Recreates a southern plantation of 1853 and describes the daily lives of its owners and of the slaves who worked there.

A detailed portrait of a cotton plantation in the Deep South before the Civil War, based on a real plantation house in Louisiana. Here is the world of the Southern plantation seen from two views: the owners, who rule over their 900-acre domain from the stately, well-appointed Big House, and the slaves, who live in small wooden cabins, toil long hours, and hope for freedom. Through many detailed and colorful photographs of exteriors, interiors, and artifacts; drawings; a time line and glossary; and an information-packed narrative, readers will experience for themselves everyday life on a pre-Civil War Southern plantation. Includes more than 130 original color photos of artifacts and interiors from the Big House and slaves' quarters, and a list of places to visit.

Discusses everyday life, family roles, cooking methods, most important foods, and celebrations of people on southern plantations before the Civil War. Includes recipes.

Describes what it was like traveling on the Oregon Trail, including what travelers ate, wore, and saw along the route

Publisher Description

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) is best known for designing parks in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, and the grounds of the Capitol in Washington. But before he embarked upon his career as the nation's foremost landscape architect, he was a correspondent for theNew York Times, and it was under its auspices that he journeyed through the slave states in the 1850s. His day-by-day observations--including intimate accounts of the daily lives of masters and slaves, the operation of the plantation system, and the pernicious effects of slavery on all classes of society, black and white--were largely collected in The Cotton Kingdom. Published in 1861, just as the Southern states were storming out of the Union, it has been hailed ever since as singularly fair and authentic, an unparalleled account of America's "peculiar institution."