Antebellum and Civil War Landscapes at Sherwood Forest Plantation (44ST615)

Author(s): Douglas W. Sanford; Lauren K. McMillan

Year: 2016

Summary

Sherwood Forest Plantation is located just outside Fredericksburg on the Northern Neck of Virginia. The late Antebellum plantation was home to not only the Fitzhugh family who owned the property, but also a large enslaved workforce; additionally, the manor house and the surrounding plantation core served as a hospital to Union troops in 1862-1863. Current research conducted by the University of Mary Washington, in conjunction with and support from Walton International Group, focuses on the landscape around the standing ca. 1845 duplex slave quarter and brick kitchen/quarter located within the historic curtilage. The archaeological investigations indicated that the area had gone through several periods of landscape modifications. The cultural environment at Sherwood Forest was impacted by many different factors, from trends that were occurring in the Upper South such as shifts in plantation organization, country wide events including war and Reconstruction, and site specific circumstances such as changes in ownership.

Cite this Record

Antebellum and Civil War Landscapes at Sherwood Forest Plantation (44ST615). Douglas W. Sanford, Lauren K. McMillan. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434278)

Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Antebellum

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 284