Before the Civil War, John and Carrie McGavock’s Carnton farm was a large and busy plantation of 700 acres, with grazing cattle, hogs, and sheep, a steam-powered sawmill and gristmill processing abundant hardwood timber and grains, and a mansion whose two-story back porch was being completed in the 1850s as the family’s size and wealth grew. Although some nearby farms raised cotton and tobacco, this plantation produced mostly wheat, corn, and fruit. Much of the McGavocks’ property, and most of their workforce, consisted of 39 slaves, so most of the people seen at Carnton were enslaved. In 1860, the value of the McGavocks’ property at Carnton alone exceeded $350,000, while the average free family in Middle Tennessee owned less than $9,000 in property, placing the family among the very wealthy by the standards of their time.