Plantation's Past

Beyond the Bryan Plantation

The Bryans were one plantation family among many. By 1860, the census counted more than twice as many slaves as white residents in Houston County, and dozens of plantations held forty or more people. The Bryan estate fell right in the middle, a typical plantation of its day, neither small nor one of the larger estates.

Most of Houston County's old plantations are little known. A few have appeared in history books and newspaper articles, but in recent times almost no one has looked at them as a whole. Perhaps that's because slavery is a hard subject to approach, and it isn't as far in our past as it seems.

To help us better understand Houston County in the years before the Civil War, the Plantation Register brings together the families who held slaves, generally ten or more according to the census, and combines their records with local history. For descendants of both the enslaved and the families who held them, a name found here can open a whole family story. The Register keeps growing as more records come to light.