My grandfather used to work in a plantation that specialized in cash crops.
Like tobacco?
Many actually, coffee, tea, cocoa, and even sugar cane
Wow, that seems like a lot of hard work.  Was he paid well?
Sadly no, earlier forms of plantation agriculture were associated with large disparities of wealth and my grandpa was just a lowly paid worker. 
Did he have to live on the plantation?
Yea he lived in plantation houses in the Southern United States.