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H-S Students Continue Archaeological Research at Slate Hill Plantation
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This summer a group of eight Hampden-Sydney students continued the archaeological research
begun two years ago at Slate Hill Plantation, the former home of Nathaniel Venable.
The students were enrolled in a May Term class in Historical Archaeology taught by Dr. Charles Pearson. The association of Nathaniel Venable and Slate Hill Plantation to Hampden-Sydney is well known. He was a Founding Trustee and it was at his home, Slate Hill, during a meeting of the Hanover
Presbytery in February 1775 that Hampden-Sydney College was founded. The building where these
men met, Nathaniel Venable’s office, memorialized as “The Birthplace,” was moved to the campus in
1944 in recognition of its importance to the College. In 2005, Hampden-Sydney College purchased
a portion of the old Slate Hill Plantation that included the site of the Nathaniel Venable home
and the Venable family cemetery.
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(left to right) Michael Nusbaum '10, Douglas Vermilya '11 and Chris McMeekin
'09 exposing the corner of the
foundation of the Slate Hill kitchen, built in the 1750s. The Venable family cemetery can be seen in the background.
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As in previous summers, the 2008 May Term class examined primary documents relating to the early history
of Slate Hill Plantation to establish a framework for understanding what might exist there today. These
documents included deeds, wills, inventories, and tax records related to the Venable family, some of which
date back to the 1750s. All of the buildings at Slate Hill were removed many years ago, but students in
previous summers had begun the task of reconstructing the layout of the plantation using historic photographs
and interviews with former residents. The 2008 class expanded on this information, including an interview
with Dee Hobgood who dismantled the old Slate Hill home in the early 1970s. The numerous photographs
and notes made by Mr. Hobgood clarified many points about the construction of the Venable home. Of particular
interest was the fact that not a single nail was used in the construction of the frame of the house. Rather
it was built using mortise and tenons and wooden pegs, typical building techniques of the middle eighteenth
century. In addition, Mr. Hobgood reported that he found the date “1756” written on one of the principal
beams of the house, in addition to several names, possibly those of the carpenters and builders of the house.
This date confirms Venable family accounts that the house was built in about 1756.
The class continued the archaeological fieldwork begun in 2006. This included adding to the map of the homesite using a transit and digging additional “shovel tests” across the site to gain a better idea of what might
be buried beneath the ground in the area of the old Venable home. During May Term 2007, students discovered the
buried brick foundation of the original, detached kitchen, apparently built in the 1750s. This summer, students
dug additional excavation units to expose portions of the foundation. This work located a corner of the kitchen
and it was determined that the foundation measured about 40 feet long and 16 feet wide. These measurements exactly
match the dimensions of the kitchen shown on an 1803 fire insurance policy obtained by Nathaniel Venable shortly
before his death.
In 2007, students had discovered a buried deposit of ceramics, glass, metal, and bone near the old kitchen foundation. A small excavation unit placed at this location recovered a large quantity of material, all dating from about 1780 to
1800. This summer, additional excavations at this location recovered similar material. This included several hundred
fragments of pottery known as “creamware” and “pearlware,” all of which date to the late eighteenth century. Among the
ceramics are the remains of numerous creamware plates with distinctive designs known as “Queen’s” pattern and “Feather”
pattern. An inventory of Nathaniel Venable’s property made after his death in 1804 lists “20 Queens china dishes” valued
at 3 pounds, 10 shillings. There seems no doubt that ceramics found by the May Term students includes some of these
dishes owned and used by Nathaniel Venable over two hundred years ago.
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Junior Patrick Gates with a large natural quartz crystal discovered in a deposit of household trash dating to about 1780 to 1790.
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Among the unique items found in this early trash deposit was a round glass eyepiece from some type of optical
instrument, possibly an eyeglass or telescope, and an extremely large and well-formed natural quartz crystal. This crystal is believed to have been an item of natural interest or curiosity collected by one of the Venables. Among the more mundane items discovered were several clay pipe stem fragments, revealing that someone in the
Venable household was a smoker, and numerous cow, pig, and possibly chicken bones, obviously remnants of meals
or butchering waste discarded from the nearby kitchen.
In addition to its principal purpose of teaching the procedures of archaeological research, the May Term class
provides students some understanding and insight into the early history of Hampden-Sydney College and the lives of
individuals, such as Nathaniel Venable, associated with that history. The historical and archaeological information
gathered by the 2008 class will add to the work of previous classes, increasing our understanding of life at Slate Hill Plantation.
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