Sow…Tend…Harvest

Sow…Tend…Harvest. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. , For most of its existence, Chatham had an unchanging rhythm: sow, tend, and harvest, each according to the crop. Most of Chatham's enslaved residents lived out their lives to this seasonal cadence, year after year. More than 50 enslaved workers, sometimes nearly 100, tended to Chatham's 1,300 acres., Enslaved people working these fields managed huge swaths of wheat and corn. Some of the crop went to feed the plantation's cattle. The rest was ground into meal at Chatham's mill on nearby Claiborne Run and sold to merchants in town. Those who produced the bounty received none of it., Instead, they managed their own kitchen gardens, received shelter in small cabins, a bundle of clothes each year, and enough food to keep body and soul together. Holidays and Sundays assumed huge importance in the lives of enslaved people as rare days of rest, the only days they could call their own., [Caption:] , A 1798 painting of enslaved people working under the gaze of an overseer near Fredericksburg. This is the only known image of Fredericksburg-area slaves at work. They are clearing a field for cultivation. , Image Courtesy Maryland Historical Society