Hampton National Historic Site

Hampton National Historic Site includes several structures from a vast 18th-century estate, including a Georgian manor house that was the largest private home in America when it was completed in 1790. The grounds also include some of the original slave quarters made from stone. The estate was owned by the Ridgely family for seven generations, from 1745 to 1948.

In colonial days, Hampton's labor force included indentured servants, immigrants mainly from the British Isles who labored for a period of years until their passage fee to America was paid back. In addition, there were free artisans and tradesmen, convict laborers, and, during the Revolution, British prisoners of war. Families, including children, worked together. Most of these people eventually had some degree of social mobility--unlike enslaved people. Charles Ridgely Carnan freed most of his slaves upon his death, but the era of forced servitude at Hampton remained until Maryland state law ended the practice in 1864--in the midst of the Civil War.

Enslaved African Americans have been present at Hampton from its beginnings and have worked in every capacity. Hampton's enslaved population grew following the decline of indentured servitude and the wealth of the property's owners. In the late antebellum period, there were more than 300 enslaved persons here, making this one of the largest plantations in Maryland. Enslaved people worked in both skilled and unskilled capacities; they were field hands, cobblers, woodcutters, limestone and marble quarries, millers, ironworkers, Blacksmiths, gardeners, and jockeys. Slaves also performed household chores, including cleaning, cooking, serving food, and caring for children. The Ridgelys often paid many slaves for extra work in addition to their regular duties. Today, historians work to compensate for the lack of documents with archaeological research and other methods to explore the lives of those enslaved here.