I slept into 10:00am today. It was glorious.
When we finally got moving, we went up to the Bennett Place. Another long story short-the Bennett place is a small house that Johnston and Sherman negotiated the terms of the Confederate surrender.
Here's the outside:
(house on the left, kitchen on the right)
Onto Stagville!
I was pretty excited about this. A historic plantation that dates back to 1787? Still-standing enslaved homes? A really big barn? Yes!
It did not disappoint.
The tour started out the Bennehan home. It was huge. Even by today's standards. The house was extravagant too. Painted walls. Curtains. Glass windows from England. The yellow room was the dining room. The blue room was the "keeping room." Even here, the kitchen was in another building. Once the food was ready, they would move it to this room, before being presented in the dining room.
The cradle you see, was actually used by the family. Wow.
That dark picture you see is the one and only closet in the house. Back then, you were taxed for every door you had in your house. Each door represented a room. Therefore, this closet was considered a "room" and the family was taxed for it. Just another sign of their weath.
And the blue room is the living/entertaining area. This room was BIG. I loved the period furniture pieces. And that picture of the young girl was an original from the house. She was one of the daughters. That piece was amazing and beautiful.
The master bedroom was upstairs. It was big as well. Bigger than my bedroom. I just had to take a picture of the bed. First, it was tiny. (So were the doorways.) But if you look closely, the "boxspring" is really just rope. They used a key to tighten the ropes so you wouldn't sag. Hence, the phrase, "Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite."
You learn something new every day.
Next we had to drive to the enslaved quarters. There are four buildings still standing!
When we went inside, there were four rooms on the bottom. And each family would live in one room. The adults would sleep in the bed, but the kids would sleep on the floor.
The slaves built these themselves too. The tour guide had us look at the bricks in the chiminey. They had to make the bricks and cook them. But if you start looking at the bricks, they are imperfect. They had to leave the bricks out in the sun to dry. But if you notice, the bricks have handprints because they didn't wait until they dried completely. On one brick, there is a small footprint. Likely, from a toddler. I loved how our guide pointed these out.
The great barn was our last stop. This was a little ways down the road. But it was huge! This was build in 1860 by enslaved hands. There was no blueprint plan. And it basically is built like an upside down ship. It has the same techniques and structure as a ship would have been built back then. All wood was carved and cut by hand. I can't even imagine.
You can see that the enslaved community has some skills in building. It was amazing they could build a huge barn with no blueprints, but the fact that most of the buildings are still standing in great condition is a testament to their skills. Amazing.
