A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined.

Crops grown on plantations include fast-growing trees (often conifers), cotton, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, sisal, some oil seeds (notably oil palms) and rubber trees. Farms that produce alfalfa, Lespedeza, clover, and other forage crops are usually not called plantations. The term "plantation" has usually not included large orchards (except for banana plantations), but does include the planting of trees for lumber. A plantation is always a monoculture over a large area and does not include extensive naturally occurring stands of plants that have economic value. Because of its large size, a plantation takes advantage of economies of scale. Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have contributed to determining where plantations have been located.

Tamera Lynn Gattis Alexander (born 1961) is an American author of Christian fiction, who specializes in the inspirational romance genre. She is best known for her award-winning first series, the Fountain Creek Chronicles (2006–07).

Tamera Alexander grew up in Decatur, Georgia, the daughter of an insurance company executive and a bank manager. As a child, Alexander enjoyed writing poetry and short stories, but never dreamed of some day writing fiction as a career. She attended and would later graduate high school from Greater Atlanta Christian School in 1979. Early advisors led her to choose what was regarded as a more practical livelihood within the field of business—a discipline she began studying in 1979 while attending Harding University. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management in 1983.

Upon graduation, she began her business career in Atlanta, Georgia, before accepting a position with Data Communications Corporation in Memphis, Tennessee in 1984 as an entry-level customer service representative. Within three years, she had advanced through the company ranks and was managing a staff of 27 employees and supporting corporate clients such as Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS), with a heavy traveling schedule. The arrival of her first child in 1987 and a new employment opportunity for her husband, led to a family relocation to Abilene, Texas, also in 1987. A second child and another job opportunity for her husband resulted in another move in 1990, this time to Greeley, Colorado where she began to experience the landscape and history of the Rocky Mountains.

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues". He was a major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s, and was ranked No. 17 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Although in his later years Muddy usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in 1915, he was actually born at Jug's Corner in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi, in 1913. Recent research has uncovered documentation showing that in the 1930s and 1940s he reported his birth year as 1913 on both his marriage license and musicians' union card. A 1955 interview in the Chicago Defender is the earliest claim of 1915 as his year of birth, which he continued to use in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920, suggesting that his birth year may have been 1914. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the Social Security card application submitted after his move to Chicago in the mid 1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1915. Muddy's gravestone lists his birth year as 1915.

Tariq Nasheed (b.1974) (sometimes nicknamed Tariq Elite, King Flex, K-Flex, ) is a controversial author, documentary film producer, media personality, Internet radio host, relationship expert, and social commentator, focusing on the psychology of dating and African-American social history.

Nasheed's books on dating and finding women include The Mack Within, The Elite Way, and The Art of Mackin, which has been called "something of a classic." Nasheed also wrote an advice book for female readers, Play or Be Played: What Every Female Should Know About Men, Dating, and Relationships.

His television appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,Late Night with Conan O'Brien, MTV's Made, and the Current TV series Joe Gets.

He has been quoted on a wide array of issues, including race relations,intimate relationships and infidelity, and U.S. politics and campaign finance. Nasheed has also been a regular speaker on college campuses on the topics of sex and relationships.

Nasheed produced the 2011 documentary film Hidden Colors, on the history of African and aboriginal peoples. The film had a limited theatrical release around the United States before being made available on DVD.