Existing comment:
Sustained By Slaves
For its first seven decades, Ellwood's prosperity depended largely on the labor of slaves.
The population of slaves at Ellwood fluctuated from 40 to up to as many as 100. Never were the white residents of the "big house" and their hired overseers more than a fraction of Ellwood's total population.
Most slaves at Ellwood were hands who toiled relentlessly in fields and woodlands -- both integral parts of an antebellum plantation. The slaves here grew mostly corn and wheat. In 1860, they also managed 18 milk cows, a herd of 50 sheep and about 100 pigs -- all on about 5,000 acres of land.
At Ellwood, the owner, his overseer, law and custom combined to control slaves' lives. Slaves had no legal names, did not have recognized marriages, were barred from education, could not travel without permission, and (in the 1800s) were prohibited from gathering off the plantation without a white man present.
In response, slaves formed strong communities within their insulated world. On plantations the size of Ellwood, their quarters were probably scattered across the estate. We know not where they buried their dead. Little evidence of their presence remains. |