Somerset Place is a former

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 Creswell in Washington County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, along the northern shore of

Lake Phelps Lake Phelps is North Carolina's second largest natural lake. It has a surface area of , and it is located primarily in Washington County on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula between the Albemarle Sound and the Pamlico Sound. The easternmost part o ...

, and now a State Historic Site that belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Somerset Place operated as a plantation from 1785 until 1865. Before the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Somerset Place had become one of the Upper South's largest plantations. In 1969, Somerset Place was designated as a State Historic Site. In 1986, descendants of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

slaves 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 ...

from Somerset Place planned a gathering known as Somerset Homecoming. The event inspired a book titled "Somerset Homecoming" written by the property's former manager Dorothy Spruill Redford, who retired in 2008."Dorothy Spruill Redford" in ''UNC-TV'', 2001
. Retrieved May 2, 2008. Visitors can tour the 1830s period

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 ...

, the dairy, kitchen/laundry, kitchen rations building,

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 ...

and salting house. The site features several reconstructed buildings for the plantation's slaves, including two homes and the plantation hospital; the grounds also include reconstructed

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

like those used to punish slaves. The visitor center's exhibits display the history of the site and

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

North Carolina. There is also a gift shop. Nature trails lead to

Pettigrew State Park Pettigrew State Park is a North Carolina State Park in Tyrrell and Washington Counties, North Carolina in the United States. It covers around the shore lines of Lake Phelps and the Scuppernong River. The park's developed facilities are sout ...

, which adjoins the site. Somerset place contained more than two thousand acres of farmland and another 125,000 acres of cypress and white cedar forests.

References

External links

* *
Somerset Place
- official site

{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina African-American history of North Carolina Historic American Buildings Survey in North Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Protected areas of Washington County, North Carolina Museums in Washington County, North Carolina Open-air museums in North Carolina Historic house museums in North Carolina Plantation houses in North Carolina North Carolina State Historic Sites National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, North Carolina Historic Albemarle Tour Slave cabins and quarters in the United States 1830 establishments in North Carolina