What is the layout of a Southern plantation?
According to Ingolf Vogeler, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, most Southern plantations had very similar layouts. Buildings made an arc around a yard or courtyard with the owner’s mansion at the top, domestic buildings on one side of the arc and farming buildings on the other side.Domestic BuildingsPlantations, such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon, often featured domestic buildings that included a kitchen closest to the main house, a smokehouse, chicken coop, washhouse, coach house and stable. There was also usually a yard for doing laundry, a kitchen garden and paddock in this area. Some plantations also featured rooms for tutors and gardeners.Work BuildingsOn the other side of the mansion there were usually buildings more associated with farm work, such as a storehouse, barns, grain shed, cotton gin, mills and blacksmith shop. Some also featured an office for the planter or owner and a pottery shop.Slave QuartersField slaves were housed in quarters
