At Home Among the Red Hills

Southern quail hunting plantations emerged in the late 1800s as wealthy northerners began to buy the old cotton plantations to enjoy the temperate southern Georgia and northern Florida winters and also to indulge in the genteel sport of quail hunting. Many of these quail plantations are known for their attractive main houses and beautiful landscapes, but running the plantations depended upon a large community of African Americans who worked as domestic help, wage laborers, and tenant farmers. The tenant farmers who resided on the plantations were an important part of the community, not only for their assistance in the operation of the large plantations, but also because of the self-sufficient communities of tenant farms they created on the vast tracts of land. Unfortunately a lack of written records left behind by the African American residents have caused the history and lifestyle of these inhabitants to remain relatively unexplored. However, by examining business ledgers kept by the owner of Tall Timbers, oral histories taken of former inhabitants, and interpreting material culture recovered during an archaeological excavation that took place on an abandoned tenant farm the story of the families who once lived on the plantation can be uncovered. This thesis endeavors to tell the history of the tenant farm families who once farmed Tall Timbers Plantation in the red hills of Florida during the early 1900s, thus exposing an integral part of African American History in the South.