African Americans and Appomattox Manor Within the Structured Landscape of the Eppes Plantation
African Americans and Appomattox Manor Within the Structured Landscape of the Eppes Plantation
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Date
2000
Authors
Brown, Gail W
Shackel, Paul A.
Orr, David
Blades, Brooke
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Abstract
The Civil War brought about many changes in Virginian society, including the area
around City Point, Virginia. These changes greatly effected the manner in which plantation
owners managed their farms. Plantation owners had to find new ways of obtaining and
exploiting their labor, and protecting their resources. The goal of this report is to explore those
changes between the years 1851 and 1872 on the Eppes' plantations. I examine how Dr. Eppes
structured his landscape to aid in controlling his productive resources, and the relationship he
held with African-Americans. Part of exploring that relationship will be examining the living
conditions of African-Americans on the Eppes' plantations as slaves and freedmen laborers.
Dr. Eppes' home, Appomattox Manor, and its grounds now make up the City Point Unit
of the Petersburg National Battlefield. This report will place the City Point Unit into its larger
historic context. Though the unit is best known as the location of General Grant's headquarters
during the Siege of Petersburg, its history is far more extensive. In this report, I place City Point
and Appomattox Manor in the plantation context which surrounded them before and after the
war. It will show how the Civil War was not an isolated event, but was effected by and affected
the social world around it.