Air Force Veteran Unknowingly Buys Plantation House Where His Ancestors Were Once Enslaved

A US Air Force veteran bought a new home in southern Virginia only to discover that his ancestors had been enslaved on the property. 

Frederick Miller bought the Pittsylvania County home in May 2020, completely unaware of its past. 

But after moving in, Miller discovered that back in 1800s it had been a 1,300-acre plantation known as Sharswood. 

Speaking to 60 Minutes, Miller, 56, said he was a ‘little shocked’ to make that discovery, saying that he when he bought the house he ‘just wanted somewhere to have family gathering’. 

But, with the help of his sister, Karen Dixon-Rexroth, and their cousins, Sonya Womack-Miranda and Dexter Miller, he would go on to unearth his family’s own heart-breaking link to the property. 

60 Minutes/CBS

After doing some digging, they learnt that the family who operated Sharswood were also named ‘Miller’. 

Dixon-Rexroth told 60 Minutes: "Something drew me to knowing the history of this place. I knew it was an old place from the 1800s, so I started from there, as far as looking at the previous owners, and also any records that were available online."

The family worked with an African-American genealogy researcher named Karice Luck-Brimmer who was able to help shed some life on their family’s history, the Washington Post reports. 

Through their research, the family were able to find the parents of their great-great-grandmother, Sarah Miller. 

Miller said: "If I had known there was a 'Miller Plantation,' I maybe could have… put a connection with the last name Miller and that plantation. 

"But I'd never heard of a 'Miller Plantation' or a 'Miller' anything."

He went on: "Since the revelation… I know that when the slaves brought food into the main house, they came up through the basement stairs. 

"And there's a distinct wear on the basement stairs from years and years of traffic, of people walking up those stairs, I'm thinking, 'Wow, these are my people.'"

60 Minutes/CBS

According to census figures from the 1860s, 58 enslaved people lived on the Sharswood plantation - ranging in age from just one-year-old to 72. 

Miller now hopes to restore the part of the house that the enslaved people were kept and wants to use it to educate others about the history of slavery in the US. 

He also hopes that his great-great-grandmother Sarah is looking down on him; with him telling the Post: "I just hope that somehow she's looking down from Heaven and finally cracking a beautiful smile."

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