Virtual Tour of Laundry and House for Enslaved Laborers, Cessford Plantation

This is a virtual tour of one of the outbuildings of Cessford, a Federal-style plantation in Northampton County. The outbuilding, probably constructed in the 1820s or 1830s, consists of a main room with a large brick fireplace and hearth, a loft, and two rooms which were added on to serve as housing for enslaved people. The large chimney and fireplace suggest that the main room served as the laundry for the plantation house.

Dr. John Kerr owned Cessford between 1832 and 1847. He enslaved at least twenty African Americans at the time of his death, who were subsequently divided between his descendants. His son, George Kerr, inherited the house and two enslaved people, George (born around 1834) and Juliet (born around 1830.) Census data from 1860 show that fourteen enslaved people lived and worked at Cessford.

Dr. George Kerr fled Cessford with his family in the fall of 1861, at the onset of the Civil War. In July of 1862, Brigadier General Henry H. Lockwood of the Union army occupied the plantation, using it as his headquarters and legally freeing the people Kerr held in bondage.

At the time this virtual tour was recorded, summer of 2024, the outbuilding at Cessford is at risk of collapse. As one of the few surviving houses for the enslaved on the Eastern Shore, this structure may be lost without swift intervention.