Wilting in Wilmington– Part Five

Wilting in Wilmington– Part Five

The Bellamy mansion was built with tin roofs, which was rather standard for that period… but also noisy when there was hail or a hard rain, never mind a hurricane. The climate in the late Spring through the early Fall was steamy, hot and humid, and so like in Charleston and Savannah you have trees with Spanish moss, as well as lots of crepe myrtles….. Needless to say, in that climate, there was a need for lots of bathing….here’s the water tub where water was siphoned up to the top floor of the house— it held over 600 gallons, so the 2nd floor bathroom had plenty of water for bathing. There was of course need for water for the privy as well….

There was a deep cistern behind the house which you can see here the stone slap that covers it…

The privy’s were in the downstairs portion of the slave’s quarters, both the fancy ones that had better ventilation for the family, and the ordinary one’s for the slaves. This slave quarter building is one of only two or three original slave buildings still extant in America.

These houses and plantations could neither have been built very easily and in a cost effective way, nor maintained without literal slave labor.


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