Historians at 250-year-old Woodville work to ensure enslaved people's contributions aren't lost
This year, the Woodville plantation turns 250 years old. It's one of the local locations that held slaves in the Pittsburgh area.
The Neville House was built on slavery more than 200 years ago. There's now an effort to elevate the enslaved people's importance.
"So all these members of this enslaved community are very highly skilled, and they produced all these different products that makes this community very self-sufficient," said historian Rob Windhorst, the vice president of Neville House Associates.
In 1775, General John Neville planted his roots in Pittsburgh from Virginia and brought his slaves with him.
However, he and his son Presley spent nearly a decade away, at one point serving in the American Revolution and then John joined political life in Philadelphia.
"They do return after the Revolution, both the Woodville house and the Bower Hill house along with all the dependencies and outbuildings and support building, they're all completed," Windhorst said.
The Bower Hill house was replaced by a historic marker. It was burned to the ground during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, but not without a fight. Enslaved men defended Bower Hill.
"We know that the Neville slaves felt strongly enough to defend their homes up on Bower Hill with guns and that Neville trusted them to have guns," Windhorst said.
Historians believe that the family, including their son-in-law, were the largest slaveholders in western Pennsylvania.
The property at one point was about 1,200 acres.
"Roughly from Mt. Lebanon, Carnegie, to out to Collier and down to Bridgeville, so everything within the confines of that large boundary is part of the original Neville property," Windhorst said.
Now it's down to two and a half acres of history in Collier Township. The national historic landmark is a tourist attraction.
"We think it's extremely important to continue to tell the stories of the past and this house has a lot of stories to tell, and this property does as well," said Susan Smith, the Woodville site director.
With the Woodville plantation turning 250 years old, historians are working to putting a face to the people who made it what it is.
"We've probably identified with names probably about half of those people that have lived and worked here. That's very exciting for us, to be able to put an identity, to give these people their due history," Windhorst said.
It makes sure their contributions aren't lost to history.
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