Tempting Target

Virginia’s Northern Neck was an attractive target for the British because its many tobacco plantations, spread over more than a thousand miles of shoreline, were vulnerable to invasion from the water. Launching raids from the Potomac River and its creeks, the British plundered the rich fields and offered freedom to the slaves who worked them. During 1814, Westmoreland and Northumberland counties endured more raids, suffered greater property destruction, and lost more slaves than Virginia’s other Tidewater counties combined. By mid-August, the Potomac plantations along the shores of the Northern Neck were devastated. In 25 days during the summer of 1814, there were nine major raids against counties in Virginia and Southern Maryland.

Virginia · United States