The cabin is a two story structure. Frequently, especially in the early days of settlement, the lower floor was used for all activities and chores. The second floor was reserved for sleeping and storage of valuables. It would have been very common for the second story to have been reached by ladder. After all family members were safely upstairs for the night, the ladder would then be drawn up after them.

To see details of some common utensils, click on the picture to the left. Notice the household objects made from gourds and the hand-carved wooden spoons. Also, notice the shoulder yoke hanging on the wall. It is hanging perpendicular to the position it would be in when it was being used. The u-shaped opening is where the person's neck would be. Rope was tied to both end points so that buckets and other heavy items hung from it could be easily carried.

The cabin fireplace was used for both heat and cooking. The nicest cabins had fireplaces of brick or stone, but many cabins had fireplaces of "daub and wattle," sticks held together with clay mud and covered with more mud in an attempt to make them somewhat less flammable. There is a long handled frying pan with legs on the hearth. Such frying pans are more appropriately termed "spyders." The wooden items just to the left of the spyder are for coarsely grinding corn or other grain.

The small rope bed has a trundle bed underneath it. There is a spinning wheel, probably the prize possession of the housewife who would live in this cabin, next to the window.

The contrast between this cabin and the Latta main house is striking. Nevertheless, keep in mind that those two buildings are more alike than this cabin and the virtual lean-tos erected by the earliest settlers. No such early settler cabin is represented at Historic Latta Plantation since the period being portrayed is 1800 to 1840, but it would have been a three-sided shed with cloth and rags hung up across the open side to block the wind and sun.