Land Rooted in Agriculture

Land Rooted in Agriculture. . An Enslaved Workforce For nearly 100 years beginning in the late 1700s, this land was part of the Spring Hill plantation owned by the Hunter family. Enslaved African Americans were forced to work the fields and raise livestock for sale in addition to food to support the family and plantation operations. The main crops included corn, wheat, potatoes, beans, oats, and flax though most of the plantation’s income came from raising hogs. , The Spring Hill plantation was eventually divided amongst the Hunter family and much of it sold to other landowners. In 1850 the family sold 29 acres to the State for the construction of North Carolina’s first mental health hospital. , Farming as Therapy In the 19th and early 20th centuries, mental health hospitals all over the country included spacious grounds for therapeutic gardening and farming – with fresh air, connection to nature, and meaningful work thought to be central to patient wellbeing. Farming provided not only economic self-sufficiency for the hospital, but also was considered therapy for some patients. Crops and livestock on the land fed the patients and staff, fibrous plants were made into cloth for uniforms and clothing, and timber provided wood to heat the hospital. , By the 1960s, the farm at Dix Hospital had grown to nearly 2,000 acres and included a swine operation, a working dairy, chicken coops, a greenhouse, cropland, and hay, grain and timber operations. , In the 1970s, mental health care reformers challenged the notion of farming as therapy, and occupational farming operations at Dix ceased. By 1974, no patients were working the land, and in the decades to come, the State transferred most of the farm property to North Carolina State University and the Department of Agriculture. , [Captions (left to right)] , . Bush Lima Beans on the hospital farm, c. 1940. From Barden Collection, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC , . Dairy Cows on the state hospital farm, c.1941. From the Barden Collection, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC , . State hospital Greenhouse, c.1916 From North Carolina State Documents Collection, State Library of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC