Planter class

Uncommon card · No. 147347

The planter class was a racial and socioeconomic class which emerged in the Americas during European colonization in the early modern period. Members of the class included settlers of European descent who owned or were financially connected to plantations, large-scale farms devoted to the production of cash crops in high demand across Europe and America. These plantations were often operated by the forced labor of slaves and indentured servants and typically existed in subtropical, tropical, and somewhat more temperate climates, where the soil was fertile enough to handle the intensity of plantation agriculture. Cash crops produced on plantations owned by the planter class included tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, indigo, coffee, tea, cocoa, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, hemp, rubber trees, and fruits. In North America, the planter class formed part of the American gentry. As European settlers began to colonize the Americas from the 15th century onwards, they quickly realized the economic potential...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Agostino Brunias (1728 - 1796) – Artist (Italian, active in Britain (1758-1770; 1777-1780s)) Details on Google Art Project, Public domain