The right answer is: C) A small portion. The richest planters, such as the Virginia elite with plantations near the James river, owned more land and slaves than other farmers. Although most Southerners were not slave owners, and most slave owners had ten or fewer slaves, the planters were those who had a significant number of slaves, mostly as agricultural labor. References to planters are often as belonging to the elite or plantation aristocracy of the prewar south.
