Photograph, Fraction Family House at Solitude by Dan Mirolli, 2019-06-24

Dublin Core

Title

Photograph, Fraction Family House at Solitude by Dan Mirolli, 2019-06-24

Description

This photo by Dan Mirolli, taken on June 24, 2019, is of the Fraction Family House at Solitude on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The building is believed to have been a dwelling for enslaved people built around 1843. Upwards of 250 African and African American people, including the McNorton, Saunders, and Fraction families, were enslaved at Smithfield, the historic home of the Preston family, one of the founding families of Blacksburg and Montgomery County. Many of these individuals were later enslaved at Solitude, the home of Robert Taylor Preston sold to the university in 1872. In 2019, Virginia Tech renamed the surviving outbuilding The Fraction Family House at Solitude (pictured) in honor of the most numerous of the families and in honor of the contributions made by all the enslaved people forced to work on these plantations.

Source

150th Anniversary of Virginia Tech Collection

Date

Format

Identifier

150th_UR_FractionHouse_DanMirolli_2019_0624

Bibliographic Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], 150th Anniversary of Virginia Tech Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.