The Center's Archeological Field School

Archaeology at Stratford Hall Plantation Exhibit

Stratford Hall Plantation is located along the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Currently amounting to 1,700 acres, the plantation once included over 6,000 acres and belonged to the Lee family, the members of which played important roles in Virginia and American history. Brothers Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee signed the Declaration of Independence, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee was born at Stratford.

Built during the 1730s and 1740s, Stratford also is well known for its impressive surviving examples of Georgian architecture. The mansion complex contains the H-shaped main house and a variety of outbuildings, all in brick. Restored and reconstructed buildings include barns, slave quarters, and a mill.

Archaeology has had a long history at Stratford. It began in the 1930s and was critical to the property's restoration - a landscape still visible today. The most recent archaeological effort has been conducted by students and faculty from the Department of Historic Preservation at Mary Washington College. A series of
summer field schools, starting in 1993 and continuing at present, have investigated the historic use and structure of the landscape surrounding the mansion complex. Students have discovered and documented former buildings, landscape features such as terraces and wall foundations, as well as the evidence of everyday life on a working plantation - trash pits, brick making, food processing, and gardening.

Since 1997 the field school's attention has turned to sites associated with the plantation's former population of enslaved African-Americans. The site of a suspected slave quarter occurs in the area known as the Aold orchard, and is still under investigation. The orchard itself is a product of the 1930s restoration and symbolizes the numerous orchards that the Lees once had across their landholdings.

This exhibit discusses the results of the 1998 and 1999 field schools at this site, which includes a small building and numerous artifacts, most of which date
to the period between the 1780s and the 1820s. One research goal for the field school was to examine the nature of slave life at Stratford, thereby developing a better understanding of the people who went largely unrecorded, but whose work and lives were a major part of the plantation's operation and history. The exhibit was located in the Trinkle Hall rotunda on the campus of Mary Washington College.

EXHIBITION CREDITS

The archaeological field school is a project supported by both the Department of and Center for Historic Preservation at MWC in cooperation with the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, the organization which owns and operates Stratford.

This exhibit was produced by students Beth Wheeler and Kristin Ward from the Department of Historic Preservation, and Sandie Washart, Center Secretary.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Archaeology at Stratford: contact Asst. Prof. Douglas W. Sanford, Department of Historic Preservation at MWC (540-654-1314; dsanford@mwc.edu), for
information regarding archaeological research and the summer field school program.

Stratford Hall Plantation: learn more about Stratford by contacting the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association:

Stratford Hall Plantation
Stratford, Virginia 22558
804-493-8038
www.stratfordhall.org