The Liberty Hall Academy land was not only used for school…
From 1803 until the Civil War, the former Liberty Hall campus was a plantation that belonged to Andrew Alexander – graduate of Liberty Hall Academy. Alexander owned and farmed the land that is now Washington and Lee’s campus through enslaved labor. Between 1803 and 1844, the enslaved people also worked at the plantation on the former Liberty Hall Academy grounds. Some were domestic servants while others produced whiskey, grew wheat, and cared for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs. After Alexander’s death in 1844, “Liberty Hall Farm” was sold to Samuel McDowell Reid – clerk of the County Court, Washington College trustee, alumnus, and a wealthy slaveholder. Until the Civil War in 1861, enslaved laborers lived and worked on the land. The Steward’s House, built in 1793, served students only until 1803 when Liberty Hall Academy moved to its current location. From 1803 until the 1860s, the buildings that were once part of the Academy were homes for enslaved labor force.
Artifacts related to daily life, as well as reading, writing, and education in and around the Steward’s House may actually reveal traces of enslaved people teaching each other to read.
One account written by Sally Mae Alexander Moore, Andrew Alexander’s granddaughter, states:
“Grandfather owned many slaves. He would never sell one, thought it wrong. He had a school for his slaves, said he wanted everyone on his plantation to be able to read the Bible, and my mother told of her teaching the maids in the house to read and write. The blacksmith on the place had a school; he was one of the slaves”
Gaylord, Donald, and Alison Bell. Returning to View: Using Archaeology and History to Restore Forgotten Stories about the Founders, Enslaved People, and Builders of the Academies That Became Washington and Lee University. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2018.
