North Carolina Historic Sites

Somerset Place: A Representative Antebellum Plantation

Visitors interested in a fascinating side trip on the way to the seaside attractions of Nag’s Head or the Outer Banks need only stop at Somerset Place in nearby Washington County. A graceful plantation, Somerset Place offers a look into the daily lives of slaves and planters alike in the antebellum South.

An active plantation for eighty years, from just after the Revolutionary War until the demise of the Confederacy in 1865, Somerset may once have encompassed 100,000 acres. During all this time, it was eventually home to some three hundred enslaved African-Americans, which made it a large plantation by North Carolina’s more modest standards.

These slaves were, of course, the primary source of labor not only for the cultivation of rice, on which the plantation’s livelihood depended, but for the myriad of tasks which a plantation of this size constantly generated. Such tasks included excavating the extensive system of irrigation and transportation canals by which the plantation’s original owners, a group of gentlemen from nearby Edenton, hoped to drain the mosquito-infested swamps nearby.

Though their labors came to naught, Josiah Collins, one of the original investors, bought out the others and established the plantation as his own holding. The elder Collins passed the property to his son in 1829.

After the war, the emancipated slaves left, and as on many a Southern plantation, the buildings fell into disrepair and ultimate ruin. Somerset Place was restored in the 1950s and in 1965 became a state historical property. Early restoration efforts focused on the main house and gardens.

More recently, however, new archaeological efforts have concentrated on the slave quarters themselves, shedding light on the lives of African-Americans during the nation’s formative years.

In 1994, five buried foundations were identified, including those of a chapel, hospital, kitchen with outdoor hearth and two separate slave quarters.

Somerset Place features hands-on educational programs which help visitors interpret the plantation system and understand the complex relationships of the people who lived there. The main house is furnished with period furniture. Outbuildings include a kitchen and smokehouse, dairy and the boarding school in which the Collins children were prepared for lives which turned out much different from what their parents envisioned.

Admittance to Somerset Plantation is free. From April 1st to October 31st,  Monday - Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00-5:00 p.m. From November 1st through March 31st, Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00-4:00 p.m. The site is closed on Mondays during the winter.

Want to know more? Check out the ultimate source for Cultural Resources in North Carolina, NCDCR.

added: December 18, 2008

updated: December 7, 2010