ENSLAVED WORKERS CARVED OUT HIDDEN LIVES
Poplar Forest release, Spring 1999

New book details what archaeologists have discovered about the lives of slaves at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest.  Padlocks and keys, lead shot, and beads found, and largest collection of pipes made by slaves in Virginia

FOREST VA – For three years, archaeologists at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest painstakingly excavated two sites that once hosted small log homes for enslaved workers who helped build and sustain Jefferson’s Bedford County plantation near Lynchburg.

The discoveries are chronicled in the book Hidden Lives: The Archaeology of Slave Life at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, authored by Barbara Heath, the director of archaeology at Poplar Forest, and recently published by the University Press of Virginia.

"Americans today want to know how people coped with the harshness of slavery, whether they had any control over their lives, and what their days were like," says Heath. The Poplar Forest excavations from 1995 to 1998 provide a glimpse into the private world of enslaved workers.

Jefferson inherited Poplar Forest in 1773 when his father-in-law died. Besides the 4,819-acre plantation, he also inherited slaves: a family of five, and one unrelated adult. The slave population reached 94 near its height in 1819.

Almost 170 years later, archaeologists uncovered outlines of quarter yards, root cellars, and artifacts that included padlocks and keys, beads, buttons, parasol parts, coins, pipes and work tools.

Says Heath, "These items show us that despite their servitude, slaves had some control over their lives. They owned items of value and were allowed to keep them locked away. "

"They took provisions of cloth and ornamented their uniform clothing with buttons and beads to express their individuality. They acquired tools that may have allowed them to produce goods for sale or barter."

Some slaves earned money. Documents show that Phill Hubbard volunteered for the paid job of excavating the sunken lawn in back of the villa that Jefferson began building in 1806. Phill’s mother Cate sold turkeys, chickens and ducks to Jefferson.

From the ground, archaeologists studied wild game bones and lead shot indicating that quarter residents supplemented their allotted rations by hunting with guns, despite a growing fear among whites of slave revolts, such as those in Haiti and Richmond in the early 1800s.

The presence of keys and padlocks together suggest that Jefferson and his overseers recognized that the enslaved workers had the right to limited privacy. The uncovered fence line at one of the quarter sites also speaks to personal space. The yard – where the slaves could work and socialize after finishing their dawn to dusk chores – afforded some privacy because it faced away from the overseer’s house.

Archaeologists also found rare examples of workmanship and aesthetic values in the discovery of pipe remains, both finished and unfinished. Heath writes that while small numbers of similar stone pipes have been found elsewhere, the collection from Poplar Forest is the largest and most varied ever found in Virginia. "In spite of the rigorous demands of daily life, the maker or makers found time to gather raw materials, carve and finish pipes, and in some cases decorate them," says Heath.

Slave quarters could be single-room cabins or duplexes. A duplex imprint found at Poplar Forest measured 25’ x 15’. Another cabin at the site measured 18 ½’ per side. A piece of daub used to fill the gaps between the logs was found with a fingerprint in it, hinting at the individuals who once lived there.

Also found at a quarter site were fragments of a writing slate, suggesting that slaves who knew how to read and write (letters survive from master carpenter John Hemings and Hannah the cook), may have passed their knowledge on to others.

"Human experience cannot be recovered from the detritus of everyday life," Heath writes. "Yet even a partial story opens a fascinating window into the past, creating new understandings and raising fresh questions.