Curles Plantation Excavations
The 1997 Season
OPEN HOUSE: WED. JULY 16, 12-3:30
 
 
Virginia Commonwealth University students have completed the 12th
season of excavation on the Curles Plantation Site located on the
James River in eastern Henrico County. This years work focused on
uncovering a building identified in an 1806 insurance policy as the
plantation laundry. The building was described as being constructed
of wood, one story high, and roofed with wood.
 
Students have, indeed, uncovered the footings for a building that
meets those dimensions. The foundation is exceptionally wide, and it
consists of half-bricks laid without mortar. Evidence from the ground
suggests the building was destroyed sometime in the early 19th
century. Its loss may have occurred while the plantation was occupied
by the Virginia militia in the War of 1812. While more digging is
needed before we will have firm construction date, preliminary
evidence indicates that the building stood throughout most of the
18th century. The building contains many interesting features, most
of which have not yet been excavated.
 
Among the artifacts recovered were numerous glass beads and sherds of
a locally-produced pottery known as colonoware. These, along with
evidence of possible small underground storage spaces dug into the
floor, suggests that enslaved African-American servants lived in the
building. Further evidence that the laundry served as a home comes
from thousands of pieces of bone and shell food refuse. The building
also may have served as a storage space for food stuffs. Numerous
fragments of storage jars and bottles were recovered. Laundries
sometimes doubled as breweries on colonial plantations, and this may
have been the case at Curles, as well.
 
In addition to digging at the laundry site, students surveyed a
portion of the work yard thought to contain slave quarters. Earlier
excavations uncovered the homes of enslaved field hands several
hundred yards from the manor house compound; however, these new
quarters--if that is what they prove to be--are located within the
manor house complex and probably were home to enslaved servants who
worked in the many service buildings surrounding the 18th-century
mansion.
 
Curles Plantation was first settled by colonists in the 1630s. Over
the past twelve years VCU students have excavated the 1630s home of
the Thomas Harris family; the 1670s home of Nathaniel Bacon, leader
of Bacons Rebellion; a portion of an elaborate fortification system
constructed by Bacon in 1676; the 18th-century Randolph family manor
house; and numerous outbuildings, garden beds, servants houses,
military features related to both the War of 1812 and the Civil War;
and a variety of landscape features such as terraces, fences, and
walls.
 
The public is invited to visit the site on Wednesday, July 16th,
between 12 noon and 3:30 PM. Refreshments will be served and some of
this years finds will be exhibited. To reach the site, travel east
from Richmond, or west from Williamsburg, on Route 5. The site is
located at Curles Neck Farm, just east of Turkey Island Creek, which
is the county line between Charles City and Henrico counties. The
entrance is marked by two historical markers and two large white
pillars, as well as a sign. Follow small signs along the farm roads
marked VCU Dig.
 
 
Submitted by Dan Mouer