Historic Stagville

Preparing for Your Visit

Before arriving to the site, you may wish to share the following historical information with your students.  One thing that we would ask that you review with your students before coming is the “Museum Manners” found on this page.  Here you will also find pre-visit activity ideas that will help prepare your students for their visit to our site.

Museum Manners:  Because of the age of Historic Stagville, we ask that visitors observe the following rules during their visit.  Please be sure to review this information with your group before your scheduled program.  Students and visitors who fail to adhere to these rules may be asked to wait on the bus until the end of the program. 

• Please be aware that most items in the historic structures are 150 to 200 years old and are very fragile.  They will last many more years if they are not handled.  Please do not sit, touch, or lean on any furniture or any other part of the structures.
• For the preservation of the historic buildings and safety of our guests, please do not climb on any structure to look in the windows or climb on the fences.
• There is no food, drink, gum or umbrellas allowed in the house.  Please leave these items in the vehicle, or in the case of umbrellas, on the front porch of the house.
• There is no smoking allowed inside any of the historic structures.

Historic Stagville, A Brief History:

Stagville plantation was founded by Richard Bennehan, a Virginian who moved to North Carolina in 1768 to run a general store on Snowhill Plantation, owned by William Johnston.  In 1776 Richard Bennehan married Mary Amis, with whom he had two children, Rebecca and Thomas.  In 1787 he bought the 66 acre “Stagg tract” from widow Judith Stagg, who had been running a tavern on the property.  There Richard Bennehan opened his own general store, which was advantageously located along the Old Indian Trading Path.  The path brought a great deal of traffic to the store and profits for Richard Bennehan.  That same year he built the first section of his home (which is one of the buildings you will visit on your tour).  His land holdings in that year amounted to 1,582 acres.  In 1799 he built a two-story addition to his home.  At this point Richard Bennehan’s land holdings had increased to 3,815 acres.  His landholdings would increase dramatically after his daughter, Rebecca, married Duncan Cameron, a wealthy Hillsborough lawyer, in 1803.  In 1807 Duncan Cameron and Richard (as well as Thomas) Bennehan formed a business merger of sorts, combining their wealth to eventually create the largest plantation in North Carolina , encompassing over 30,000 acres.  This plantation would eventually become home to over 900 enslaved people.

In 1813 Rebecca and Duncan Cameron moved into the newly built Fairntosh Plantation (which today is known as “Fairntosh Farm” and is privately owned).  Thomas Bennehan lived in his parents’ home until the 1840s, and chose to never marry.  Therefore, all of the descendents of Richard and Mary Bennehan lived at Fairntosh, including their grandson Paul Cameron, who was the plantation owner at the time of the Civil War.  Paul had a true passion for running a plantation, and invested a great deal of time and effort in new agricultural technology such as crop rotation and fertilizers.  It was at this time that the plantation reached its height, and the two-story slave quarters and three-story barn structure were built (in 1850 and 1860, respectively).  The slave quarters and barn were built by a highly skilled workforce that came out of the large enslaved community that lived on the plantation.  Not all of the enslaved people worked out in the fields: many were employed as blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, millers, weavers, and in other trades.  The slave quarters and barn are a testament to their skilled craftsmanship.

The Civil War, beyond creating shortages, had little effect on Stagville plantation.  The end of the war and the end of slavery, however, had a huge impact on Paul Cameron and his plantation.  Many of the freed slaves left the plantation in search of other work.  However, many freedmen stayed behind and worked as sharecroppers on the plantation, “sharing” Mr. Cameron’s land and giving him ¾ of the profits made from the crops they grew.

When Bennehan Cameron, Paul Cameron’s son, died in 1925, the remnants of the plantation passed on to his two daughters.  One daughter received the lands of Fairntosh, where she restored the home and lived with her family.  The other, who was given the lands of Stagville, sold the property to Mr. Pat Brown, who chopped wood on the property.  In 1954, he sold the property to Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company, who continued to work the land for another two decades.  In 1976 the company donated the land to the state, which then turned the property into a state historic site.

Pre-visit ideas:  The following are some ideas to get your students thinking about the subject matter that will be discussed while visiting Historic Stagville.

Defining terms

Students will define the following terms and names so that they will better understand and comprehend the guided tour.  They may want to use the brief history of Historic Stagville to get some of the terms.

Terms:

General Store:

William Johnston:

Richard Bennehan:
Judith Stagg:

Stagville:

Slaves:

Plantation :

Paul Cameron:

Old Indian Trading Path:

Crop rotation:

Civil War:

Freedmen:

Sharecropper:

Map activity

Using an early map of North Carolina , find Stagville on the map and look at the possible advantages and disadvantages the landscape would have provided Richard Bennehan.

Possible advantages:

Old Indian Trading Path accessibility

Proximity to Raleigh and Hillsborough

Eno, Flat & Little Rivers nearby to provide water for crops and people

Abundant amount of trees for building houses and shops

Possible disadvantages:

No navigable rivers nearby to get goods to market

Trees that have to be removed and cleared to work land

Addy activity:

If you have access, check out Meet Addy or one of the other books in the American Girls Addy series.  The books about Addy were researched at Historic Stagville.  The tobacco plantation that Addy and her parents lived on in North Carolina is based on the Bennehan-Cameron plantation.  Addy’s last name is Walker , and there was a Walker family owned by the Camerons.  They ran away to Philadelphia , just as Addy and her family did.  Addy wears a cowry shell necklace.  A cowry shell was found at the domestic slave cabin at Stagville that this necklace was based off of.  The little doll that is found in the back of the Meet Addy book was found in the trunk room of the Bennehan House.  For younger students, this would be a great way to bring history to life before coming to Historic Stagville.

Things to think about:

Before you visit the site, here are a list of questions and concepts for the class to think about:

What is a plantation?  This might be a good concept term to make a web out of, putting the word “plantation” on the board and having students come up and write what characteristics they know about a plantation next to the word.

What is slavery?  Like plantation, this would be a good concept to make a web out of.

What effects did the Civil War have on plantations in the American South?

What types of crops were grown in North Carolina ?  Richard Bennehan and Paul Cameron grew tobacco as their main cash crop, but also grew corn, wheat, and cotton in order to feed and clothe the enslaved community.

What would life be like living on a plantation for the plantation owner?  For the plantation owner’s wife?  For the plantation owner’s kids?  For an enslaved woman?  For an enslaved man?  Keep in mind that there were more jobs on the plantation besides just working in the fields.