Farming and Agriculture

Farming


Back in the time that Sotterley was a working plantation, farming was a big part of their life. Farming was how the plantation got its food and money. Crops such as corn, beans, and squash were grown, so that they could eat those vegetables and not starve. The colonists got money from growing and trading one of their other crops, tobacco. Tobacco could be sold to bring in money that they needed to buy slaves and other things.

Did they plant and harvest all of their food? No. If they didn’t grow it, then who did? One word: Slaves. Plantation owners would use the money that they had made from the tobacco to buy slaves to do the work. Farming really helped the plantation to survive. Slaves were bought at slave markets, with the money from the profit off the tobacco.

The plantation needed farming to live and work in a successful manner. The tobacco and other crops, such as corn and squash, were important for Sotterley. When you go to Sotterley sometime you will probably get to learn at least some about farming. The corn could be ground into cornmeal or corn flour. Then it had more than one use. Sotterley’s main buying and selling crop was tobacco, so farming was key to the survival of the plantation. Sotterley’s farming was very important. Now that you have learned about farming at Sotterley, I hope you can visit the Sotterley plantation soon!


There the Slaves that farmed worked from dawn to dusk. If you can imagine working in a hot field for 12 hours, with no rest, than you would know slave life. You, if you are a kid, would have to look on plants and find bugs, the bugs would kill the plants, so you would have to pluck every single one of them off. They also had to make corn meal by grinding corn with a wooden mallet in a bowl (see picture right). When the meal is done it will look all white with yellow chunks (see picture left). When you go to Sotterley, you will be able to smash corn just like the slaves did, but you are not a slave! At the farming station, you can plant different types of plants, and then come back next year to see how much it's grown.


Here at the farming station you can dig a hole and put a seed into the ground. Then you can use a hoe and hoe the ground like slaves used to do when the plantation of Sotterley was still running. The boxed part of the photograph is what the ground would look like when it is hoed. The unboxed part is not. Then, as we said in the previous paragraph, you can come back next year and see how much your plant has grown.

Here is all the things the owner of the big house had. He had many many many things. He had hundreds of pieces of furniture for his family to stay comfy and warm. Most of the list is full of all the things he grew and his live stock. The list also had all of his slaves and their names. The owner did not have to do any work except for eating, sleeping and punishing his slaves when needed.

This is a picture of the view from the farming station. Isn’t it beautiful!? In the 1600's this would’ve looked like a big valley with lots of plants and fields. This is probably where they planted all the crops that everyone ate. Now it looks so different, I bet you wouldn’t guess what it was in 100 tries. You would go out there every day if you were a slave and pick the bugs off the plants as I said in the first paragraph. That’s a lot of work!! In the picture the boxed part is the water with a closer up picture of the water on top of the page.

Sotterley Fun

There are many cool, old things at Sotterley. There is an old slave cabin, old plantation fields, a stop on the triangular trade route, and a machine. There are really cool things to do at Sotterley like working in the fields like slaves did,also the triangular trade route stop is at Sotterley, there is also a machine that the Sotterley Plantation owners lived in and slaves worked in. One thing you would learn about it is how the slaves had to work in the fields.There are many things about slaves who farmed at Sotterley .At Sotterley there are even trees that are so old that they could be from times of slavery. There are many cool, fun things to do at Sotterley, it is a fun place to visit and a place to learn more about the history of Maryland. So if you want to learn about the history of Maryland, then go to Sotterley!


Did You Know?

  • Did you know slaves worked on the farm for their owner?
  • Did you know the farm was near the slaves`s houses?
  • Did you know the crops and all of the farm belonged to the people who lived in the mansion?
  • Did you know the crops were an important food source for the slaves?
  • Did you know you are still able to plant plants on the farm?
  • Did you know slaves worked all day on the farm?


What Would It Be Like?

Have you wondered what it would be like if you were a slave working in the fields? Well, one thing is that slaves would work all day, morning to night. Also, there were indentured servants that work all day just like the slaves. An indentured servant was a servant that signed a contract that said how many years they had to work for their owner.


Some other things you would do as someone who worked in the fields is that you would plant crops, such as corn, squash, beans, tobacco, and other vegetables. Sometimes they grew and gathered berries. here were also other chores they had to do, but farming was one of the main chores because they needed food to survive. So, if you want to know what it feels like to be a colonial Maryland plantation owner or worker, then go visit Sotterley!



This is one of the fields the slaves worked on. This is what the the field look like when nothing is growing. After the slaves collected all of the crops they rolled it in big barrels.

This is one of the slaves rakes. They softened the ground before planting seeds. The slaves had to grind the corn before they ate it.

Fun Facts About Farming at Sotterley

  • The slaves did the farming.
  • The slaves farmed for themselves and for the people in the mansion.
  • The slaves had their own little farm.
  • The only farm the slaves were allowed to eat from was their little farm.
  • The most crops they planted was tobacco.
  • They planted corn, beans and squash.
  • They learned about the corn, beans and squash from the Indians.
  • The Indians called the corn, beans and squash “the three sisters.”
  • They had erosion problems.
  • The slaves worked all day on the farm.
  • The things slaves worked on was quite confusing. They had to remember things like the 3 sisters (corn, squash, and beans), and you have to remember what plants you should plant together, which you shouldn't plant together and more.
  • The three sisters helped the land get strong.
  • The slaves used many tools for example: they used rakes, hoes, shovels.Those tools helped with many resources in the life of the people back then.
  • Also the work the slaves did at a plantation was very stressful. I say this due to the fact that if a slave didn't do their work for a day, did something mischievous, and so on and so forth they may not get food for a day or a be punished in general with something like maybe getting whipped.
  • The slaves were treated unfair so they had a lot to handle in the fields which made the slave's life harder to live.
  • So let's say you were a slave that was transported to Sotterley Plantation by the Triangular trade route. This could mean that you could be constantly ill, hurt, or you could end up having one of the harshest ways to leave earth, be whipped to death.
  • The slaves were basically property of their owner and could be killed if the owner wished to have them killed.
  • With the unfair life treatment the slaves had a short lifespan due to constant work.
  • The slaves were bought by plantation owners.
  • The slaves did not get to chose what they did in the fields so they did not like what they did.
  • The only things that were different between slaves and indentured servants is that slaves could be killed without their owner getting in trouble but if a indentured servant was killed the indentured servant’s family could be able to sue the owner due to the contract that was signed between the owner and the indentured servant.

In these photographs, students are farming like slaves would be when Sotterley was a working plantation. Students are using the farming tools that the slaves used in colonial times.