theplantation n order to bring them to a level of knowledge nd efficiencyto carry n the institution s a going concern. t will be rememberered hatthe planter eganhis career n the South s a master f indentured griculturalapprentices, hat is, as a teacher. 0 Coupled with the fact that he arrivedearlier hat he indentured ervant, nd was therefore n old-timer r ancient

29. An upper class is institutional n its very essence, since it is control ofinstitutions hat makes it an upper classe, and men can hardly keep this control exceptas 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.



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Instituto Pan-Americano de Geogwfia e Historia 55

planter ,31 this was his

originalbasis of

superiority. Althoughhe did not

originally know much more about the cultivation of tobacco and other newcrops than those adult apprentices known as indentured servants he had, ofcourse, a much greater interest han they in accumulating a fund or technicalknowledge. In time this original basis of superiority assed over into a superiorcapacity to direct a total enterprise which included affairs of marketing, ofgoverning, and of keeping the peace generally, affairs normally outside theview of servant and slave. Thus it appears that originally the superiorityof the planter is not the superiority f the bully but the superiority f theteacher and the administrator ven when he discharges these functions ruth-lessly. The planter realizes himself not simply n his physical power over othersbut 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 thissort operating upon the raw human material at his disposal that enables theplanter to build up attitudes and work habits adequate to give the plantationinstitutional tanding.

It appears from all this the central fact about the plantation s the acqui-sition and exercise of authority n the part of the planter in the interest ofagricultural roduction. The plantation is a political institution; ike the stateit secures collective action on the basis of authority. The plantaion systemrepresents an extension of political control into the larger society whoseinstitutions cooperate to maintain it. On the particular plantation authorityis immediate and control is expressed in concrete acts of command and obe-dience. In the

plantation system authoritynd control become diffuse and

abstract. It becomes diffuse and abstract s the plantation extends its interestsand influence beyond the concrete relations characterizing the local groupinto the institutions f the larger society, nd the greater the span of extensionthe more abstract hey become.

The planter and his fellows may begin mobilizing personnel and institu-tions in the larger society by promoting ooperative arrangements o transport,finance and market the crop. There will not be much inter-plantation ooper-ation at the level of planting, cultivating nd harvesting ince these operationscome about the same time each year on each plantation producing the samestaple. But there will be a great deal of intermarriage mong the planterfamilies, and a condition of familism is likely to come about in whicha member of one planter family s almost equally at home in the home of anyother planter family. But what is far more important han the elaborationof economic and family and social relations of this sort is for the planterand his fellows to gain control of the state. 32 The educational institutionsof the society also mut be brought nto 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 theSouth . Social Forces.

32. For a clear and complete account of how this was accomplished in Virginiabefore and after the Revolutionary War period see Charles S. Sydnor's. Gentlemen

Freeholders of Virginia.



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onlyto rationalize and to naturalize the

planter's authorityn formal terms

but also to transmit he doctrines from generation to generation. The institu-tions of religion added moral and supernatural anctions and carried over themoral orders of particular plantations into the larger society. By extendingthe relations of control which were worked out in concrete form on theparticular plantation to the institutions f the larger society the planter wasput in a position of authority nd control with an indefinite number of personsthroughout he larger social order. It was this extension and abstraction f therelation system. In its extended and abstract form the relations of controlunderlying he plantation system on the South and other parts of the NewWorld took form of an idea. But that is another tory.

RESUMENEl Dr. Edgar T. Thompson (Universidad de Duke, Durham, Carolina

del Norte) as resumi su trabajo It plantacin como sistema social. La plan-tacin constituye n sistema social, extendido por muchas partes del mundo.Introdujo en el Nuevo Mundo una disciplina de trabajo en la cual la perezade los nativos oblig a reclutar trabajadores de otras partes. Los dueos delas plantaciones retenan a los hijos de sus trabajadores para evitar que stosescapasen a zonas fronterizas o se convirtieren n cultivadores libres. Lasfacilidades de transportes ntre as plantaciones contribuyeron modelar nuevasformas de comunidad y de formas polticas y un control del Estado. La

Iglesia y la educacin al racionalizar luego ese orden y sus controles; hancontribuido as a generar la plantacin.

Thompson - Plantation as a Social System

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