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Accokeek Plantation, Stafford County, Virginia

Privacy Level: Open (White)
Date: About 1663 [unknown]
Location: Stafford, Virginiamap
Surnames/tags: Mason Slavery black_heritage
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Index of Plantations

Virginia Plantations

Contents

Introduction

In 1662, Colonel Valentine Peyton (1627-1665) sold a tract, along with 500 contiguous acres to Captain George Mason I. In March 1665, George Mason I (1629–1686) patented 900 acres near Aquia Creek in what is today Stafford County, Virginia. [1]He was the progenitor of the prominent and political Mason family. He made his permanent residence near an Indian village, most likely Powhatan, along Accokeek Creek in Stafford County, Virginia.[2] He christened his plantation "Accokeek," which was later renamed "Rose Hill." Mason's Accokeek plantation began with about 650 acres (2.6 km2) and eventually increased in size to 1,150 acres. [3] It is very likely this plantation was built with enslaved Native American labor. Enslaved Native Americans were exported from South Carolina to Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The historian Alan Gallay says, "the trade in Indian slaves was at the center of the English empire's development in the American South. The trade in Indian slaves was the most important factor affecting the South in the period 1670 to 1715"; intertribal wars to capture slaves destabilized English colonies, Spanish Florida, and French Louisiana.[4]

Mason's first wife, Mary French, gave birth in 1660 to their one and only son, George Mason II, who was born at Accokeek. Mason II married three times and died in 1716. George Mason II sold Accokeek after his father's death and moved to Chopawamsic plantation on Chopawamsic Creek, which means “isolated lodge” in Algonquian.

Slaves

George Mason inherited 35 people from his father’s estate. [5] Ultimately, he enslaved at least 300 people, many of whom lived on his property at Gunston Hall in Mason Neck.

James, who spent his days as George Mason’s valet, and
Nell, who was a midwife and an enslaved house servant.

Research Note

Mason's will is located at George Mason University. Need to create Gunston Hall where over 100 enslaved worked, and owned by George Mason IV (1725-1792). This was a research project by students of George Mason University: https://gunstonhall.org/learn/george-mason/mason-slavery/the-enslaved-children-of-george-mason-by-george-mason-university/

Sources

  1. http://virginiacolonialhouses.com/mason-plantations.html
  2. Cavaliers and pioneers : a calendar of Virginia land grants, 1623-1800; vol. 1, no. 1-6 https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/42897/?offset=0#page=165&viewer=picture&o=search&n=0&q=Mason
    • p.165
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accokeek_(plantation)
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States#First_enslavements
  5. https://gunstonhall.org/learn/george-mason/mason-slavery/




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