Faunsdale Plantation

Faunsdale Plantation is a historic plantation site near the town of Faunsdale in Marengo County, Alabama. It stands in the Alabama Black Belt, a region whose fertile soils supported the expansion of cotton agriculture and whose nineteenth-century economy depended heavily on the forced labor of enslaved African Americans. The plantation is significant not as a commercial brand but as a cultural landscape that preserves material evidence of slavery, plantation agriculture, religious activity, and the transition from slavery to freedom. The property was developed during the 1830s by Bird Pearson and Henry Augustine Tayloe. The Tayloe family, based largely in Virginia and Washington, D.C., used family networks and land agents to acquire extensive holdings in Alabama’s Canebrake region. Their activities illustrate how wealthy Upper South planters extended their economic influence into the Deep South, where lands were cleared and cultivated through the forced migration and labor of enslaved people. The territory had previously been ceded by the Choctaw to the United States under the Treaty of Fort St. Stephens in 1816. In 1843, Dr. Thomas Alexander Harrison acquired approximately 960 acres in the Canebrake from Charles City County, Virginia, and gave the property the name Faunsdale. The name was derived from Faunus, the ancient Roman deity associated with forests, fields, and rural places. Harrison abandoned medical practice and concentrated on cotton production. Like many planters of the period, he brought enslaved people from Virginia to Alabama, contributing to the forced internal migration of roughly one million enslaved African Americans to the expanding plantations of the Deep South. Records connected with the plantation provide unusually detailed evidence about the people held in slavery there. The Harrison family enslaved approximately 99 people in 1846, 161 by 1857, and 186 by January 1864. The latter group likely included at least 35 families. Surviving records identify surnames used by many enslaved people, including Barron, Brown, Francis, Harison, Iredell, Mutton, Nathan, Newbern, Paine, Parsons, Richmond, Washington, and Wills. The records also note that 14 enslaved people died from infectious diseases during 1864, including typhoid fever and measles. These documents are important because they preserve family and community information that is often absent from plantation records. The plantation house is a modest two-story, wood-frame building in the Greek Revival tradition. It has a gabled roof and one-story gabled wings on either side. Nearby one-room cabins, dating from about 1860, survive as rare examples of slave housing in Alabama. Their steep gables and scalloped bargeboards show Carpenter Gothic influence. The cabins are regarded as among the most important surviving examples of this building type in Marengo County and among the last remaining examples in Alabama. Religious activity also formed part of the site’s history. In 1844, Thomas and Louisa Harrison donated one acre for a log church across from their residence. The church was associated with Episcopal worship, and Alabama Episcopal Bishop Nicholas Hamner Cobbs visited in 1846. The structure was renamed St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in 1852 and replaced by a Gothic Revival building around 1855. Enslaved labor likely supplied much of the skilled work used in its construction. A churchyard was established in 1858, with Harrison the first recorded interment; enslaved people and later freedmen were also buried there. The church building moved to Faunsdale in 1888 and was destroyed by a tornado in 1932, while the plantation churchyard remained in use. Faunsdale Plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 13, 1993, through the multiple-property submission covering plantation houses of the Alabama Canebrake and their associated outbuildings. Its significance rests on the surviving architecture, the rarity of its cabins, the documentation of enslaved families, and the broader historical landscape connecting cotton production, slavery, religion, disease, forced migration, and emancipation.

Faunsdale Plantation developed in the 1830s in Alabama’s Canebrake, a fertile section of the Black Belt that became heavily associated with cotton cultivation. The development followed the opening of lands that had been ceded by the Choctaw to the United States in 1816. Bird Pearson and Henry Augustine Tayloe were involved in establishing the plantation, while Tayloe also acted as a land agent for relatives who acquired numerous plantations across the region. The Tayloe family’s investments demonstrate the role of wealthy Virginia and Washington, D.C., planters in extending the plantation economy into Alabama. Thomas Alexander Harrison purchased approximately 960 acres in 1843 and named the property Faunsdale, a reference to Faunus, the Roman deity associated with rural landscapes. Harrison had trained and worked as a physician but turned to cotton production after acquiring the plantation. He brought enslaved people from Virginia to Alabama, part of the forced migration that supplied labor to the expanding cotton frontier. The plantation grew through additional land purchases, and Harrison also acquired property in Louisiana during the 1850s. The plantation’s labor system relied on enslaved African Americans. Records show that the Harrison family held about 99 enslaved people in 1846, increasing to 161 by 1857 and 186 by January 1864. The 1864 list appears to represent at least 35 families and preserves surnames associated with many of the enslaved residents. It also records 14 deaths from infectious illnesses during that year. Such documentation makes Faunsdale unusual among large Alabama plantations because it provides detailed information about enslaved families and the conditions affecting them. The records must be understood within the context of a coercive system in which people were legally treated as property, compelled to labor, separated from relatives, and denied freedom and equal civil rights. The built environment included the owners’ residence, laborers’ housing, agricultural facilities, and religious structures. The plantation house is a two-story Greek Revival wood-frame building with a central body and low gabled wings. One-room cabins built around 1860 remain nearby. Their Carpenter Gothic details, including high gables and scalloped bargeboards, distinguish them from more utilitarian examples of slave housing. Their survival gives the site unusual value for interpreting the domestic and family lives of enslaved people, although the buildings themselves cannot provide a complete account without documentary and community-centered interpretation. Religion became institutionally visible at the plantation in 1844, when Thomas and Louisa Harrison donated land for a log church. Episcopal Bishop Nicholas Hamner Cobbs visited in 1846, and accounts describe Louisa Harrison conducting instruction for enslaved people through church services and catechism lessons. The congregation and building became St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in 1852. A Gothic Revival replacement was completed around 1855, apparently with substantial skilled labor performed by enslaved people. The churchyard began receiving burials in 1858. Harrison was buried there first, followed by enslaved people and, later, freedmen associated with the plantation. The church moved to the nearby town of Faunsdale in 1888 and was destroyed by a tornado in 1932, but the burial ground on the plantation continued in use. The plantation’s later history is primarily one of preservation and historical recognition. Surviving cabins, the plantation house, and the churchyard connect the site to the histories of slavery, cotton agriculture, Episcopal activity, disease, family formation, death, and emancipation in Marengo County. On July 13, 1993, Faunsdale Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the multiple-property submission for plantation houses of the Alabama Canebrake and associated outbuildings. The designation recognizes the architectural and historical importance of the property, particularly its rare surviving slave quarters and documentary record.

• 1993

  National Register listing

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Faunsdale Plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Alabama Canebrake plantation-house multiple-property submission.

• 1932

  Church destroyed by tornado

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The relocated St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was destroyed by a tornado, while the plantation churchyard remained.

• 1888

  St. Michael’s church is moved

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The church building was relocated from the plantation to the nearby town of Faunsdale.

• 1864

  Enslaved population reaches recorded high

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  A January list records 186 enslaved people, probably representing at least 35 families, and documents multiple surnames and later deaths from disease.

• 1858

  Churchyard established

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  A burial ground was established at the church, later serving enslaved people and freedmen as well as members of the plantation-owning family.

• 1855

  Gothic Revival church building completed

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The original log structure was replaced by a Gothic Revival church, with enslaved labor likely contributing substantially to its construction.

• 1852

  Church becomes St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The plantation church received the name St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

• 1844

  Land donated for a church

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Thomas and Louisa Harrison gave one acre of plantation land for construction of a log church.

• 1843

  Thomas Alexander Harrison acquires the property

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Harrison purchased approximately 960 acres and named the plantation Faunsdale, invoking the Roman rural deity Faunus.

• 1830

  Plantation development begins

  [1]Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Bird Pearson and Henry Augustine Tayloe are associated with the development of the plantation in the Alabama Canebrake during the 1830s.

Historic plantation and cultural landscape interpreted through surviving architecture, archaeological and documentary evidence, and the history of enslaved communities in Alabama’s Black Belt.

1. 1Faunsdale Plantationen.wikipedia.org