A far cry from the lavish Antebellum plantation mansions we all visualize in the Deep South, Jarrell Plantation represents the typical middle-class southern farm. One of a half-million cotton farms of the South, John Jarrell operated his 660 acre farm with the help of his family and 39 slaves. First established in 1847, the plantation complex grew to nearly 1000 acres, producing cotton and subsistence crops.
   Tucked into Georgia's red clay hills, today's Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site covers eight acres. Featuring a simple heart-pine plantation home, the site allows visitors to view numerous plantation buildings, including a steam-driven sawmill, shingle mill, cotton gin, sugar cane press and slave quarters. This unique site, staying in the Jarrell family for over 140 years, survived the Civil War, a typhoid fever epidemic, the cotton boll weevil and emancipation. Donated to the state in 1974, the plantation site allows visitors to casually stroll from building to building, a great way to imagine what life was like on this hillside plantation.
   Found just north of Macon in Juliette, the historic site is open Thursday through Saturday. Surrounded by 200 acres of state owned pure Georgia Piedmont, this site is said to be one of the finest representations of a typical southern plantation.

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