In the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, a plantation is a type of
minor civil division falling between
unincorporated area
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
and a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
. The term, as used in this sense in modern times, appears to be exclusive to Maine. Plantations are typically found in sparsely populated areas.
History
No other
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
state has an entity equivalent to a plantation.
used the term "plantation" in
colonial times
The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...
for a community in a pre-town stage of development. Maine probably originally got the term from Massachusetts, as Maine was once part of Massachusetts. The term, however, has been out of wide use in Massachusetts since the 18th century. The term was also used in
colonial Rhode Island, and a vestige remained in the official State name until 2020,
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
.
Writing in 1949, author Richard Walden Hale in ''The Story of Bar Harbor'' described the formation of a plantation as follows:
First came the survey, without which no settlement was legal. Land so surveyed was divided into 'townships,' which in New England means areas planned for development into full-fledged towns. Then certain proprietors--who might be a religious congregation, a group of speculators, or a group of would-be settlers--bought the 'township,' 'planted it' with settlers, and saw to it that land was reserved for a church and school. When enough settlers had been planted, limited self government was granted, and the township was raised in status to a 'plantation.' When the population of the 'plantation' should have grown large enough, another step forward was taken, the area received full civil rights, the full town organization came into force, and in those days one representative in the legislature or 'General Court' was automatically allotted to the new town. ... Such a system still holds good in Maine. ... To this day one can go thirty miles northeast of Bar Harbor and find, still unsettled, Township Number Seven, just back of Gouldsboro and Sullivan, and then go twenty miles southeast--in each case as the crow flies--and find Swan's Island Plantation, where to this day there is not enough population for the full complement of town officials.
Despite a further shrinking population, with a permanent population of 468 in 1950 and only 331 in 2012,
Swan’s Island was later incorporated as a town, possibly aided by regular state ferry service which began in 1960. Today the town is a popular summer colony, with a seasonal summer population of over 1,000.
See also
*
List of plantations in Maine
Maine is a state located in Northeastern United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, Maine is the 9th least populous state, with 1,372,247 inhabitants, and the 12th smallest by land area spanning of land. Maine is divided into ...
*
Plantation (settlement or colony)
In the history of colonialism, a plantation was a form of colonization where settlers would establish permanent or semi-permanent colonial settlements in a new region. The term first appeared in the 1580s in the English language to describe the p ...
*
Rhode Island § Origins of the name
Further reading
*James J. Haag, "A Study of Plantation Government in Maine." Orono, ME: Bureau of Public Administration, University of Maine, 1973.
References
{{authority control
Geography of Maine