Excavating a 19th century Tenant Structure

Archaeologists found the foundation of a small house at Sully, most likely lived in by tenant farmers in the mid-1800s when the Haight family owned the property. Unlike enslaved laborers, tenant farmers worked and lived on the land and paid rent to the owner. A farm the size of Sully needed many workers to raise livestock and grow crops. After the American Civil War, these workers may have included formerly enslaved workers or poor white families seeking to build a new life. Tenant farmers helped bring in the crops for a portion of the profits, and this kind of structure was typical of cabins built for workers who were most likely overseers or hired workers of the Haight family.

Sully Square, Virginia · United States