The Picture the Past series looks at the many kinds of communities in America's past. Each book describes what made each community different and what children and adults did each day. Life on a Southern Plantation In this book, discover what life was like on a southern plantation before the Civil War. See how slaves were forced to work. Learn how plantation children and slaves dressed. Visit the owner's big house and a slave cabin. Then use a recipe to make a plantation dessert-sweet potato pie.