Beaver Creek Plantation

Beaver Creek Plantation, under the ownership of George Hairston, was one of the largest slave-holding tobacco plantations Virginia has ever seen. Located just outside of today’s Martinsville, Virginia, USA, the plantation thrived in tobacco production and textile manufacturing, as well as producing household goods and raising livestock. At one point the enslaved blacks of Beaver Creek were tending a thousand yam plants; in one day they made 660 candles.

Much of the Plantation’s rich slave history remains intact, and stories of unusual slaves are well documented and accessible. Often noted is the tale of Sam Lion, a field hand on the plantation. Over the years, Lion had earned enough extra money to buy his own woodworking tools. However, when a new overseer asked to borrow one of the tools, Lion refused. The overseer attacked him, and Lion killed the man with a shovel he was using to chop kindling. Lion fled the plantation, and hid in a nearby forest for two months. Eventually, unwilling to go North without his family, Lion turned himself in. He was sentenced to hang, and was shot while trying to escape.

Like Lion, other slaves were able to earn small amounts of money outside of their daily duties. Ned and Clem, two wagon masters, earned money by hauling extra loads for other planters. Clem was also a beekeeper, and amassed enough savings to buy his own honey press, which cost $10 and two gallons of honey.

Although slave rebellions were typically few, Beaver Creek was almost home to such an uprising. In 1812, a slave named Tom murdered a neighbor of George Hairston’s plantation. Through his confession, Hairston discovered a plot to poison himself and neighboring slaveholders, a rebellion that would have been disguised by an expected British attack in the area.

Builders of Beaver Creek, the Hairston family eventually came to control tens of thousands of acres of land in Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere across the South. Initially planters of tobacco, the family eventually became the largest slaveholders in the South: the engine of their extraordinary wealth (they were said to be one of the wealthiest families in America) was the propagation of slaves for export to the Deep South. The family descends from Peter Hairston, who left Scotland for America, initially locating in Pennsylvania and eventually moving south to Virginia in the 1740's. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=6zkUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA157&dq=%22peter+hairston%22+scotland&ei=A2nHSJ6NEYrmtQOuwbnXDA Hairston, Men of Mark in Virginia, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Vol. IV, Men of Mark Publishing Co., Washington, D.C. 1908] ]

Ultimately, the fallout from the Civil War, chiefly the emancipation of slaves, put an end to the Hairston's booming business and the family's fortunes dwindled.

At the center of the Plantation is the Hairston’s classical revival mansion. Although the plantation was founded in 1776, this house was not built until 1837, when the original home was destroyed in a fire. Today, the house is owned by Bank Services of Virginia, and the home and gardens are usually open to the public during the Historic Garden Week in Virginia.

References

* Beaver Creek Plantation [http://www.aaheritageva.org/search/sites.asp?MailingListID=560] - Virginia African Heritage Program

External links

* [http://www.aaheritageva.org/search/sites.asp?MailingListID=560 Information on the Beaver Creek Plantation from Virginia African Heritage Program]
* [http://www.hairston.org/homes/beaver_creek.htm Beaver Creek Plantation hairston.org]

Further reading

*"The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White," Henry Wiencek, Macmillan, New York, 2000 (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)