Pillsbury Travels: Montpelier Day 2: The South Yard

Tuesday morning Chris led us in a tour of the South Yard.

The South Yard was reconstructed based off of a combination of traditional archaeology, oral histories from the descendants, and poring over paper research.

The Madison Family had over 300 slaves, spanning up to six generations, during the years they owned the plantation. Following James Madison Jr's stepson's death, the plantation records were destroyed. John Payne Todd (called Payne) was from Dolley Payne's marriage to her first husband, John Todd, who died in the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia along with Payne's younger brother.

How houses are used has evolved over the centuries. In the 19th century they were used for sleeping and storage, not for hanging out and entertaining.

I remember visiting in 2011 before these homes were added. I took this picture of shells of slave homes. It is also interesting to note we were standing on a balcony, a place that we did not step on during this year's visit. I wish I had studied my old pictures before the trip.

The reconstruction came about after a 2008 meeting with the Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC), an independent non-profit dedicated to telling the story of the enslaved at Montpelier. Members tie their ancestry to the enslaved population in Central Virginia.

The renovations to the Main House had just been completed. The pink building that the DuPonts added had been removed, along with their other changes. There was understandable outrage that the Madison's home was restored to its original glory, but that their homes were represented by wooden railroad tie outlines (later these shells of buildings) that were falling apart. Years of research was conducted and the from 2015 to 2020, new homes were constructed.

Whose occupation do you choose to value over someone else's?

Today there are six buildings representing the site. All based on years of archaeological research. Starting with the closest to the house and going around counter clockwise, there is a kitchen/living space dwelling, a smoke house, a duplex, a second duplex, another smokehouse, and a spinning/living dwelling. They are all made out of white clapboard timber with brick chimneys and look charming on the outside. Unlike the rest of the enslaved homes that were quickly built out of logs and sat on clay floors, these homes were made from milled wood that was processed, had shingled roofs, and were held together with nails.

Looks can be deceiving, as we all know.

These houses were built to look nice, but they did not have lathe and plaster insulation, hence were not insulated and had very few windows. They were unbearably hot in the summer, and bitterly cold in the winter. But they gave the impression to people visiting the Main House that the Madison's benevolently took care of their slaves. They were modeled after the look of Medieval English villages, as was fitting for the picturesque movement embraced by Madison.

Chris posed the question was it better to live in these houses, or in the log homes on the Home Farm (which we will tour later in the week). The answer is not so simple. These domestic servants were constantly at the beck and call of the Madisons. They were in full view of them at all times. Archaeological evidence shows these homes had door locks and chests that could be locked -- things that were part of the homes in the Home Yard.

Yes they were better dressed and educated. They often wore military uniforms, but that came with the price of a lack of privacy and freedom. Both groups of enslaved received the same cuts of meat, as proven through archaeological research in trash deposits. All enslaved used the same bamboo plates as were used in the Main House.

Back to the modern era. These homes were first painted using authentic paint. This turned out to not be good for low cost maintenance. They were quickly falling into disrepair and were repainted about a year and a half ago.

When recreating the structures Montpelier had to think about the ethics behind the reconstruction, as well as the issues with modernizing them, i.e., adding ramps to be ADA compliant and adding electricity. The public tours focus on how the architects interpret archaeological research.

The South Yard had not been explored by archaeologists. An old fire map as a basis for the project. Montpelier invited descendants and scholars to weigh in on the project. As luck would have it, Chris's early anthropology professors, Dr. Iris Ford, is a descendant.

He explained the archeology department is separate from Montpelier. Their department did not have an operating budget for a museum. There was an immediate need for fundraising.

They held a log cabin reconstruction program as part of a public day and created "ghost houses." the ones you see in the picture above. They were partial reconstructions, and very cost effective. They breathe, and are easier to repair and reconstruct than more solid structures. This put buildings on the landscape to help people understand the fuller picture, and to ask questions. David Rubenstein, an already large donor at Montpelier, stepped in with an other large donation for this project.

The finished product is not perfect, but it is research based. For example, they chose windows based on the window glass found during archaeology. Other homes did not have windows like these.

The grass between the the homes would not have been authentic. Archaeological research shows it would have been a hard clay dirt area. The grass we see today is more in line with the pristine look the Madison's would have favored, but was not historically accurate. Through grit analysis and water screening through five different increasingly smaller layers of mesh they analyzed the ground. Tweezers, magnifiers, and scales were the tools for the project. The grit was smaller in the center (where it would have been swept more) and larger on the outsides (where it would have been pushed to).

While excavating the archaeologists discovered post holes, single post holes. They found a giant pit that was filled with animal bones.. An open drain. A trash pit. Brick rubble was found.

It is easier to get money for buildings than it is for trees.

In Madison's time people spent very little time in their homes. Laundry took place outside. Cooking. Working. By not preserving the grounds, too, only part of the story is being told.

In the center of the South Yard is a tree that was a witness tree. This past July in Lexington, MA I heard the term witness buildings. There they were describing buildings that were standing when the Battle of Lexington took place in April 1775. In this case, it described a tree that was standing when the enslaved population lived here. This witness tree was in the way while digging, and during construction of the sewing house. Extra effort was needed to put burlap down and to hose it to protect the root system. It was more time consuming, and more expensive, but the end result was preserving it.

Much research has been done to aid in the selection of trees to be replanted on the property.

Back to the post holes. What were they used for? They were not in a line, as using it for a fence would indicate. As is typical with features, this was excavated separately. It was filled with ash, a readily available material of the time. They think it was used to hang pots and carpets. It would have been used while tanning and butchering. It is a temporary yard form to support seasonal and transient work that was not done all the time. The space was constantly evolving as their needs changed.

In the house that was the kitchen you can see the brick extension wall. It is not connected to the foundation. There is decorative glazed bricks on it. The design is not supported by archaeology, but they know there were glazed bricks.

Note the chimney top is the same as the one in the Main House. They actually found it intact beneath the ground and reconstructed it here. It is different from the tops of chimneys on all of the other buildings.

Montpelier held a public day where they hand made bricks and heated them in a bonfire. The first batch, using clay from Montpelier, was a disaster. The next batch they made using clay from Williamsburg. That was a success.

There are many discussions that go into a display before it is shared with the public. One was about what to call the first house, the one closest to the Main House. Should it be called James Madison Jr.'s boyhood home because it was the house he lived in while the Main House was being built? He had been living in a small frontier home in Mount Pleasant that is still standing, but temporarily moved here while they were overseeing construction on the Main House.

Which time period is the right one?

This was a kitchen where Corinne, the long-time cook lived. The Cornelian ring was found here.

One takeaway was about the presence of burnt nails. Chris said they were used as a cooking implement in a Dutch Oven. I'll try to remember that the next time I find burnt nails in a dig site. I seem to be the queen of finding nails.

Another takeaway was that in England historical architects work alongside archaeologists to form standing body archaeology. That is not the case in the United States. At Montpelier, the archaeology department recently took over the preservation department. Perhaps started incorporating or merged with are better words to describe the change.

Each of the buildings in the Home Site have subfloor pits (root cellars). The duplexes in the South Yard do not. The people in the South Yard had chests (archaeological evidence: small tacks, hinges, and locks consistent with chests). Were these used to keep water out or to protect their belongings from the guests of the Madisons, or enslaved visitors.

There is evidence of a fence going up in the late 1830s/early 1840s, after the death of President James Madison. This is consistent with someone prepping the house to put it on the market. The home had started to fall into disrepair and needed to be fixed up.

Three owners after Dolley Madison sold the property in 1844 had enslaved people. The original South Yard homes were built in 1809. They survived until 1860 and were gone by the Civil War era.

Chris ended his talk as Bruce was opening up the South Yard for the day. I took a moment to peek inside the kitchen. The rest waited until our last day as I realized it was now or never.

Inside the buildings are large cutouts of descendants with buttons to press to hear (in their voices) about the lives of their family members. It is powerful.