Woodlawn Plantation, Alexandria

While house is in a very lovely wooded area near the Potomac, and the tour guide was extremely thorough in her knowledge about the original owners of the home, I find this to be the least interesting part of the plantation's history! The website discusses the fascinating fact that the house was later owned by Quakers (before the Civil War) who sold pieces of the land to white and free black farmers to make a point that slavery was an unnecessary evil and that life could indeed be integrated. The guide did not mention this at all, but rather only ended the tour saying that the Lewis family (kin to the Washingtons, of course) sold the home somewhere in the early 19th century and that it had multiple owners before being restored in the mid-20th century. Sadly, what was likely a great early experiment in equality and integration, and a brave political statement by the abolitionists less than 2 hours from the capital of the Confederacy (Richmond) is left unexplored, and I can only imagine it has a fascinating story. Too bad no one at Woodlawn is willing to tell it.