My references are as follows: the literal sugarcane that is growing behind them in the following two gifs:


See the guy with the machete behind Thomas in the second one, cutting down canes? See the piles of the stuff lying in the cart? Now, here’s a picture of actual sugar cane:

Also, here is a section of a book discussing how the British tried to set up sugar plantations in Georgia and failed – this is right around the right time for them to have been doing that:
In conclusion – Oglethorpe’s plantation is a sugar farm, which is to say it’s dangerous as fuck. Here is a link to my source on that: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/archaeology/caribbean/plantations/caribbean35.aspx