On-site Activites
Students will take a guided interactive tour of Historic Stagville which last one hour. While visiting each structure, students will be engaged with questions and gain insight about life as a plantation owner and as an enslaved person through artifacts encountered on the tour. Students will have the opportunity to enter and learn about the following structures:
- The Bennehan House – the original family home of Richard Bennehan, built around 1787 with a two-story addition added in 1799.
- A Horton Grove cabin – constructed by enslaved laborers at the Cameron Plantation during the decade before the Civil War, these original two-story, four-room timber framed quarters are evidence of Cameron family wealth. Designed to house four family units, each cabin held 20 to 30 enslaved people.
- The Great Barn – a three level, 133-feet-long barn, built by enslaved craftsmen in the summer of 1860, just before the Civil War.
Classes may also participate in one of the following activities designed to complement the tour experience. (30 minutes each)
- African American Achievements - Students will learn about inventions attributed to African Americans through an interactive game. (Limited to groups of 60 or less)
- Stagville Slave Narratives - In this activity, students will analyze slave narratives from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project of the 1930s. After reading three transcripts that feature formerly enslaved people from Stagville, students and a facilitator will analyze the narratives to understand them in historical context. (Limited to groups of 60 or less)