Enslaved People and the Prestons
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From Plantation to College Campus

Enslaved People and the Prestons, also, From Plantation to College Campus. . Enslaved People and the Prestons – William Preston purchased land at Draper's Meadows in 1773. There, enslaved people and indentured servants built a large house that Preston named Smithfield in honor of his wife, Susanna Smith Preston. Subsequent generations of the Preston family spread across the South and rose to positions of leadership in politics and education. , William Preston died in 1783. Then his widow managed Smithfield for 40 years, followed by their son James Patton Preston, until his death in 1843. Among his sons, the eldest, William Ballard Preston, inherited Smithfield, and Robert Taylor Preston received Solitude. , Also divided, and separated onto different plantations, were the enslaved people in the estate. Robert Preston, for example, inherited John and Easther Fraction; their daughter Chloe; and their sons Oscar, Thomas, Wilson, Granville, and Othello. Other Preston heirs acquired five other Fraction children. , By 1850, 24 enslaved people lived at the Solitude plantation, a number that rose to 33 by 1860. Among them were the Fractions: youngsters Daniel and Grace McNorton, separated from their parents and 11 siblings; and Robert, Amy, Edward, and David Saunders, all separated from their mother and five siblings. , Late in the Civil War, three Fraction brothers escaped from Solitude plantation and enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops, despite death threats from Robert Preston, who had been serving in the Confederate Army. They survived Preston, survived the war, and by 1867 could vote. , In 1872, Solitude became part of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. , [Captions (top to bottom)] , . (Left) Susanna Smith Preston (Historic Smithfield); (Right) Robert Taylor Preston (Historic Smithfield) , . A family separated at auction in 1855 in nearby Christiansburg, where Fillis and her baby sold for $600 and Bill for $800. (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) , . (Left) Enlistment record for Othello Fraction, who had been enslaved at Solitude before he joined the Union army, 1865 (National Archives); (Right) Military record of Oscar Fraction, who escaped slavery at Solitude and in 1864 enlisted in the Union army (National Archives) , From Plantation to College Campus – The Solitude house originated about 1801 as a one-room log structure built by Philip Barger on land his father had purchased in 1754. Later it became the center of a Preston property, Solitude plantation, and by the late 1850s had largely taken on its current configuration. Outbuildings included a spring house, plus dwellings for enslaved people such as the surviving example, built about 1838. , In 1872, the new Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, today's Virginia Tech, purchased the Solitude plantation, both for agricultural education and for producing crops. The main house served briefly as the campus infirmary and for many years afterwards as a faculty residence. , In the late 1940s, when thousands of married veterans enrolled under the GI Bill, they and their families needed housing. A trailer park, nicknamed “Vetsville,” took shape near the Solitude House, which became a community center. , Beginning in 1974, a series of academic programs and departments moved to the Solitude House. Starting in the 1980s, faculty members in one of them, Appalachian Studies, spearheaded efforts to revitalize the entire site. The accomplished the renovation of the smaller structure in 2001 and the main house – the oldest building on campus – in 2011. , Solitude as listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1988 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. In 2019, Virginia Tech named the smaller building the Fraction Family House in honor of all the people formerly enslaved at the plantation. , Embodying centuries of regional and international history, the Solitude-Fraction site provides a key venue for interpreting diverse Appalachian histories and cultures. , [Captions (top to bottom)] , . Fraction Family House on the left, Solitude House on the right (University Relations, Virginia Tech) , . The outbuilding at Solitude, in a state of disrepair in 1988, before being rehabilitated and then named the Fraction Family House (Virginia Department of Historic Resources) , . Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, a historian, author, and descendant of Thomas Fraction, at the renovated Fraction Family House (2019, University Relations, Virginia Tech)