walter cronkite. madison's montpellier is a trust for historic property

located south of the capital in orange, virginia. the 2600 acre estate includes the gilmore cabin, built in the 1870s by one of mr. madison's former slaves. american history tv visiting the restored farm to learn what it was like for an emancipated slave and his family. >> welcome to the gilmore cabin. friedman's farm here at james madison's montpellier. i'm the director of education and visitor engagement. this farm was built in the 1870s after the civil war. if you follow me inside, i'll fall show you around. george gilmore was a slave for james madison. he was born in 1810, according to the family's oral tradition.

what happened to george after dolly madison had to sell montpelier, we're not sure. the slaves were broken into three distinct groups at that time. one was sold with the plantation to henry moncure. one group oz slaves was sold outright to other owners all over, and one group of slaves accompanied dolly to washington where she had moved. we believe that george gilmore was among the slaves that were sold with montpelier and stayed on the property after its sale. the next time george gilmore appears in the historical record is in 1870 when he shows up in the united states federal census living right here and on this property. however, we know that this cabin had not been built yet. we know that these trees that made up the cabin weren't cut down until 1873.

it's pretty likely that george didn't build this cab uniltill late 1773 or early 1874. we know that through the study of logs, if you look right here, you can actually see a core that's been taken out of the log. he shows in the 1870s census as a farm laborer. this farm did not belong to him. it belongs to dr. james madison who is the great nephew of the president. he had been a surgeon in the confederate army and had a medical practice in orange and also owned a 300 or 400 acre plantation on this side of the highway. after the civil war, there were

no slaves and most landowners didn't want to pay labors to do their farmer. what was the solution? tenant farming and share cropping. we don't know the exact details, but we believe that george gilmore lived on this property in return for work that he did on the doctor' farm. by 1880, george is listed as a farmer, not a farm laborer. the difference being he is no longer working for the doctor. he's working for himself. how is he still living on this land, if he's not working for the doctor anymore? george had five children, and the three oldest of them were sons, and those three sons were still living here and those three sons would be working for the doctor. there was a succession of three buildings on the property. the first was a small hut the confederate army built in 1863-1864.

they camped here from december, january, until late april of '64, when they went off to the battle of the wilderness. when george gilmore moved into that hut, he moved in working as a tenant farmer or sharecropper for dr. james madison. over time, he cobbled together a few of those other confederate huts to build a larger structure. if you look at this photograph, what you can see is the hut site, here is the chimney base from the hut site with the hut extending this way. it's not outlined on the picture, and then the first structure that george built for he and his family to live in, removing the chimney base and rebuilding a stouter chimney here, and then if you looked at the 1920s photograph that we have here, you can see that second structure behind the cabin, which was built in the mid 1870s. 1874.

so a series of three structures. between the second and third structure there's a period of ten years. george comes here after the civil war and why this delay? why wouldn't he have built a bigger, nicer home for his family before 1874? the reason lies in the relationship between tenant farmers or sharecroppers and the landowners that they worked for. the freed slaves, the emancipated slaves and the white landowners in the south had very tenuous relationships, uneasy at best, and the history between these two groups of people was not a good one. for an emancipated slave to be able to trust a white landowner to the extent that he would put time and energy into a home like

this required a great deal of trust. most freedmans homes are no longer standing because most freedman didn't expect to be in one place for very long. they didn't expect the relationship with the landowner they worked for would last. george, on the other hand, gives it time, waits the ten years, finally decides that, yes, indeed, i am going to be able to trust this man, and builds his home in 1874. compared to other freedman's homes in this period, this cabin was built to last. this cabin has stood for over 100 years. there are very few freedman's homes left in the united states, by the 1880 census, george gilmore is listed as a farmer. he is 70 years old, and he is finally stopped working for the doctor. his sons have taken over the agreement.

his sons are doing the labor required for the doctor, and george is here farming his own land. he has 16 acres that belong to, well that don't belong to him but that he has the right to farm. you see some of it's in orchard, some of it's in pasture, some of it's in crops. we know from the 1880 census that he had approximately five acres in corn, five acres in wheat. he had four hogs, an old horse, a milk cow and some chickens. the yield levels he reported from his corn and wheat crop wouldn't be enough to feed the horse so this was really hand-to-mouth living, very subsistence level living. we also through archaeology know that polly, george's wife and their two daughters most likely did piecework, had a piecework sewing business out of the house. we found all of these buttons, beads, straight pins and safety

pins under the floor of the cabin, and it's far more, thousands and thousands of these glass beads, far more than just one garment breaking or just a normal household's need for sewing material. by 1901, george gilmore is 91 years old, and the doctor is about the same age. these two guys, being in their 90s, finally decide they're going to die soon, and that they need to wrap up their estates. so in 1901, dr. james madison sells george gilmore this property. land of this quality which was the poorest in the county, because going for about $1 an acre. george bought 16 acres from the doctor and this cabin that he built himself. the doctor charged george $560 for this cabin and 16 acres.

in 1905, both george and the there died, and in 1908, polly died and the house was turned over to their children. the children built an addition in 1910, which you can see in this picture, a frame edition off the side of the house extending it a little bit, and a lot of the family still lived here into the 1920s. at which time the grandchildren just couldn't agree on who outrightly owned the property. they argued and squabbled and wound up suing and went to court in jim crow, virginia. of course an african-american family wasn't going to get a fair trial or a fair shake from the judge, so the court system decided to take the property from the family, reimburse them for its value, which was negligible and which they split

among themselves and then the county auctioned the property and the dupont family won't up buying it. at that time the gilmore cabin and farm came into the montpelier track, then owned by the duponts and the duponts kept people living in this cabin until the 1960s. a lot of their laborers lived here. so this cabin saw use until the mid'70s when it was abandoned and when the national trust acquired the property in 1984, you can see that the woods had just about overtaken the cabin. when the trust acquired montpelier in 1984, they acquired 140 structures, and it took us a good 15 or 20 years to get around to this one, a lady named rebecca gilmore coleman, the great granddaughter of george gilmore, retired to

orange, and she came to at foundation and told us about her great grandfather's house. >> my great grandfather was george gilmore, who built a cabin, his wife, polly, were my great grandparents. >> once we learned the story we decided we needed to restore it, so in 2001 we started reclaiming the gilmore cabin from the woods, and by 2005, we had a restored cabin. for the gilmore family, an emancipated family in the late 19th century, currency was used as a premium. most of the possessions that the gilmores had in their house fell into three categories. they were made, they were found, or they were bought, and very few of their possessions would have been purchased, so if you

look at the table, the table itself and the chairs and the benches around it would have been made by george or one of his sons. many of the cooking implements and bowls would have been made by george or his sons, using the gourds as bowls or cups, wooden bowls, wooden spoons. the checkerboard made by hand. candles made by hand. found items might have included the ceramics. if you notice the pitcher on the table, it's not in the best shape. how did they get that pitcher? well, a wealthier white family might have gotten rid of that pitcher. they might have decided that that was no longer of good enough quality to keep in their home and so out it went. for an african-american family that pitcher was still absolutely usable so we find it here in the gilmore cabin. the oil lamp, however, would have been an item that they bought.

many houses in the late 19th century would have included three or four oil lamps. the gilmores might have had one. one of the other unique features of the gilmore cabin is the fact it has two fireplaces. remember that george, a 70-year-old man or 65-year-old man i suppose when he built the cabin, built this cabin by himself with only the help of three teenaged sons. the fact that he could build the cabin tells us about his carpentry skills but the fact that he could build a working chimney with two fire places, one downstairs and one upstairs, really lends credence to his ability as a craftsman. building a stone chimney is no easy feat and building one that has two fire places, two functioning fireplaces is really quite astounding.

this ladder stair is very common in cabins of this period. a way to save stpace. you didn't have to build a stairwell and material. the upstairs is divided into two rooms as you can see, probably used both for storage and for sleeping quarters for the five kids that the gilmores had. this back room you can see the second fireplace that george built. of course the cabin has no insulation, and if you saw the floorboards and the gaps between them downstairs, you can imagine how chilly this would have been in the wintertime. chances are good that especially in the wintertime, when it got cold, all five kids huddled around this fireplace to sleep and stay warm.

george and polly, of course, had the bed downstairs, and that was actually a mark of status, having, you know, showing that your bed was a way to show off what wealth you had and who knows, maybe in the cold weather they, too, moved their bed closer to the fire. very little of the cabin had to be replaced during the restoration. you can see a few boards up here in the ceiling that are new material but most of the ceiling here is original, as are the partition walls and the floors. in fact, when we go back downstairs i can point out just the very few elements that did have to be replaced downstairs. the fireplaces were the only means of heating this cabin, th means of heating -- this cabin. the gilmores, wood stoves were

available, they certainly couldn't afford one. you will notice how low the ceilings are. i have to duck to get between the ceiling joist. we know from oral history, george gilmore was indeed a tall man. so why build your ceilings so low? a lot of people will say, oh, well people were shorter back then. that is just not true. you built your ceilings low to retain the heat. the higher your ceiling, the colder your room. the only heat you are getting is from that fireplace which does not shed the heat a wood stove will. so you want to have minimal doors, minimal windows, and as short a ceiling as you can stand if you want to stay warm in the wintertime. you will notice the floor -- this is all new wood. this did have to be replaced. the original floor completely rotted away by the time we restored the cabin. most of this wood came from a ship yard in new england, as i

recall. finding the wide planks was dif comdif difficul. there is one joist that needed to be replaced right here. compare this to this you. can see the difference. only other thing that needed to be replaced on the cabin were the doors and the front porch. after george and polly died, their children inherited the cabin and farm. the next, one of their sons, william built an addition on to this side of the cabin. it was a frame addition. he wasn't near the carpenter his father was. over time it fell apart rather -- rather, in more dire state than the rest of the cabin did. it was unfortunately unsalvageable. one of the things i found interesting was when i started researching gilmore cabin and reconstruction era was the

political history of this time period. i think many of us feel like after the civil war, lee surrendered to grant, the slaves were freed, and everyone lived happily ever after. that's just not the case. lee surrendered to grant in april, 1865. yet the 13th amendment to the constitution which -- outlaws slavery in the united states, wasn't passed by the federal government until december of 1865. it took them eight months to determine whether or not slavery really should be outlawed. it's hard for us to believe that. that it would take that long in today's day and age. the 14th amendment which grantedch agranted african-americans equal protection under the law was not passed until 1868. they had to wait three years for that right. and african-american men weren't given the right to vote until

1869. so even another year for that. the freed man's bureau which was a small federal agency was in charge of managing the south and, making sure that african-americans did receive fair and equal treatment in, in the south. by the late 1870s, early 1880s. all of the confederate states had written new state constitutions and had been readmitted to the union. and as each state was readmitted to the union, the freed man's bureau left the state and left the state in the hands of its own governments. well it didn't take long for the state governments to start passing different laws and different state constitutions and to find loopholes in, in the constitutions that they