plantation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A large farm; estate or area of land designated for agricultural growth. Often includes housing for the owner and workers.

   “Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.”

   “Across the street from the church, which is lovingly known as Mother Emanuel, is Marion Park. Until recently, this where a statue of Vice President John C. Calhoun, a slaveowner and staunch supporter of antebellum plantation slavery, stood. […] Drayton Hall, one of the oldest surviving plantations in the South, actively encourages visitors to pay respects at the African-American cemetery on site.”

2. (countable, uncountable)An area where trees are planted, either for commercial purposes, or to adorn an estate.

   “She used to bound through the plantations, her eye first caught by one object, then another, gazing round for something to admire and to love. Now she walked slowly, her eyes fixed on the ground, as if, in all the wide fair world, there was nothing to attract nor to interest.”

3. (countable, historical, uncountable)The importation of large numbers of workers and soldiers to displace the local population, such as in medieval Ireland and in the Americas; colonization.

   “Had I plantation of this Iſle my Lord.”

4. (countable, historical, uncountable)A colony established thus.

   “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (former official name of Rhode Island, United States)”

   “The King of Beni, the Lord of seven Kingdomes hath written to mee for Baptisme : but I cannot forsake these two Kings till I have other helpe. This Countrey is as healthfull as any I ever came in, and Sierra Leona would be a fit place for a plantation of the Society : for which King Philip wrote to the Catholike King, offering a place to erect a Fort, and commending the largenesse, wholsomnesse, and fertilitie of his Countrey.”

   “All theſe Bell-flowers do grow in our Gardens, where they are cheriſhed for the beautie of their flowers. The Couentry Bels doe not grow wilde in any of the parts about Couentry, as I am credibly informed by a faithfull Apothecary dwelling there, called Maſter Brian Ball, but are nouriſhed in Gardens with them, as they are in other places. The laſt groweth neere the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is ſeated.”

   “Capt. John Maſon, a young and enterpriſing man, had been in Newfoundland as governor of the plantation made there in 1611, and was now returned into England. He immediately joined Gorges in ſettling New England, and their joint enterpriſe ſucceeded.”