Walnut Hill
The Wright Family Home in Farmville, Virginia since
the 1790s.
The Wright's are my father's, mother's family. The
farmed tobacco on this farm for most of the nineteenth century, with the
help of a few slaves in the Antebellum times. According to my cousin,
James Parker, the current resident of Walnut Hill, the brick structure
above may have been a late addition to the farm and used for a time as
a slave dwelling, though it probably saw more service as tennant housing.
I want to take you to Walnut Hill because I believe it will give you a
more accurate depiction of the typical scene of Upper South slavery.
Rather than the Westovers or the Stratford Halls that employed scores of
slaves, the average slave lived on a smaller farm with ten or fewer fellow
slaves. This home will not provide you with the depiction of an average
white family, however, since 75% of them did not own a single slave.
The farm today is still functional. A Great Uncle of mine still cuts
hay on these fields once in spring, and again in late summer.
The House itself is an interesting mix of Georgian (notice
on the top picture the main portion of the house is well balanced with
a window on each side of the front door and three balanced dormers above,
and the balanced dual chimneys) and later designs. My cousing James
has done a marvelous job preserving the home and I'm sure you'll all enjoy
it.
Spring
Trip 99