Slavery: Names without Faces

If you had visited the Carlyle House in 1770, most of the faces you saw were black, not white. The two story stone house was not only John Carlyle’s home, it was the center of an entire complex of buildings. Inside and outside the buildings, enslaved African Americans were the majority of those who moved about the daily activities which kept the Carlyles fed and living in comfort and John Carlyle’s business running smoothly. Skilled in domestic work and crafts, these people were owned by one of the largest slaveholders in northern Virginia.
 
John Carlyle employed slave labor in all of his landholding and business ventures. Slaves toiled in the fields of his three plantations. Skilled black craftsmen worked in the blacksmith shop. Enslaved carpenters, masons and joiners labored in his undertaking(construction) enterprises, including building the Carlyle House. In Carlyle’s merchant business, slaves served in numerous capacities from sailing the ships to hauling the goods as wagoners. Perhaps most evident of all were the slaves in domestic positions in Carlyle’s house.