Red Hill Plantation

Red Hill Plantation encompassed 2930 acres at Patrick Henry's death and took its name from the red clay soil common to the area, a place Henry reportedly called "one of the garden spots of Virginia." The view over the Staunton River valley has changed very little in the past two centuries; from here the flood plain of the Staunton River is visible, though not the river itself. In Henry's time, the rich soil was planted with tobacco, wheat, corn, and other crops. The Staunton, known at its headwaters and mouth as the Roanoke River, flows southward from here into Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. Red Hill folklore holds that Patrick Henry "stood upon an eminence, and gave orders," directing the work of the field hands in the "low grounds," and some believe he had a small platform erected for that purpose about fifty yards in front of this spot.

Virginia · United States