Our last sightseeing trip of last weekend was to take Rachel to see Horton Grove where are found the only remaining two-story slave quarters in North Carolina. Mark and I had been here while visiting my sister and brother-in-law in December 2011, but we were anxious to come back, not only to show Rachel, but also to see the area in springtime.
Wikipedia provides the following information about Horton Grove:
"Horton Grove was an area of houses for enslaved African-Americans at the 30,000-acre (120 km2) Bennehan-Cameron plantation complex, which included Stagville Plantation in the northeastern part of Durham County, North Carolina. The slaves who lived at Horton Grove were held by the influential Bennehan and Cameron families. In 1860, 900 total slaves were held on the complex ...
"The quarters at Horton Grove, which were constructed by enslaved craftsmen in the early 1850s, were the culmination of decades of gradual improvements at the plantation complex. The dwellings at Horton Grove represented the pinnacle of slave house development and include shuttered windows, multiple stories, brick chimneys, and raised stone foundations. These structures were occupied continuously until as late as the 1970s. After the American Civil War, many of the once-enslaved people stayed on the property as sharecroppers and continued to live in these dwellings."
Additional information was found on a sign at the site (below) and quite a bit more about Stagville and Horton Grove can be found on this
fascinating website.
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| The historic Hart House, dating back to before the Revolution. Photo by Koen van der Drift. |
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| As one can see, the Hart House has a foundation consisting of loose stone. |
When Mark and I visited this place in 2011, we found it haunting, and the fact that no one else was there when we were there contributed to this sensation. The same was true with our visit last Sunday. We were the only people there.
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| Photo by Mark Koepke |
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| Photo by Mark Koepke |
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| Photo by Rachel Broom |
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| Photo by Mark Koepke |
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| Photo by Mark Koepke |
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