Daily Life on a Southern Plantation — Paul Erickson

In this handsome book, you will meet the Hendersons, who live on a Southern plantation with their children in 1853. You'll also meet Daddy Major, Rosena, Scipio, and Cicero, slaves who work in the Big House and in the cotton fields. Full-color photographs of interiors, clothing, and objects, plus artwork and oral history, document a typical day on a plantation. You will see the stately bedrooms and dining room of the plantation house, as well as the simple slave quarters and cabins. Inside the Big House, morning chores are done and the children readied for school (or play); in the kitchen house, food is cooked and bread is baked; and in the sugar house, cane is crushed. Readers will learn about mealtimes, leisure hours, doctors and disease, and bedtimes. They'll also learn about attitudes toward slavery, slave meetings in the woods, and much more in this unique visit to a restored Southern plantation in New Iberia, Louisiana.