Restored Tenant Farmers’ Quarters Opened

On April 22nd, superintendent Gay Vietzke and Robert Brown, president of Historic Hampton, Inc., holding the same ceremonial scissors used in the reopening of Hampton mansion last November, cut the ribbon signaling the opening of another historic building at the park – the Tenant Farmers’ Quarters. 

“The opening of the Tenant Farmers’ Quarters is part of the overall commitment of the NPS to fully interpret Hampton NHS,” said Vietzke. “Projects such as restoring the gardens, dairy and exhibits in the Overseer’s House are already underway.”

The Tenant Farmers’ Quarters compliments the Slave Quarters that were opened last year.

“Historically, both buildings were constructed as slave quarters, following emancipation a number of freedmen remained on the estate as tenant farmers,” says Vincent Vaise, chief of interpretation.

Following the Civil War, the Ridgely family rented over 6,000 acres to tenant farmers. One room is furnished to the late 19th Century, while exhibit panels in another part of the building interpret the complex nature of society and race relations at that time. 

“This was a difficult era, as African-Americans faced competition from newly-arrived immigrants and racial tensions ran high,” says Vaise. “We have a record of at least one lynching that took place in 1885 only five miles away from this building.”

The opening of the Tenant Farmers’ Quarters coincided with the second annual Symposium on Slavery sponsored by Hampton National Historic Site, Historic Hampton Inc., and Goucher College.  Titled “Forces of Freedom. . .Manumission and Emancipation in the Mid-Atlantic Region,” the symposium brought together some of the most respected scholars in the field of slavery and emancipation. Dr. Spencer Crew, professor of African-American and Public History at George Mason University and former director of the National Underground Railroad Museum, served as keynote speaker. Topics included the Underground Railroad, the American Colonization Society, African-Americans who earned their freedom in the Revolutionary War, and how Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation influenced the altering of the Maryland state constitution to abolish slavery.

“The themes of slavery and emancipation are important because they show how sites like these contain relevance to audiences today,” says Vietzke.

It’s hoped that the Tenant Farmers’ Quarters and Slave Quarters will enable visitors to make an intellectual and emotional connection with the resource. In speaking of those who lived there, Dr. David Terry, Director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American Life and Culture said: “Going into these buildings enables us to imagine who they were as people, as families. The National Park Service has done an outstanding job in interpreting the slave quarters at Hampton, they have made big changes in telling the whole story over the last year and I am looking forward to seeing the Tenant Farmer exhibit.”