Lewis Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Fairfield Plantation after the Burwells

Author(s): Thane H. Harpole; David Brown

Year: 2020

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Visitors to Fairfield plantation are intrigued by the magnificent c. 1694 brick manor house, the Burwell family who planned it, and the enslaved Africans who largely built it. The powerful Lewis Burwells and their families (five generations with the same name) helped shape 18th-century Virginia politics and society from their Gloucester home. The family’s division of the property in 1779, and its acquisition by the established, but only locally-known, Thruston family, presents a clear moment to highlight changes in the landscape for all of those living there. Archaeological survey uncovered evidence of re-arranged slave quarters and relocated enslaved African families (including some who conveyed with the property) along two roads leading to the manor house. This paper looks at Fairfield to see how new rules of property ownership and the shift from tobacco to mixed grains and other crops resulted in a chain reaction that reshaped this region of Virginia.

Cite this Record

Lewis Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Fairfield Plantation after the Burwells. Thane H. Harpole, David Brown. 2020 ( tDAR id: 456848)

Keywords

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): 1002