Thursday, June 11, 2009

Washington county

When you look for information about Washington county, named for George Washington himself, during the time of the Revolution, you get a lot of info about Washington of Tenneesee.

But I am curious about Somerset Place. Built in 1785, it was a very large plantation. 80 Africans were imported to create the plantation as well as other enslaved people born here. It was the site of the first African-American homecoming of slave relatives in the United States at a plantation. Today it is NC historic site. I know it is a little later than the Revolution, but.. Perhaps there is information on the Collins family that lived there and about their lives before the British left America. It certainly tells the story of how African-Americans ended up after the revolution.

But here is also Davenport Homestead, home of the first NC senator from the newly formed Washington county. More importantly, he was a revolutionary soldier and this was his house, all 600 square feet of it still intact.

There must be tons of Native American history here too.

So, that's good enough for me. Someone write the Park Service.

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