Faunsdale Plantation is a historic forced-labor

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

near the town of Faunsdale,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, United States. This plantation is in the Black Belt, a section of the state developed for cotton plantations. Until the U.S. Civil War, planters held as many as 186 enslaved African Americans as laborers to raise cotton as a commodity crop. A number of the workers' former cabins remain standing, and they are among the most significant examples of

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

housing in

Marengo County Marengo County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,323. The largest city is Demopolis, and the county seat is Linden. It is named in honor of the Battle of ...

. These cabins are also among the last remaining examples of this building type in the state of Alabama.Cooper, Chip, Harry J. Knopke, and Robert S. Gamble. ''Silent in the Land'', p. 112. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: CKM Press, 1993. . The house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on 13 July 1993, as a part of the historic district associated with the

Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission The Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission is a multiple property submission of properties that were together listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The multiple prope ...

Description of house and cabins

The

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

at Faunsdale Plantation is a simple

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style, two-story, wood-frame structure with a gabled roof, flanked on each side with one-story gabled wings. The nearby one-room slave cabins date from 1860 and are also wood-frame structures. They have high-pitched gables and scalloped

barge boards Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

, which show a

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

influence.

Detailed records of enslaved families

Faunsdale Plantation is one of the few large plantations in Alabama where detailed slave records were kept and preserved as part of the historical record. These records indicate that the Harrison family enslaved roughly 99 people in 1846, a few years after they acquired this property. Harrison is listed in the 1850 Federal Census of Marengo County as having $18,300 in property, based mostly on the value of the enslaved people he held. By 1857, the number of people enslaved at the farm had increased to 161. A list from 1 January 1864 indicates that Harrison's widow, Louisa, enslaved 186 people, who likely comprised at least 35 families. Unusually, her records also included the surnames used by many of the enslaved people: Barron, Brown, Francis, Harison, Iredell, Mutton, Nathan, Newbern, Paine, Parsons, Richmond, Washington, and Wills. By the end of 1864, 14 of these enslaved people had died of infectious disease, ranging from

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

measles Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...

History of owners and the people they held in slavery

The plantation was developed during the 1830s by Bird Pearson and

Henry Augustine Tayloe Henry Augustine Tayloe (April 8, 1808 – July 15, 1903) was an American planter, slaveholder, horse breeder and racer, and land speculator in Alabama during the 19th century. A younger son of John Tayloe III, a wealthy planter in Washington, ...

. This area of the state had been ceded by the

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

to the United States by the Treaty of Fort St. Stephens in 1816. The owners used enslaved African Americans to clear and develop the lands of the

Canebrake A canebrake or canebreak is a thicket of any of a variety of ''Arundinaria'' grasses: '' A. gigantea'', '' A. tecta'' and '' A. appalachiana''. As a bamboo, these giant grasses grow in thickets up to 24 ft tall. ''A. gigantea'' is generally ...

. At this time, Tayloe was also acting as the local land agent for his brothers; located in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, they invested deeply in the Canebrake region, buying numerous plantations through him. The brothers were Benjamin Ogle Tayloe of Washington, D.C., who owned Windsor, Sidson and Meadow Hill;

William Henry Tayloe William Henry Tayloe (January 29, 1799 – January 7, 1871) was an American plantation owner, Horse breeding, horse breeder, businessman and Speculator, land speculator during the first half of the 19th century. He inherited a vast estate from ...

of Mount Airy, Virginia, co-owner of Oakland (or "Woodville"), Adventure (later part of Cuba Plantation), and Larkin plantations ; Edward Thornton Tayloe of Powhatan Plantation, co-owner of Oak Grove here; with

George Plater Tayloe George Plater Tayloe ( October 15, 1804 – Apr 18, 1897) was a Virginia businessman, soldier and legislator who also served as one of the original trustees of Hollins University. Early life George Tayloe was born October 15, 1804, at Mount Airy ...

of Buena Vista Plantation, in Virginia. He also bought land for a nephew, Col. George E Tayloe, owner of Elmwood in

Arcola Arcola may refer to: Places ; Australia * Arcola, Grafton, a heritage-listed house in New South Wales ;Canada * Arcola, Saskatchewan, a town in the Province of Saskatchewan * Arcola Airport, an airport in the Province of Saskatchewan ;England * ...

, and co-owner of Walnut Grove on the Demopolis-Uniontown Road. H. A. Tayloe and his brothers were sons of Col John Tayloe III, a fabulously wealthy Virginia planter who built

the Octagon House The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. After the British destroyed the White House during the War of 1812, the house ...

in Washington, D.C., for his use in the city. Their grandfather was Colonel John Tayloe II, another wealthy planter, who developed the colonial plantation Mount Airy in

Richmond County, Virginia Richmond County is a county located on the Northern Neck in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 8,923. Its county seat is Warsaw. The rural county should not be confused with the large city and state capit ...

, and had thousands of acres in other farms. The Tayloes' extensive acquisitions in Alabama demonstrate the economic reach of wealthy planters in the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern and lower Midwestern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, econom ...

, to control good lands in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

. In 1947, historian J.W. Dubose wrote that the Tayloes were "considered the most important pioneer cotton planters of the Canebrake, as to the extent of their enterprise there."Dubose (1947), "Chronicles of the Canebrake," p.492 In 1843, Dr. Thomas Alexander Harrison purchased 960 acres in the Canebrake from

Charles City County Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River. The ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. According to Dubose's 1947 account, after Harrison acquired his property, which he named Faunsdale Plantation, he no longer practiced as a doctor, but devoted himself to cotton. Harrison named his plantation after

Faunus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the rustic god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan, after which Romans depicted him as a ...

, the ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

of the forest, plains, and fields. As was typical of other planters, Harrison brought numerous enslaved people with him from Virginia. This was part of a forced migration of about one million enslaved African Americans to the Deep South as it was developed. Harrison was said to insist on the enslaved persons saluting him, the men by raising their hats and the women by curtsies.Dubose (1947), "Chronicles of the Canebrake," ''Alabama Quarterly'', Winter 1947pp. 598-599 By the 1850s, he wanted to acquire another 340 acres, but initially his neighbor, a Mr. Armstead, was not ready to sell. Harrison happened to see him one morning, when Armstead announced his imminent move to Montgomery, the state capital, to serve as United States Marshal of the District Court, under President

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

's administration. He sold the land to Harrison that the latter wanted. About 1855 Harrison also bought land in Louisiana near the Mississippi River. The bottomland had dense underbrush and trees, and he sent a work party of enslaved people there to start clearing the property. Mrs. Louisa Harrison was described as an educated woman, taught privately by a governess and tutor while growing up at her family's plantation of Edenton, Virginia, as was typical for girls of her class. She later attended a girls' boarding school in New York for seven years. Dr. and Mrs. Harrison had one child together, a daughter Louise. As an adult, she married her cousin, William B. Shepard of Edenton. After being widowed, Mrs. Harrison built a chapel at Faunsdale for use by the enslaved workers. Her example was followed by other planters in the area: the widow Mrs. McRae of the Athol plantation, also built a slave chapel; both Mr. Bocock of the Waldwic plantation and Mr. Terrell of the Brame plantation also provided them for the people they enslaved. In 1864 the widowed Louisa Harrison married again, to Rev. Stickney, Episcopal minister of St. Michael's. They lived at Faunsdale.

St. Michael’s Church

In 1844 Harrison and his wife, Louisa, gave of their plantation for construction of a log church across from their house. In 1846, Alabama's first Episcopal

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, Nicholas Hamner Cobbs, visited Faunsdale Plantation. He noted that Louisa Harrison gave regular instruction to her slaves by reading the church services to them and teaching the

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

to their children. In 1852 the church was renamed as St. Michael's Episcopal Church. By 1855 the log structure had been replaced by a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

-style church building, with likely all the skilled labor provided by enslaved African Americans. A churchyard for burials was established in 1858; Dr. Harrison was the first interment. Beginning in 1860, enslaved persons and, later,

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

who lived on the plantation were also buried in this churchyard. The church building was moved to the town of Faunsdale in 1888. It was destroyed by a tornado in 1932. The churchyard on the plantation grounds continued to be used as an active burial ground. A sister church to this one, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in nearby Prairieville was built in part by master carpenter slaves owned H. A. Tayloe.

Gallery

Image:Faunsdale Plantation 02.jpg, A portion of the front elevation of the

main house in 2008 Image:Faunsdale Plantation 03.jpg, Slave quarters in 2008 Image:Faunsdale Plantation 04.jpg, Detail of one of the slave quarters, built in the Carpenter Gothic style

References

External links

Sankofa's Slavery Data Collection: Faunsdale Plantation
{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Marengo County, Alabama Historic districts in Marengo County, Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Plantation houses in Alabama Greek Revival houses in Alabama Carpenter Gothic architecture in Alabama Houses in Marengo County, Alabama Houses completed in 1844 Carpenter Gothic houses in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Plantations in Alabama Slave cabins and quarters in the United States History of slavery in Alabama