The Rise of Slavery in the Valley of Virginia and its Enduring Presence on the Landscape of Lexington and Rockbridge County

Summary

Settled in the 1730s by Scotch-Irish immigrants who initially eschewed the institution of slavery, Rockbridge County, Virginia eventually became home to a society reliant on the enslavement of African Americans. After the Revolution, an elite class of newly minted American citizens established its identity through economic, social, and symbolic associations with Chesapeake plantation society. William Alexander (1738-1797) and his son Andrew (1768-1844) exemplified this transition, with Andrew representing the apotheosis of the Americanization of the Scotch Irish. Closely tied to Liberty Hall Academy and its successor Washington College, Andrew held twenty-four African Americans in bondage to operate his plantation on the former school campus. He periodically hired out these enslaved people to industrialists and exploited their labor himself on both public and private infrastructure projects. Today, these materializations of enslaved labor are abundantly visible on the Rockbridge County landscape, though often they are not recognized as such.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Reckoning: Landscapes and Legacies of Slavery   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 425