Toil Without Choice at Ellwood

Toil Without Choice at Ellwood. The Battle of the Wilderness. , The veneer of elegance at Ellwood (and most plantations) obscured the harsh world beyond the main house. Before the Civil War, dozens of enslaved people spent their energy every day to provide comfort (and profit) to the owners and elegant hospitality to visitors. Some worked in the house and the yard around it. Most worked the fields and the woodlots that checkered Ellwood's 5,000 acres., We do not know most of their names, or their birth or death dates. The law did not recognize their marriages, and their families might be disrupted by sale at the slightest misstep or the owner's whim. Still, the renown the owners of Ellwood gained for their hospitality was in part due to the labors of men, women, and children most visitors rarely saw., [Caption:] , Most of the enslaved people at Ellwood worked the fields, producing the crops that kept the cash flowing for Ellwood's owners. Dawn to dusk, six days per week. Others worked in the house or yard (right), doing everything from emptying chamber pots to ironing linens to slaughtering hogs.