Beall-Dawson House (2)

By: Alex Williams
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

The historic site that I visited was the Beall-Dawson House. The picture attached is of the Beall-Dawson mansion which was built in 1815 in Rockville, Maryland. As I learned upon my visit, this was the first mansion built in Montgomery County, Maryland. I visited the Beall-Dawson House on June 6th 2009.
For many years I have driven past this house but I never thought that it had this type of history in its past. When I looked up historic sites to visit in Montgomery County and I saw that this location on the list, I became very interested in visiting it and uncovering its past. Knowing that so much history about this country happened so close to where I live really sparked my interest, thus, I went to visit this site. What I found the most fascinating about the Beall-Dawson House was that it allowed me to experience the different lifestyles that slaves, white servants, and slave owners gave me a great appreciation of the hierarchy of the time period.

The Beall-Dawson House depicts a transformation of Montgomery County, Maryland both time-wise and through the expansion of the area. Montgomery County historian and author Maureen Altobello, describes the change as “a time when the affluence of the colonial era met with the resolve of the new federal era; when the rural, agricultural society of Montgomery County began to see the growth of newer and larger settlements” (Altobello, M., 2000). As I toured the house, the tour-guides were very helpful in highlighting the differences between the quality of living amongst the Beall family, white servants and slaves.

Upon my visit to the Beall-Dawson House, I learned that white people who were seen as lower class lived in the same home as the slaves. There were different entrances and exits for both the working class whites as well as the slaves. This was shown when the museum curator informed me that slaves used a ladder to climb through a trap door that leads to their living quarters while the white servants used a small stairway to get to theirs. The Beall’s obviously used the master stairwell. Slaves also had a separate doorway to enter and exit the house. The slave quarters as well as the white servant’s quarters were very small, with little to no furniture, and overall the Bealls owned about 25 slaves.

For those who look to visit the Beall-Dawson House in the future, this building can be used to display the changing attitudes towards slavery as an institution during the Civil War era. The Beall family who once owned about 25 slaves during the early 1800’s until the Civil War, adapted to the Civil War time period by freeing their slaves and appropriating land plots at the northern edge of the Beall property. The acquisition of property allowed blacks in the area to form a small community within the Rockville area located on Martin’s Lane.

Stagville, NC

By: Ebone' Pruitt
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

As a visiting summer school student I am taking classes for Montgomery College online while I am living in North Carolina where my home school is, North Carolina Central University. After talking to one of my mass communication teachers, Mr. Chambers, earlier in the week he told me about the Stagville and, said it would be good place to do the assignment. I live Durham, NC and had no idea that I lived in an area that was once home to one of the south’s largest plantations. Now called Historic Stagville Plantation, it was once a thriving tobacco plantation housing at its peak in 1860 an estimated 900 slaves and comprised of 30,000 acres.

When I visited the site on Thursday, June 4, there were numerous locations that could be photographed that captured the lives of pre civil war African Americans in North Carolina. The first picture is of the Bennehan house, master’s house, which was built in 1787 and a second story addition was added in 1799. The next picture of is of the oak dresser that still sits in the Bennehan’s master bedroom which was crafted by a free African American. Finally I chose a picture of one of the slave’s cabins called Horton Grove, which was particularly different and rare compared to most slave quarters.

The first picture is that of the Bennehan house. This was the house of Richard Bennehan, his wife Mary, and daughter Rebecca lived. In 1787 Richard Bennehan bought 66 acres of land from Judith Stagg, hence that reason the area is called Stagville after the last name of Judith Stage. In 1787 the original one and a half house was built. In the picture that is the one level side on the left of the house. The second story and right side of the house was added 12 years later in 1799. One my tour of the plantation I was told that The Bennehan house, as well as other plantation houses in North Carolina, were considerable smaller than other plantation houses in the south. Still, the house was quite large. One room in the house is about the size the typical farm house.

In the picture of the house on just the back side you can count 8 windows. The windows might seem insignificant but, each one of those windows had to be made and sipped from England to North Carolina. The location of Stagville it is over almost one hundred miles from the coast and there are no major railroads or rivers that could get the windows to the house more easily so, they had to be shipped by land. Having so many glass windows at this time showed the wealth of this family. Along with the glass windows in the house, every nail also had to be shipped from England.

Also the location of the house sits on top of a hill. Before the trees and brush grew up about 70 years ago it was a looking directly down on the slave cabins. For the slaves looking up to the large white house on top of a hill showed the dominance and power the master had over the slaves. I chose this picture because though slaves did not occupy the house, it was still a symbol of their enslavement. I thought it was significant the positioning of the house. The way the house looked down on the slaves, how the slaves looked up to the house, and house the house was so far away from the slave quarters showing the separation of the two was interesting. The next picture is of a dresser that was in the master bedroom of the Bennehan house. The reason the dresser was so important to me because I offered another look into the lives of pre-civil war African Americans. Unlike most African Americans of this area and time period that man who created this dresser was a free African American. Unfortunately the tour guide could not recall the man’s names he was able to tell us about his life. This man was born free and lived in the area. The Bennehan’s as well as other wealthy land owners in the area sought out his work. The dresser was made in approximately 1810 and, has stayed in the room since then. It is also known that he was a slave owner himself. It is reported that he owned five or six slaves in his lifetime. The top of the dresser top is made of solid marble. The entire dresser was crafted by hand. Being that it was entirely made by hand and the fine quality of the materials used to construct the dresser, it was an expensive piece of furniture for its time.

The reason I chose this picture was because it showed a life and history about African Americans that is not told. The man who created this beautiful piece of work was a free black man whose mother was free likewise. I chose this picture because I wanted to show to the contrary of what white Americans at this time thought about African Americans. They thought that they were inferior to the white race and this piece of furniture shows otherwise. It shows that blacks were talented and capable of the same things as their white counterparts. The Bennehan’s were extremely wealthy and could afford a piece made by anyone and, they chose that of an African American.This is a picture of the slave quarters called Horton House. This is one of four houses in this area that are similar in structure. For this time period most slave houses where one room shacks with one door and no place for proper ventilation. When this house is now there once stood a one room slave house similar to other slave quarters but, due to an alarming high death, illness, and disease rate these new slave quarters were built in the 1850’s. Each of the four houses housed up 40 slaves at a time. There are four rooms in the house and, each room housed one family. If you look at the base of the house you can see it is elevated because it helped keep the ground from flooding and, by the ground being raised disease carrying insects were less likely to reside in houses with elevated floors.

Also the walls are brick unlike most slave houses that had wood planks for walls. The bricks were used for installation purposes and less the likelihood of infestation of rodents. If you look at the fire place, which was bricked by slaves, there are indentations of the slaves fingerprints in the bricks. Also, the material used to hold the bricks together is similar to the materials used in Africa by Africans who constructed their houses.

I chose this picture because again it shows the massive size and wealth of this plantation. On the large 30,000 acre plantation these four houses only housed 180 of the slave population. Throughout the plantation there were other massive compounds if you would call it of slaves. To me it spoke of the extreme power the Bennehan’s had in this area that I now call home.

After visiting Stagville I found it quiet interesting that this major historical site was 20 minutes away from where I lived and I had no idea it even existed. This assignment was an eye opening experience. I might sound corny but , I swear I could feel the souls of the slaves on the land. Two hundred years ago for all I know some of my ancestors could have been slaves on this very plantation. The three pictures that I felt spoke to me most hopefully will inspire someone to look into their past.

Northhampton Plantation (2)

By: Min Park
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

It was 3rd of June when I visited this archaeological site called Northampton slave quarter located in Prince Georges County, Maryland. I found the Northampton slave quarter from the official site of the Maryland Office of Tourism. The address and phone number were shown on the web and I called ahead the office of the site to ask direction and to let them know that I was coming. It was located on Lake Overlook Drive between Water Port Court and Lake Overlook Place in Lake Arbor, Maryland.

The place used to be slave quarter for Northampton plantation and according to the information board for the park, the place first belonged to Thomas Sprigg from 1673 then it was sold to Dr. John Contee Fairfax in 1865. The house was taken care of by the family of Thomas Sprigg and servants for almost 200 years.

The reason why I chose this site for the assignment was because it always has been fascinating for me to visit historical sites. Visiting there where you can tell that something actually happened on the exact spot where you stand gave me the feeling that I can be the part of history.

The site is located in the middle of town houses. Coming out from I-495 to small streets, I passed many single houses and town houses. The park was surrounded by these houses; it looked like people who live in the neighborhood can actually walk from their backyard to the park.

There used to be plantation of tobacco and crops and many slaves were gathered to work on the farm. The plantation was about a 1000-acre tract of land. Even though it was the only foundation of building left there, it was enough for me to draw a picture in my head how big the house was and a well at the back yard of house showed that people in the houses were getting water from the well.

Some tenants and slaves who worked in the plantation still reside in Prince Georges County. After James and Raymond Smith moved away from the house, they visited their grandmother, Susie Smith in 1930s. It is an archaeological site, the information board included what the archaeologist found in the buildings; animal bones, potteries, and tobacco pipes, etc. Unfortunately there were not displays of the findings available. I thought that it might have been more fun if I got to do the digs with them. Visiting the slave quarter I developed a better understanding about life in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Northampton Plantation

By: Juanita Fisher
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

The Northampton Plantation is a self-guided archaeological site that is located in Northlake residential in Lake Arbor, MD, which is in Prince George’s County at a community park. I was fortunate to find this location doing an internet search. I chose this site because it is approximately 15 miles from where I reside and I had no idea of the history that was so close to where I live. I recently visited the location on May 30th with my family, who really enjoyed the history of seeing a slave quarter.

Excavation took place in the 18th century with artifacts, oral histories, and historical documents. The excavation continued from dwelling, while the foundation and partial walls of the brick quarters have been constructed three centuries later which I have taken pictures of. Many of the slaves remained in the Prince George’s county surrounding area.

The Northampton Plantation was a tobacco plantation that also produced other crops from the 1600s. The land was granted by Charles Calvert, Esq. the third to Thomas Sprigg. Thomas Sprigg and his family lived and owned slaves for 200 centuries . If you would visit this location as of today you would find the remains of the main plantation house, out building, and two slave quarters. The site relates to African American history because of the plantation on which slaves reside on for 200 centuries, and this was a prominent plantation in Prince George’s County for growing tobacco.