Slave Quarter

One of Prince William County's few surviving slave quarters was built in 1832 to house the enslaved community at Ben Lomond. Constructed from the same field stone as the house, it is unusual because most slave quarters were crudely built of wood. Inside, it is divided into two rooms for the approximately ten enslaved people who lived there. Each day they rose before dawn and worked in the fields planting corn or wheat or caring for the plantation livestock, with an hour lunch break at noon before labor continued until nightfall. After returning from the fields, they spent the rest of the day with friends and family in relative peace, gathering in the dim candlelit and firelit quarters to play music, tell folk tales, sew, and cook. A small garden outside provided fresh vegetables to supplement issued food of salt pork and corn meal, and nearby chickens and pigs could be slaughtered for their own use or sold to the Chinns for a small profit. By 1861 the building no longer housed enslaved people, possibly allowing it to be used as a trading post, and in 1979 it was moved from its original location on the other side of the house to save it from demolition.

Sudley, Virginia · United States