Virginia
Archaeologists in Virginia unearth colonial-era garden with clues about its enslaved gardeners
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Archaeologists in Virginia are uncovering one of colonial America’s most lavish displays of opulence: An ornamental garden where a wealthy politician and enslaved gardeners grew exotic plants from around the world.
Such plots of land dotted Britain’s colonies and served as status symbols for the elite. They were the 18th-century equivalent of buying a Lamborghini.
The garden in Williamsburg belonged to John Custis IV, a tobacco plantation owner who served in Virginia’s colonial legislature. He is perhaps best known as the first father-in-law of Martha Washington. She married future U.S. President George Washington after Custis’ son Daniel died.
Historians also have been intrigued by the elder Custis’ botanical adventures, which were well-documented in letters and later in books. And yet this excavation is as much about the people who cultivated the land as it is about Custis.
“The garden may have been Custis’ vision, but he wasn’t the one doing the work,” said Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that now owns the property. “Everything we see in the ground that’s related to the garden is the work of enslaved gardeners, many of whom must have been very skilled.”
Archaeologists have pulled up fence posts that were 3 feet (1 meter) thick and carved from red cedar. Gravel paths were uncovered, including a large central walkway. Stains in the soil show where plants grew in rows.
The dig also has unearthed a pierced coin that was typically worn as a good-luck charm by young African Americans. Another find is the shards of an earthenware chamber pot, which was a portable toilet, that likely was used by people who were enslaved.
Animals appear to have been intentionally buried under some fence posts. They included two chickens with their heads removed, as well as a single cow’s foot. A snake without a skull was found in a shallow hole that had likely contained a plant.
“We have to wonder if we’re seeing traditions that are non-European,” Gary said. “Are they West African traditions? We need to do more research. But it’s features like those that make us continue to try and understand the enslaved people who were in this space.”
The museum tells the story of Virginia’s colonial capital through interpreters and restored buildings on 300 acres (120 hectares), which include parts of the original city. Founded in 1926, the museum did not start telling stories about Black Americans until 1979, even though more than half of the 2,000 people who lived there were Black, the majority enslaved.
In recent years, the museum has boosted efforts to tell a more complete story, while trying to attract more Black visitors. It plans to reconstruct one of the nation’s oldest Black churches and is restoring what is believed to be the country’s oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children.
There also are plans to recreate Custis’ Williamsburg home and garden, known then as Custis Square. Unlike some historic gardens, the restoration will be done without the benefit of surviving maps or diagrams, relying instead on what Gary described as the most detailed landscape archaeology effort in the museum’s history.
The garden disappeared after Custis’ death in 1749. But the dig has determined it was about two-thirds the size of a football field, while descriptions from the time reference lead statues of Greek gods and topiaries trimmed into balls and pyramids.
The garden’s legacy has lived on through Custis’ correspondence with British botanist Peter Collinson, who traded plants with other horticulturalists around the globe. From 1734 to 1746, Custis and Collinson exchanged seeds and letters on merchant ships crossing the Atlantic.
The men possibly introduced new plants to their respective communities, said Eve Otmar, Colonial Williamsburg’s master of historic gardening. For instance, Custis is believed to have made one of Williamsburg’s earliest written mentions of growing tomatoes, known then as “apples of love” and native to Mexico and Central and South America.
Custis’s gardeners also planted strawberries, pistachios and almonds, among 100 other imported plants. It’s not always clear from his letters which were successful in the Virginia climate. A recent pollen analysis of the soil indicates the past presence of stone fruits, such as peaches and cherries, which weren’t a big surprise.
The garden existed at a time when European empires and slavery were still expanding. Botanical gardens often were used for discovering new cash crops that could enrich colonial powers.
But Custis’ garden was primarily about showing off his own wealth. A study of the area’s topography placed his garden in direct view of Williamsburg’s only church house at the time. Everyone would have seen the garden’s fence, but few were invited inside.
Custis delighted his guests with the likes of the crown imperial lily, which was native to the Middle East and parts of Asia, and boasted clusters of drooping, bell-shaped flowers.
“In the 18th century, those were unusual things,” Otmar said. “Only certain classes of people got to experience that. A wealthy person today — they buy a Lamborghini.”
The museum is still trying to learn more about the people who worked in the garden.
Crystal Castleberry, Colonial Williamsburg’s public archaeologist, has met with descendants of the more than 200 people who were enslaved by the Custis family on his various plantations. But there is too little information in surviving documents to determine if an ancestor lived and worked at Custis Square.
Two people, named Cornelia and Beck, were listed as property with the Williamsburg estate after Daniel Custis died in 1757. But their names prompt only more questions about who they were and what happened to them.
“Are they related to one another?” Castleberry asked. “Do they fear being split up or sold? Or are they going to be reunited with loved ones on other properties?”
Virginia
Virginia Tech women overcome slow start to rally past Georgia Tech in ACC Tournament opener
DULUTH, Ga. (WDBJ/Hokie Sports) – Sixth-seeded Virginia Tech fought back from a 14-point deficit late in the first quarter, rallying for a 62-54 victory over No. 11 seed Georgia Tech in the second round of the 2026 Ally ACC Women’s Tournament Thursday evening.
The Hokies, who move to 23-8 overall on the season, earned their first ACC Tournament victory in the Megan Duffy era. Tech moves on to the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2024.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia Tech faced a four-point deficit until Leila Wells (7:15) stepped up for a three-pointer to keep the Hokies within reach early. Her triple would be Tech’s only field goal until the final 40 seconds of the opening quarter. Carleigh Wenzel provided a late spark for the Hokies, getting down the lane (0:40) and hitting a basket (0:18) in the final minute to stop the run, but Georgia Tech carried a 17–7 lead into the second quarter.
Playing inspired, the Hokies sprinted out of the break for five straight points with layups from Samyha Suffren (9:50) and Mackenzie Nelson (9:28), along with a make at the stripe from Wenzel, to close to 17-12 at the 8:12 mark. The momentum continued to swing in Tech’s favor as it ripped off 15 straight points, a run ignited by Suffren’s (7:44) fast-break lay-in and capped by a Carys Baker (1:33) triple to give the Hokies a 27-19 lead. Free throws closed out the half for both sides as Virginia Tech headed into the locker room with a 29-23 edge. The Hokies forced six turnovers in the second period, scoring 10 points off the Yellow Jackets’ miscues.
Both sides traded baskets to kick off the second half before Tech knocked down consecutive makes from beyond the arc, the first from Wells (8:31) and the second from Nelson (7:59), to stretch the advantage to double figures, 37-27. It remained a back-and-forth game until Baker’s free throws with 3:35 remaining in the period gave the Hokies their largest lead of the contest at 48-37. Georgia Tech closed out the frame scoring six unanswered as the margin narrowed to 50-46 in favor of Tech at the end of the third.
The Yellow Jackets’ run continued into the fourth quarter as the score moved to 50-48 at the 9:26 mark. Virginia Tech rattled off seven consecutive points, including a three-pointer from Wenzel (7:08), to push ahead by nine with 4:44 remaining, 57-48. Suffren pulled up for a jumper outside the paint with just over a minute left in the contest, but Georgia Tech finished with a layup at the buzzer as Virginia Tech closed out the 62-54 victory.
GAME NOTES
- Virginia Tech won their first game as a six-seed in the ACC Tournament (1-0) and first against Georgia Tech (1-2) in program history
- The Hokies have now won four of their last five opening contests in the conference tournament
- Tech also earned their first ACC Tournament victory in the Megan Duffy era
- Virginia Tech controlled the glass, 41-36
- The Hokies held the Yellow Jackets to six points in the second quarter, matching the fewest by an opponent in a quarter this season (last versus Loyola MD on Nov. 9, 2025)
- Guard Carleigh Wenzel paced Tech in scoring with 15 points for her 15th-straight game in double figures
- Redshirt sophomore Mackenzie Nelson followed with a near double-double of 14 points and a career-high nine rebounds
- Nelson also tallied six assists, two assists, one block, and committed zero turnovers
- Guard Leila Wells put together eight points and a career-best six rebounds in 15 minutes of action
- Samyha Suffren registered her career-best five assists
UP NEXT
Virginia Tech advances to the Quarterfinal Round of the 2026 Ally ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament Friday, March 6 against third-seeded North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. on ACC Network.
Copyright 2026 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
Former President Barack Obama is calling on voters in Virginia to support a ballot measure this spring that would change the commonwealth’s constitution and cause new congressional district boundaries benefiting Democrats to be used in this fall’s midterm elections.
In a video posted to social media on Thursday morning, Obama noted the surge of mid-decade redistricting started last year when Texas Republicans started work to shift five Democratic seats and make them more favorable to Republicans.
Since then, California Democrats were able to redraw the lines involving five GOP-held seats to try and offset Texas’ gerrymander. Republicans in North Carolina and Missouri last year also altered a Democratic-held seat in each of their respective states to try and help the GOP.
“In April, Virginians can respond by making sure your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states,” Obama, a Democrat, said in the video. “This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall.”
Republicans hold a narrow majority in the U.S. House and are contending with the prospect of losing control of the chamber this fall when every seat is on the ballot.
Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort has proven to be a lengthy process, and legal concerns have surrounded much of the work and thrown some uncertainty into the outcome. The commonwealth’s map in place at the moment resulted in six House seats for Democrats in the 2024 election and five for Republicans. Plans offered by elected Democratic leaders this year would try and shift those lines in a way that could result in sending 10 Democrats back to the House and just one Republican.
“Democrats’ illegal gerrymandering power grab is an affront to democracy and rigs our maps to turn Virginia into a one-party state,” the Republican Party of Virginia said last month on social media, adding “It is an intentional effort to silence and disenfranchise half our Commonwealth.”
After the 2020 Census, both Democratic and Republican led states indulged in the well-worn practice of gerrymandering, drawing districts that favored their own parties and lessening the chances of competitive races.
But the series of mid-decade redraws impacting the 2026 midterms essentially represent a break from tradition and have put Democrats in the position of having to backtrack on some of their past messaging on the issue. “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government,” Obama himself said on social media in 2020.
A statewide vote is set for April 21 on whether to change Virginia’s constitution and give the General Assembly the ability to change the maps just months before general election contests will be held. Early voting is set to start Friday.
Virginia is more of a purple state, and it’s unclear what will happen to the constitutional amendment in the April 21 special election. Republicans widely oppose the effort, and additional congressional redistricting in GOP-led Florida could lessen the impact of any changes made in Virginia.
Arlington, Virginia, resident Anjali Sharma — stuck in the Middle Eastern since Saturday — documents her story on social media from a hotel in Doha, Qatar.
“I think it really hit me when I saw black smoke coming from afar on one of the buildings, and it ended up being a missile that got defused, and the debris fell on the ground and caused an explosion,” Sharma said.
She was on her way to a wedding in India and had a layover in Qatar when Iran’s retaliatory strikes began. The airspace in Qatar and several other nearby countries is closed.
Sharma is alone. She says the rest of her family she was supposed to meet with had their flights canceled.
She says it’s incredibly unsettling.
“I hear explosions every day,” Sharma said. “I hear planes going outside. I mean, I still hear military jets, right now. I don’t really know what that means.”
She is one of several thousands of Americans stranded in the Middle East. The State Department said it’s assisted almost 6,500 Americans since the conflict began.
Sharma says she hasn’t been able to get any clear guidance.
“I would just really appreciate it if the U.S. government could get clear guidelines of what they’re going to do to get us out and when that even may be,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., has been critical of the Trump administration’s evacuation efforts. He says his office has heard from about 100 families whose loved ones are stranded abroad.
“The primary reason the State Department exists is to serve Americans living abroad, and they’re desperately failing at that, right now,” he said.
The White House said the secretary of state issued Level 4 travel advisories dating to January. But Qatar was not one of the countries given a do-not-travel advisory.
The State Department Wednesday created a new form for stranded citizens to fill out. They say it will provide departure information about available aviation and ground transportation options.
Sharma hopes it’s her ticket out.
“I just want to get out of here safely at this point.”
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