Virginia

Archaeologists in Virginia unearth colonial-era garden with clues about its enslaved gardeners

Published

1 year ago

August 23, 2024

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?”

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Virginia

James Franklin appears on ESPN broadcast during Virginia Tech-Miami

Published

22 minutes ago

November 22, 2025

Press Room

James Franklin appears on ESPN broadcast during Virginia Tech-Miami

Newly hired Virginia Tech football coach James Franklin was on-site for the Hokies’ game against Miami on Saturday, Nov. 22, and made a brief appearance with the ESPN broadcast crew.

Franklin, wearing a Virginia Tech hoodie, explained his decision to the job.

“I think the first thing is, they were very aggressive from the beginning,” Franklin, who was fired by Penn State in October, told ESPN. “They had a plan in place, it wasn’t like, ‘let’s work through this together.’ they already had a plan in place, which I think was very helpful in the process.

Franklin led the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season and entered 2025 with huge expectations with numerous returning starters. However, Penn State lost three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern before Franklin was fired in October.

Franklin is now tasked with revitalizing Virginia Tech, which has won more than seven games just twice since 2018.

Legendary coach Frank Beamer, the best coach in Virginia Tech history, also gave Franklin his blessing, signifying his confidence in the Hokies’ next leader.

“I got a ton of respect for what he has been able to do across his career, but obviously specifically here at Virginia Tech. So I wanted to call him to pay respect, number one. He built this program. Everybody loves him and his family. … I called Frank Beamer, I said, ‘Coach, about to make this decision. Before I do, I want your blessing to be sure you’d comfortable with me taking over your program.’”

Franklin hasn’t coached, and won’t coach a Virginia Tech game until 2026, but he accomplished an important first step since being officially introduced Nov. 19.

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First-ever Virginia climate assessment raises concerns over rising sea levels

Published

19 hours ago

November 21, 2025

Press Room

First-ever Virginia climate assessment raises concerns over rising sea levels

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The first-ever climate assessment for the state of Virginia is sounding the alarm for the Commonwealth’s coastal regions.

The study out of George Mason University claims that sea levels are rising at a moderate rate currently, but could accelerate greatly in just the next few decades.

“What we expect in the future, particularly after 2050, is an acceleration in that rise due to warming in the global climate system,” said Dr. Jessica Whitehead, director of Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience and a co-author on the recent Virginia climate assessment. “Then we expect that acceleration to growth higher rates per year.”

It’s a rising issue in the future that will affect the children of today.

“Somebody who is in our middle school system in Hampton Roads here right now, those kids are the ones who are going to be challenged the most by making sure that we’re able to deal with this rise in the future,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead said the concerning rise in sea levels is due to a multitude of factors, some unique to Hampton Roads.

“Tens of thousands of years ago, we had the impact from a meteor in the region,” Whitehead said. “That is one of the areas where we have land that’s sinking a little bit faster than the land everywhere else. Our drinking water is coming mostly from deep, deep aquifers. But drawing down on that aquifer also leads to the sinking. We’re beginning to lose coastal forests that are becoming saltwater marshes, so they can’t continue to trap sediment and get taller faster than the sea levels rising.”

Whitehead said the rising sea levels will have a direct impact on urban flood mitigation.

“Our stormwater systems were built in some places over 100 years ago,” Whitehead said, “so as the sea level is rising, that sea level is rising into those systems, so they have less capacity to be able to process stormwater.”

The environmental risks are ones that come with economic costs.

“We very often think of this as an environmental issue, and it is, but there’s also economic costs for us,” Whitehead said. “The potential home values that are at risk, that’s in the billions of dollars. Our ports have to be right where the water is. That cargo has to be able to move in and out those ports. These are all things that are at risk. Yes, it’s about the environment, but it’s very much about us, too.”

The good news, as Whitehead puts it, is that Hampton Roads as a region is active in addressing these rising sea levels and risks, but that major projects to fully address the issue will take time, and in some cases, decades.

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If you’d like to see the climate assessment for yourself, see below:

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Virginia

Virginia assistant principal, brother busted at airport over alleged disturbing ICE violence plot: ‘Penetrate the vests’

Published

2 days ago

November 21, 2025

Press Room

Virginia assistant principal, brother busted at airport over alleged disturbing ICE violence plot: ‘Penetrate the vests’

An assistant principal in Virginia and his brother were arrested at an airport while en route to Las Vegas where they allegedly wanted to meet with “like-minded individuals” and plan violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

John Bennett, 54, and Mark Bennett, 59, were both busted at Norfolk International Airport on Wednesday — less than a week after they allegedly hatched the deranged anti-ICE plan, WTKR reported.

An off-duty officer with the Norfolk Police Department claimed he overheard the brothers four days earlier discussing “how ICE agents are kidnapping individuals and that they need to do something about it” while dining at a restaurant in Virginia Beach, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet.

Mark Bennett allegedly told his brother about his intentions to fly to Las Vegas and meet with “like-minded” people to formulate “enforcement ideas and plans,” according to the complaint.

The elder brother also allegedly confessed that he had recently purchased an assault rifle specifically because “it utilizes the explosive rounds that are needed to penetrate the vests” worn by ICE agents, according to the complaint.

John Bennett, an assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, piped up and said he wanted to tag along on the trip to Vegas and “go hunting,” as alleged in the complaint.

The complaint states that Mark Bennett bought a ticket to fly to Sin City on Wednesday. It’s unclear if his brother ever purchased one as well.

John Bennett was placed on leave following his arrest, WTKR reported.

He did take a one-year break from teaching and tried his hand at police work, according to his LinkedIn, before hanging up his badge and returning to teach high school mathematics.

The brothers are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding.

They were both granted bond after their arraignment on Thursday, 13 News Now reported.

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