Highland Slave Quarters

This building is a reconstruction that was completed in 1986. The original building was a triplex dwelling for enslaved domestic servants. Three families lived in these rooms, each with a fireplace downstairs and a sleeping loft overhead. Ladders were used to reach the upstairs rooms. Large families occupied each of the spaces, and enslaved children under the age of 5 or 6 often stayed home with elders preparing the family’s evening meal while their parents and older siblings worked as cooks, maids, nursemaids, butlers, valets, and carriage drivers for the Monroes. The rooms are finished with historic and reproduction pieces showing household and plantation activities.