Exactly right. The state capitol was "built by blacks," as well.
The book actually touches on the fact that black architects, builders, and craftsmen
created much of Richmond. (It's limited to Richmond only because it was produced
by the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods.)
--
Melinda C. P. Skinner
Writer and Wonderer
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: [log in to unmask]
> 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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