Enslaved Quarter

Archaeologists uncovered evidence at this site for a building known as the quarter, which housed enslaved workers on the property. Excavations revealed a root cellar, quantities of nails, shards of ceramics and glassware, and a variety of small metal and bone artifacts, many of which are now on display in the Ferry Farm Visitor Center. Evidence from the excavations, combined with research into other surviving examples of enslaved living quarters in the region, suggests that the quarter was used by a single person or a single family who probably worked in the main house. The reconstructed building has wood clapboard siding, a wood shingled roof, shuttered windows without glass, and a single doorway. Its interior consists of one open room with a fireplace at one end and a root cellar in the floor for storage, and a ladder leads up to a loft space under the roof that may also have served as a sleeping area.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States