Over the years, the map of Barrow’s plantation has appeared in many textbooks, it portrays how a southern plantation evolved over time. The plantation first appeared in Scriber’s Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People, Volume 21, Issue 5, in March of 1881. From recent satellite images, you can see that Barrow’s plantation has not changed much since the Reconstruction. It has been able to keep the same shape for more than 186 years. To this day Barrow's plantation is still operating and providing cotton for society. From the aerial view of Barrow's plantation, it is hard to tell, but Pope Barrow's house is still located on the plantation, however we cannot tell if the other cabins are still there.
Barrow’s plantation is hard to locate. We had to start by finding information and maps about the county in which it is located, Oglethorpe County. From there we found that Barrow’s plantation is located off Route 22, between Philomath, Georgia and Maxey's, Georgia. The plantations closest edge is located approximately 1.2 miles SW of Philomath and the farthest edge is about 2.25 miles SW of Philomath. We were unable to find the exact coordinates of Barrow’s Plantation, but we found the coordinates for Philomath, which is latitude 33.724162 and longitude -82.762010
The map in the textbooks, however, has some errors in it, the major error being its orientation. Having consulted many sources, mainly by looking at the position of the rivers, one can see that barrows plantation is not positioned correctly. Although this is the major error, there are other small ones as well. For example, there is no compass on the original map, so one cannot determine which is north. There is no scale, which every map must have.
The plantation seems to have increased in size, but the most compelling thing about it is that it is actually used and that it actually still exists. Although it has increased its size, for the most part the geographical layout coincides with the older maps. However, one is not able to see any houses with our current resources.
http://hist120miner.typepad.com/photos/barrows_plantation_photos/index.html This album includes the pictures associated with Barrow’s Plantation. The first picture is a satellite aerial view of the plantation. The next one is of the slave cabin located on the plantation. This photo was taken in 1899. The photo shows a slave cabin located on Pope Barrow's Plantation. The next picture related to the plantation is a picture of African-American children picking cotton in front of Pope Barrow's home. The Barrow's plantation was known for cotton production. The third photo associated with the plantation is a picture of Pope Barrow’s house; Pope Barrow's house is located between Athens and Lexington, Georgia and was built in 1820. And finally, the last photo is an aerial view of the plantation with its boundaries outlined. As you can see in this picture, the boundaries are almost exactly the same as it was when the plantation first started.
Satellite images of the area show that the physiographic area of the plantation has not changed very much. The Master’s house seems to be located in the same place, the Gin house seems to have moved. If you look back at the photo of the slave cabin, it shows that it has been moved because it does not seem to have a permanent foundation. Most of these changes came about after the Reconstruction since the Barrow’s sold small plots of land to non-relatives. The smaller houses may have changed locations as well. Many changes occurred over the history the almost 200 year history of Barrow’s plantation, nevertheless, the most astounding fact is that the plantation still exists and is still being used.
Thomas, I thought that the overall “tone” of the essay that your group put together was pretty good. I got the feeling that you guys knew what you were talking about. There were also a lot of errors. It seemed that the essay was poorly edited. There were a bunch of miss used commas. For example in the final paragraph the two sentences, “The Master’s house seems to be located in the same place, the Gin house seems to have moved. If you look back at the photo of the slave cabin, it shows that it has been moved because it does not seem to have a permanent foundation.” In the first sentence the there should have been a conjunction or two separate sentences, and in the second one the comma was not needed. I did not like the way the photos were presented. It was just placed in the middle of the essay all at once. You should have tried to spread them out periodically with the information provided or all at the end as an overview. The thesis was 2 sentences. A thesis statement should be only one sentence long. Overall the information was conveyed, but it will be the little things as well that will put your essay over-the-top.
Posted by: Brian You | November 02, 2006 at 06:33 PM