That's the conclusion of decades of research by historian and genealogist Antoinette Harrell, who described her findings in a series of interviews for Vice published today (Feb. 28). The American South was relatively free of slavery for more than 250 years. Slave masters, especially those who dwelled in the western border of the Confederate states, simply chose not to tell their slaves they were free. From 1963 well into the 1970s, the light company leased the land to a company, Milliken and Farwell, Inc (I found this weird because Milliken and Farwell, Inc were the original owners of the plantation) for a share of the sale of their crop of sugar cane that they produced on the plantation. As I continued my research, I came across an interview that seemed fairly simulator to this case. The tenant sugar cane farmers on the Waterford Plantation lived in houses provided, with free rent, by the plantation owner. The Waterford plantation was a large plantation with many slaves. This concludes the research material on Waterford Plantation, originally the Darensbourg Tract. the fields at the nearby Waterford Plantation in St. Charles Parish, La . Historian Antionette Harrell has studied cases of Black people living as slaves a century after the nation signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It took them a long time to save the money to payoff the landowner the debts they had. The article also contains a short documentary that follows Harrell as she conducts her research, and includes interviews with people who were enslaved through peonage. I have not been able to find a record of Jefferson County resident Ferdinando Fairfax's slaves. Sam Alleman works at the present Waterford site, and says that we can still see some of the concrete foundations of Waterfords sugar house to this day. The buildings were constructed on a line, with their fronts also facing the same direction. One year a hurricane ruined the harvest and F. Evans Farwell, the owner, gave the workers a bonus anyway. Originally known as the Darensbourg Tract, this site at the time of purchase was Waterford Plantation, one of the last surviving plantations in St. Charles Parish. In 1976, architectural historian John Lewis called the foursome, along with the now destroyed outbuildings at the Exeter plantation in Leesburg, the finest surviving dependencies in Loudoun County. In 1721, Ambroise Heidel (1702-ca. I was 13 years old, and the history books are teaching me that slavery was abolished and Lincoln freed the slaves. I dont believe that your story and the story of the slaves are the same. I lived on The Laura Plantation in Vacherie,Louisiana until the 1970. From about 1817 to 1861, as many as 100,000 slaves fled bondage through the Underground Railroad, and hundreds of them passed through Fauquier and Loudoun counties, often en route to Pennsylvania. CRUEL, HARSH & SICK. Marcus was hired to pick cotton on a plantation at the age of ten. ", Saffer said, "The actions of some of your ancestors are things you can't control. This explains why two overlapping enumerations exist for the township in 1790one for Waterford Plantation in Cumberland County, the other for "Waterford Town" in York County. They received scrip which could only be spent @ the company store. The stone building is within sight of Arcola, a village known before the Civil War as Springfield, or Gum Spring. The tour guide said that people lived in the cabins until 1973. Waterford slaves were also paid for their work, and were given half-days off on Saturday to tend to their own gardens. Saffer was a charter member, as was Arlean Hill of Chaptico, Md., who knew that some of her ancestors had been slaves in Fairfax and Loudoun counties. To see a man cry and see the tears in their eyes, it was just heartbreaking for me, said Antoinette Harrell of when she met with them nearly 20 years ago. When did slavery end? So while the people technically werent enslaved because they owed those debts because landowners around there were often also the only business owner so you had to go through them to get your essential Goods in order to survive. Andrew Page, on the Smith farm, where he too, was employed after the war. One woman who grew up in another of the buildings laughs about the embarrassment of her prim and proper mother about living in a "former tavern". I see now that all were not really freed. I hope this helps to clarify and explain some of what has happened historically, as well as, helped you to see some of these same predatory practices being used now on most of our American society by those who would have us borrow money without any limits at all. Klein, who owned slaves himself, was undoubtedly pleased to offer his establishment for the sale in 1830 of a local slave trader's holdings. She evidently was a family favorite, for one of George Smith's daughters left her $100 in her 1888 will with the unusual stipulation that her husband was to have no say in how she spent the money. She said a woman introduced her to about 20 people who had worked on the Waterford Plantation in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, as slaves until the 1960s. by Eugene Scheel My father-in-law was a boy in the early 1940s. F. Evans Farwell, the last owner of the Waterford Plantation prior to the purchase by LP&L, resides in New Orleans and recalls that Milliken and Farwell, Inc. had extensive holdings, including Waterford, Smithfield, Westover, Little Texas and St. Emma Plantations. The Louisiana Constitution, passed in 1864, resulted in the Guillot familys liberation from slavery. Originally known as the Darensbourg Tract, this site at the time of purchase was Waterford Plantation, one of the last surviving plantations in St. Charles Parish. While the plantation system is no longer as prominent as it once was, it still exists in some parts of the South. I would like to know other people who had this experience. In 1963 the company wanted to expand, so they brought some of the Waterford Plantation. White families refused to give up their right to own slaves. You can find his past science reporting at Inverse, Business Insider and Popular Science, and his past photojournalism on the Flash90 wire service and in the pages of The Courier Post of southern New Jersey. As a child, Miller would get sent up to the landowner's house on the farm where her family was enslaved and "raped by whatever men were present," sometimes alongside her mother. And also, how did those who were held against their will not manage to know that they were free for so long? I had no idea until I saw the movie and began to do research. Ramey and his wife Anna sold Trevor Hill to Charles Fenton Fadeley* in November 1863 for 70,000 Confederate dollars, then worth about 10 cents on the dollar. Marcus and some of the other contracted workers were uneasy about the new edition to the plantation. During the first half of the twentieth century, street scenes like that below of young African-American children at play were common. One way or another, they had become indebted to the plantations owner and were not allowed to leave the property At the end of the harvest, when they tried to settle up with the owner, they were always told they didnt make it into the black and to try again next year. How?? Your email address will not be published. I am satisfied that we can get the proper evidence against him and get a conviction in the federal court, This case was in Louisiana in the year of 1933. Source: . In 1950 the Louisiana Power and Light company opened its first plant on the bank of the Mississippi River close to the Waterford plantation. Time for reparation for all the descendants of slaves in the USA. Once Marcus fulfilled his contract, he was looking to try and leave the plantation. Waterford: Agriculture to Industry - Chapter 7 (Louisiana Power & Light Co. 1963-Present). St. Charles Parish, Louisiana Virtual History Museum, 30 June 2021, https://scphistory.org/waterford-chapter-7/. Historical buildings can tell stories that go back far in time. Over time, she said the modern day slaves did leave Waterford Plantation as their offspring were able to attend college or buy a home. I remember hearing about this in the early 70s in Louisiana, but I didnt know where. The German Coast, where Whitney Plantation is located, was home to 2,797 enslaved workers. In autumn 2001, the Kellys and Hill all happened to be at the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg and Saffer introduced them. When Marcus was 21, he was given a contract by the plantation owner. This is pure evil. _uacct = "UA-1070054-1"; The Newmans were the same family that had lived in the slave quarters. Ft. Days on Market: 120 Built in: 2001 Listing provided courtesy of Realty ONE Group Dockside Myrtle Beach | Waterford Plantation $529,900 9308 Pond Cypress Ln., Myrtle Beach, S.C., 29579 4 bed 3 bath 0.25 Sq. Most of the people of the Waterford Plantation have moved on to other places and other things, but they share in the remembrance of the land and of a serene period of time in their lives, a tranquillity that will always be a part of their memory and influence their lives. arent these people made to be responsible for their actions?????????????? They were finally able to get out just as WW2 was ending by getting factory jobs in a larger town. We were children. The workers received cash, not checks. Their struggles have stayed with her since hearing them and remembering the haunting images of their faces. Arthur, S. C., The Story of The Battle of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 1915. Today, the plantation is a museum dedicated to Louisiana's slave history. Loudoun County, Virginia 18th, 19th, and 20th Century HistoryContact Us, Loudoun County Maps at the Library of Congress, Historical Maps by Historian Eugene Scheel, Cornstalks Rooted In Areas Agricultural History, Early 19th-Century Milling and Wheat Farming, Government and Law in the Path to Freedom, Justice and Racial Equality, For Some Slaves, Path to Freedom Was Far From Clear-Cut, Underground Railroad Journey to Freedom Was Risky, Loudoun County Civil War Timeline 1861- 1865, Union Troops Caught by Surprise at Balls Bluff, Loudoun County and the Civil War A County Divided, Federal Occupation in Loudoun County during the Civil War, History Affects 1860 Presidential Election Vote, Mosby Walnut Tree Witnessed and Made History, Trade Between Loudoun County and Maryland During the Civil War, The Reconstruction Years: Tales of Leesburg and Warrenton, Virginia, Loudoun County Burning Raid and John S. Mosby, Strategic Position Loudoun County in the Civil War, General Braddocks March Through Loudoun in 1755, Indigenous Peoples Left Their Mark in Naming Landmarks, Indigenous Peoples Mounds of Loudoun County, Indigenous Peoples of the Virginia Piedmont, Indigenous People to Speculators the 1700s, Piscataway 1699 Encounter With Was a First, John Champe, a Revolutionary War Double Agent, Loudoun County Towns and Villages in 1908, Dulles Airport Has Roots in Rural Black Community, Fairfax Boundary Locating the 1649 Line, Goose Creek Canal An Ill-fated 1830 Project, Leesburg Old Names Reveal Leesburgs History and Lore, Purcellville Nichols Hardware, A Virginia Landmark, Purcellville A Place Where Everyone Knew Its Nicknames, Round Hill History of the Hill High Country Store, Spotsylvania Kenmore House, American Colonial Architecture, Sterling Park Countys Growth Battles Just Beginning 1961, Taylorstown Dam and the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance, Loudoun Reaches No. As a singular voice, the people who lived and/or worked on Waterford Plantation, and raised their families there, recall the plantation with fond memories. One, owned by Sarah Minor, was demolished in 1895 on order of Waterford's Town Council. He does not, however, recall these times as hard times, rather he remarks that, Times are hard only if you believe they are going to be hard. Frank remembers the Waterford Plantation, as a place where everyone knew one another and everyone got along just fine.. Naturally, the historian must consult those works previously written on the subject and, if possible, interview those individuals whose recollections can provide some verbal history of importance not found elsewhere. They were owned by the Ransom family, who were known for their kind and just treatment of their slaves. The best we can do is get financially educated and do the work to be the lender and not the borrower and do whats right. There is no doubt that the plantations are an important part of American history, and it is impossible to go wrong with a visit to one of them. Indebtedness is the primary trap that landowners, plantation owners, mines, mills, and other corporate interests have used for centuries to keep their workers dependent upon them. The plantation had its own hospital and school, and the slaves were allowed to worship freely in their own church. It is bordered on the . It is a fact that majority of people enslaved were of African descent and they were horrifically treated and discarded even til this day. As the strikers rampaged down River Road towards the parish courthouse, they freed stock and assaulted resisters, the mob swelling to nearly 500 persons. As he was returning from a Sunday afternoon dance, he was involved in a car accident on the rain-soaked River Road near the plantation. Waterford Plantation slaves were some of the most fortunate in the South. Most times, free slaves would need loans to live. Killona Elementary School took its place. The slave quarters at Trevor Hill, a former plantation two miles west of Waterford, are significant because they are a pair, very few of which remain. In 1854 African American William Robinson, 24, freeborn son of a free woman, Nancy Robinson (c.1814-1884), bought this log and fieldstone house. A Georgia Negro Peon. Two small houses were moved to a lot that he purchased in Killona, and the houses were joined to create his present home. "You [meaning Wynne Saffer] can't be responsible for something you didn't do. Maybe they had no electricity and hence no TV, but didnt their kids go to school? Original plantation lands were located northwest of US 17 in the vicinity of Simmonsville. Harrell discovered 20 people who were held and forced into slavery on the Waterford Plantation in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Harrell has uncovered numerous examples of white people in Southern states entrapping black workers into peonage slavery slavery justified and enforced through deceptive contracts and debt, rather than claims of ownership even though peonage was technically outlawed in the United States in 1867, four years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Thats in my lifetime. I naturally assumed that it was the plantation I saw on the news in the early 70s. At the time of purchase in 1971, Mr. Farwell stated that some of his present employees were direct descendants of the slaves brought initially to work on the Waterford Plantation. She recalls that he traveled to New Orleans every Thursday to work for the Farwells, and he continued his ministry until his death at the age of 79. (Slavery v. Peonage). Mary Claire tells of how the people of Waterford really cared about one another and took care of their own. 1 as Development Spreads [2002], Washington and Old Dominion Railroad At the End of the Line, An Opportunity Lost, Whites Ferry The last working ferry on the Potomac, 1930 Drought Gives Us A Preview of Next Time, 1930 Drought Recollections of area residents, 2003 Northeastern Snow Storm, Presidents Day. Mr. Farwell recalls that there were 72 sugar mills in Louisiana in 1936, and these have dwindled to a handful today. Unable to farm profitably without slaves after the Civil War, James Lewis's family sold their land by 1884. Many houses did not have indoor plumbing [I have lived it]. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 which changed the status of over 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the South from slave to free, did not emancipate some hundreds who were slaves. One of the 20th-century slaves was Mae Louise Walls Miller and she didnt get her freedom until 1963. 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