RED HILL

Red Hill produced on average some 20,000 pounds of tobacco per year during his ownership. The cultivation of tobacco was tedious and labor-intensive. The process included preparation of the seedbeds, fertilizing, planting, transplanting, topping, suckering, priming, weeding, worming, cutting, bulking, curing, stripping, and prizing. A yield of 20,000 pounds of leaf would have required a minimum of 20 enslaved people tending 50 acres of tobacco at Red Hill. The wheat and corn growing along the slope and lowlands below the plantation house also required attention. On average, one enslaved person could tend 4 or 5 acres of corn, while four or five enslaved people were needed to reap the same acreage of wheat... Another garden at the time covered the eastern part of the Red Hill grounds. This garden supposedly covered close to four acres and provided the family with apples, pears, figs, and olives for their table. The gardens would generally have been the responsibility of Dorothea Henry,..

Primary location: Brookneal United States