Enslaved people quarried and hand-chiseled this two-ton stone trough, whose cool water preserved perishable foods such as butter, cream, and milk in clay pots on the shelves of a 19th century refrigerator. Slave labor contributed to the settlement of this area in many ways: clearing the land, mining for gold, working in mills, and performing all manner of menial, labor-intensive, and dangerous jobs. Bricks used in the construction of the White County Courthouse in Cleveland, Georgia, were handmade with local clay by black people enslaved by the contractor, and in 1859 the courthouse was completed with slave labor. During this time, enslaved African Americans were considered property and referred to as human chattel.