1780s Farm

The 1780s Virginia farm offers visitors a unique opportunity to witness a typical rural lifestyle after independence was won and the new nation was taking shape.

At the re-created site, which includes a dwelling, a separate kitchen, a tobacco barn and crop fields and a fenced garden, historical interpreters demonstrate the seasonal cycle of work that characterized lower- to middle-class farm life in southeastern Virginia.

Visitors can assist in weeding or watering the garden, comb cotton or “break” flax into fiber, and learn how herbs were used for cooking and medicinal purposes.

Watch a new video about the importance of the tobacco economy in colonial times.