All Blog Posts (15)

Plantation essay

I originally had this posted at Teaching Digital History so I am reposting it here: Overall though the PC Cameron and Llewellyn letters we have a sense of the real story of the plantation. Hollywood films often put drama and passion into this type of life, yet we can see from these letters the real day to day business of a plantation and also the harsh realities of the enslaved people. This life is a complete cultural shock to me and I think most people who were raised in the late 20th and ear… Continue

Added by Chris Touch on November 7, 2009 at 11:47pm — No Comments

Racism or Professionalism?

Today it’s hard to not be conscientious of another person and their background. We protect against accidentally offend others, especially when it comes to race. We especially wouldn’t treat someone as if they were a piece of property or an instrument, rather than a person. But when we think about slavery and the system which developed in the South, and the race relations after the civil war, I feel we have this glaze over our eyes. When we see or hear about blacks in the South, we often think of… Continue

Added by Kyle Moore on November 4, 2009 at 11:00pm — No Comments

Weather and Slavery

When we learn about slavery and slave master’s we often get a picture of an evil cold hearted slave master, who will whip and torment slaves into working in horrible conditions. From these we can create a different interpretation. Through these letters we can use weather as an indicator for the treatment of slaves, as well as the success of the plantation owner’s crops. This is not to downplay the immoral act of slavery or to say that slave masters did not treat their slaves badly. Rather, the t… Continue

Added by Anisha Andrews on November 2, 2009 at 5:52pm — No Comments

Second Middle Passage

When reading through the Cameron letters for slave references many of the information discussed between authors is related to slave health and the state of the crops on the plantation. However, there are a few lines that highlight new plantations that the Cameron’s invested in as well as travel arrangements made for their families. This time period in the American slave trade is usually called the Second Middle Passage because many plantation and slave owners began migrating away from states suc… Continue

Added by Lindsey Dowling on November 2, 2009 at 5:52pm — No Comments

Sickness and Health as Resistance to the Plantation System

Sickness and Health as Resistance In any relationship of power, there is resistance. One of the major trends in history in the later half of the 20th century was locating and valuing resistance to power. Guilds, factories, armies, colonies, and every other organized structure for exerting power faced resistance to power. The most successful organizations designed outlets for this resistance that did not challenge the status quo, but provided the oppressed an opportunity for relief. Whether thro… Continue

Added by Cliff Haley on November 2, 2009 at 5:51pm — No Comments

Paul Cameron at University of North Carolina.

For two year in the 1820s, Paul Cameron attended the University of North Carolina. Paul's father Duncan was an early supporter of the university, so any questions about where his son would attend school would presumably have been academic (so to speak!), but not so much for Paul's actual studies at the university. This letter sent to Duncan Cameron on December 9, 1824 tells a story… Continue

Added by John Lee on November 2, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Joe and Henderson

From the original letters between the Cameron family and their employees, slaves are often mentioned since they are an integral part of the plantation operation. Since the letters were not written or received by the slaves themselves, the language is often derogatory or just in reference to the slaves as property of value. This shows the nature of the culture and the lack of respect and responsibility that slaves are given for their part in the southern economic system. Sickness appears to be a… Continue

Added by David Moseley on November 2, 2009 at 10:50am — 1 Comment

The affect of Disease on Slavery

Similar to the Native Americans that encountered the earliest colonists that came to the new world, the slaves that were brought to America were exposed to diseases that they had never encountered before. Until the slave trade started slaves did not have the exposure to certain diseases to build the immunity to help them fight off those diseases. This coupled with working conditions and lack of proper nutrition made the people that were enslaved susceptible to diseases that could have been could… Continue

Added by Shannon Hines on November 1, 2009 at 10:39pm — 1 Comment

What's with this weather??

While reading through the transcriptions from the Plantation Letters, I could not help but notice some obvious trends that most people were writing about: illness and the crop. In most cases, what people found in their assigned readings dealt with how many slaves were “in the house” because of some illness or sickness. However, I did not choose this topic to focus in on. I felt there had to be something more relevant as to why most of these summaries included this much detail about the slaves an… Continue

Added by Jason Bolchalk on November 1, 2009 at 6:00pm — 1 Comment

Were the Cameron slaves dissatisfied with their lot as slaves?

My mission was to explore these letters and unearth evidence that would prove that the Cameron slaves, as one would assume most slaves, were unhappy in the state of slavery. While sorting through the extracted portions of the letters provided by my classmates, it dawned on me that, in order to make the most sense of this information, the letters needed to be sorted into chronological order. Once I did that, the letters told me a story, the story of a journey, maybe even an (albeit minor) epic jo… Continue

Added by Charley Norkus on November 1, 2009 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Disease on the Plantation

An antebellum plantation was dependant upon slave labor to be a successful business. Cash crops like cotton and tobacco required constant and tedious work throughout the year. The Cameron family of North Carolina would have their slaves tilling and planting cotton in the early spring, chopping and cleaning the middles in summer, picking in the late summer and early fall, and turning over the soil throughout the winter. The slaves were the tools that the family used to build one of North Carolina… Continue

Added by John Jackson on October 31, 2009 at 10:22am — 1 Comment

And yesterday we called the vet.

This has been a very challenging assignment. I must have read through these letters 4 or 5 times before I could formulate some thoughts. I hope you find them broadening to your understanding of slavery. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The letters from the Cameron plantation include a variety of different mentions of slavery. Many of the mentions include the health and well-being of the slaves. There is one mention that seems to indicate Paul Cameron had an ill Slave sleeping in P… Continue

Added by Jonathan S. List on October 31, 2009 at 9:00am — 2 Comments

Check-Up on Health

A common theme throughout all plantation histories is the well-being of the property of plantation owners, particularly the health of the slaves. Simply put-without slaves a plantation would not see success. In order for a plantation to prosper it had to produce enough crops to sell as well as supply those living at the plantation. In the Antebellum South this was accomplished through the cruelty of slavery. A slaveholder depended upon his slaves to work his land while he dealt with other issues… Continue

Added by Lauren Ward on October 28, 2009 at 11:34am — 1 Comment

Letter Analysis - Clothing, Weather and Illness

In the “Cameron Plantation Letters” there are numerous references to the health of the slaves living on the Greene County Alabama plantation. In the hundred or so letters that we have examined, I found thirty-five that directly referenced the health of specific slaves or mentioned their ability to perform work. Of the thirty-five letters, twenty-seven addressed poor health or illness while eight mentioned the overall good health of the slaves. Sickness and illness especially the “chills” of feve… Continue

Added by Aaron Munz on October 27, 2009 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

Plantation Paternalism

Slavery is anathema, but it was not always so. It was quite possible for well-meaning and rational people to practice and defend the “peculiar institution.” Certainly this was the case in the Antebellum South. The thousands engaged in the capture, transport, trade, possession, and control of millions of Africans could not have reconciled themselves to the economic, political, intellectual, cultural, and social structures that supported and maintained slavery without a compelling rationale. Slave… Continue

Added by Robert Coven on October 25, 2009 at 10:29pm — 1 Comment