Hampton National Historic Site | Towson, MD

Hampton Mansion (main house), Exterior View

Hampton National Historic Site in Towson, Maryland preserves a remnant of a vast 18th-century estate, including a Georgian manor house, gardens, grounds, and the original stone slave quarters. Owned by the Ridgely family for seven generations, the estate’s mansion was the largest private home in America when it was completed in 1790. Its furnishings, together with the estate’s slave quarters and other preserved structures, provide insight into the life of late 18th-century and early 19th-century landowning aristocracy.

During its peak in the 1820’s, more than 300 slaves worked the fields and served the household, making Hampton one of Maryland’s largest slaveholding estates. Although Maryland, as a border state, was exempted from U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Maryland General Assembly eliminated slavery in 1864. With the end of slavery, Hampton began it long decline. A number of the former slaves continued to work at Hampton as paid household servants but the Ridgelys had to hire other hands to work the farm. Thus, in many ways, Hampton is the story of people — enslaved African Americans, indentured servants, industrial and agricultural workers, and owners. It is also the story of the economic and moral changes that made this kind of life obsolete.

Hampton Slave Quarters, Exterior View

Two, two-story stone slave houses and one log cabin still remain on the property. Built around 1850, they are vivid reminders of the labor force that helped build the Ridgely family fortune. While these buildings are located near the Hampton Farmhouse, also known as the Overseer’s House, evidence indicates that there was additional slave housing spread out across the larger farm landscape. The unusual large size and duplex style layout of these buildings suggests that two families lived in each building, although current research gives no indication how many people lived in each structure. With the end of slavery these buildings were used to house tenant farmers.

Hampton Slave Quarters, Interior View

Find out more about Maryland’s black heritage sites and attractions in the Maryland African American Heritage Guide.

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Hampton National Historic Site
Address: 535 Hampton Lane, Towson, MD 21286
Phone: 410-823-1309
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