The mysterious wooden enclosure in the basement.
My two recent posts on Carter’s Grove and Beverly Wellford’s physician/slave insurance office have gotten me thinking about the experience of inhabiting historic landscapes of slavery as a modern historian and general Yankee. This past weekend, I had another direct encounter with a landscape, not of slavery, but of early 20th century Jim Crow. This final encounter suggested to me that I should make “Landscapes of Slavery” a regular (if occasional) feature on my blog. As transplanted Yankee living below the Mason-Dixon, the remnants of the South’s history of racialized labor relations fascinates me, and I’ll take care to document them as I encounter them in daily life. Read more
