Hogsheads, Ward's Road, and Batteaux

Hogsheads, Ward's Road, and Batteaux. . Exhibited here is a reproduction "hogshead." A hogshead was a large barrel, usually made from oak and used by plantation owners in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to store and transport tobacco to distant markets. When standing, hogshead barrels were at least 48 inches tall and at least 30 inches in diameter, though larger examples have been recorded. Hogsheads were unlike most barrels in that they had the same diameter from top to bottom and, when empty, weighed 200 pounds. Their peak usage was seen was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries., Enslaved people on this plantation and others nearby would pack hogsheads through a process called "prizing." A structure known as a "prizery" was where a weighted press and human strength were jointly employed to compact tobacco leaves into the great barrels. Enslaved people working in a prizery were able to press 800 pounds of tobacco leaves into one of these barrels, giving a fully-prized hogshead a weight of approximately 1,000 pounds., After the hogsheads were prized, the barrels were turned over onto their sides so that they could be rolled to their destination. The large, rolling barrels were typically pulled along behind an ox and a mule (working in tandem) down a "roaling road" whilst an enslaved person guided the beasts. In the late eighteenth century, local planter John Ward built a "roaling road" linking this locality with Lynch's Ferry (present-day Lynchburg). The modern US Route 29 between Altavista and Lynchburg roughly follows the same route as "Ward's Road." In fact, the name is still applied to that stretch of road today., The freight would travel along the roaling road and would eventually arrive at a place where it could be sold and loaded onto river craft called ""batteaux." Batteaux were designed to carry heavy loads along rivers which have a shallow draft. A single batteau was large enough to carry hogsheads, and two batteaux could be lashed together to transport twice as much cargo. Once the tobacco reached a city from which oceangoing vessels could depart, the hogsheads were transferred onto those deep water vessels. From these cities, the barrels were shipped to both domestic and foreign ports. After the hogsheads had been sold and emptied out, they would be dismantled and the wood would be repurposed. The same was often true for the batteaux themselves., This freight transportation system proved to be the major impetus for the economic development of Campbell and Pittsylvania counties, as well as for many others in the Piedmont regions of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina., Special thanks to Faith Christian Academy student Aiden Lashway for authoring this interpretive panel.