SM-7A
Sotterley Field Hand's Quarter (Slave Cabin)
Architectural Survey File
This is the architectural survey file for this MIHP record. The survey file is organized reverse-
chronological (that is, with the latest material on top). It contains all MIHP inventory forms, National
Register nomination forms, determinations of eligibility (DOE) forms, and accompanying documentation
such as photographs and maps.
Users should be aware that additional undigitized material about this property may be found in on-site
architectural reports, copies of HABS/HAER or other documentation, drawings, and the “vertical files” at
the MHT Library in Crownsville. The vertical files may include newspaper clippings, field notes, draft
versions of forms and architectural reports, photographs, maps, and drawings. Researchers who need a
thorough understanding of this property should plan to visit the MHT Library as part of their research
project; look at the MHT web site (mht.maryland.gov) for details about how to make an appointment.
All material is property of the Maryland Historical Trust.
Last Updated: 01-06-2004
. .
SM-7A SOTTERLEY FIELD HAND'S QUARTER Hollywood Private, open to the public circa 1830
This single unit log house was built to shelter
at least one slave family. It has been renovated and
furnished as part of the museum, representing the life of
the field hands. Its features are typical of slave houses,
including log construction and design, earthen floor, and
small windows and doorways. The walls are of hewn logs,
dovetailed where they are joined at the corners, with
exterior wall posts of cedar positioned at regular intervals
as buttresses. At one end is an exterior chimney of brick
with a fieldstone base. According to an elderly informant who
who lived on the farm, separate "bedrooms" were created
in the single first floor room by suspending blankets from
the exposed joists. The architectural evidence shows that
the loft was also divided into two chambers •
Survey No. SM-?A
MARYLAND INVENTORY OF Maryland Historical Trust H
Magi No.
H F ISTORIC PROPERTIES
State istoric Sites Inventory orm DOE _yes no
1. Name (indicate preferred name)
historic
Slave House at Sotterley and/or common
2. Location
street & number Sotter ley Road
city, town Hollywood
state Maryland
3. Classification Category ---X- district-- building(s) _structure _site _object
Ownership -X- public _private _both Public Acquisition _in process _ being considered ~not applicable
_vicinity of
county
Status -X- occupied _ unoccupied _ work in progress Accessible _!__ yes: restricted _yes: unrestricted _no
_not for publication
congressional district 5
St. Mary's
Present Use _ agriculture _commercial _ educational _ entertainment _ government _ industrial _military
x _museum _park _ private residence _religious _ scientific _ transportation _other:
4. Owner of Property (give names and mailing addresses of ~ owners)
name Sotterley Mansion Foundation, Inc.
street & number p • 0 · Box 6 7 telephone no.: {301) 373-2280
city, town Hollywood state and zip code MD 20636
5. Location of Legal Description
courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. St. Mary's County Courthouse liber 117
street & number folio 314
city, town Leonardtown state MD
&. Representation in Existing Historical surveys
m~ Historic American Building Survey
date 1953 x _federal _state _county _local
,>e>sltory for survey records Library of Congress
city, town Washington state D.C.
7. Description
Condition X- excellent _good _fair
_ deteriorated _ruins _unexposed
Check one -X- unaltered _altered
Check one _x_ original site _moved date of move
Survey No. SM- 7 A
Prepare both a summary paragraph and a general description of the resource and its various elements as it exists today.
Contributing Resource Count 1
The Slave House at Sotterley is located south of the main house on a narrow strip of flattened ground between a deep ravine and an old road which extends from the plantation's agricultural outbuildings to the Patuxent River. The Slave House is said to have been one of about five such houses located along the road between this site and the river.
The Slave House dates to the second quarter of the nineteenth century -perhaps around 1840. The one-and-a-half story, one room house measures 18 feet by 16 feet and is built of 4 1 /2" to 5" thick hewn and sawn pine plank walls joined at the corners with ordinary square notches. The thin interstices between the logs are chinked with clay and mortar. At the time of construction, two earthfast, skinned cedar posts, hewn flat on only one surf ace, were set outside each wall and pegged into every plank to reinforce the structure's walls and prevent buckling. The pegs were split, wedged inside the posts and planks and then cut off flush both inside and out. The tops of the posts were cut at an angle and nailed to the wall with mature machine cut nails.
The east elevation is sheathed with a layer of new board and batten siding attached with wire nails. The south elevation, also sheathed with board and batten, is all that remains of the original layer of sheathing added on all sides of the building around 1910. This was removed from all but the south elevation around 1950. The north elevation is covered with weatherboards which have been antiqued with a faux hewn finish and attached with wire nails.
The roof, oriented on a north/south axis, is sheathed with wood shingles now covered over with tar paper. Original pit-sawn shingle lath which survive in place are placed for 18" long shingles. Attic joists are lapped into the tops of the walls. The rafters sit on board false plates carried by the joists. The ends of the joists project beyond the wall surface of both longitudinal elevations and are sawn off at an angle. There are no nail holes in the joists to suggest that the eaves were boxed with fascias or soffits.
The west (main) elevation is pierced by a central entrance door measuring 5' X 2'11." The door swings out rather than into the room. The remnants of leather door hinges remain visible. There is an interior wall pocket for the door's original slide bar. Posts which serve as door jambs have been pegged into the ends of the logs where the door opening was cut. A six-light casement window abuts the southern door jamb. Originally shuttered, the plank shutter for this window has been removed and is stored on the interior of the building. The window, like all of those on the first floor, is finishe1
8. Significance Survey No. SM-7A
Period _ prehistoric _14~1499
Areas of Significanc--Check and justify below _ archeology-prehistoric _ community planning _ archeology-historic _ conservation
_landscape architecture_ religion _law _science
15~1599
_1600-1699 _1700-1799 _x_ 1800-1899 _1900-
agriculture _ economics ----X- architecture _ education
_ literature _ sculpture _ military _ social/
_art _ engineering _ music humanitarian _commerce _ exploration/settlement _ philosophy _ theater _ communications _ industry _ politics/government _ transpol"tation
_ invention _x_ other (specify) African Am. hist.
Specific dates none Builder/Architect unknown
check: Applicable Criteria: A B X C D and/or
Applicable Exception: ~A ~B ~C ~D E F G
Level of Significance: ~national !_state _!_local
Prepare both a summary paragraph of significance and a general statement of history and support.
The Slave House at Satterley is the last surviving example of worker housing on Satterley Plantation. Largely unchanged in appearance, the structure offers an evocative glimpse of the material lives of slaves in the decades just before the Civil War. Erected around 1840, the building dates to the ownership of Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe and his wife Emeline Dallam Briscoe.
The Slave House began as a home for slaves associated with the main plantation, possibly including people who did domestic work at the nearby owners' house as well as laborers in the fields of the home farm. Modest improvements were made soon after the Civil War, and further changes some thirty years later brought the house up to something approaching conventional standards for many Chesapeake rural workers. Several changes made at mid-twentieth century returned elements of the house to their nineteenth-century appearance without erasing much evidence of the people who lived in the house thereafter.
The building's location, the nature of the accommodation it provided, and its technological character are significant. Situated along an old road stretching from the plantation's agricultural outbuildings south of the house down to the Patuxent River, both the building site and the road were cut into sloping ground south of the field between the main house and the river. As a result, only the top of the house was visible to people living on the hill, and the mansion would not have been easily visible from the quarter. The general pattern of partial visibility can be recognized at other eighteenth and nineteenth-century Chesapeake plantations such as Carter's Grove in James City County and Prestwould in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
Much of the building's size and substance are related to the development of what passed for model slave housing in the late antebellum era. Headroom in the single first-floor room is now 6'8", roughly what it probably was in the nineteenth century, and there has always been a usable attic. The present brick chimney appears original, and it would have been superior to the many wooden chimneys still used for much poor housing at mid-century. The frame is also entirely hewn and sawn, rather
9. Major Bibliographical References Survey No. SM-7A
See Attached.
1 O. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property---=_,,----~---=,----~--Q d I
Broomes Island Quad ua range name ______ _ 1:24,000 Quadrangle scale ______ _
UTM References do NOT complete UTM references
ALU I I I I Zone Easting
I I I I I Northing
8 W ~I .._I ,........1 __ .........,1 I I I I
Zone Easting Northing
cLLJ! - .....__. _____ ! ~I .............. __._.-..-_._ oLJJ! _I ______ ! _I -------E l__i_J I I -' ~~-- F LI.J .__I _...._ __
G Li_J I II~ .............. __.__ ..... __,. H l.i.J Verbal boundary description and justification
List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries
state code county code
state code county code
11. Form Prepared By Substance of form taken from "The Slave House at ~otterley near
name/tltleHollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations" by Colonial Wllliamsbutg. Form prepared by
organization Elizabeth Hughes for Sotter ley Mans~p Foundation, Inc. June 199 6.
street & number P.O. Box 6 7 telephone (301) 373-2280
city or town Hollywood state MD 20636
The Maryland Historic Sites Inventory was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 supplement.
The survey and inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.
return to: Maryland Historical Shaw House 21 State C' e Annapo · , Maryland 21401 ~269-2438
MARYLAND HiSTOR;CAL TRUST DHCF--/DHCD
100 COMMUf\!iTY PLACE CRO\"INSV'' ' ,... ~'.!-2C:-23
PS-2746
SM-7 A, Slave House at Sotterley Hollywood 7.1 Description
with unplaned trim attached with wire nails. These windows were installed around 1910.
The first floor of the south elevation is blind. An exterior brick chimney with a field stone base stands against this gable end wall. The brickwork consists of hardfired red brick laid in four- and five-course American bond with lime mortar in joints that taper back at their base. The brickwork steps out at the base and sits on a wide and rough platform of unworked brown sandstone intended to prevent the chimney from falling down the steep hillside to the south. The brick stack rises free of the gable since there is no attic fireplace.
The east elevation is pierced by a central vertical board door with horizontal battens and metal strap hinges. Posts which serve as door jambs have been pegged into the ends of the logs where the door opening was cut. The door sill is concrete. The door is flanked to the south by a six-light, casement window installed around 1910.
The north elevation is pierced by a c. 191 O six-light, casement window on the first floor. The eave is sheathed with weatherboard siding and is pierced by a window opening fitted with a hinged plank shutter.
The interior consists of one room with a hearth located at the south end and a stair in the northwest corner. Headroom in the first-floor room is now 6'8". The main floor was originally clay, although a wood floor was added in the early twentieth century and later removed. Around 1950, the clay floor was brought up nearly to the top of the sills.
The brick around the firebox is exposed and an iron lintel supports ordinary bricks laid as a flat arch above the opening. The opening measures 4'1" wide, 1 '1 O" deep, and 3'6" high. An iron trammel bar in the flue suggests that the fireplace was intended for work, including cooking, as well as heating, and there is no visible evidence for the fireplace being converted for use with a stove. A mantel shelf supported by curved brackets surmounts the fireplace opening.
Originally, a stair rose to the attic through an opening in the ceiling at the southeast corner. Cut marks for the stair opening remain visible in the ceiling. This was probably a ladder stair, passing above part of the fireplace. This stair was replaced by a stair in the northwest corner around 1870. The new stair consists of treads laid on rough stringers. Boards were nailed along the sides of the new stair to prevent people from falling, in the absence of a railing. Perhaps about this time a series of salvaged iron cloak pins were screwed into the adjoining joist, apparently to hang a cloth closing off the stair downstairs. Later, around 1950, a stack of marl and
SM-7A, Slave House at Sotter1ey Hollywood 7 .2 Description
clay mortar was inserted to support the lower end of the stair. All interior walls were whitewashed.
The attic was left unfinished, with rafters, roof collars, and shingle lath exposed. Where the stair formerly rose to the southeast corner of the loft, there is an enclosure which was created by nailing rough, unplaned boards to the side and top of a door frame hung with a board-and-batten leaf on cast-iron butt hinges. Once the old stair was torn out, the original stair enclosure was converted for use as a doorless closet. A hole drilled in the side of the stair at collar height may indicate that a cloth was hung along the back (east) slope to separate a small space there for privacy or storage. Like the old stair, the new stair was enclosed with a similar box constructed of thin, rough boards and hung with a door of the same character. A partition of similar thin, rough boards was built to separate two attic spaces, presumably to create two separate bedrooms upstairs.
SM-?A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 8. 1 Significance
than left partially unworked in the manner of some cheaper quarters. Still, for all its solidity, the house is constructed like agricultural buildings such as corn cribs, with plank walls unfinished inside and out. Likewise, the ceiling framing and attic flooring were visible below, and the main floor was originally clay, not wood. The building's form is conventional for single-room-plan houses built in the Chesapeake from at least the early eighteenth century until the Civil War.
The Slave House is technologically significant as the only known example of a construction method employing earthfast posts to provide stability to the building's plank walls and prevent them from buckling. This was a common method of building some houses even as substantial as Sotterley in the seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury Chesapeake. Builders continued to use the technique for less expensive buildings well into the nineteenth century, though most now have disappeared.
Except for the reconfiguration of the attic stair, little about the Slave House changed following the Civil War. It was not until 1910, when Herbert L. Satterlee bought the property and transformed it into an estate for summer use by himself and his wife Louisa Morgan, J. P. Morgan's daughter, that limited improvements were made to the building. These improvements may have been made for an elderly black woman named Aunt Nanny or Annie Williams, born a slave. At that time a wood floor was added and first-floor window openings were sawn through the walls. By the 1920s, the house appears to have been vacant and unused.
The final significant change came around the middle of the twentieth century, presumably between 1947, when Mabel Satterlee Ingalls became heir to Sotterley, and 1961, when ownership was transferred to the Sotterley Mansion Foundation. no longer occupied by a tenant, the house was gently nudged back towards its assumed appearance as a slave quarter. Board-and-batten siding was removed from all but the chimney (south) end. Contemporary wood flooring and joists were removed from the downstairs, and a clay floor was brought up nearly to the top of the sills. Presumably it was at this time that an impressive stack of marl and clay mortar were inserted to support the lower end of the stair. Footprints in the mortar may represent part of this effort to show the environment of a slave family living at Satterley.
While public interest in American slavery grows, houses occupied solely by enslaved and free African-Americans in the decades immediately after the Civil War are rapidly disappearing. Few survive on their original sites, especially those that maintain visual relationships with contemporary fields, work buildings, and owner's houses -- in short, with much original context. Even rarer are such delicate survivals that are also normally open to the public. Those few that fulfill all these criteria tend to have been recently remodeled or vigorously restored in an effort to strip away evidence of subsequent use. Cleansed of accretions, these buildings have lost much
SM-?A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 8.2 Significance
of their character and ability to evoke their many years of use.
Beyond its considerable technological significance, then, the Sotterley Slave House is important as a building that illustrates the lives of generations of slaves and tree people who worked on this property, which now happens to be a museum. Much of its original form and character survive, but so do adjustments made by and for subsequent residents. Most of the evidence for continued use and modest change has not been scraped away.
At Sotterley, the main house, outbuildings, and landscapes have all reached their present state in many stages, not a single campaign. Each generation of occupants has left its mark here, making it far more complex and engaging than many historic house museums that have lost their messy authenticity by attempting to recreate an unblemished early state. While later and far simpler than the main house, the Slave House has a parallel history that is equally worth preserving.
SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 9.1 Major Bibliographical References
Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark R. Wenger, 'The Slave House at Sotterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
Elizabeth Harman, Telephone Conversation with Edward Chappell, September 5, 1995.
Mabel Satterlee Ingalls, "Aunt Nannie Williams Cabin," Undated memorandum in Sotterley Archives files.
Julia A. King, "Recommendations for the Management of Archaeological Resources at Sotterley," Unpublished report for Sotterley Mansion Foundation, Inc., February 1991.
Edward Knott, Conversation with Edward Chappell, May 24, 1995.
Richard Knott, Conversation with Carolyn Laray, September 25, 1995.
George McDaniel, Hearth and Home: Preserving a People's Culture Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1982.
"Old Satterly to be Opened," Baltimore Sun May 13, 1953.
Richard Rivoire, Measured Field Notes - August 1971, Maryland Historical Trust Site file.
Charles Irving Tucker, Telephone Conversation with Edward Chappell, September 26, 1995.
Anna Adams and Nettie Stevens, Conversation with Edward Chappell, May 25, 1995.
SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7.3 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark A. Wenger, "The Slave House at Sotterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
fig. 8. First-floor plan This and subsequent drawings are by Jeffrey Bostetter, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7.4 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark A. Wenger, "The Slave House at Satterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
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fig. 9. Attic plan.
SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7 .5 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark A. Wenger, "The Slave House at Satterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
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SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7.6 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark A. Wenger, "The Slave House at Satterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
0 Feet
'" " fig. 11. Right (south) elevation.
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SM-7A, Slave House at Sotterley Hollywood 7.7 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark R. Wenger, "The Slave House at Sotterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial WiHiamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
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fig. 12. Longitudinal section, looking east.
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SM-7A, Slave House at Sotterley Hollywood 7.8 Description
Source: Jeffrey Bostetter, Edward Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark A. Wenger, "The Slave House at Sotterley near Hollywood, St. Mary's County, Maryland: Architectural Investigations and Recommendations," Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, September 27, 1995.
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fig. 13. Transverse section, looking south.
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SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7.9 Description
Site plan of the Sotterley grounds showing slave house. Source: Sotterley Mansion Foundation, Inc.
ffentterle~ Buildings and Grounds
See LEGEND on the obverse.
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SM-7A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7.10 Description
Historic photo of Slave House with caption "Sotterley Thanksgiving, 1936." Source: Green Photo Album, Sotterley Mansion Foundation Archives.
r
SM-7A, Slave House at Sotterley Hollywood 7 .11 Description
Historic photo of Alf red Edwards with caption "Alfred Edwards helped on Sotterley farm, ex-slave 'Uncle Alec' born a slave here and living on Sotterley in 1910." Source: Green Photo Album, Sotterley Mansion Foundation Archives .
. ;:- .
. ., "'-
r SM-7 A, Slave House at Satterley Hollywood 7 .12 Description
. -
MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST STMA-7A
INVENTORY FORM FOR STATE HISTORIC SITES SURVEY
HISTORIC
SOTTERLEY (FIELD HANDS' HOUSE)
AND/OR COMMON
. 'flLOCA TION STREET & NUMBER
CITY. !OWN
Hollywood VICINITY OF
STATE Maryland
DcLASSIFICA TION
CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS _DISTRICT _PUBLIC _OCCUPIED
_BUILDING(SI _PRIVATE -UNOCCUPIED
_STRUCTURE _BOTH _WORK IN PROGRESS
_SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBL~ _OBJECT _IN PROCESS _YES RESTRICTED
_BEING CONSIDERED _YES: UNRESTRICTED
_NO
DOWNER OF PROPERTY NAME
Satterley Mansion Foundation, Inc.
STREET & NUMBER
CITY. TOWN
Hollywood _ v1c1N1TY oF
llLOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE . REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC
Hall of Records
STREET & NUMBER
St. John's College Campus CITY. TOWN
II REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
COUNTY
St. Mary's
PRESENT USE
_AGRICULTURE _MUSEUM
_COMMERCIAL __ PARK
_EDUCATIONAL _PRIVATE RESIDENCI
_ENTERTAINMENT _RELIGIOUS
_GOVERNMENT _SCIENTIFIC
_INDUSTRIAL _TRANSPORTATION
_MILITARY _OTHER
Telephone #:
Liber #: Folio #:
STATE I zip code Md.
STATE
H.A.B.S., Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. and Maryland Historic Sites
DATE Survey _FEDERAL -5TATE _COUNTY _LOCAL
DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS Maryland Historical Trust
CITY. TOWN STATE
Annapolis, Md.
II DESCRIPTION
_EXCELLENT
_GOOD
_FAIR
CONDITION
_DETER I ORATED
_RUINS
_UNEXPOSED
CHECK ONE
_UNALTERED
__ALTERED
CHECK ONE
_ORIGINAL SITE
_MOVED DATE __ _
DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
This structure has been recorded by Rick Rivoire and is on file in the Maryland
Historic Sites Survey,\ SM-7). Measured drawings were completed by Gary Ridgell and
Rick Rivoire and are deposited at the St. Mary's City Commission, St. Mary's City.
This structure displays the debarked vertical posts pegged into the log walls,
a feature that, according to oral interviews, was common to log slave cabins in
southern Maryland. Four other surviving houses with this feature are the slave
cabins at Riverview and at Blair's Purchase in St. Mary's County and at White Hall
Overseer's Quarter and at Gresham in Anne Arundel. According to McKinley Gant,
an elderly man in Calvert County (whose house was surveyed), these posts were in-
stalled to support the log walls. This feature is not known to have been found in
log cabins elsewhere in the South, indicating that the traditional building methods
among the slaves here were somewhat different.
CONTINUE"ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY
II SIGNIFICANCE :SM-lf4
EAIOD
_PREHISTORIC
_1400-1499
_1500-1599
-1600-1699
_1700-1799
_1800-1899
_1900-
AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW
__ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC
--ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC
--AGRICULTURI;
--ARCHITECTURE
__ART
_COMMERCE
_COMMUNICATIONS
_COMMUNITY PLANNING
_CONSERVATION
_ECONOMICS
_EDUCATION
_ENGINEERING
_EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT
_INDUSTRY
_LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
_LAW
_LITERATURE
_MILITARY
_MUSIC
_PHILOSOPHY
_POLITICS/GOVERNMENT
_RELIGION
_SCIENCE
_SCULPTURE
_SOCIAUHUMANITARIAN
_THEATER
_TRANSPORTATION
_OTHER !SPECIFY)
_INVENTION
'SPECIFIC DATES BUILDER/ARCHITECT
.STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
.-
This slave cabin is one of the few in southern Maryland known to have been
inhabited by field hands and therefore serves as an example against which one can
compare quarters for house servants and field hands on other plantations and farms. fJ>' <J
This slave cabin has now been res9f>ted and is on display to the public. A
creditable effort was made to furnish the interior with original plantation artifacts
ith the result that it does convey an idea of how the field hand lived, a group of (L ~......._~ - / f
plantation people whome often ignored~ historic plantation sites. Unfortunately,
the paucity of materials, so neatly placed among so much empty space, conveys very
little of the life within this house as its occupants knew it. It should also be pointed
out that this house did not stand alone, but was a part of a much larger community, for
according to local blacks, this dwelling was but one of at least a dozen that stood in
a row descending toward the Patu.xent River •
CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY
I) MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
CONTINUE ON SEP.AR.ATE SHEET IF NECESSARY
lliJGEOGRAPHICALDATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY--------
VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION
LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES
STATE COUNTY
STATE COUNTY
mFORM PREPARED BY NAME I TITLE
ORGANIZATION DATE
STREET & NUMBER TELEPHONE
CITY OR TOWN STATE
The Maryland Historic Sites Inventory was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature, to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 Supplement.
The Survey and Inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.
RETURN TO: Maryland Historical Trust The Shaw House, 21 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401 ( 301) 267-1438
PS· 1101
z 0
SLAVE QUARTERS AT sarTERliEY
MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST WORKSHEET
NOMINATION FORM for the
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES, NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE
COMMON:
Slave Quarters at Satterley ANOIOR HISTORIC:
< :•:. · .. •:. · ...... ··
STREET AND NUMBER:
Satterley CITY OR TOWN:
Hall1JWaad STATE
Maryland r~st. Mary 1 s !COUNTY:
1ua[;JCSLhA~··.·~SS~tEr~IC~A~T~l~.(JN:!• ... [.··z ... /=.=j.;·[J··>;J.t:= .. ···=··:I.:>I=:I:<·==···================·21 ... £,I:W42£&Ls······SJ·b12ES:~.\==/=£WillillEJ&2m CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS ACCESSIBLE (Check One) TO THE PUBLIC
0 District 0 Building D Public
D Private
0 Both
Public Acquisition:
0 In Process D Occupied Yes:
0 Site 0 Structure
0 Object O Being Considered 0 Unoccupied
D PreHrvotion work
in progress
D Restricted
0 UnrHtricted
0 No
J,J PRESENT USE (Checlr One or More a• Appropriate)
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D Agricultural
0 Commercial
0 Educational
0 Entertainment
OWNERS NAME:
W STREET ANO NUMBER:
w CITY OR TOWN:
STREET ANO NUMBER:
CITY OR TOWN:
0 0 D D
Government
Industrial
Military
Museum
0 Pork
D Private RHidence
D Religious
0 Scientific
I STATE
D Transportation
0 Other (Specify)
Title Reference of Cui. ~ · OPoPn (Bnnlc & Pa. f) !
D Comment•
.. ·•·
1~r:1t•PMIHMl'.~tt•qJ8.~exl$t••Q.$.uive¥~ :·:· <·< <> ·· : .····• .. J< >>·,······:········· .. , ... TITLE OF SURVEY:
DATE OF SURVEY: D Federal D State 0 County D Lacal bEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS:
S1'R,..a.T ANO NUMBER:
CITY OR TOWN:
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SM- 7A
PS - 709
SLAVE QUARTERS AT SOTTERLEY SM- 7A SM-1A
(Check One)
CONDITION 0 Excellent 0 Good 0 Fair e9 Deteriorated 0 Ruins 0 -Unexposed 1--~~~~~~~ -~~~~~~~--.~~~~~~~~~---==-~---=~~~~~-'
(Check One) (Check One)
0 Altered 0 Uncltered O Moved ~ Original Site
DESCRIBE THE PRESENT# ~D ORIGINAL (If known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
RECORDED DURING THE MHT-Sl"K:C ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY, 1971
Of interest because it is one of the few such ~ervants quarters remaining in southern Maryland. While not of the 18th century date associa with Satterley, it does represent a period of the farm's existence as a working farm.
Probably dating from the seccnddquarter of the 19th century, the cabin is severely plain and purely utilitarian. It is of log construction containing one room with a fireplace, dirt floor, exposed ceiling joists and corner stair on the first floor and a single large room in the attic. The downstairs room~s walls are sheathed with vertically hung boards. The corner stair has been moved from its original bocation flanking the fireplace (northeast corner) to a position in the southwest corner.
On the exterior the building is two bays in length on both sides (north and south elevations). The doors are original, but the windows are later alterations. Positioned alcng all walls are cedar posts, debarked and pinned into the logs as added support. The exterior is sheathed with vertically hung boards.
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I@~ SIG.IHFfCAiiiCE ·:/·<· ... ··>> / ::•:.•· . .. · ..·: .... PERIOO (Chec1r One or More •• Approprlete)
0 Pre-Columbian 0 16th Century
0 15th Century 0 17th Century
SPECIFIC OATE(S) (11 Appllcebfe end Known)
AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Chec1r One or More •• Approprlete)
Abor iginol 0 Education 0 0 p,.historic 0 Engineering 0 0 Historic 0 Industry
0 Agriculturw 0 Invention 0 0 Architecture 0 Londscope 0 0 Att Architecturw 0 0 Cotn-Ce 0 Literature
0 Communications 0 Military 0 0 Conservation 0 Music 0
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
--------------···- -----
SM-1A
.. · .. .. ..........
0 18th Century 0 20th Century
~ 19th Century
Politiccil 0 Urban Plonning
Religion/Phi- 0 Other (Specify)
losophy
Science
Sculpture
Socio I/Human-
itarian
Theater
Transportation
ps-7011
Slave quarters at Satterley SM- 7A
Eto~ ot:OGRAPl'i1c1.1.. DATA ...... ,__..:...:..""-'-C.:...C.:...:...'--~:..C.C.c::...~_:....-"-~~~~~~~~~~~_...,-,~~-~":"-'.~~~=-=::-:-:::--:--=-:".-:::"~"'.""""...-....... """"~-'-~"'-'"~··~~ LATITUDE ANO LONGITUDE COORDINATES LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES
DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PROPERTY 0 DEFINING THE CENTER POINT l!lF A PROPERTY
~~~--.-~~~~~~~~~--.-~~~~~~~~~-1Rr-~~~~~~O-F~L_E_s_s_T_H-.A_N_T_E--'N~A~C.::.;_;R~E~S~--~~~~ CORNER LATITUDE LONGITUDE
Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds
NW 0 0
NE 0 0
SE 0 0
<;W 0 0
APPROXIMATE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY:
Acreage Justification:
PL FORM PREPARt;C> Ef( NAME ANO Tl TL E:
LATITUDE
Degrees Minutes Seconds 0
....
J. Richard Rivoire, Field Surveyor ORGA.NI ZATION
Maryland Historical Trust STREET ANO NUMBER:
CITY OR TOWN:
~State Liaison Officer Review: (Off ice Use Onlv)
Significance of this property is: National O State O Local 0
Signature
LONGITUDE
Degrees Minutes Seconds 0
IOATE
Jan. 1972
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SO TIER.LEY a:nd d 's depel'ldencies· ·" ST.MARYS .~.'?MARYLAND
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A. Mansion and oldest pan dates trom about 1717. Outbuildings such as a custom house. spinning house, etc. wef'e located nearby on the south and west. Many of these have disappeared. but some remain. B. Smoke house - here hams are still smoked every year and hung for 18 months till ready for cooking. The brine trough is hollowed from a tree trunk. C. The non h gate house is original , the south one had burned and was reconstructed in 1914. Formerly used as quaners ' for household slaves. a family of 1 O was known to have lived in the north gate house.
D This log cabin was still inhabited in 191 O by a woman who had been born there a slave. E. Necessary - outdoor toilet in use before the introduction of modern plumbing. F. Modern house for garden tools. G. Sundial - English. made of slate. The pedestal made about 1925 ha.s the Plater. Briscoe and Satterlee coats-of.arms. H. Modern k itchens - buil t in 1914 approximately where an early kitchen probably stood. I. Stable - in all probability this was a brick warehouse. Glaze ended bricks in west end show, 1727.
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SoTTERLEY ~ PATUXENT D
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Captain Point
SCALE 124000 0
0 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 FEET a=_1=r:E=r:===:=E====~-'=3=====:::i==~==r=====~~=c::===
CONTOUR INTERVAL 10 FEET NATIONAL GEODETIC VERTICAL DATUM OF 1929
DEPTH CURVES AND SOUNDINGS IN FEET-DATUM IS MEAN LOW WATER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO DATUMS IS VARIABLE
SHORELINE SHOWN REPRESENTS THE APPROXIMATE LINE OF MEAN HIGH WATER "' "'""-"'"'"'"'''"''''''"~••<TJ;J;;,,JAJ;:JIAL.J~'J:,.D<C x,nr ,_ • - ·••
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Sottler ,,,, Sotterl~ Point
GREENWELL STATE l"iYUI.: ~'
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