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Settlement of the Roanoke Valley began in the early 1 700s, when English colonists moved southward from Virginia. The valley's fertile bottomlands were ideal for farming, and a plantation system gradually developed; planters used slave labor to grow wheat, corn, peas, tobacco and other staple crops for markets outside North Carolina. Ocean-going ships were needed for transporting these crops, but the Roanoke River did not lead to a good ocean port. Still, passable roads did connect the valley with the North Carolina backcountry and with nearby Virginia port towns. Early in the 1 800s, completion of the Dismal Swamp Canal provided a direct water route between the Roanoke River and Norfolk. Thus, the valley was linked to Virginia both by settlement and trade.
Halifax was founded in 1760 as the seat of Halifax County. The new town was located on the south bank of the Roanoke River and at the intersection of major north-south and east- west roads. Falls and rapids were just upriver, making Halifax the head of river navigation. With these advantages, the small town quickly became a trading center and river port for goods moving between the backcountry, the plantations, and Virginia.
Halifax achieved its greatest fame during the American Revolution, though for nearly sixty years afterward it continued to prosper, as wealth from the successful plantation system, political power, and a social gentry combined to bring a "golden age" to the town and valley. But in 1835, changes in the state constitution limited the area's political power; in 1839, the railroads came, bypassing Halifax as a major stop and ending the importance of the river port. Finally, the Civil War destroyed the institution of slavery and, with it, the plantation system that had formed the backbone of the Roanoke Valley's "golden age" economy.
As a county seat, Halifax was a place where people gathered for court days, or to vote in a hotly contested election, and where lawyers were always busy with both legal matters and politics. The town was headquarters for a militia district, and on muster days citizen soldiers from miles around gathered to drill on market square. Afterward, many of them met in one of the town's hotels or taverns.
Halifax was also a crossroads, a trading center, and a river port. Backcountry men arrived via the Hillsborough road to trade their skins and furs. Market days and country fairs filled the square with people. Long distance travelers found Halifax a welcome stop after bad roads and poor roadside food and lodging. At the warehouses near the river landing, crops from valley plantations were stored, loaded, and shipped. Here, planters and merchants bought and sold these crops, some- times exchanging warehouse receipts in lieu of money. Up King Street from the river, there was more buying and selling. Shopkeepers, their merchandise arranged in one or two rooms of a house or tavern, sold planters' wives silks and "negro cloth," pins, buckles, shoes, spices, salt, coffee, liquors and other imported goods. Visits were made by the women to the milliner or the seamstress. A new atlas for his library could be purchased by a gentleman from the printer-bookseller. Further down the street, men frequented the tailor or the free black barber.
The little town on the Roanoke served as a social center, where valley men gathered to talk--some over wine and cards, others over tavern ale and local whiskey. Planters and merchants talked business; everyone discussed hunting, horseracing, cockfighting, politics. In the evening, a group of "Charleston Comics" passing through town might perform humorous short plays in a tavern ballroom. On another evening, the same ballroom could be the setting for a social gala. Major celebrations such as the Fourth of July featured parades, speeches, and elaborate dinners. In February, 1825, the entire town turned out to greet General Lafayette as he visited Halifax on his American tour.
Not everything in Halifax was serene or even comfortable. A spring thundershower turned choking dust into ankle-deep muck. If the shower became a storm, a freshet sent the Roanoke over its banks, destroying bottomland crops. Drinking water was available from only a few wells; many townspeople relied on the spring south of King Street. Early in the day, housewives of slaves dumped the "night soil" into convenient ditches or pits, and some of this effluent, laden with disease, found its way into the water supply. Many children never became adults; birth, diseases, and infections from simple childhood accidents kept mortality high. In the eighteenth century, smallpox epidemics raged throughout the valley and town. A group of Revolutionary War soldiers were more fortunate than most; they marched from their camp in Halifax before an epidemic from the west reached them. Arriving at Arlington, Virginia, they were inoculated in accordance with British doctor Edward Jenner's new discovery for pre- venting smallpox.
Women died relatively young from the travails of childbirth and disease. They could not hold political office, and few were given the opportunity for an education. Daughters of wealthy men might reasonably expect to attend a boarding school; but, once married, their careers were always in the home, and they lost certain legal rights.
Blacks formed the labor source necessary for the Roanoke Valley's entire lifestyle and economy; many blacks were seen in Halifax. Most were slaves, accompanying their masters or mistresses, running errands, or working at the docks and ware- houses. Some were "hired out" as laborers and craftsmen. Some were free, owning property and, in a few cases, slaves.
A step above the black on the social scale was the poor white, who scratched out a living as a laborer or small farmer. The male children of the poor white, as well as male orphans, might expect to be apprenticed to a craftsman or tradesman. In return for years of legal bondage, the apprentice was to be provided with food, clothing, shelter, and training in a craft or trade.
Most children seldom received more than a minimal education. Instead, they performed chores, played in the streets, and squares, and roamed nearby woods. The river offered swimming in summer and fishing all year.
The people of the Roanoke Valley considered religion an important part of their lives. The predominating Anglican faith of the original English settlers eventually was diminished by the growth of Methodist and Baptist groups. Quakers settled in the valley prior to the Revolution, and a few Irish Catholics arrived in Halifax in the 1 830s.
The Fourth Provincial Congress adjourned May 15, 1776, having appointed a single Council of Safety to rule the entire colony. This council was meeting in Halifax when, on July 22, it received news that the Declaration of Independence had been signed in Philadelphia. The council immediately adopted a resolution declaring North Carolinians "absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown," and on August 1, council president Cornelius Harnett read the Declaration to a large crowd gathered in Halifax. It was the first time the document was read publicly in North Carolina.
In November, 1776, the Fifth Provincial Congress assembled in Halifax and on December 18, this Congress adopted North Carolina's first constitution. The body adjourned that same day, its last piece of business being the appointment of Richard Caswell as the new state's first governor.
Meanwhile, in 1775, Halifax had become a district recruiting center for Continental soldiers, a battalion headquarters for the state militia, and a powder magazine and supply depot for both the militia and the Continental Army. An arms factory began operation in the town. After much controversy, Colonel Nicholas Long of Halifax, Deputy Quartermaster General for North Carolina, took charge of the factory and expanded its operations. Called "Public Works," the factory employed three armourers, four blacksmiths, nine carpenters, three tailors, twenty wagoners, and four wagonmakers.
Volunteers came to Halifax, enlisted, and were paid bonuses. The recruits then set up camps on the outskirts of town and would later march off to join other troops. In the late summer of 1780, there was a smallpox epidemic in Halifax, and Continental troops were removed. By the spring of the next year, only a small number of ragged militia protected the town while, at his headquarters in Wilmington, Lord Cornwallis was making plans to enter Virginia. As the British general began his march northward, supplies and materials were hastily evacuated from Halifax.
Colonel Banastre Tarleton led the Tory cavalry unit advancing northward ahead of Cornwallis. Easily beating back two small groups of local militia below Halifax, Tarleton later received word that a large group of militiamen were assembling in the town. The cavalry began a dash, approaching Halifax from the west rather than from the south where the main road lay. Arriving sooner than expected and from an unexpected direction, Tarleton routed the militia and pushed them across the river. The main army reached Halifax several days later. By that time Tarleton's men had committed such outrages against Halifax citizens, that Cornwallis court-martialed and hanged two of his men.
In early May, 1781, the British army left Halifax, having damaged little except Public Works, which was soon in operation again. Five months later, at Yorktown, Virginia, Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington However, the British still were active in South Carolina; and the "Tory War" still raged in North Carolina, so the operations of the store- house and Public Works continued at Halifax until May, 1783, about one month after the Continental Congress had ratified articles of peace with England.
In 1767, English architect John Hawks built a classic Georgian mansion in New Bern for North Carolina's governor William Tryon. Tryon's Palace, a public building, was made of brick, while most private Georgian homes were of wood. In either case, the resulting buildings blended classical balance, symmetry, and form. The gable roof, used on the Constitution- Burgess House in Halifax, was a standard Georgian roof, but in the Roanoke Valley the gambrel roof was a popular variation, as seen in the Owens House (circa 1760) and the Tap Room (circa 1790). The Georgian style did not live long after the American Revolution. Americans wanted their own architectural style.
During the middle 1700S, European archaeologists began exploring the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried by volcanic eruptions nearly 1600 years before These investigations showed that the ancients had been much freer and more imaginative than the followers of Andrea Palladio had thought. James and Robert Adam, brother architects from Scotland, visited the Roman excavations and, in the 1730S, published books illustrating the delicate and rich decorations which they saw. These books immediately found their way to America, where the Adamesque decorations were combined with the earlier Georgian style and with other elements. The result was the Federal style, distinctly American, with a freedom of design Rooms no longer had to be fitted into a rigid shell; now the shape and size of the rooms created the shape of the house. Decorations could be light and playful. In the Roanoke Valley, this freedom took several forms, including the tripartite house The Sally-Billy House (circa 1808) is an example of this design, in which a two-story central section is turned so that the ridge of the roof faces to the front, with one-story sections flanking the central portion The structure is especially rich in decorative detail such as the double molded weatherboarding, the elaborate modillion and pierced dentil cornice, and the delicate treatment of the base of the porch pediment.
By 1820, Americans had turned from the light Federal style to the more imposing architecture of Greece. The temple form plan and Greek Revival style became a nationwide rage from Maine to Mississippi, and the two-story, full width, columned porch was used for buildings large and small, public and private. This style remained popular until the Civil War.
The Clerk's Office (1832- 1833) and the Jail (1838) are from the Greek Revival period. These buildings are designed to serve specific purposes, and represent yet another type of architecture found in the valley; the vernacular style Craftsmen and artists combined regional designs with former styles to create their own individual buildings The Clerk's Office, for example, has stepped gables at the ends of the roof; the lintels over the windows are plastered These and other features, combined with the general shape of the office, create an interesting and pleasant building, but one which follows no stylistic formula.
Archaeological excavation of a particular lot in Halifax typically begins with a review of written documents. For example, Joseph Montford, an eighteenth century gentleman of wealth and respect, purchased a plot of land in Halifax. The transaction for this land, "Lot 52," is recorded in the deedbooks in the Halifax County courthouse. By combining this information with other data including the Sauthier map, archaeologists located the lot upon which a house once stood. Then, through careful excavation of portions of this lot, they exposed the original foundations of what once was an elaborate building of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Brick floors, two-sided fireplaces, plaster, door hinges, and a host of other materials were uncovered within these foundations Each discovery was carefully recorded, photographed, and mapped. Artifacts and specimens such as the plaster fragments were analyzed in a laboratory, in an attempt to determine their composition or their place of manufacture Archaeology is not an independent science, but one which must work with other disciplines including history, physics, biology, philosophy, and chemistry.
When archaeological investigations on Lot 52 have been completed, the materials recovered, their locations, and their distribution within and around the building, will be analyzed It is hoped that this analysis will reveal significant information about the daily lives of the people who occupied the house-- most of this information cannot be obtained from any other source.
There is a great deal of archaeological work which can be done at Historic Halifax. However, such work must be preceded by careful planning. The site and its archaeological remains make up a unique cultural resource, and the conservation of this resource is a debt owed to future generations.
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