The brick. With the thumbprint of its maker, presumably a slave. The towering ruins of the greatest house in Virginia.The contradiction and the connection: great wealth, slavery. Now recognized.
Rosewell, through its managers the Fairfield Foundation, acknowledged that aspect of its long history on Sunday in impressive ceremonies. A portion of its grounds was consecrated; a remembrance structure will be erected there to recognize the other residents of Rosewell: not the leading families who owned the plantation, but those enslaved people who kept it going, who worked in bondage, inside and out, from its erection in 1725 until Emancipation during the Civil War.
We have long supported and continue to support recognition of the people who built and tended so much of the historic area that surrounds us; who did this work without choice, and without pay.
Rosewell is taking a huge step toward telling the complete history. May others follow.
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