Sweet Hall, Virginia

Unincorporated community in Virginia, United States

37°34′33″N 76°54′00″W / 37.57583°N 76.90000°W / 37.57583; -76.90000CountryUnited StatesStateVirginiaCountyKing WilliamElevation

^[1]

39 ft (12 m)Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern (EST)) • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)ZIP codes

23086

GNIS feature ID1475381^[1]

Sweet Hall (also known as Sweethall) is an unincorporated community on the northern bank of the Pamunkey River in southeastern King William County, Virginia, United States.^[1]^[2]

In none of the information easily available online about Sweet Hall is there mention that the owners were slaveholders, and that the structures were probably built and renovated by enslaved persons. Also, "outbuildings" were mentioned, but no mention was made of slave quarters, which surely existed. Enslaved persons were captive there until they followed the Union Army out of the area around 1863. For one account of life as an enslaved person at Sweet Hall, see Robert Ellett's account in Weevils in the Wheat, Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. Weevils in the Wheat was "an expression used by slaves to communicate to one another that their plans for a secret meeting or dance had been discovered and that the gathering was called off. Weevils in the Wheat was edited by Charles L. Perdue, Jr., Thomas E. Barden and Robert K. Phillips. Copyright 1976 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.^[3]

The small community includes two properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Sweet Hall and Windsor Shades. The Sweet Hall Marsh (part of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve)^[4] is located just south-southeast of the community.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Sweet Hall
^ ^a ^b "MyTopo Maps-Untitled map showing Sweet Hall, Virginia" (Map). mytopo.com. Trimble Navigation, Ltd. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
^ Perdue, Charles L. Jr. (1976). Weevils in the Wheat (Fourth printing, 1999 ed.). Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. pp. 83–88. ISBN 0-8139-1370-5.
^ "Chesapeake Bay-Virginia National Estuarine Research Reserve". coast.noaa.gov. Office for Coastal Management. Retrieved August 19, 2019.