Many myths surround farming in the past. At Colonial Williamsburg, the past is 230 years ago and dealing with myths is part of our daily interpretation. The Rural Trades agriculturalists working at Colonial Williamsburg's Great Hopes Plantation are a combination of historical farmers and historians. Our motto is "real work for a real purpose." We actually raise corn, tobacco, and wheat using eighteenth-century methods and technology. But, we are also historians who constantly do research so we can more fully understand the past. We then put this information to work in what we do and say.

We encounter plenty of myths—one of the most frequent of which is that farming in the past was awful, degrading, and mundane work. We are sure some people of the past actually thought so, and you might, too. But think about it. Do you know people who do not like their work? We think that was just as true then as it is now. Much reward can be found in agricultural work. We tend to view the big picture rather than the small picture. For example, it's not much fun to hoe weeds in the blazing hot sun. Yet, we feel a unique pride when looking at a well-tilled field at day's end. A similar myth is that it does not take much skill or smarts to raise crops. On the contrary! We have many skills that play into our daily work, including everything from driving a horse to knowing when to pick corn. Each skill is a critical part of making a crop. In fact, eighteenth-century planters who were really good at growing tobacco were termed “crop masters.”

We also encounter plenty of historical myths. A typical historical myth involves the term "plantation." What images do you see when you think of that word? In reality, an eighteenth-century plantation could be a small, medium, or large operation that concentrated on one cash crop. By 1774, many plantations were beginning to focus on two or more cash crops—a process called diversification. In our case, this includes tobacco, wheat, and corn. So, because they were growing two or more cash crops instead of relying solely on tobacco, Great Hopes was really a plantation becoming a farm.

A consistent myth about plantation life is that the white family lived a life of ease and the slaves did all of the work. Not so on a “lower sort” or "middling sort" plantation. Slaves lived incredibly difficult lives in many ways—slavery was not only a physical reality, but also a psychological one. Yet, in the area of work on small to middling plantations, the white family would often work right alongside the slaves.

One of the most enduring myths is that people of the past used everything and wasted little. Nothing could be further from the truth! We encounter this preconceived notion in everything from shavings left over from woodworking to corn stalks rotting in the field. For then, as now, farming is about time and efficiency. Here's an example: when clearing forest for planting, eighteenth-century farmers often killed trees by girdling them (cutting around the base) and leaving them to rot. This certainly is wasteful! But, crops cannot grow in shade. Also, trees are difficult to move with horses or oxen (we know this firsthand!). They had to ask themselves if the time and effort was worth it. Often it was not, so the tree was wasted.

The Rural Trades agriculturalists are all about helping our guests understand the past. The eighteenth century was a fascinating time that helped us become the Americans we are today. Along the way we encounter plenty of myths. Our job is to take these myths and shape them into the reality that the past really was!


This article was written by Ed Schultz, Rural Trades Supervisor, and Wayne Randolph, Rural Trades Agricultural Specialist, Department of Historic Trades, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.