Resilience & Agency: What we are learning about the enslaved at Belle Grove

FOSL hosts a special African American history program with Kristen Laise, Executive Director of Belle Grove Plantation. Since 2014, Belle Grove Plantation has been especially active in researching the men, women, and children that the Hite family enslaved. Belle Grove Plantation began with 483 acres given to Isaac Hite Jr. by his father in 1783. By 1824, it had grown to 7,500 acres. Its products were grain, livestock, flax and hemp. Other Belle Grove enterprises included a grist mill, saw mill, distillery, store, lime kiln, quarry, and blacksmith shop. The great commercial success of these enterprises relied upon an enslaved workforce. Surviving records indicate that the Hites at Belle Grove owned 276 men, women, and children between 1783 and 1851. This program will present the archival, archaeological, and contextual research that is underway to understand how the enslaved at Belle Grove lived and worked.