Skip to content

"Negro Quarter"

Dwelling for enslaved people—individuals and families, early 1770s

Digital model of the interior of the "Negro Quarter" featuring two large rooms with a common wall with a hearth and chimney below two loft spaces.

Constructed in the early 1770s, this 17 x 34-foot log structure was a multi-family dwelling for enslaved people on Mulberry Row. Jefferson intended that several unrelated families reside here, including those of George and Ursula Granger as well as Jupiter and Suck. Archaeological evidence suggests that at least four families or kinship groups lived together in this dwelling before it burned around 1790. Later, three identical, single-family 12 x 14-foot log “servants houses” were constructed in its place; buildings r, s, and t were intended for enslaved house servants and artisans, principally members of the Hemings family.

Enslaved residents

Digital model of the interior of the "Negro Quarter" featuring two large rooms with a common wall with a hearth and chimney below two loft spaces.
Digital model of the interior of the "Negro Quarter"; image by Rendersphere, LLC