In a message dated 1/29/2007 2:51:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
>
> VCU alumnus Selden Richardson, architectural historian and board
> president for the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods
> (ACORN), will discuss and sign his recent book, "Built by Blacks:
> African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia".
Sounds like an interesting lecture. But this raises another point. It would
seem to me that historically African-American neighborhoods are far from being
the only historic properties in Virginia that were "Built by Blacks". I
would have thought that most of the 18th-19th century plantations and their
outbuildings were also built by African Americans, as they were the principal labor
force in that era. I've also seen documentation of plantation owners leasing
out the services of slave artisans to neighbors and splitting the proceeds, in
some cases eventually enabling the artisan to buy their freedom.
My own house, a small to medium sized 1850s plantation on the Northern Neck,
was a second home / summer home which the owner designed himself and the oral
histories handed down is that it was built by the owners slaves and local
Free Person of Color artisans, some of whom had originally been slaves of the
owner's family.. We've not been able to find any record of an architect being
employed, so it was probably supervised by some sort of master builder / foreman
type, either black or white.
The ornamental millwork on the staircase is identical to that employed on the
staircase of the 1850s extension to Eagles Nest, the Fitzhugh ancestral home
(which just got a historical marker yesterday, as posted on the list)
My guess is that most of the great plantations, even those designed by an
architect, were largely "Built by Blacks", rather like the pyramids were "Built
by the Israelites". But this is guesswork on my part.
I'd be interested to hear input from the list on what research might have
been done on the contributions of African American construction workers in the
antebellum period.
-- Kathryn Coombs
"Cleydael"
(National Register Property / Virginia Landmark)
King George, VA
www.Cleydael.org
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