Information Panel: Long Haul

Information Panel: Long Haul

NPS / Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The yard behind the mansion churned with a flurry of daily chores and demanding labor. Enslaved people crossed dirt paths here, their amrs packed with garden produce and supplies for field workers toiling in the 1,100 plantation acres. Clotheslines sagged with wet laundry - strung upwind from dust kicked up by the wheels of visiting carriages. Enslaved domestic workers slept in cramped quarters on each side of the yard. While these structures exist today, the field slave cabins that dotted the south end of the estate, close to the river, no longer remain.

"Daniel hauled a good deal of manure with the cart and the carriage horse and we are wheeling off the old roots and brush..."

GWP Custis to his granddaughter, Agnes Lee, in 1853