Over the past few decades the conceptual metaphors of time, space, and labor have been an organizing focus of the geohistorical discourse of social change. This essay explores the involvement of contested time and labor in shaping the fragmented social geographies of the late antebellum American South. The examination is focused on the intraregional differentiation of time and labor systems and on their ramifications for the development of agrarian capitalism in the context of southern plantations. The descriptive and analytical evidence supports the new staple theory. The physical character of staple crops such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice made determinant influences on cultivation methods, seasonal routines, labor organizations, mentalite, and the development of plantation capitalism.