Somerset Place State Historic Site (Tour) - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Welcome to Somerset Place

Welcome to Somerset Place State Historic Site! Somerset Place is a part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Office of Archives and History. It is our aim to offer visitors a comprehensive social history exploring the life of all former plantation residents: the enslaved community, hired employees, and owners. The purpose of this self-guided tour is to give you an understanding of the historical function of the structures on site and the people who lived and/or worked in them. Before you get started, check out our main entry page for background information about the history of our site. Although the coordinates for this introductory stop are located in our main parking lot, there are also welcome signs at the bus parking lot and along the Pettigrew State Park trail. This introduction covers all three entrance points, but you can adapt the tour route as needed depending on your point of entry. If you have any questions while taking this self-guided tour, send us an email at somerset@ncdcr.gov and we will get back with you as soon as possible.

2. Overseers' Home

At any given time, two to three overseers/under-overseers were employed on the plantation. They, along with their families, lived in the overseers' home. This house faced south and was positioned in such a way as to allow the overseers the ability to monitor both the enslaved community and the owners' compound. The current structure is a conjectural reconstruction built in 1955. Also in front of the Overseers' Home are the reconstructed plantation stocks. Stocks were used as a means of public humiliation and punishment for members of the enslaved community. When a person was placed in the stocks, his/her feet were locked into place, forcing them to sit on the very uncomfortable bench.

3. Site of the Meat Rations Building / Jail

This archaeological site is the location of the rations building for the enslaved community. At one time this building contained 113 barrels of salted pork and 15 ½ barrels of lard. Each week, every member of the enslaved community old enough to work received 3 ½ pounds of salted pork and fish. Tradition holds that this building may have also been used as a jail.

4. Site of the Lake Chapel

There was an Episcopal Chapel built for the enslaved community. All enslaved people except house servants were given Sundays off to ensure their attendance at church. Enslaved children attended the Chapel throughout the week. They were instructed in the Catechism (a system for infusing religion and obedience into the minds of members of the enslaved community). Today, the building has been excavated.

5. Site of the Outside Hearth, Enslaved Kitchen, and Above-Ground Cistern

This cluster of excavated foundations supported a kitchen, an above ground cistern, and a large open hearth. The midday meal for mill hands, people who worked in the barns, Blacksmiths, carpenters, and others who worked nearby may have been prepared here. Enslaved field workers ate their noon meal in the fields themselves.

6. Plantation Hospital

Somerset Place's enslaved community was isolated and treated in the Plantation Hospital to prevent the spread of life-threatening diseases such as measles, malaria, dysentery, and other contagious illnesses. Surgeries, tooth extractions, and difficult births also took place in this hospital, which has been reconstructed. White doctors and enslaved nurses cared for the ill.

7. Sucky Davis Home

The Sucky Davis Home is a reconstructed two-story slave dwelling. Originally, there were three of these two-story houses. This particular four-room structure (1,600 square feet) would have been home to four extended families. Each room was considered an individual house. In 1843, Sucky Davis (then aged 71) and twenty members of her family lived in three rooms and an unrelated family of five lived in the fourth room.

8. Lewis and Judy's Home

There were 23 of these 18' x 18' slave dwellings. Each cabin housed one extended family. The Lewis and Judy Home is a reconstructed example, which in 1843 was home to Judy and Lewis, their four unmarried teenage children, as well as Judy's married son, Francis Martin, his wife, Violet, and their infant son, Howard.

9. Site of the Wood House

Wood was vital to sustaining life in the nineteenth century. Wood was burned for heating and cooking purposes. Wood for all fireplaces in the Owner's Compound was stored here in the Wood House.

10. Colony House / Visitor Center

The Colony House (c. 1840) served as a boarding school for the Collins' six sons. When the Collins boys were old enough, they moved out of their parents' home and into this boarding school. All together, six boys, a tutor, the plantation minister, and 25 Plott hound dogs lived in this four-room schoolhouse. Today, this is the visitor center and gift shop. A 15-minute orientation is offered in the visitor center, and all visitors are encouraged to attend an orientation before starting their self-guided tour.

The Dairy (c. 1840) held perishables such as cheese, butter, milk, eggs, and lard. While communities in northern states commonly utilized ice and cool streams to chill their dairies, North Carolina was not so fortunate geographically. Thick plaster insulating brick noggin and louvered walls (which allowed in cool air while keeping out sunlight) regulated the interior temperature. Somerset Place has an unusually large number of domestic dependencies or household service buildings. These highly specialized structures functioned solely for the purpose of supplying goods and services to the Collins family. There were approximately 25 enslaved house servants on this plantation working in and around these buildings seven days per week.

12. Kitchen / Laundry

Enslaved cooks and laundresses prepared meals and washed delicates for the Collins family in the Kitchen/Laundry (c. 1808). Food preparation and ironing were labor intensive, hot, and at times dangerous work. Somerset Place has an unusually large number of domestic dependencies or household service buildings. These highly specialized structures functioned solely for the purpose of supplying goods and services to the Collins family. There were approximately 25 enslaved house servants on this plantation working in and around these buildings seven days per week.

13. Kitchen Rations Building

Barrels of molasses and rum, blocks of sugar, and other items purchased in bulk for the Collins family were stored in the Kitchen Rations Building (c. 1830), in close proximity to the Kitchen. Somerset Place has an unusually large number of domestic dependencies or household service buildings. These highly specialized structures functioned solely for the purpose of supplying goods and services to the Collins family. There were approximately 25 enslaved house servants on this plantation working in and around these buildings seven days per week.

In 1839, more than 400 hams and pork shoulders hung in this unusually large Smokehouse (c. 1830). It is thought that Josiah Collins III provided meat both to his own family and to his siblings living in Edenton. Somerset Place has an unusually large number of domestic dependencies or household service buildings. These highly specialized structures functioned solely for the purpose of supplying goods and services to the Collins family. There were approximately 25 enslaved house servants on this plantation working in and around these buildings seven days per week.

15. Salting House

Preserving meat and fish during the 1840s required leaving it in barrels of salt for months. Then it could be air dried or smoked. The Salting House (c. 1830) housed the barrels of salted meat and fish. Slaughtering took place in December. The winter temperature was cool enough so that the meat could be safely cured without spoiling. Somerset Place has an unusually large number of domestic dependencies or household service buildings. These highly specialized structures functioned solely for the purpose of supplying goods and services to the Collins family. There were approximately 25 enslaved house servants on this plantation working in and around these buildings seven days per week.

16. Collins Family Home

The fourteen room Greek Revival structure has 6,809 square feet of living space and was completed in 1839. It was home to Josiah Collins III, his wife Mary Riggs Collins, their six sons, and a freed Black nursemaid and housekeeper, Charlotte Cabarrus. The mansion also housed many family members and friends whose visits often lasted for months. During the antebellum period, the average North Carolina family was living in a modest one-room home. Given the size of this mansion, the Collins family was able to enjoy the luxury of space and privacy that was not afforded to most North Carolinians.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Somerset Place State Historic Site

Created by Noah Janis on March 25th 2016, 5:09:02 pm.

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Description

Once encompassing over 100,000 acres, this remarkable site along Lake Phelps was one of the Upper South's largest plantations. Much of it was densely vegetated swampland, but enslaved persons ultimately cleared thousands of acres and dug over 20 miles of transportation canals and over 80 miles of drainage ditches. Beginning in 1785, three generations of the Collins family owned Somerset Place. Over its lifetime, at least 861 enslaved persons, 50 white employees, and two free Black employees worked here. Seven original buildings still stand, including the Collins Family Home (c. 1839), Colony House (c. 1840), Dairy (c. 1840), Kitchen/Laundry (c. 1808), Kitchen Rations Building (c. 1830), Smokehouse (c. 1830), and Salting House (c. 1830). There are also four reconstructed buildings, including the Plantation Hospital, Overseers' House, and two slave houses: the Lewis and Judy Home and the Sucky Davis Home, named after the original structures' occupants in 1843. The site is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and offers visitors a comprehensive social history of the enslaved and free persons who lived and worked on the plantation. Somerset Place State Historic Site is a part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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