Stagville is a historic plantation site located in Durham County, North Carolina, United States. It is operated as Historic Stagville State Historic Site, a historic house museum belonging to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
History and Ownership
Stagville was part of one of the largest plantation complexes in the American South. The property was owned by the Bennehan, Mantack, and Cameron families. Richard Bennehan began assembling the plantation lands in 1776 in what was then Orange County, at the confluence of the Little, Eno, and Flat Rivers. By 1860, the entire complex comprised roughly 30,000 acres (approximately 120 square kilometers) and was home to nearly 900 enslaved African Americans, making it one of the largest sites of plantation slavery in antebellum North Carolina.
Physical Remains and Structures
The remains of Historic Stagville consist of approximately 71 acres (290,000 square meters) across three tracts. Notable structures on the site include:
- Bennehan House: Built in 1787 with a large addition in 1799, this Georgian-style house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
- Horton Grove: An area containing two-story slave residences built in 1850, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. These quarters are well preserved and are the only two-story slave quarters remaining in North Carolina. Significant archaeological finds around the quarters have provided historians and archaeologists with insight into the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Stagville.
Modern History
In 1976, the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company, which had owned and worked the land for decades, donated a portion of the acreage to the state of North Carolina. The state now operates the property as Historic Stagville State Historic Site. The site is designated as a Site of Conscience and a site of memory, and its mission includes preservation, interpretation, research, genealogy, and descendant engagement. It provides educational programming and tours that address the history of slavery and the lives of both free and enslaved people who lived at Stagville.
References
- Anderson, Jean Bradley. Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina. Durham: Historic Preservation Society, 1985.
- Anderson, Jean Bradley. A History of Durham County, North Carolina. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
- National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service.
