Let's not forget the whites who were also 'in the trades'. In my own
family there were carpenters, plasterers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
carriage makers, dressmakers and seamstresses. It's a mistake to
assume that all whites were rich, all craftsmen were black, free or
slave, and all the whites who weren't rich were... what?
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 31, 2007, at 12:52 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> 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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