Roanoke Plantation is a historic
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 ...
located near
Saxe,
Charlotte County, Virginia
Charlotte County is a United States county located in the south central part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Charlotte Court House. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 11,529. Charlotte County is ...
. The property includes two cottages and a
smokehouse
A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...
. The first cottage is a simple one-story, three-bay structure with exterior-end brick chimneys. It has a steep gable roof. The second cottage is a two-room, gable-end-front frame structure. It was the home of U.S. Congressman and Senator
John Randolph (1773–1833).
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More than 300 enslaved men, women, and children were manumitted their freedom in Senator Randolph's will and were to inherit thousands of acres of fertile farmland in Mercer County, Ohio
Mercer County is located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,528. Its county seat is Celina. The county was created in 1820 and later organized in 1824. It is named for Hugh Mercer, an officer in the Amer ...
. Upon his death in 1833, his will was contested, and the plantation workers did not gain their freedom for another 13 years. Once they were finally free, they first attempted to relocate to Mercer County, Ohio where land had been bought for them by the provisions of the will and included at least ten acres of land for every man over 40 years of age. Armed, racist white settlers refused them. The freedmen would ultimately scatter and settle into smaller communities across Ohio. Notable descendants include James P. Humphrey, Sidney's first black mayor.[Humphrey, Jim and Rich Wallace. "Randolph Slaves." ''Shelby County Historical Society.'' February 1997. http://www.shelbycountyhistory.org/schs/archives/blackhistoryarchives/randolphbhisA.htm]
It was listed on 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 ...
in 1973.[
]
References
Plantation houses in Virginia
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Houses in Charlotte County, Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Charlotte County, Virginia
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