Plantation location seminar Flashcards
Plantations difficult to map true locations today
Primary sources difficult to transcribe/understand
Many people had the same name, confusing
Finding information in secondary sources is difficult
William Barker 1634
Likely took over the lands near Jordan Point
May not have been gifted it
Martin’s Brandon
Belonged to Merchants’ guild
As far as is known
Barker benefitted from
Headright systen
50 acres of land per person transported to Virginia (included himself)
3710 acres total given to Barker
Because he transported 77 people
Barker unlikely to have spent time in Virginia
Because he was a captain
Likely to be travelling to and from
Boundary lines
Uneven
Not exact squares
Henry Nelson (a surveyor)
Walked the land that had never been surveyed
Made notes of the land he’d surveyed
Used compass degrees during surveying process
Difficult to replicate where plantations were today
Due to colloquial terms
E.g Barker had a hickory tree on his land that is not there today so difficult to determine the boundaries
Original drawings of land allocations tend not to survive
Surveyors were a corrupt position
Being employed by someone who annoyed you could be reflected in their land becoming smaller
Likely to have been paid bribes
Planters as humble people who attended the land
Farm labourers
Lack of records of these people due to lowly status
Most Merchants of London
Did not live/step foot in Virginia despite having significant lands there
Longlots
Allocation of land
Occurred in Barbados
Plantations wanted to be on
Part of a navigable river
Allow for imports/exports of people/goods
Headright system after settling of all river banks
Meant the next allocation of land was smaller and more inland
