This is a list of plantations in North Carolina that are National Historic Landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, listed on a heritage register, or are otherwise significant for their history, association with significant events or people, or their architecture and design. [1] [2] [3]
Today, as was also true in the past, there 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. [4] A common definition of what constituted a plantation is that it typically had 500 to 1,000 acres (2.0 to 4.0 km2) or more of land and produced one or two cash crops for sale. [5] Other scholars have attempted to define it by the number of slaves that were owned. [6]
The tables of plantations below are sortable, so the name, locality, county (current), historic register number, and built in years can be easily reviewed. References can be found on the individual articles linked or are noted if there are no articles. Comparisons to similar referenced listings are in progress. [7] [8] [9]
Color key | Historic register listing |
---|---|
National Historic Landmark | |
National Register of Historic Places | |
Contributing property to a National Register of Historic Places historic district | |
Not listed on national or state register | |
North Carolina plantation were identified by name, beginning in the 17th century. The names of families or nearby rivers or other features were used. The names assisted the owners and local record keepers in keeping track of specific parcels of land. In the early 1900s, there were 328 plantations identified in North Carolina from extant records. [10] [8] [9]
The Sloop Point plantation in Pender County, built in 1729, is the oldest surviving plantation house and the second oldest house surviving in North Carolina, after the Lane House (built in 1718–1719 and not part of a plantation). Sloop Point was once owned by John Baptista Ashe, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, U.S. Congressman from North Carolina and Continental Army officer. [11] [12]
The known plantations during the period of the Province of North Carolina (1712–1776) are listed in the table below.
The following table shows the plantations in North Carolina that were built between 1776 and the end of the Civil War.
Some plantations were built after the civil war and abolition of slavery.
NRHP reference number | Name | Image | Date designated | Locality | County | Date built and other notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
93000235 | Chinqua Penn Plantation | April 8, 1993 | Reidsville 36°23′4″N79°42′0″W / 36.38444°N 79.70000°W | Rockingham | Built in 1920s by Thomas Jefferson Penn. |
The following persons were large plantation owners for which the plantation has not yet been identified.
Originally form Virginia the J.A. Evans Family moved from Edgecombe County, N.C. through Nash County, N.C. to Pine Level in Johnston County, N.C. in 1850 A.D. and started a farm which eventually through land purchases became the 6,000 acre Tall Pines Plantation, Founded in 1870 A.D. by Jane Barns Evans widow of J.A. Evans CSA. The family lost control of the property in 1938 A.D. after the Great Financial Depression and gained some compensation for the land through legal action taking by the Evans family in 1947 A.D. Descendants of the J.A. Evans Family in 2020 A.D. were still living in the Pine Level area.
Jane Barnes Evans was a cotton Baroness and part owner of the North Carolina Railroad which ran through part of her Tall Pines Plantation which supplied fresh water to the North Carolina Railroad for the use of steam engine locomotives.
Duplin County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,715. Its county seat is Kenansville.
Caswell County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state. At the 2020 census, the population was 22,736. Its county seat is Yanceyville.
Oxford is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 8,628 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Granville County.
Somerset Place is a former plantation near Creswell in Washington County, North Carolina, along the northern shore of Lake Phelps, 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, Somerset Place had become one of the Upper South's largest plantations.
Shirley Plantation is an estate on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5, between Richmond and Williamsburg. It is the oldest active plantation in Virginia and the oldest family-owned business in North America, dating back to 1614, with operations starting in 1648. It used about 70 to 90 African slaves at a time for plowing the fields, cleaning, childcare, and cooking. It was added to the National Register in 1969 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. After the acquisition, rebranding, and merger of Tuttle Farm in Dover, New Hampshire, Shirley Plantation received the title of the oldest business continuously operating in the United States.
Cooleemee, also known as the Cooleemee Plantation House, is a house located between Mocksville and Lexington, North Carolina, at the terminus of SR 1812 on the Yadkin River in Davie County, North Carolina. It is a U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated in 1978 for its architecture.
The North Carolina State Capitol is the former seat of the legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina which housed all of the state's government until 1888. The Supreme Court and State Library moved into a separate building in 1888, and the General Assembly moved into the State Legislative Building in 1963. Today, the governor and his immediate staff occupy offices on the first floor of the Capitol.
Stagville Plantation is located in Durham County, North Carolina. With buildings constructed from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century, Stagville was part of one of the largest plantation complexes in the American South. The entire complex was owned by the Bennehan, Mantack and Cameron families; it comprised roughly 30,000 acres (120 km2) and was home to almost 900 enslaved African Americans in 1860.
The Garrett White House, sometimes referred to as the Garrett-White House, is a historic structure in Colerain, Bertie County, North Carolina. The house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as constructed in 1785, though some other sources give the date of construction as 1780.
Coolmore Plantation, also known as Coolmore and the Powell House, is a historic plantation house located near Tarboro, Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Built in 1858–61, the main house is one of the finest Italianate style plantation houses in the state. The house and its similarly styled outbuildings were designed by Baltimore architect E. G. Lind for Dr. Joseph J.W. and Martha Powell. Coolmore was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture in 1978, and is a Save America's Treasures projects.
Hayes Plantation, also known as Hayes Farm, is a historic plantation near Edenton, North Carolina that belonged to Samuel Johnston (1733–1816), who served as Governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789. Johnston became one of the state's first two United States Senators, serving from 1789 until 1793, and served later as a judge until retiring in 1803. Samuel Johnston died in 1816 at "the Hermitage," his home near Williamston in Martin County, N.C. The residence known as Hayes was completed by his son, James Cathcart Johnston, a year after Samuel's death. There are numerous other structures on the property, some predating the Hayes house itself, including the Hayes Gatehouse, which James Johnston lived in prior to the construction of the Hayes house.
The Hinton Rowan Helper House is a historic house on United States Route 64 outside Mocksville, Davie County, North Carolina. Built on land that once belonged to Daniel Boone, it was the childhood and early adult home of Hinton Rowan Helper (1829-1909) whose The Impending Crisis of the South was an influential antislavery work that inflamed tensions in 1860. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
The Tarboro Cotton Press, which is also called the Norfleet Cotton Press or the Edgecombe County Cotton Press, is a wooden cotton press built in the mid-18th century in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. It was moved to the Tarboro Town Common of Tarboro, North Carolina. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 1971. It is located in the Tarboro Historic District.
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.
Sloop Point Plantation is a historic house located at Sloop Point, Pender County, North Carolina. It was built in 1729 according to dendrochronological dating and is possibly the oldest surviving framed building in the state of North Carolina. The house was built as a home for John Baptista Ashe and his wife Elizabeth Swann Ashe.
The Midway Plantation House and Outbuildings are a set of historic buildings constructed in the mid-19th century in present-day Knightdale, Wake County, North Carolina, as part of a forced-labor farm.
The Josephus Hall House, also known as the McNeely–Strachan House and Salisbury Academy, is a historic home located at Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. It was built about 1820, as a two-story, frame dwelling. It was remodeled in the 1850s to add its distinctive two-tier flat roofed front porch. The porch features a five bay ornamental cast iron arcade in a grapevine pattern. The roof was modified to the hipped roof form and exterior chimneys rebuilt in 1911. The interior has Federal, Greek Revival, and Late Victorian-style design elements. The building housed the Salisbury Academy girls' school from about 1820 to 1825.
Williamsboro or Williamsborough is an unincorporated community in Vance County, North Carolina, United States. It was established in about 1755 as Williamsborough in Granville County in the Province of North Carolina. It became part of Vance County in 1881 when Vance County was founded. Williamsboro is located in Williamsboro Township, which is an administrative division of Vance County.
Slavery was legally practiced in the Province of North Carolina and the state of North Carolina until January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to statehood, there were 41,000 enslaved African-Americans in the Province of North Carolina in 1767. By 1860, the number of slaves in the state of North Carolina was 331,059, about one third of the total population of the state. In 1860, there were nineteen counties in North Carolina where the number of slaves was larger than the free white population. During the antebellum period the state of North Carolina passed several laws to protect the rights of slave owners while disenfranchising the rights of slaves. There was a constant fear amongst white slave owners in North Carolina of slave revolts from the time of the American Revolution. Despite their circumstances, some North Carolina slaves and freed slaves distinguished themselves as artisans, soldiers during the Revolution, religious leaders, and writers.
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