Special Program – Scraping and Plowing

We are following the cotton cultivation methods laid out by the period account of Solomon Northup, a free man who was kidnapped from Washington D.C. in 1841, and enslaved near Holmesville, LA, which is about 280 miles from Barrington. In his book, Twelve Years a Slave (1853), Northup described using a plow to cultivate (turn under the weeds) and hand hoes for scraping close to the young cotton plants. Join us in plowing with a single ox between the ridges of cotton and scraping the grass and weeds to hopefully build up a bountiful cotton crop! Contact Ben Baumgartner at ben.baumgartner@thc.texas.gov or 936-878-2214 x248 for more information