Red Hill

History of Red Hill

 

ca. 1000 BCE–ca. 1710

Red Hill is not just the home of a prominent Founding Father; it is a repository of stories that stretch back before European colonization—a Woodland period (1000 BCE–European contact) Indigenous site on fertile farmland documents the centuries-old home of the Saponi and Occaneechi peoples. The size of this town rivaled that of Patrick Henry’s later estate. Excavated Dan River Ware ceramic vessels, clay pipes, stone projectile points, and animal bones point to advanced hunting methods and artistic knowledge.

A physical reminder of Indigenous existence stands just feet from Patrick Henry’s house in the form of North America’s largest Osage orange tree. Although native to present-day Oklahoma, the North Indian trade network contributed to the passing of tree cuttings to the Saponi, who may have been responsible for this tree’s introduction to the Staunton River Valley.

Tradition also says an Indigenous man named “Indian Jim” lived in a nearby cave, the last of generations of first peoples to do so. Indian Jim may have fathered a woman who would later give birth to Harrison Henry, an enslaved man at Red Hill.

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ca. 1750–1794

Red Hill was first owned by 11 men who were granted 30,000 acres of land “beginning at the mouth of Falling River on the North fork of the Roanoke River in Brunswick County from thence on both sides of the River for Compliment in one or more surveys.”

Three owners were John Tyler of Williamsburg, John Palmer, a lawyer and bursar of the College of William & Mary, and Col. Richard Booker of Amelia County. John Tyler’s son, Louis, and Richard Booker’s son, Richard Marot, married the daughters of John Palmer and thus began the tangle that any historian must sort through to find out who owned what land at Red Hill.

Col. Richard Booker (1707–1760) of Amelia County was an early land speculator. He acquired thousands of acres along the Staunton (Roanoke) River, including land that would become the plantations of “Seven Islands” and “Red Hill.” In 1760, Booker died. In his will, he gave his son, Richard Marot Booker: “All my land on the north side of Roanoke and Falling River in Lunenburg [later Charlotte] and Bedford [later Campbell] Counties.” This included the Red Hill tract.

On November 22, 1770, Richard married Elizabeth Palmer (daughter of John Palmer of Williamsburg) in Halifax County. Being under the age of 21, Richard had to receive permission to marry from his guardian, Thomas Yuille. By March 1772, Richard Booker’s name began appearing in the Charlotte County Court records, indicating that he had moved with his wife and infant son to his 700-acre plantation known as Red Hill. At this time, the home, kitchen, and overseer’s house are believed to have been constructed.

In the fall of 1793, deeply in debt, Richard Booker began negotiating to sell Red Hill to Patrick Henry, who lived about 13 miles upriver at “Long Island” in Campbell County. The deed between Henry and Booker was officially logged in county court records on March 14, 1794. In it, Henry agreed to pay Booker £1,700 for the 700-acre tract and buildings. After the sale of Red Hill, the Bookers, along with their enslaved workers, moved to Shelby County, Kentucky, where Richard died in 1805.

Between 1794 and 1799, Patrick Henry added to his parcel, eventually owning 2,965 acres in Campbell and Charlotte Counties. Henry also purchased Seven Islands plantation from Booker’s brother William across the river in Halifax County.

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Red Hill in Patrick Henry’s Day

1794–1799

 

Main House

Compared to the fine mansion estates of Jefferson or Washington, Red Hill stands out remarkably for its modesty. It is not the palatial estate of an American aristocrat but rather a humble family dwelling in which Patrick Henry’s large brood lived, worked, and played.

One of the things that guests often find most striking when they visit Red Hill is the small size of Patrick Henry’s home and the number of people who managed to live there. What is even more amazing is that Henry’s home was only about half the size of what you can see on the grounds today! According to a builder’s contract between John Henry and Jesse Staples in 1832, the two side additions to the east and west were built during the enlargement of the house, well after Henry’s death. So how did so many people live in such a small home?

It’s well known that Patrick Henry had an impressive 17 children. However, not everyone lived with him when he moved to Red Hill. Of the 17, four of the six children from Henry’s first marriage were already grown and out of the household by the time he moved his residence permanently to Charlotte County in 1796. Two others were deceased.

Of his children from his second marriage, Dorothea Spotswood, his eldest by his second wife, was married at Red Hill in 1795. Richard, his 14th child, had sadly died in 1793. Therefore, eight children, including his son John, who was born at Red Hill, would have lived there by the end of 1796. In addition to his eight children, Patrick Henry also took in his nephew Johnny Christian following the death of Patrick’s sister Anne in 1792, bringing the total to nine.

The ages of these children living at Red Hill in 1796 ranged from infant to 16 years and included:

• Sarah Butler—16 years old
• John Henry “Johnny” Christian—16 years old
• Martha Catharina—15 years old
• Patrick Jr.—13 years old
• Fayette—11 years old
• Alexander Spotswood—8 years old
• Nathaniel West—6 years old
• Edward Winston—2 year old
• John—infant

Over the intervening years before Henry’s death, the number of his children living at Red Hill changed. Two of his daughters married and moved to begin their households, and Johnny Christian likely left the household as well. By the time Patrick Henry passed away in 1799, there were likely still six Henry children residing there with Dorothea—including Edward and John, the two youngest, who were at that time only 5 and 4 years old, respectively.

This meant that when the family moved to Red Hill, there were 11 people in the house with Patrick and Dorothea. In the inventory taken at Red Hill in 1799, eight beds and one cradle were listed on the property. One was a canopy bed used by Patrick and Dorothea. The other seven feather beds used by the children were most likely located on the second floor and in the law office.

LEARN ABOUT PATRICK HENRY’S FAMILY GENEALOGY

 

Law Office

Patrick Henry’s Law Office is one of the few original buildings that survived the fire of 1919. The structure was built around 1772 by enslaved carpenters and masons and was used as a private study by Henry after he retired from the strenuous public life he had been leading and returned to law. Here, he drew up legal opinions and briefs and planned arguments to be used in court on behalf of his clients. It was his retreat from the main house, which was filled with the daily comings and goings of 14 cohabitants.

Henry also used this set of rooms to tutor his children in moral and natural philosophy. His library, which was kept in this building, consisted of over 230 volumes on various subjects covering mathematics, geography, literature, language, and religion, along with numerous legal and political tomes. According to his grandson, P.H. Fontaine, it was “Patrick Henry’s habit, each day around sunset, to retire to his law office for an hour of prayer and meditation. During this sacred hour, none of his family intruded upon his privacy.”

However, with scarce space in the main house, Henry’s law office was sometimes used as additional sleeping quarters. It was common then for the older boys on a plantation to sleep in one of the outbuildings, as well as any tutors or visiting overnight guests. Johnny Christian likely slept here, and he was tutored during the day by his uncle in the practice of law.

 

Kitchen

Most kitchens in the colonial South were not located in the main house but occupied their outbuilding to keep the heat and smell isolated. This also ensured a distinct separation between the Henry family and their enslaved cooks since the building would likely also have doubled as sleeping quarters for enslaved domestics.

In Henry’s day, the kitchen was possibly run and inhabited by Critty, who may have been the enslaved cook. Critty and her children, Jack, Harrison, and Coleman, slept in the loft on the second floor. Critty’s job was one of the most difficult because it was a 24-hour per-day job. She would have to tend the fire throughout the day and night to ensure it would never go out. Her day would usually begin before sunrise to prepare the coals for the midday dinner (lunch). Preparation for dinner took up most of the morning hours, and then the cook’s day would slow after two o’clock in the afternoon.

The menu at the Henry house would have been dictated partly by Dorothea Henry, partly by the seasonal availability of ingredients, and by the church calendar. However, Dorothea would not have cooked the meal, leaving that hard work to Critty. As a devout Episcopalian, Patrick Henry had his household follow strict guidelines around fast days, such as Fridays and the 40 days of Lent, during which meat would not be eaten. Patrick Henry himself was even known to fast before taking communion. During fasting, Critty would be directed to serve the family soups. During the rest of the time, most of the fruits, vegetables, and meats served at Red Hill were supplied by the plantation itself or else bought at the market at Charlotte Court House or caught on the occasional hunting trip. This meant that the table was heavily influenced by the growing seasons at and around Red Hill.

 

The Gardens

Patrick Henry’s well-known remark about Red Hill was to call it “one of the garden spots of the world,” which makes the gardens and grounds particularly special to us today, as we can appreciate the beauty Patrick Henry loved there.

The herb garden was a major feature of any colonial household. Herbs at the time were used for various purposes, including cooking, medicine, and decoration. For example, lavender would have been used as a strewing herb to freshen the house. Feverfew and yarrow, among many others, may have been grown as medicines to treat various ailments. And the enslaved cooks would have used thyme, rosemary, and other herbs to flavor their meals.

The National Champion Osage orange tree, which stands at an imposing 60 feet in height, is nearly 350 years old and is currently the largest species in North America.

Another garden at the time covered the eastern part of the Red Hill grounds. This garden supposedly covered close to four acres and provided the family with apples, pears, figs, and olives for their table. The gardens would generally have been the responsibility of Dorothea Henry, as the mistress of the house was expected to participate in the care of their gardens and oversee the enslaved gardeners. At Red Hill, she might have directed the planting of carrots, beans, peas, and cauliflower for use in the kitchen. Patrick Henry was particularly fond of rhubarb, which he claimed helped clear his throat before a speech.

Henry loved nature all his life, and Red Hill was his comfort and solace. He would often stroll through the grounds among the trees, seeking the quiet of the woods and time to spend alone with his thoughts.

The isolated nature of Red Hill was one of its great attractions for Henry and a feature that has helped it to stay so preserved and intact all these many decades since his death. Today, you may walk the grounds and still catch a glimpse of the same horizon Henry would have surveyed, listen to the sounds of the same rushing river, and hear the birds chirping in the same woods.

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1799–1875

Following Patrick Henry’s death in 1799, two estate inventories—one taken in 1799 and the other in 1802—listed his personal property, including nearly 70 enslaved persons, livestock, and household furnishings. Enslaved Blacks continued to labor at Red Hill when, in 1810, the widow Dorothea Henry gave the estate to her two youngest sons, John and Edward Winston Henry, who ran the plantation jointly. The brothers decided to split the property in 1814. Edward Winston settled east of the original estate and renamed his portion “Windstone.” John Henry married in 1826 and brought his new wife, Elvira McClelland, to Red Hill.

John and Elvira added the first two-story addition to the house and began beautifying the grounds. The gardens were Elvira’s project—she ordered the construction of an orangery to plant orange and lemon trees, oversaw the planting of a D-shaped boxwood garden by enslaved gardeners in the pattern of her grandmother’s, and brought many exotic plants and shrubs to be planted on the grounds. She was so enthusiastic in her landscaping that one of John’s older siblings had cause to complain that “that young wife of John is ruining Red Hill.” When John Henry died in 1868, he left the estate to his wife and children, and Elvira remained there until she died in 1875.

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1875–1944

Following the deaths of John and Elvira Henry in 1868 and 1875, respectively, their son William Wirt Henry inherited the estate. William’s successful law practice kept him in Richmond, and farm operations were delegated to his brother, Thomas Stanhope Henry. Thomas ensured agricultural success following the nationwide emancipation of enslaved people in 1865. Many freed Black sharecroppers and domestics remained at Red Hill, and their labor continued to provide for the Henry family.

The turn of the 20^th century brought unprecedented change with William Wirt Henry’s death in 1900. Despite being excluded from the will, his daughter, Lucy Gray Henry Harrison, purchased the shares of Red Hill from her mother and siblings. Lucy left an indelible mark on the property when she expanded her grandfather’s modest home into a Colonial Revival mansion, remodeled the gardens, and allowed both a railroad and state highway to pass through. This Red Hill “renaissance” only lasted eight years when, in 1919, the mansion burned to the ground, and Lucy’s troubled finances left her with little choice but to move into her great-grandfather’s expanded law office. Lucy died in 1944, the last of Henry’s descendants to live at Red Hill.

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1944–Present

The next chapter of Red Hill began in 1945 when the newly formed Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation purchased 961 acres from Lucy Harrison’s estate. With a mission to restore the estate and preserve Patrick Henry’s burial place, the foundation embarked on an ambitious project to reconstruct lost buildings and welcome visitors as a public museum.

Under the supervision of Lynchburg architect Stanhope S. Johnson, the reconstruction of the Henry house and kitchen was completed and dedicated in 1957. In 1961, work continued restoring the law office and other buildings to how they would have looked in Henry’s day.

Following its restoration, Red Hill was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1973 and the National Register of Historic Placed in 1978. The 99th U.S. Congress recognized Red Hill as the Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial in 1986.

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Slavery at Red Hill

In the woods, about half a mile west of the Visitor Center at Red Hill is an isolated cemetery that holds the remains of at least three generations of African Americans. It is a silent but powerful reminder that Red Hill, like the homes of other Founding Fathers, was a plantation dependent on the work of enslaved persons. Visitors to Red Hill can visit this sacred site by walking down Quarter Place.

Like many of his compatriots who pursued liberty for the colonies, Patrick Henry had a deeply complicated relationship with slavery. As the Voice of the Revolution, Henry campaigned eloquently for liberty above all else—devotion to liberty is the legacy that we attribute to him even today. And yet, as an enslaver, he partook in a practice that was the height of hypocrisy.

While there is no way to gloss over Henry’s ownership of enslaved people, his fraught relationship with the practice provides an intriguing insight into his character. Henry became an enslaver at the age of 18 as a part of his wife Sarah Shelton’s dowry. Though we may wish that his troubled conscience had led him to take a decisive stance against slavery in the early days of forming the nation and his own life, he made no effort toward abolition.

 

Red Hill as a Plantation

Most of the details we know of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Red Hill come from an estate inventory taken at the plantation in July 1799, just one month after Patrick Henry’s death. At the time, there were 67 enslaved people on the property. 32 of these men and women were listed as being over the age of 16 and physically healthy. The rest would have been children or adults too old or infirm to work.

Red Hill produced some 20,000 pounds of tobacco per year during his ownership. The cultivation of tobacco was tedious and labor-intensive. The process included preparing the seedbeds, fertilizing, planting, transplanting, topping, suckering, priming, weeding, worming, cutting, bulking, curing, stripping, and prizing. A yield of 20,000 pounds of leaf would have required a minimum of 20 enslaved people tending 50 acres of tobacco at Red Hill. The wheat and corn growing along the slope and lowlands below the plantation house also required attention. On average, one enslaved person could tend 4 or 5 acres of corn, while four or five enslaved people were needed to reap the same wheat acreage.

Other work the enslaved population did, as indicated in the estate inventory, would have been caring for the livestock, including 156 cattle, 155 hogs, 60 sheep, and 22 horses. Livestock duties included fencing in fields, building and repairing pens, heaping and hauling manure, castrating lambs, shearing sheep, milking cows, and fattening and slaughtering hogs.

Any enslaved people who weren’t working in the fields or with the livestock at the plantation at Red Hill would have been considered “domestic servants,” assigned to work in the main house, kitchen, scullery, and laundry under the supervision of the mistress of the house. Enslaved people also were expected to operate the tannery and distillery, as well as the plantation store and blacksmith shop.

 

Who Were They?

Thanks to the 1799 estate inventory, we know the names and specific details of a few of the enslaved people who resided at Red Hill. One was a man named Jessee, who may have been a blacksmith or cooper.

Pedro was another man who had been with Henry for most of his adult life. Pedro worked as a trusted messenger and coachman and passed away shortly before Patrick Henry himself.

Another estate inventory taken three years later, in 1802, provides a bit more detail about the names and works of several individuals. Two women named in that inventory are Dinah, “an old woman,” and Beck, who it states was in “the decline of life.” These two were remarkable for having been with Henry since his very early days at Roundabout Plantation back in 1768 and had likely been given to him upon his marriage in 1754.

A boy named Shadrack, who would have been between 12 and 16, was listed in the 1802 inventory as the family’s coachman at the time.

That position was later taken up by Harrison Henry, who had lived with the family since childhood when he had attended to Mrs. Henry—carrying her key basket and yarn for her. (Harrison’s mother was Critty, likely the family’s enslaved cook—she and Harrison, along with his two brothers, Jack and Coleman, had lived in the kitchen.) Around the age of 108, Harrison outlived three generations of Henrys at Red Hill. Harrison continued to live on the property after emancipation. Harrison’s Cabin, which can still be visited at Red Hill, was given to him by William Wirt Henry to reward his years of service to the family.

Besides the 67 enslaved people at Red Hill, Patrick Henry was also an enslaver at his Long Island and Seven Islands properties, totaling 112 humans at the time of his death.

 

After Henry’s Death

As was usually the case, the death of Patrick Henry, as master of the plantation, had a profound effect on the enslaved population at Red Hill. In his will, he gave his wife Dorothea his Red Hill estate along with 20 enslaved workers of her choosing. He also permitted her to free one or two of them if she desired. By 1805, she had freed at least five. The other enslaved people at Red Hill were to be distributed among his children as part of their inheritance. After the estate was settled, more than 2/3 of the enslaved people had been moved from the plantation. Their departure had a devastating effect on the enslaved community at Red Hill, sending fathers, children, and grandchildren to live in different places apart from one another.

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Henry’s Discussion of Slavery

We know by his actions that Henry was complicit in the practice of slavery. His feelings and philosophy on the matter are more complicated. Below is reprinted a letter written by Henry to Robert Pleasants in 1773. Pleasants was a prominent Quaker who eventually founded the Abolition Society of Richmond and sent Henry a book about the slave trade.

During his political career, Henry fought to end the importation of new enslaved people into Virginia beginning as early as 1772. He also supported legislation in 1782 that made it legal for the first time for Virginia slaveholders to free their enslaved workers. This granted slaveholders limited manumission. These laws, coupled with the cheaper cost of reproduction over purchasing imported people, as well as societal fears of enslaved people inciting rebellions, encouraged Virginia enslavers to rely upon enslaved families (and their natural increase) to maintain and expand their bonded labor source.

Henry fell short of the aspirations he named in this letter regarding the end of the slave trade and his aversion to it. There are a few contradictions in American history, like the existence of slavery during the founding of a new nation based on the ideals of Liberty—and as the mouthpiece for those ideals, it is easy to judge that contradiction, specifically in Henry, harshly. Henry’s full acknowledgment of that contradiction is interesting in this letter to modern eyes. He makes no pretense of justifying the practice by himself or the nation, nor does he try to dismiss how it is at odds with the other values he held so dear.

In that honest objectivity toward himself and the Founders, this letter remains as a testament to his conscience, his character, and his hope for the nation—hopes that, although unseen by himself or his contemporaries, would one day be realized by later generations.

DEAR SIR: I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of Anthony Benezet’s book against the slave trade. I thank you for it. It is not a little surprising that the professors of Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, and in cherishing and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to the wonder is that this practice has been introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times, that seem to have pretensions to boast of improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined morality, have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of violence and tyranny, which our rude and more barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested.

Is it not amazing, that at a time, when the rights of humanity are stated and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such an age, and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle, and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the bible, and destructive to morality? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in speculation, how few in practice from conscientious motives!

Would anyone believe that I am the master of slaves of my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, and cannot justify it. However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity to them.

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is the furthest advance we can make toward justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants slavery.

I know not when to stop. I could say many things on the subject, a serious view of which gives a gloomy perspective to future times.

Patrick Henry, 1773

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