The Wye plantation was created in the 1650s by a WelshPuritan and wealthy planter, Edward Lloyd. Between 1780 and 1790, the main house was built by his great-great-grandson, Edward Lloyd IV, using the profits generated by the forced labor of enslaved people.[3] It is cited as an example between the transition of Georgian and Federal architecture, which is attributed to builder Robert Key. Nearby the house is an orangery, a rare survival of an early garden structure where orange and lemon trees were cultivated, and which still contains its original 18th-century heating system of hot-air ducts.[4][5]
During its peak, the plantation's owners enslaved more than 1,000 people to work lands that totaled more than 42,000 acres (17,000 ha).[6] Though the land has shrunk to 1,300 acres (530 ha) today, it is still owned by the descendants of Edward Lloyd, now in their 11th generation on the property. Frederick Douglass was enslaved on the plantation, from around the ages of seven and eight, and spoke extensively of the brutal conditions of the plantation in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.[6]
Modern situation
The nearby hamlets of Unionville and Copperville are now home to many descendants of the people who were enslaved at Wye House.[7] This has created an interesting dynamic, with the descendants of the enslavers and the enslaved living within a very short distance of one another.[3][6][8]
The Wye House plantation gained media attention in 2006 for archaeological investigations led by the University of Maryland.[6][8]
In 2011, excavation of the greenhouse, built by enslaved African people, brought a discovery of African charms laid to ward off bad spirits at the house's furnace and entrance.[9]
