The Enslaved Of The Ravensworth Tract

The Enslaved Of The Ravensworth Tract

Colonial times through the Civil War

In the late 1600s the 22,000-acre Ravensworth Tract, located in what would become Fairfax County, was part of a large land grant in Northern Virginia. By 1782, 203 people were enslaved at Ravensworth. Through six generations, the enslaved people cultivated tobacco and later harvested produce and raised livestock. There were several large plantations and large farms on the Ravensworth Tract that enslaved people as workers: Ravensworth, Oak Hill, Ossian Hall, and the Burke Farm. Since the enslaved were considered property, records of sales inheritances in wills, and inventories of property were kept. Often the records only listed the first name of each of the enslaved.

Oak Hill – In 1860, there were twenty-seven enslaved people living in six buildings, working 400 acres of land.

Ossian Hall - By 1860 there were four enslaved persons at Ossian Hall. The census indicated that there were also White hired hands living in the home. 

Ravensworth - By 1830, 83 enslaved persons were responsible for the upkeep of 500 acres and the Ravensworth mansion. Records indicate that the people enslaved there ranged in age from less than one year old (child) to seventy-five years old (Old Bob.)

Burke Farm The slave inventory of 1855 named 14 slaves: Dennis Seals, Lucey, Adline, John Elie Seals, Wade, Lafayette, John Randolph, Emily Burles, Lucinda, Roxanna, Woodbury, Luisa, Betsey and Alcinda. There were two buildings for slave quarters. Former owners described that there was a cemetery for the enslaved in the woods behind the house.

Transcript of John Hawthorne interview is located at www.braddockheritage.org

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Braddock

Springfield

Oak Hill - Wakefield Chapel Drive

Ossian Hall - near Annandale High School

Ravensworth - Port Royal Road

Burke Farm - Burke Lake Road

There are three recorded cemeteries situated within two miles of each other in Annandale. The property of each cemetery was once part of the Ravensworth Tract. There are no commercial markers in any of the cemeteries. There are a few field stones which have been used to mark graves.

According to an oral history interview of Ravensworth Farm resident John Hawthorne, the last resident of the Ravensworth family farmhouse showed him where the slave quarters and cemetery had been located. Later, Mr. Hawthorne returned and retrieved a portion of the metal fence that had been around the slave cemetery. John Hawthorne donated the portion of the fence to the Fairfax County Park Authority. Today, there is no evidence of the cemetery or the slave quarters.