The author offers a historical treatment of Louisiana's longstanding sugar industry, tracing its transplantation from its sources in the Caribbean and including many aspects of material culture which have been changed over time by technology, culture and marketplace. He demonstrates what makes a plantation a plantation, comparing it to other forms of agricultural production and examining the types of buildings and design that make up this erstwhile form. To know the land and the people, Rehder argues, one must follow an evolutionary journey reflected by plantation architecture. The book combines analyses of landscape, economy, architecture and agronomy, probing the long-term evolution of the sugarcane trade from Old World industry to French Caribbean legacy.