104-505: Colonial Heights is the name of several places in the United States: Colonial Heights, Virginia Colonial Heights, Tennessee Colonial Heights, Lawrence, Massachusetts Colonial Heights Neighborhood, Yonkers, New York [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with
208-416: A butter churn . Once firm enough to separate out, but soft enough to stick together, the butter was taken out of the churn, washed in very cold water, and salted. The churning process also produced buttermilk as a by-product. It was the remaining liquid after the butter was removed from the churn. All of the products of this process would have been stored in the spring house or ice house . The smokehouse
312-406: A courtyard to the rear of the main house known as the kitchen yard. They included a cookhouse (separate kitchen building), pantry , washhouse ( laundry ), smokehouse , chicken house , spring house or ice house , milkhouse ( dairy ), covered well , and cistern . The privies would have been located some distance away from the plantation house and kitchen yard. The cookhouse or kitchen
416-451: A primer , and a hornbook . As the children grew older their schooling began to prepare them for their adult roles on the plantation. Boys studied academic subjects, proper social etiquette , and plantation management, while girls learned art , music , French , and the domestic skills suited to the mistress of a plantation. Most plantation owners maintained an office for keeping records, transacting business, writing correspondence, and
520-556: A vacuum pan , where it was boiled until the sugar in the syrup was crystallized. The crystallized sugar was then cooled and separated from any remaining molasses in a process known as purging. The final step was packing the sugar into hogshead barrels for transport to market. Cotton plantations, the most common type of plantation in the South prior to the Civil War, were the last type of plantation to fully develop. Cotton production
624-703: A boxwood hedge that still fringes the hill — shelled Petersburg, then occupied by British troops under Major-General William Phillips (who died of typhoid during this bombardment). The area also became involved in operations during the American Civil War . General Robert E. Lee made his headquarters at Violet Bank from June through September during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864. In 1926, Colonial Heights became an incorporated town in Chesterfield County. Originally seeking to be annexed by
728-635: A building raised roughly a story off of the ground on posts, was used to separate the lighter chaff and dust from the rice. Sugar plantations were most commonly found in Louisiana. In fact, Louisiana produced almost all of the sugar grown in the United States during the prewar period. From one-quarter to one-half of all sugar consumed in the United States came from Louisiana sugar plantations. Plantations grew sugarcane from Louisiana's colonial era onward, but large scale production did not begin until
832-527: A corrugated wash board until clean. By the 1850s, they would have been passed through a mangle . Prior to that time, wringing out the items was done by hand. The items would then be ready to be hung out to dry or, in inclement weather, placed on a drying rack . Ironing would have been done with a metal flat iron , often heated in the fireplace, and various other devices. The milkhouse would have been used by enslaved people to make milk into cream , butter , and buttermilk . The process started with separating
936-470: A female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.88. In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age
1040-452: A flat surface of still lower land, with a silver thread of water curling through it, extended, Holland-like, to the horizon. Usually at as great a distance as a quarter of a mile from the road, and from a half mile to a mile apart, were the residences of the planters – large white houses, with groves of evergreen trees about them; and between these and the road were little villages of slave-cabins ... The cottages were framed buildings, boarded on
1144-548: A more accurate image of what life was like for slaves and slave owners", The Washington Post wrote in 2019. Hannah Knowles in The Washington Post wrote, "The changes have begun to draw people long alienated by the sites' whitewashing of the past and to satisfy what staff call a hunger for real history, as plantations add slavery-focused tours, rebuild cabins and reconstruct the lives of the enslaved with help from their descendants." However, some white visitors to
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#17327809406921248-586: A near two miles (3.2 km) long, though discontinuous, path through Colonial Heights. The tornado first touched down near the Colonial Heights Middle School football field, damaging the field clubhouse roof, then causing roof damage and spill onto I-95 from Medallion Pool business. The tornado then jumped I-95 and touched down again in the Dimmock Square Shopping Center. Several cars were flipped and piled in
1352-460: A place for the hired tutor or governess to educate the planter's children, and sometimes even those of other planters in the area. On most plantations, however, a room in the main house was sufficient for schooling, rather than a separate dedicated building. Paper was precious, so the children often recited their lessons until they memorized them. The usual texts in the beginning were the Bible ,
1456-478: A small town called Appamattucks near the "Old Towne" Creek, thought to be located near the intersection of Temple Avenue and Dimmock Parkway. Also in that year, Captain Henry Fleet and Francis Poythress built a small fort nearby, on "Fleet's Hill" just west of the current city, now occupied by the campus of Virginia State University . During the period from 1677 to 1685, one of the area's historic landmarks
1560-543: A south border with Petersburg ) and in some areas, Swift Creek divides the city from the county. Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race. According to The Comparative Guide to American Suburbs, in 2012 88.3% of people living in Colonial Heights above
1664-408: A strainer to be collected into a tank. From there the juice went through a process that removed impurities from the liquid and thickened it through evaporation. It was steam-heated in vats where additional impurities were removed by adding lime to the syrup and then the mixture was strained. At this point the liquid had been transformed into molasses . It was then placed into a closed vessel known as
1768-550: A visit to plantations along the Georgia coast in 1855: In the afternoon, I left the main road, and, towards night, reached a much more cultivated district. The forest of pines extended uninterruptedly on one side of the way, but on the other was a continued succession of very large fields, or rich dark soil – evidently reclaimed swamp-land – which had been cultivated the previous year, in Sea Island cotton, or maize. Beyond them,
1872-550: Is a wide range of opinion as to what differentiated a plantation from a farm . Typically, the focus of a farm was subsistence agriculture . In contrast, the primary focus of a plantation was the production of cash crops , with enough staple food crops produced to feed the population of the estate and the livestock. A common definition of what constituted a plantation is that it typically had 500 to 1,000 acres (2.0 to 4.0 km ) or more of land and produced one or two cash crops for sale. Other scholars have attempted to define it by
1976-414: Is also served by a daily newspaper of record for the area: http://mediakit.gatehousemedia.com/Petersburg_VA/ : Unlike most independent cities in the state of Virginia, Colonial Heights has consistently voted Republican in presidential elections since its date of incorporation. All GOP presidential candidates since 1952 have carried the city, with the 13 most recent campaigns each garnering over 60% of
2080-733: Is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia . As of the 2020 census , the population was 18,170. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Colonial Heights (along with the City of Petersburg ) with Dinwiddie County for statistical purposes. Colonial Heights is located in the Tri-Cities area of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Like much of eastern Virginia,
2184-399: Is described as a humid subtropical climate where the summers are very hot and humid while the winters are moderately cold. The coldest weather is seen from December to February, January's daily average temperature is 37.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest weather is seen from June through August, July's daily average temperature is 79.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The total annual precipitation normal for
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#17327809406922288-492: Is home to basketball courts and playgrounds. Edinborough Park is located at 800 Edinborough Dr, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. In this park, one can find basketball courts, picnic tables, and playground equipment. Flora Hill Park is located at 300 Richmond Ave, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. This park is mainly just open grassy areas, trails, and playground equipment. Appamattuck Park is located at 151 Archer Ave, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. This park consists of land surrounding
2392-412: Is located at 503 Lake Ave, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. In addition to the playgrounds, trails, and picnic tables, Lakeview Park is home to a boating ramp where community members can go fishing during daylight. Roslyn Landing Park is located at Appomattox River Trail, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. This park is mainly just trails for walking or biking. The climate in and around the city of Colonial Heights
2496-726: The American Revolutionary War . In May 1781, Continental Army troops under the General Marquis de Lafayette advanced south from Richmond and deployed artillery on the heights overlooking Petersburg from across the Appomattox River. Legend indicates that an English soldier stationed in Petersburg, upon seeing Lafayette’s troops across the river, exclaimed, “Look! There are the Colonials, up on
2600-555: The Episcopal denomination. Early records indicate that at Faunsdale Plantation the mistress of the estate, Louisa Harrison, gave regular instruction to her slaves by reading the services of the church and teaching the Episcopal catechism to their children. Following the death of her first husband, she had a large Carpenter Gothic church built, St. Michael's Church. She latter remarried to Rev. William A. Stickney, who served as
2704-558: The South Carolina Lowcountry . Until the 19th century, rice was threshed from the stalks and the husk was pounded from the grain by hand, a very labor-intensive endeavor. Steam-powered rice pounding mills had become common by the 1830s. They were used to thresh the grain from the inedible chaff . A separate chimney, required for the fires powering the steam engine, was adjacent to the pounding mill and often connected by an underground system. The winnowing barn ,
2808-585: The Southpark Mall and collapsed the roof of an old Wal-Mart (now Sam's Club ) store. It also did extensive damage in Petersburg and Hopewell. In the Tri-Cities area , the tornado killed four people (three in Wal-Mart and one in Prince George), injured 246, and caused an estimated $ 50 million in property damage. On April 28, 2008, an EF1 tornado (max. wind speeds 86-110 mph) produced
2912-583: The United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 7.8 square miles (20.2 km ), of which 7.5 square miles (19.4 km ) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km ) of it (3.7%) is water. Colonial Heights is located on just north of the Appomattox River across from the modern-day City of Petersburg at the river's fall line . It is located south of Chesterfield County (practically surrounded by it except for
3016-565: The history of the Southern United States , particularly before the American Civil War . The mild temperate climate , plentiful rainfall, and fertile soils of the Southeastern United States allowed the flourishing of large plantations, where large numbers of enslaved Africans were held captive and forced to produce crops to create wealth for a white elite . Today, as was also true in the past, there
3120-639: The poverty line , including 7.3% of those under age 18 and 4.2% of those age 65 or over. In 2017, Colonial Heights added a roundabout off the I-95 exit. According to The Comparative Guide to American Suburbs, in 2013, Colonial Heights had an unemployment rate of 8.1%. The City of Colonial Heights is served by Colonial Heights Public Schools. There are three elementary schools , Lakeview Elementary School, North Elementary School, Tussing Elementary School; one middle school , Colonial Heights Middle School; and one high school , Colonial Heights High School . All of
3224-579: The "Brick House") is now thought to be the oldest permanent structure in Colonial Heights. One wall of the house survived a disastrous fire in 1879, and the rest was rebuilt. In 1749, an area south of the James River was divided from Henrico County by the House of Burgesses and named Chesterfield County . The area which became Colonial Heights was to remain in Chesterfield County for almost 200 more years, until 1948. The name "Colonial Heights” comes from
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3328-537: The "great house" and extended family. Novels, often adapted into films , presented a romantic , sanitized view of plantation life and ignored or glorified white supremacy . The most popular of these were The Birth of a Nation (1916), based on Thomas Dixon Jr. ,'s best-selling novel The Clansman (1905), and Gone with the Wind (1939), based on the best-selling novel of the same name (1936) by Margaret Mitchell . On larger plantations an overseer represented
3432-401: The 1810s and 1820s. A successful sugar plantation required a skilled retinue of hired labor and enslaved people. The most specialized structure on a sugar plantation was the sugar mill (sugar house), where, by the 1830s, the steam-powered mill crushed the sugarcane stalks between rollers. This squeezed the juice from the stalks and the cane juice would run out the bottom of the mill through
3536-586: The American South Plantation complexes were common on agricultural plantations in the Southern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to the pens for livestock . Until the abolition of slavery , such plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on the forced labor of enslaved people. Plantations are an important aspect of
3640-940: The Appomattox River and falls along the Petersburg border of Colonial Heights. Fort Clifton Park is located at 100 Brockwell Ln, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. Fort Clifton also runs along the Appomattox River and consists of 24 acres. This park is historical and according to the Colonial Heights City website noted as where five Union ships sailed Confederate Troops on June 11, 1864. This may be Colonial Heights's most abundant park, filled with amenities such as an amphitheater, ballfields, basketball courts, drinking fountain, fishing pier, pavilions, picnic shelters, playgrounds, restrooms, and trails. The local public schools use Fort Clifton for sporting events and recesses. The playgrounds found in Fort Clifton Park are technically belonging to Tussing Elementary. Lakeview Park
3744-446: The City of Petersburg, in the face of overwhelming public support, a judge's ruling instead saw Colonial Heights designated an incorporated town. It was incorporated as a city in 1948; under Virginia law, it separated from Chesterfield County and became an independent city . Its current charter was granted in 1960. From 1960 to 1970, Colonial Heights experienced a period of rapid growth as the population jumped from 9,587 to 15,097. In
3848-690: The Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom , suggests that the minimum requirement for planter status was twenty people enslaved, especially since a Southern planter could exempt Confederate duty for one white male per twenty people owned. In his study of Black Belt counties in Alabama, Jonathan Weiner defines planters by ownership of real property, rather than of slaves. A planter, for Weiner, owned at least $ 10,000 worth of real estate in 1850 and $ 32,000 worth in 1860, equivalent to about
3952-420: The Colonial Heights area in 1620. A small group sailed up the Appomattox River looking for clear land, and finally settled in an area where Swift Creek runs into the Appomattox River, which they named Conjurer's Neck . This confluence was formerly the residence of a Native American healer (known as a "conjurer") who was thought to have cast spells over the waters. Shortly thereafter, Charles Magnor registered
4056-634: The Episcopal minister of St. Michael's and was later appointed by Bishop Richard Wilmer as a "Missionary to the Negroes," after which Louisa joined him as an unofficial fellow minister among the African Americans of the Black Belt . Most plantation churches were of wood-frame construction, although some were built in brick, often stuccoed . Early examples tended towards the vernacular or neoclassicism, but later examples were almost always in
4160-987: The Gothic Revival style. A few rivaled those built by southern town congregations. Two of the most elaborate extant examples in the Deep South are the Chapel of the Cross at Annandale Plantation and St. Mary's Chapel at Laurel Hill Plantation , both Episcopalian structures in Mississippi. In both cases the original plantation houses have been destroyed, but the quality and design of the churches can give some insight into how elaborate some plantation complexes and their buildings could be. St. Mary Chapel, in Natchez, dates to 1839, built in stuccoed brick with large Gothic and Tudor arch windows, hood mouldings over
4264-626: The Heights! ” The area thereafter came to be known as "Colonial Heights", and the name was given to a subdivision of the Oak Hill tract in 1906. A historic site, Oak Hill, on Carroll Avenue, also called Archer's, Hector's, or Dunn's Hill, consisted of two one-story weatherboarded structures connected by a deep inside porch that extends from an uncovered section toward the street. From the lawn of this house, in May 1781, General Lafayette — with cannon behind
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4368-677: The aftermath of the Indian attacks of 1622 and 1644, the Appamattuck became tributary to England and relocated to nearby Ettrick , and its opposite bank, near Fort Henry (within modern-day Petersburg, Virginia ). The area including present-day Colonial Heights was made a part of " Henrico Cittie ", one of 4 huge "incorporations" formed in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the London Company . English colonists first settled in
4472-520: The age of 25 have a high school diploma of GED. Out of the adults 25+ living in Colonial Heights that same year, 20.7% have a bachelor's degree or higher and 6.9% have a masters or higher. As of the census of 2000, there were 16,897 people, 7,027 households, and 4,722 families living in the city. The population density was 2,260.3 people per square mile (872.7 people/km ). There were 7,340 housing units at an average density of 981.9 units per square mile (379.1 units/km ). The racial makeup of
4576-618: The bale was secured with twine. An individual who owned a plantation was known as a planter . Historians of the prewar South have generally defined "planter" most precisely as a person owning property (real estate) and keeping 20 or more people enslaved . In the " Black Belt " counties of Alabama and Mississippi , the terms "planter" and "farmer" were often synonymous. The historians Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman define large planters as those who enslaved over 50 people, and medium planters as those who enslaved between 16 and 50 people. Historian David Williams, in A People's History of
4680-450: The centuries. With the collapse of the plantation economy and subsequent Southern transition from a largely agrarian to an industrial society , plantations and their building complexes became obsolete. Although the majority have been destroyed, the most common structures to have survived are the plantation houses . As is true of buildings in general, the more substantially built and architecturally interesting buildings have tended to be
4784-410: The city also maintains many other recreational facilities such as ballfields (including Shephard Stadium), a soccer complex, and tennis courts. White Bank park is located at 400 White Bank Rd, Colonial Heights, VA 23834. The park runs adjacent to Swift Creek and stretches over 22 acres. The park has two pavilions that citizens rent out for events. Floral Avenue Park consists of .3 acres. The park
4888-417: The city is approximately 43.6 inches. The month with the highest normal precipitation is August with 4.66 inches on average while February is the month with the least amount of precipitation on average with 2.76 inches. According to the City of Colonial Height's 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: Colonial Heights has one weekly periodical, a free publication: It
4992-505: The city was 80.66% White , 13.81% Black or African American , 0.19% Native American , 3.24% Asian , 0.08% Pacific Islander , 0.64% from other races , and 1.02% from two or more races. 4.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 17,411 people living in the city of Colonial Heights. Of those 17,411 people, 76.2% of them were white, 16% were African American, 4.1% were Asian, and 5.9% were Hispanic. The population density of
5096-451: The city was recorded as 2315.3 people per square mile. There were 7,735 housing units measured during the years 2012-2016 within the city limits. There were 7,206 households residing in those housing units, of which the average family per household during the same years, 2012–2016, was 2.41. There were 7,027 households, out of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 13.0% had
5200-417: The cookhouse or a storehouse and would have secured items such as barrels of salt , sugar , flour , cornmeal and the like. The washhouse is where clothes, tablecloths, and bed-covers were cleaned and ironed. It also sometimes had living quarters for the laundrywoman . Cleaning laundry in this period was labor-intensive for the domestic slaves that performed it. It required various gadgets to accomplish
5304-463: The crop. Tobacco plantations were most common in certain parts of Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia. The first agricultural plantations in Virginia were founded on the growing of tobacco. Tobacco production on plantations was very labor-intensive. It required the entire year to gather seeds, start them growing in cold frames , and then transplant
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#17327809406925408-573: The doors and windows, buttresses , a crenelated roof-line, and a small Gothic spire crowning the whole. Although construction records are very sketchy, the Chapel of the Cross, built from 1850 to 1852 near Madison, may be attributable to Frank Wills or Richard Upjohn , both of whom designed almost identical churches in the North during the same time period that the Chapel of the Cross was built. Another secondary structure on many plantations during
5512-428: The fields. A few enslavers went further in providing housing for the household servants. When Waldwic in Alabama was remodeled in the Gothic Revival style in the 1852, the enslaved people serving the household were provided with larger accommodations that matched the architecture of the main house. This model, however, was exceedingly rare. Famous landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted had this recollection of
5616-403: The financial panics of 1819 and 1837, when demand by British mills for cotton dropped, many small planters went bankrupt and their land and slaves were bought by larger plantations. As cotton-producing estates grew in size, so did the number of slaveholders and the average number of enslaved people held. A cotton plantation normally had a cotton gin house, where the cotton gin was used to remove
5720-579: The first land patent in the area for 650 acres (2.6 km ), which he later developed into a plantation before selling it in 1634. That same year, by order of King Charles I of England , the Virginia Colony was divided into the 8 original shires of Virginia by the House of Burgesses , one of which was Henrico County , which included the future land of Colonial Heights. In 1635, the English had
5824-719: The food staples and equipment that they relied on for their existence. This type of debt bondage , for blacks and poor whites, led to a populist movement in the late 19th century that began to bring blacks and whites together for a common cause. This early populist movement is largely credited with helping to cause state governments in the South, mostly controlled by the planter elite, to enact various laws that disenfranchised poor whites and blacks, through grandfather clauses , literacy tests , poll taxes , and various other laws. The agricultural structures on plantations had some basic structures in common and others that varied widely. They depended on what crops and animals were raised on
5928-427: The form of monumental towers set near the main house. The pigeons were raised to be eaten as a delicacy and their droppings were used as fertilizer. Few functions could take place on a plantation without a reliable water supply. Every plantation had at least one, and sometimes several, wells . These were usually roofed and often partially enclosed by latticework to exclude animals. Since the well water in many areas
6032-503: The former Hermitage Plantation in Georgia and Boone Hall in South Carolina, even those who worked in the fields were provided with brick cabins. More fortunate in their accommodations were those who served in the enslavers' houses or were skilled laborers. They usually resided either in a part of the main house or in their own houses, which were normally more comfortable dwellings than those of their counterparts who worked in
6136-455: The height of the sharecropping -era was the plantation store or commissary. Although some prewar plantations had a commissary that distributed food and supplies to enslaved people, the plantation store was essentially a postwar addition to the plantation complex. In addition to the share of their crop already owed to the plantation owner for the use of his or her land, tenants and sharecroppers purchased, usually on credit against their next crop,
6240-498: The like. Although it, like the schoolroom, was most often within the main house or another structure, it was not at all rare for a complex to have a separate plantation office. John C. Calhoun used his plantation office at his Fort Hill plantation in Clemson, South Carolina as a private sanctuary of sorts, with it utilized as both study and library during his twenty-five year residency. Another structure found on some estates
6344-399: The main house, at least partially due to his social position. It was also part of an effort to keep the enslaved people compliant and prevent the beginnings of a slave rebellion, a very real fear in the minds of most plantation owners. Economic studies indicate that fewer than 30 percent of planters employed white supervisors for their slave labor. Some planters appointed a trusted slave as
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#17327809406926448-621: The main house, well away from it, or both. On large plantations they were often arranged in a village-like grouping along an avenue away from the main house, but sometimes were scattered around the plantation on the edges of the fields where the enslaved people toiled, like most of the sharecropper cabins that were to come later. Houses for enslaved people were often of the most basic construction. Meant for little more than sleeping, they were usually rough log or frame one-room cabins; early examples often had chimneys made of clay and sticks. Hall and parlor houses (two rooms) were also represented on
6552-442: The meat could also be stored there until it was consumed. The chicken house was a building where chickens were kept. Its design could vary, depending on whether the chickens were kept for egg production, meat, or both. If for eggs, there were often nest boxes for egg laying and perches on which the birds to sleep. Eggs were collected daily. Some plantations also had pigeonniers ( dovecotes ) that, in Louisiana, sometimes took
6656-617: The mid-1980s, completion of the State Route 144 (Temple Avenue Connector) and a new bridge across the Appomattox River provided access to State Route 36 near Fort Lee . The new road and bridge effectively opened a large previously isolated tract of land along the southeastern edge of the city for commercial development. There, the regional Southpark Mall and many other retail businesses and offices were built. On August 6, 1993, an F4 tornado (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) passed through Colonial Heights. It caused extensive damage to
6760-417: The milk into skim milk and cream. It was done by pouring the whole milk into a container and allowing the cream to naturally rise to the top. This was collected into another container daily until several gallons had accumulated. During this time the cream would sour slightly through naturally occurring bacteria. This increased the efficiency of the churning to come. Churning was an arduous task performed with
6864-728: The museum houses presented an idyllic, dignified " lost cause " vision of the antebellum South . Recently, and to different degrees, some have begun to acknowledge the "horrors of slavery" which made that life possible. In late 2019, after contact initiated by Color of Change , "five major websites often used for wedding planning have pledged to cut back on promoting and romanticizing weddings at former slave plantations". The New York Times , earlier in 2019, "decided...to exclude couples who were being married on plantations from wedding announcements and other wedding coverage". "Many plantations, including George Washington 's Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson 's Monticello , are working to present
6968-408: The number of enslaved persons. The vast majority of plantations did not have grand mansions centered on a huge acreage. These large estates did exist, but represented only a small percentage of the plantations that once existed in the South. Although many Southern farmers did enslave people before emancipation in 1862, few enslaved more than five. These farmers tended to work the fields alongside
7072-406: The ones that survived into the modern age and are better documented than many of the smaller and simpler ones. Several plantation homes of important persons, including Mount Vernon , Monticello , and The Hermitage have also been preserved. Less common are intact examples of slave housing. The rarest survivors of all are the agricultural and lesser domestic structures, especially those dating from
7176-405: The outside, with shingle roofs and brick chimneys; they stood fifty feet apart, with gardens and pig-yards ... At the head of the settlement, in a garden looking down the street, was an overseer's house, and here the road divided, running each way at right angles; on one side to barns and a landing on the river, on the other toward the mansion ... A crucial residential structure on larger plantations
7280-504: The overseer, and in Louisiana free black overseers were also used. Another residential structure largely unique to plantation complexes was the garconnière or bachelors' quarters. Mostly built by Louisiana Creole people , but occasionally found in other parts of the Deep South formerly under the dominion of New France , they were structures that housed the adolescent or unmarried sons of plantation owners. At some plantations it
7384-615: The parking lot of a strip mall (which had extensive roof damage) that is less than a tenth of a mile from the site of the old Walmart which was destroyed by an F4 tornado on August 6, 1993 . The tornado then continued across Temple Avenue, causing tree and roof damage in the neighborhood near Fine Drive and Puddledock Road (in Prince George County ) before lifting for good. The tornado injured 21 and caused an estimated $ 10 million in property damage. Three area attractions with historic roots are Violet Bank , Swift Creek Mill, and
7488-553: The people they enslaved. Of the estimated 46,200 plantations existing in 1860, 20,700 had 20 to 30 enslaved people and 2,300 had a workforce of a hundred or more, with the rest somewhere in between. Many plantations were operated by absentee-landowners and never had a main house on site. Just as vital and arguably more important to the complex were the many structures built for the processing and storage of crops, food preparation and storage, sheltering equipment and animals, and various other domestic and agricultural purposes. The value of
7592-405: The plantation came from its land and the enslaved people who toiled on it to produce crops for sale. These same people produced the built environment: the main house for the plantation owner, the slave cabins , barns, and other structures of the complex. The materials for a plantation's buildings, for the most part, came from the lands of the estate. Lumber was obtained from the forested areas of
7696-406: The plantation landscape, offering a separate room for eating and sleeping. Sometimes dormitories and two-story dwellings were also used to house enslaved people. Earlier examples rested on the ground with a dirt floor, but later examples were usually raised on piers for ventilation. Most of these represent the dwellings constructed for enslaved people who worked in the fields. Rarely though, such as at
7800-732: The plantation, used to house both horses and mules . These were usually separate, one for each type of animal. The mule stable was the most important on the vast majority of estates, since the mules did most of the work, pulling the plows and carts . Barns not involved in animal husbandry were most commonly the crib barn ( corn cribs or other types of granaries ), storage barns, or processing barns. Crib barns were typically built of unchinked logs , although they were sometimes covered with vertical wood siding. Storage barns often housed unprocessed crops or those awaiting consumption or transport to market. Processing barns were specialized structures that were necessary for helping to actually process
7904-599: The plantation. Common crops included corn , upland cotton , sea island cotton , rice , sugarcane , and tobacco . Besides those mentioned earlier, cattle , ducks , goats , hogs , and sheep were raised for their derived products and/or meat. All estates would have possessed various types of animal pens, stables , and a variety of barns . Many plantations utilized a number of specialized structures that were crop-specific and only found on that type of plantation. Plantation barns can be classified by function , depending on what type of crop and livestock were raised. In
8008-602: The planter in matters of daily management. Usually perceived as uncouth, ill-educated, and low-class, he had the often despised task of meting out punishments in order to keep up discipline and secure the profit of his employer. Southern plantations depended upon slaves to do the agricultural work. "Honestly, 'plantation' and 'slavery' is one and the same," said an employee of the Whitney Plantation in 2019. Many manor houses survive, and in some cases former slave dwellings have been rebuilt or renovated. To pay for
8112-427: The plants to the fields once the soil had warmed. Then the enslaved people had to weed the fields all summer and remove the flowers from the tobacco plants in order to force more energy into the leaves. Harvesting was done by plucking individual leaves over several weeks as they ripened, or cutting entire tobacco plants and hanging them in vented tobacco barns to dry, called curing . Rice plantations were common in
8216-737: The postwar South. For example, James Battle Avirett , who grew up on the Avirett-Stephens Plantation in Onslow County, North Carolina , and served as an Episcopal chaplain in the Confederate States Army , published The Old Plantation: How We Lived in Great House and Cabin before the War in 1901. Such memoirs often included descriptions of Christmas as the epitome of anti-modern order exemplified by
8320-406: The pre-Civil War era. Housing for enslaved people, although once one of the most common and distinctive features of the plantation landscape, has largely disappeared in much of the South. Many of the structures were insubstantial to begin with. Only the better-built examples tended to survive, and then usually only if they were put to other uses after emancipation. The quarters could be next to
8424-447: The property. Depending on its intended use, it was either split, hewn , or sawn. Bricks were most often produced onsite from sand and clay that was molded , dried, and then fired in a kiln . If a suitable stone was available, it was used. Tabby was often used on the southern Sea Islands . Few plantation structures have survived into the modern era, with the vast majority destroyed through natural disaster , neglect, or fire over
8528-490: The same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colonial_Heights&oldid=543838499 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Colonial Heights, Virginia Colonial Heights
8632-629: The schools are accredited by the Virginia Board of Education and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools . The area is served by three schools of higher education: The city of Colonial Heights has nine parks composed of 75 acres that they must maintain. Those nine parks include White Bank Park, Floral Avenue Park, Edinborough Park, Flora Hill Park, Appamattuck Park, Fort Clifton Park, Lakeview Park, Roslyn Landing Park, and Wakefield Park. In addition to these nine parks,
8736-444: The seeds from raw cotton. After ginning, the cotton had to be baled before it could be warehoused and transported to market. This was accomplished with a cotton press, an early type of baler that was usually powered by two mules walking in a circle with each attached to an overhead arm that turned a huge wooden screw. The downward action of this screw compressed the processed cotton into a uniform bale-shaped wooden enclosure, where
8840-413: The separation was to prevent the noise and smells of cooking activities from reaching the main house. Sometimes the cookhouse contained two rooms, one for the actual kitchen and the other to serve as the residence for the cook. Still other arrangements had the kitchen in one room, a laundry in the other, and a second story for servant quarters. The pantry could be in its own structure or in a cool part of
8944-615: The site of Colonial Heights was located within the Algonquian -speaking confederation known as Tenakomakah , ruled by Chief Powhatan , when the English colonists arrived at Jamestown on May 14, 1607. Captain John Smith 's early map of Virginia testifies that the present area of Colonial Heights included the principal town of the Appamattuck subtribe, led by their weroance , Coquonasum, and his sister, Oppussoquionuske . In
9048-417: The task. The wash boiler was a cast iron or copper cauldron in which clothes or other fabrics and soapy water were heated over an open fire. The wash-stick was a wooden stick with a handle at its uppermost part and four to five prongs at its base. It was simultaneously pounded up and down and rotated in the washing tub to aerate the wash solution and loosen any dirt. The items would then be vigorously rubbed on
9152-483: The term dependency can be applied to these buildings. A few were common, such as the carriage house and blacksmith shop; but most varied widely among plantations and were largely a function of what the planter wanted, needed, or could afford to add to the complex. These buildings might include schoolhouses , offices , churches , commissary stores , gristmills , and sawmills . Found on some plantations in every Southern state, plantation schoolhouses served as
9256-754: The top eight percent of landowners. In his study of southwest Georgia, Lee Formwalt defines planters in terms of size of land holdings rather than in terms of numbers of people enslaved. Formwalt's planters are in the top 4.5% of landowners, translating into real estate worth $ 6,000 or more in 1850, $ 24,000 or more in 1860, and $ 11,000 or more in 1870. In his study of Harrison County, Texas , Randolph B. Campbell classifies large planters as owners of 20 people, and small planters as owners of between 10 and 19 people. In Chicot and Phillips Counties, Arkansas, Carl H. Moneyhon defines large planters as owners of 20 or more people, and of 600 acres (240 ha) or more. Many nostalgic memoirs about plantation life were published in
9360-671: The upkeep, some, like the Monmouth Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi and the Lipscomb Plantation in Durham, North Carolina , have become small luxury hotels or bed and breakfasts . Not only Monticello and Mount Vernon but some 375 former plantation houses are museums that can be visited. There are examples in every Southern state. Centers of plantation life such as Natchez run plantation tours. Traditionally
9464-527: The upper South, like their counterparts in the North , barns had to provide basic shelter for the animals and storage of fodder . Unlike the upper regions, most plantations in the lower South did not have to provide substantial shelter to their animals during the winter. Animals were often kept in fattening pens with a simple shed for shelter, with the main barn or barns being utilized for crop storage or processing only. Stables were an essential type of barn on
9568-490: The vote. In 1972, and again in 1980, Colonial Heights gave the GOP nominee the largest percentage of the vote of any county or incorporated city in Virginia. Colonial Heights has seven council members; Mayor Gregory T. Kochuba, Vice-Mayor E. "Betsy" Gentry Luck, Councilman Michael A. Cherry, Councilman John E. Piotrowski, Councilwoman Dr. Laura F. Poe, Councilman R.W. "Bobby" Wade, and Councilman John T. Wood. Plantations in
9672-433: The world's largest Arby's. There are also several parks in the area, including Fort Clifton Park , Dimmock Boat landing, and White Bank Park. According to The Comparative Guide to American Suburbs, Colonial Heights's elevation is 95 feet. Colonial Heights is located at 37°15′44″N 77°24′9″W / 37.26222°N 77.40250°W / 37.26222; -77.40250 (37.262257, -77.402728). According to
9776-409: Was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.8 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 82.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 52,529, and the median income for a family was $ 66,381. Males had a median income of $ 39,900 versus $ 28,875 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 28,282. About 7.42% of families and 10.6% of the population were below
9880-475: Was a free-standing structure and at others it was attached to the main house by side-wings. It developed from the Acadian tradition of using the loft of the house as a bedroom for young men. A variety of domestic and lesser agricultural structures surrounded the main house on all plantations. Most plantations possessed some, if not all, of these outbuildings , often called dependencies, commonly arranged around
9984-456: Was a plantation chapel or church. These were built for a variety of reasons. In many cases the planter built a church or chapel for the use of the plantation slaves, although they usually recruited a white minister to conduct the services. Some were built to exclusively serve the plantation family, but many more were built to serve the family and others in the area who shared the same faith. This seems to be especially true with planters within
10088-402: Was a very labor-intensive crop to harvest, with the fibers having to be hand-picked from the bolls . This was coupled with the equally laborious removal of seeds from fiber by hand. Following the invention of the cotton gin , cotton plantations sprang up all over the South and cotton production soared, along with the expansion of slavery. Cotton also caused plantations to grow in size. During
10192-428: Was almost always in a separate building in the South until modern times, sometimes connected to the main house by a covered walkway. This separation was partially due to the cooking fire generating heat all day long in an already hot and humid climate. It also reduced the risk of fire. Indeed, on many plantations the cookhouse was built of brick while when the main house was of wood-frame construction. Another reason for
10296-430: Was an overseer's house. The overseer was largely responsible for the success or failure of an estate, making sure that quotas were met and sometimes meting out punishment for infractions by the enslaved. The overseer was responsible for healthcare, with enslaved people and slave houses inspected routinely. He was also the record keeper of most crop inventories and held the keys to various storehouses. The overseer's house
10400-489: Was constructed with the building of the Old Brick House. Richard Kennon came to Virginia prior to 1670 and became a merchant of Bermuda Hundred . He represented Henrico County in the House of Burgesses . His son, Richard Kennon, Jr., was also a member of the House of Burgesses and married the daughter of Col. Robert Bolling, the emigrant, and his second wife, the former Anne Stith . Richard's sister, Mary Kennon ,
10504-450: Was distasteful due to mineral content, the potable water on many plantations came from cisterns that were supplied with rainwater by a pipe from a rooftop catchment. These could be huge aboveground wooden barrels capped by metal domes, such as was often seen in Louisiana and coastal areas of Mississippi, or underground brick masonry domes or vaults, common in other areas. Some structures on plantations provided subsidiary functions; again,
10608-416: Was married to Major John Fairfax Bolling , half-brother of Richard's wife. Major Bolling was the son of Col. Robert Bolling and his first wife Jane Rolfe , who was granddaughter of the early colonist John Rolfe and his Native American wife, Pocahontas . The Bollings lived at Cobb's, a plantation in eastern Chesterfield near Point-of-Rocks. The plantation house built by Richard Kennon (later known as
10712-430: Was usually a modest dwelling, not far from the cabins of the enslaved workers. The overseer and his family, even when white and southern, did not freely mingle with the planter and his family. They were in a different social stratum than that of the owner and were expected to know their place. In village-type slave quarters on plantations with overseers, his house was usually at the head of the slave village rather than near
10816-405: Was utilized to preserve meat, usually pork , beef , and mutton . It was commonly built of hewn logs or brick. Following the slaughter in the fall or early winter, salt and sugar were applied to the meat at the beginning of the curing process, and then the meat was slowly dried and smoked in the smokehouse by a fire that did not add any heat to the smokehouse itself. If it was cool enough,
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