Part of a series of articles on...

1739 Stono Rebellion 1741 New York Insurrection 1805 Chatham Manor 1800 Gabriel Prosser (Suppressed) 1811 Charles Deslandes (Suppressed) 1815 George Boxley (Suppressed) 1822 Denmark Vesey (Suppressed) 1831 Nat Turner's rebellion 1839 Amistad 1856 Pottawatomie Massacre 1859 John Brown A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by slaves. ... The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Catos Conspiracy or Catos Rebellion) is one of the earliest known organized acts of rebellion against slavery in the Americas. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Gabriel (1776–October 10, 1800), today commonly if incorrectly known as Gabriel Prosser, was a slave born in Henrico County, Virginia who planned a failed slave rebellion in the summer of 1800. ... Charles Deslondes led an unsuccessful slave revolt in parts of the Louisiana Territory on January 8, 1811. ... George Boxley was a white storekeeper living in Spotsylvania County, Virginia near the Orange County, Virginia line. ... Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque, 1767? — July 2, 1822) was an white slave, and later a minister, who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States had word of the plans not been leaked. ... Combatants Southern Slaves Southampton County Commanders Nat Turner Numerous Strength 50+ 15,000+ Casualties 200+ dead 57 dead Nat Turners slave rebellion was a slave rebellion that happened in Virginia in August 1831. ... Holding The “AFRICANS” are free, and are remanded to be released; Lt. ... The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856. ... John Brown John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was the first white American abolitionist to advocate and practice insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery. ... This box: view • talk • edit

Chatham Manor is the Georgian-style home built in 1768-71 by William Fitzhugh on the Rappahannock River in Stafford County, VA opposite Fredericksbg. Typical of many historic sites, particularly in Virginia, the Chatham site has multiple layers of history. History at "Chatham" might best be told in at least four different stories. William Fitzhugh (August 24, 1741 – June 6, 1809) was an American planter and statesman who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779. ...

One story would be that of the slaves who built, farmed, and ran Chatham which, in the 18th Century, was a 1300 acre plantation which grew corn, wheat, and rye grain. Fitzhugh, the owner-builder, also built noted racing stable and used his slaves as jockeys on his prize-winning horses.

The slave story contined when, in January 1805, a number of Fitzhugh's slaves rebelled. Some of the estate's slaves refused to return to work after the Christmas holidays. The slaves involved overpowered and whipped their overseer and four others who had tried to make them return to work. An armed posse put down the rebellion and punished those involved. One black man was executed, two died while trying to escape, and two others were deported, perhaps to a slave colony in the Caribbean.

A later owner of Chatham, Hannah Coulter, who acquired the plantation in the 1850s, tried to free her slaves through her will upon her death, a rare event for ante-bellum Virginia. She stated that, upon her death, her slaves would have the choice of being freed (and have their passage to Liberia paid for) or remaining as a slave for the new owner of Chatham. That new owner, J. Horace Lacy, took the will to court and had it overturned. The laws of the day, affirmed through the 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, had declared that slaves were property -- without choice -- and not persons with choice. Thus, Chatham's slaves remained so. Naturally, the slave story at Chatham ended in 1865 with end of the Civil War and the passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing the institution.

Chatham had other layers of history, of course.

In addition to the Story of Slavery at Chatham, there is also the Colonial / Revolutionary Story. The builder, William Fitzhugh, was a wealthy, landed Virginia planter descended from others of the same ilk: Fitzhugh's who owned land, and lots of it. He was truly a conncected man. His mother was Lucy Carter, daughter of Robert Carter, who owned so much land in the Colony he was called "King" Carter. Fitzhugh's wife was Ann Randolph, from the Virginia family of Thomas Jefferson's mother. He built Chatham on the high ridge opposite Fredericksburg so that people would look up, see the edifice -- with a 211-foot front facade, and realize that someone rich and important lived there.

Fitzhugh was a part of the Revolutionary movement and served as an overseer of a local gun factory during the Revolutionary War. He named his manor house "Chatham" in honor of the British peer and parliamentarian, William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham. Pitt was the defender of Colonial interests in Parliament and,therefore, a "friend".

Before the War, Fitzhugh had served as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (the Colonial legislature) and was part of the pre-revolutionary "rump" session meeting at St. John's Church in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry orate "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death".

He was a friend and colleague of George Washington whose family's farm was just down the Rappahannock River from Chatham. Washington's diaries affirm that he was a frequent guest at Chatham. Evidence supports that Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were there, as well, beginning a veritable "Who's Who" of important Americans who stopped in to sample Fitzhugh's hosptality. His feasts were legendary and even included caviar from the sturgeon (in the Rappannock at the time and until the 1930s) he trapped in what essentially was a "caviar factory" on his river frontage.

Tiring of serving as a constant host, Fitzhugh moved to Alexandria, VA and put Chatham up for sale. He maintained his friendship with George Washington at nearby Mt. Vernon and is said to be the last non-family member to visit the former General and First President before Washington's death in 1799.

Continuing the identification of Chatham with important personages of history, William Henry Harrison stopped by Chatham in 1841 on his way to be inaugurated as President. In a case of true historic irony, Fitzhugh's (the builder's) daughter married Daniel Parke Custis, Martha Washington's grandson (and George Washington's step-grandson) at Arlington House near Washington, DC. The daughter of that couple later married an upcoming U.S. Army officer, Robert E. Lee.

Another layer of history or story at Chatham would be the Civil War story. The plantation had been through a series of owners since Fitzhugh (including Hannah Coulter, mentioned above in the slavery story). At the time of the Civil War, "Chatham" was owned by J. Horace Lacy. In most letters, diary entries, orders, and reports, the site is called "The Lacy House". The Lacy family, of course, had to leave with the arrival of the Union Army.

The manor served as a Union headquarters and hospital during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln met with General Irvin McDowell in April, 1862. According to the National Park Service, this visit gives Chatham the distinction of being just one of three houses visited by both Lincoln and Washington (the other two are Mount Vernon and Berkeley Plantation). In the winter of 1862, Clara Barton and Walt Whitman attended wounded there after General Ambrose Burnside's campaign in the area. The following winter, Dorothea Dix, the Union's Superintendent of Female Nurses during the Civil War, operated a soup kitchen in the house. Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... General Irvin McDowell Irvin McDowell (October 15, 1818 – May 4, 1885) was an American military officer, famous for his participation in the American Civil War. ... The National Park Service (NPS) is the United States federal agency that manages all National Parks, many National Monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. ... Back of the main house. ... Berkeley Plantation, one of the first great estates in America, comprises about 100 acres (0. ... Famed American nurse Clara Barton, first president of the American Red Cross. ... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ... Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was a railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator. ... Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. ...

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker has also been associated with serving the wounded at Chatham. Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor, the only woman from the Civil War to be so recognized for her meritorious service to the wounded during several battles. When the law for the Medal of Honor changed to restrict the medal to combat veterans, she refused to return the medal and died with it still in her possession. Her family continued to petition for its restoration and, in 1977, then President Jimmy Carter, signed the Congressional bill into law that restored Dr. Walker's medal. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, ca 1870. ... The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States. ...

Although the Lacy family returned to Chatham at the end of the war, without the vast free labor source of slavery--noted above, they could not maintain it and sold it

The final layer of history would be the story of Chatham beginning in the 20th Century. After several owners following the Lacy's, Chatham was deteriorating rapidly. "Saving" Chatham fell to owners with no connection with farming but to owners who had the wealth and means to fix it up.

In the 1920s, retired World War I Army General Daniel DeVore and his wife acquired the property and undertook and extensive restoration and renovation. Their efforts can probably be credited with literally saving the house. In addition to the restoration, the DeVore's re-oriented the house away from the river / West front and made the East entrance the main entrance. They also added a large, walled English-style garden on the East.

In 1932, the DeVore's sold Chatham for $150,000 cash to John Lee Pratt, a locally born man who had become a high ranking executive with General Motors. To have cash in 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, was amazing; to have that much cash (which translates to several million dollars in 21st Century dollars) was astounding.

Pratt and his wife lived out their lives at Chatham. Over his years of ownership, he gave some of the plantation's remaining land to Stafford County for a park and--during the National Civil War Centennial in the 1960s--some riverfront land, significant in the 1862 Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg, to the National Park Service.

Upon his death in 1975, he willed additional land for parks to Stafford County and Fredericksburg as well as a large section to the region's "Y"--YMCA. He gave the manor house and approximately 30 surrounding acres to the National Park Service which uses it as the Headquarters facility fo the Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park. Five of the rooms are open as a museum facility and the grounds are open to the public; the remainder of the house and outbuildings are offices and support facilities.

External links

• Chatham Manor - a National Park Service site for Chatham Manor