It is a common misconception that the slave quarters depicted at
Carter's Grove are a reconstruction or restoration. In reality they
are a recreation. There was very little archaeological evidence that
there were even slave quarters at that particular site ( a series of
pits). One of the buildings is a replica of a slave quarters from
another plantation about 50 miles away.  While the story being told
is compelling and probably fairly accurate, the buildings themselves
have little or nothing to do with Carter's Grove. If you look at the
buildings it is clear that had they existed on the site, there would
have been extensive remains in the ground. One would have had a
builders trench and possibly even a brick foundation. Another is
built on large pilings and the massive post holes would have been
obvious.

I too find it distressing that Carter's Grove et al will not reopen.
I am particularly concerned about the closure of the archaeology
center. CW does a pretty good job of folk art, crafts, and decorative
arts. There has never been much on archaeology. There used to be a
small museum near the Anderson Forge. That closed about the time that
the museum at Carter's Grove opened.

On Dec 21, 2005, at 1:28, Jurretta Heckscher wrote:

> This is shocking and sad news, at least to some of us who have not
> been
> aware of the difficulties.
>
> The loss of the educational opportunity and achievement represented by
> the restored slaves' quarters at Carter's Grove is particularly
> appalling.   That is surely the place and reference point from which
> any encounter with Williamsburg that is not pure Disney should begin.
> (Move the visitor's center to Carter's Grove!  Put a big parking
> lot at
> the entrance to the "country road" so everyone can leave their cars
> there, and run shuttle buses along the road to the plantation grounds,
> giving visitors a chance to begin to lay aside their 21st-century
> preconceptions along with their automobiles.  And then, as they walk
> from the shuttle bus drop-off to the plantation house, use the
> restored
> slave quarters to confront them with slavery--which after all
> undergirded everything else in colonial Williamsburg--before they even
> buy their tickets.  Why not?)
>
> And how, one wonders, is it possible for visitors to Colonial
> Williamsburg to have any adequate sense of Williamsburg's 18th-century
> dynamics unless they have a clear sense of the capital's historical
> identity in the context of the surrounding plantation economies,
> lifeways, and cultures on which it depended entirely?
>
> For many reasons, this is a terribly shortsighted retrenchment.  And I
> say that both as a historian and as someone with an abiding affection
> for Colonial Williamsburg, inasmuch as it was a visit there in
> childhood that first sparked my interest in 18th-century American
> history.
>
> --Jurretta J. Heckscher
>
> On Dec 20, 2005, at 7:46 AM, R.S. Taylor Stoermer wrote:
>
>> It appears that CW has made a decision to leave shuttered Carter's
>> Grove plantation and its related
>> historical and archaeological resources (reconstructed slave
>> quarters,
>> Wolstoneholme Town site,
>> archaeology musuem, etc.).  One can assume that CW has solid
>> financial
>> reasons for doing so and, as
>> a practical matter, it was probably always difficult for the
>> Foundation to incorporate the site into CW's
>> town endeavours.  However, as we approach 2007 (and don't forget the
>> 400th anniversary of the
>> creation of the Virginia Company in 2006), perhaps it is important to
>> ask whether the time has come
>> for a comprehensive census of historical resources in the
>> commonwealth
>> and the development of a
>> plan for their protection, if not presentation.  Can we really
>> rely on
>> tourism to pay the bills for
>> preservation and education at such places?  Martin's Hundred is an
>> especially valuable location, given
>> the insight it provides into the 1622 uprising and its implications
>> for Anglo-Native relations, but how
>> instructive can it be if no one visits it (except for the business
>> developers who probably envision, and
>> salivate over the prospect of, vast housing tracts on the site)?
>>
>> It might be a good topic for discussion at Brent Tarter's and Warren
>> Hofstra's spring conference.
>>
>> Here are links to the articles through Archaeology magazine.
>>
>> http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/martins/index.html
>> http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-news1_121705dec17,0,3972057.story?
>> coll=va-news
>
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