Heritage, Volume 5, Number 3, Autumn 1987 Page: 34
38 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
that I've longed for a book these many
years that would provide a communication
with that past of which my imagination
would love to have been a part.
I have been more than gratified by
Elizabeth Silverthorne's book Plantation
Life in Texas. You will excuse me if
I say it is simply a wonderful book. It
touches not just the mind, but all the
human senses. You can imagine the
pleasing texture of large wedding
cakes and loaf cakes being baked in the
plantation kitchens. The pungent odor
of green coffee beans roasting for ultimate
consumption as coffee, in enormous
quantity by field hands and
masters alike. The smell of corn being
cooked in its multitudinous forms for
plantation sustenance. The book makes
you feel the passing of the seasons and
the fragrance of blooming and harvested
plantation crops. For as the author
illustrates, the plantation owner literally
had to be a man for all seasons.
There was a time for planting and harvesting,
a time for repairing and preparing,
a time for hunting, and a time
for entertaining. Every duty and every
leisure had its appointed time and
season. Plantation living was not a life
of leisure, but one crammed with the
need for raising the majority of the
things required to preserve life and add
spice to it. A plantation owner raised
his own meat, mostly pork, his corn and
other vegetables which he stored for
winter use, and most of his staples.
Every large plantation had its own
blacksmith, leather maker, and woodscraftsman.
They produced not only
necessities, but most of the things required
for entertainment, such as toys
and dolls for the children, and liquor,
tobacco and all-night balls for the
adults. The women-folk were adept at
administering an advanced form of firstaid
and providing education, where
required, for the household, including
in some instances the slave population.
The author makes us recognize that
plantation life was equal parts regular
duty and seasonal obligations. Flavored
with the responsibilities of managing
a large agrarian estate, there was a
bitter side. That was, of course, slavery.
The book gives equal treatment totwo unequal classes of people: the slave
and the master. A wealth of material
shows the dark side of slavery, and at
the same time, balances that against the
34individual affections that frequently
develop between black slave and white
master. There is no attempt to apologize
for slavery. Every aspect of white life is
compared with that of the slaves who
always got less of everything than their
white counterparts. As the subjects of
niggerly treatment in areas of necessities
and non-existent luxuries and the
near total absence of freedom, the slave
nevertheless manufactured for himself
a position of dignity and absolute
necessity.
The cash crop of all plantations was
cotton, and cotton was produced on the
backs of slave labor. Cotton was theking in Texas, as it was throughout the
antebellum South. It was currency that
gave Texas plantation owners access to
silks, wines and leisure time. With
slave freedom in 1865, plantation life
withered like a browning magnolia
blossom. Years of tradition and a system
of life, both good and bad, ended
with the finality of an animal gone to
extinction. Thankfully, Plantation Life in
Texas gives us an opportunity to see that
time in history forever. As you turn the
pages, you'll chur butter, learn about
black voodoo, be exposed to the
dreaded cholera epidemics, and render
hogs, make soap, mill sugarcane, chopTYPESCRIPT
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Typesetting * Graphic Design
ADVERTISEMENTS * BROCHURES
PUBLICATIONS
BUSINESS FORMS
12180-A Burnet Road
Austin, Texas 78758
834-TYPE
... proud to be a part of Heritage
Joni Mundey, Owner
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 5, Number 3, Autumn 1987, periodical, Autumn 1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45439/m1/34/?rotate=270: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.