Mount Vernon near Alexandria in Fairfax County, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
The People of Woodlawn
"The planters, to be sure, are rich in lands, and having so many negroes to labor for them live in all the luxury, ease, and ...affluence."
Thomas Hill Hubbard, December 29, 1817
Visitors in the early 1800s would have observed that the majority of Woodlawn's residents were enslaved. With their ancestors originating in western Africa, these individuals were held in bondage as part of a system prevalent in Virginia from its time as an English colony until the Civil War. Historians are challenged in telling the stories of these unique peoples, as few written accounts about them exist, and then only in the records of their masters. Research into the lives of all the people at Woodlawn is ongoing, revealing a complex intermixture of black and white, free and slave, and gentry and middling class people.
[Caption:]
Like their gentry counterparts, the enslaved people of Woodlawn had their own families, with many relatives nearby at Mount Vernon, Arlington House and Tudor Place. This rare-sketch depicts an enslaved man named Lawrence Parks, husband and father of eleven, held at Arlington.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Agriculture • Industry & Commerce. A significant historical date for this entry is December 29, 1817.
Location.
this page online
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Meat House (a few steps from this marker); Woodlawn (a few steps from this marker); a different marker also named Woodlawn (a few steps from this marker); Dairy (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Necessary (about 300 feet away); Pope-Leighey (about 400 feet away); Potomac Connections (approx. 0.2 miles away); Woodlawn Historic Landscapes (approx. ¼ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Alexandria.
Credits. This page was last revised on January 27, 2023. It was originally submitted on October 11, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 168 times since then and 15 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 11, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
