The four sites from Flowerdew Hundred in the DAACS archive are home to three groups: Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans, whose complex and conflicted interactions set the stage for the emergence of a slave society in the Chesapeake. The occupations of these four sites span a dynamic period of settlement and agricultural expansion in the region. Fifteen of the first 25 enslaved Africans imported into British North America lived at Flowerdew Hundred by late 1619. They joined indentured Europeans, neighboring Weyanock Indians, and elite European landowners in shaping the mid-17th century expansion of planation settlements across the Chesapeake, an expansion which led to the emergence of a tobacco plantation labor force comprised almost entirely of enslaved Africans and their descendants by 1700.
Three of the sites were occupied in the first half of the seventeenth century, when plantation laborers were mostly English indentured servants, with enslaved Natives and Africans in the minority. These sites include: a contact-period Native American village and a fortified English settlement that replaced it in 1619 (PG65), an elite house whose plan combines elements of traditional English design with Chesapeake innovations (PG64), and the area between these two sites that contained remains of a windmill, an early cellar, and numerous other English and Native American features (PG64/65). The fourth site dates to the second half of the 17th century, when tobacco planters replaced servants with enslaved Africans, and includes a house and adjacent work area with numerous artifact-rich pits (PG92).
Nearly 80,000 square feet were excavated at these four sites. Excavations were undertaken by the College of William and Mary and Southside Historical Sites, Inc. under the direction of Dr. Norman Barka and Leverette Gregory from 1972-1979. Students at the University of California, Berkeley also conducted excavations under the direction of Dr. James Deetz from 1982 to 2000.
Map of the 1000 acre Flowerdew Hundred Plantation with four sites included in the DAACS Project highlighted
Precolonial and Colonial Background of Flowerdew Hundred
The settlement of the triangular tract now known as Flowerdew Hundred began thousands of years before the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown. Scatters of lithic debitage and tools, steatite vessel fragments, and lithic-tempered ceramic sherds are evidence of seasonal Indigenous occupations in the Archaic (8,000–1,200 B.C) and Early Woodland ( . Shell-tempered ceramic sherds dating to the Middle (500 B.C – 900 A.D.) and Late Woodland (AD 900—1600) periods represent occupations of Algonquian-speaking polities who occupied the geological provenience where Flowerdew is situated, known as the Coastal Plain, that extends from Virginia to the Carolinas.
In the Late Woodland Period (A.D. 900—1600) and into the Early Colonial Period (A.D. 1600—1650), the land now known as Flowerdew was part of the territory occupied by the Weyanock, an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous community that was loosely affiliated with the larger political entity of the Powhatan paramount chiefdom (Barbour 1969). The 1607 John Smith map displays Weyanock settlements on both sides of the James River in the vicinity of what would be patented as Flowerdew Hundred roughly a decade later. Archaeologists, anthropologists and historians have noted that the Weyanock, like many other Powhatan communities, were living in dispersed riverside towns in the decades leading up to English colonists’ arrival (Binford 1965; Gallivan 2018; Rountree 1989, Turner and Opperman 1993).
A common practice enacted by the English as they moved inland from Jamestown was to take the most agriculturally productive land and displace its indigenous inhabitants. The observations of Edward Waterhouse, Secretary to the Virginia Company, in 1622, provide an apt description: “now their cleared grounds in all their villages (which are situate in the fuirtfulles [fruitfullest] places of the land shall be inhabited by us” (Kingsbury (ed.) 1933; Waselkov and Gregory 1992). Stanley Flowerdew and George Yeardley, two of Flowerdew Plantation’s first owners, took advantage of areas previously cleared by Weyanock communities as part of their settlement planning at Flowerdew. They ordered the construction of what is known today as the Fortified Compound at Virginia State Archaeological Site 44PG65 directly over a Late Woodland palisaded area.
After the English attacked Virginia Indian settlements in retaliation for attacks organized by the Natives against English encroachment in 1644, the Weyanock moved south to present-day southeastern Virginia (Binford 196; Journals of the VA House of Burgesses). Eventually they dispersed and formed coalescent communities with other Native groups in Virginia and North Carolina. The cultural entity known as the Weyanock passed into history but their descendants continue to thrive as the contemporary federally recognized Pamunkey Indian Tribe and the state recognized Nottoway Tribe.
Establishment of Flowerdew Hundred Plantation and Early Colonial History
While the initial two decades of English colonization in Virginia were harrowing for colonists and failed to establish profitable enterprises, by 1617, the news that Virginia tobacco was making extraordinary profits sparked renewed interest from English investors. Additionally, a series of policy changes made by the Virginia Company, Deputy Governor Samuel Argall, and Sir Edwin Sandys encouraged private investment in the new colony to create a broader base of investors and encourage waves of new migrants (Musselwhite 2019). This concerted interest and increased freedom created a five-year period of remarkable growth. An important component of this investment strategy was the encouragement of individuals and groups to undertake private corporate ventures or settlements called “particular plantations” or sometimes “Hundreds” (Kingsbury (ed.) 1906-1935).
The strategy succeeded and by 1623 the Virginia Company had granted property to over 100 groups or individuals intending to set up plantations in Virginia. Only 7 of the 35 or so plantations in the region contained holdings of over 1000 acres and three of the seven were wholly owned by individuals (Ayers 1984). Two of these, Flowerdew Hundred and Weyanoke, together comprising over 3000 acres, were the property of Sir George Yeardley (Nugent 1934). Flowerdew Hundred, located on the southside of the James River, was comprised of a 1000-acre tract. Historical documents suggest that in 1618 Yeardley purchased the property from Stanley Flowerdew, his father-in-law, who had likely started a colonial settlement at the site as early as 1617. When Yeardley returned from England to serve as the governor of the Virginia colony in 1619, he brought 15 men (whether indentured servants or tenants is uncertain) who were tasked with cultivating tobacco at Flowerdew (Kingsley (ed.) 1906-1935; Morgan 1975).
In late August 1619, the White Lion, an English war ship, docked at Point Comfort, Virginia. The privateer “brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes” (McCartney 2017). These Africans, enslaved Angolans raided from the Portuguese slave ship São João Bautista off the coast of Campeche, were the first Africans to set foot in English North America. Yeardley, and the colony’s Cape Merchant, Abraham Peirsey, purchased these men and women. At least 11 were taken to Flowerdew Hundred and their unfree labor contributed to the success of Yeardley’s economic enterprises. The successful harvesting and trading of tobacco funded Yeardley’s acquisition of more unfree laborers in 1620 and 21, which resulted in substantial tobacco exports to England and Holland. By March 1620, 68 men, five women, and four children were living at Flowerdew Hundred (McCartney 2007:62). By 1622 as many as 114 tenants, servants, and enslaved individuals may have been laboring for Yeardley’s profit, mostly at Flowerdew Hundred and Weyanoke.
While Yeardley was technically an absentee owner since he resided on the north side of the James River in Jamestown roughly 30 miles downriver from Flowerdew, his choice to remain in Virginia enabled him to keep tighter control over the plantation’s development and maximize his profits (Musselwhite 2019). He also invested in the development of the property in a variety of ways. A letter from the Council of Virginia to the Virginia Company of London acknowledges Yeardley’s “good example” of constructing a windmill in 1621. The windmill can be tied to Flowerdew specifically by its presence on a deed of sale in 1624. The remnants of this windmill were identified during archaeological investigations at 44PG64/65 by Dr. James Deetz and students from the University of California Berkeley in 1995. Additionally, documentary evidence in the form of reports and testimony submitted to the court of the Virginia Company (Kingsbury 1906 II:374–375, 383) also demonstrate that by spring of 1623 a palisaded fortification with six pieces of mounted ordinance had been erected at Flowerdew. The archaeological site 44PG65 represents the remnants of this fortified compound.
Multiple documents show that the second wealthiest man in the colony, Abraham Peirsey, a businessman and Cape [Head] Merchant, purchased Flowerdew Hundred and at least some of the indentured and enslaved laborers from Sir George Yeardley on October 5, 1624. A fragment of the deed recording the sale (CITE), a court deposition from Temperance Yeardley (George Yeardley’s widow) attesting to the sale (1627) and a patent to the property granted to Abraham Peirsey’s eldest daughter Elizabeth (Peirsey) Stephens in 1636 all confirm the transaction. While Peirsey kept his primary residence in James City, a muster taken in 1624/1625 (depending on the use of a Julian or Gregorian calendar) lists a total of 10 households, presumably tenants, on the Flowerdew property, known at the time as Peirsey’s Hundred. A total of 21 people composed these households. Peirsey also had 29 indentured servants and seven unnamed African individuals listed as laborers. Thus, out of the total of 57 people living on the property 36 were either indentured or enslaved laborers. The plantation contained 10 dwellings, three store houses, four tobacco houses, and one windmill (Barka 1993; Deetz 1993:20-23).
One major addition to Flowerdew that is likely not called out explicitly in the Muster is a sizeable manor house built upon an imported siltstone foundation. The historical documentation of the house’s construction is scant. Unlike the windmill, the house is not referenced explicitly in the 1624 deed of sale, although only the bottom fragment of the deed has been preserved. As a result, several hypotheses exist regarding whether Peirsey or Yeardley commissioned its construction, served as its primary occupants, and even its purpose within the plantation’s operations (Hodges et al. 2011:30-32). The archaeological site known as 44PG64 is the footprint of this structure and nearby features.
Upon Peirsey’s death in January of 1628 property ownership passed to his widow, Frances (his second wife), and then to his daughter, Elizabeth Stephens when Frances died. Eight years later Elizabeth sold part of the property, which she had repatented as Flowerdew Hundred, to William Barker, a merchant and mariner. Upon William Barker’s death in 1655 the plantation passed to his son John Barker. When John Barker died in 1673, Flowerdew’s ownership was transferred to his two sisters, Elizabeth and Sarah.
