It’s not hard to imagine the scent of fresh tobacco filling the air at Studley Plantation. Tobacco was the primary cash crop of Studley, as well as Hanover County, and all of Virginia. After months that consisted of laboriously preparing the ground, planting the crops, inspecting the plants for insects and disease, topping the stalks to promote growth, and finally harvesting, the last weeks of the season were spent carefully readying the leaf for shipping. It was in these final weeks that the quality of the product would be assured. Care was taken not to allow the leave to be too wet or too dry.
In this last step, the labor, which was largely slave, would pack the valuable leaf in large wood-slat barrels, called hogsheads. Often weighing over one-thousand pounds, each barrel would be laid on its side and a long stake would be placed through the center. The stake formed a sort of axle that was used to roll the hogshead like a wheel along the dirt road from Studley to its destination. Strong animals such as a mule, horse or ox would pull the rolling barrel the few miles northeast to the warehouse of either Page, or Crutchfield, which was situated just below Page’s on the same land.[1] Years later, in 1762, the area centered around Page’s would be chartered and designated as Hanover Town.
At the warehouse, the tobacco would be documented and inspected, and a receipt would be given for the product. The barrels would be stored with others from nearby farms until the next boat arrived at the port. Workers then manually rolled the hogsheads from the dock across a ramp to the deck of the boat and secured them for transport down the Pamunkey River, which was notoriously difficult to navigate[2]. Once loaded, the craft, which may be a shallow water, flat-bottomed bateaux, or a larger sea-worthy ship, would twist and turn its way downstream, heading southeast into the York River and ultimately to the open waters of the Atlantic at Hampton. Page’s and Crutchfield’s warehouses were the northernmost on the Pamunkey, providing service to farmers in Hanover, Louisa as well as other neighboring counties.[3]
Farther from Studley and situated a few miles downstream from Page’s, near a sharp bend in the Pamunkey, was the warehouse of William Meriwether. In 1738 John Henry surveyed a forty-acre plot of land located north of the plantation warehouse. In 1749 became the town of Newcastle, which would become a thriving little community in the rural frontier. Meriwether had divided the forty acres into half-acre lots, which he sold to establish the town. [4]
This was a common way a rural towns along the river might be established. Private plantation owners would establish themselves on the Pamunkey and build a shipping warehouse, which would be authorized and regulated by the General Assembly. Those who purchased property in the area would depend upon the warehouse as a port for exporting tobacco as well as receiving imports of goods shipped from England or Scotland. With access to the trade route, small towns would grow, centered around the plantation.
Vessels would navigate the tricky waters of the Pamunkey, unload their imported cargo from overseas, and re-load with the tobacco and any other products for export. The cash crop of tobacco was a double-edged sword, as the opposite held true as well. Over time, as tobacco exports lessened, and the already narrow channel of the upper Pamunkey filled with silt, these two, and the few other warehouse towns would literally disappear. The lots would be sold and turned into plowed fields or simply abandoned and left to the overgrowth which consumed the once populated landscape.
[1] Malcolm H. Harris, The Port Towns of the Pamunkey, The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 23, No. 4, (October, 1943), 512.
[2] Malcolm H. Harris, The Port Towns of the Pamunkey, The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 23, No. 4, (October, 1943), 511.
[3] Ibid, 515.
[4] Ibid, 504.
Patrick Henry: His Life 