Jennifer Whitworth ECI 525
Before visiting Stagville I had preconceived notions about the plantation and about what slave culture, arts, and crafts entailed. I researched information about slave arts and crafts, and the image of beautiful paintings, elaborate stitch work, and detailed sculptures came to mind. My visit to Stagville made me realize that while slaves made beautiful things such as quilts and baskets, much of their arts, crafts, and culture dealt with items that they needed in day to day life. After my visit to Stagville I started to research the culture and crafts of slaves at the plantation. I wanted to see if the things they participated in such as the wearing of cowry shells and use of a diving stick were unique to Stagville slaves or if they were common in the antebellum South. I was surprised to find that cowry shells were actually used in Africa as currency as well as jewelry and may have been brought to Stagville by slaves from Wilmington, North Carolina. I also found that divining sticks were used for religious purposes among slaves in many parts of the South. The most interesting thing I learned on my visit dealt with slave arts and crafts. While most of the extra material slaves had was used to make clothes and blankets, dolls were made for the slave children. They were usually simple in detail and filled with corn husk. I was amazed to find out that a contemporary doll, Addy from the American Girl Series has been traced back to a slave girl at Stagville. Before my visit to Stagville I was unaware that the slaves were actually the builders of their living quarters (Horton Grove) as well as other structures on the plantation (i.e. The Great Barn). It was amazing to see that fingerprints of slaves were still able to be seen on the bricks of the chimney they built. It was also amazing to see how they positioned stones as the foundation of their house in a way which protected them from insects as well as weather. The pictures Rachel and I took of Stagville helped me to visualize the slave experiences while working on this project and to really understand how they lived on the plantation. The Stagville project could be used in classrooms of almost all levels and subject matters. The Stagville story is so vast that teachers and students can look at many different viewpoints of individuals living on the plantation. For example in a middle school history class teachers could begin the lesson by talking about the history of slavery in the South. Students could trace the history of the slaves who worked at Stagville (for example many of them came from Wilmington) and then report on their findings to the entire class. In a secondary sociology class students could study the relationships between women and men on the plantation or slaves and their owners. The teacher could first talk about the history of relationships between men and women and then discuss women’s role in the South during slavery. Students can research the women involved with the Stagville plantation and report to the class what role these women, such as Rebecca Bennehan, played. The Stagville project would be great for a local North Carolina classroom because as an ending or even a beginning to the project students could take a field trip to and get a first hand experience of the plantation and the things that occurred there.
Throughout my work on this project I had several goals that I wanted to accomplish. After completing the project on Stagville, more specifically the research I conducted on slave cultural, arts, and crafts, I feel as though I have reached all of my goals. I learned much about slavery as well as how the slaves at Stagville were similar and different from slaves on other plantations in the South. I was amazed to discover that Stagville is only 10 miles from where I live and I was unaware of it before doing this project. This project has made me realize that no matter where you are there can always be pieces of history surrounding you.