The slave quarters vanished long ago. The blackened chimney of the plantation house still stands in the wooded farm country of Prince Edward County, 60 miles southwest of Richmond. Vanessa Venable's ancestors, who were slaves there, dug the clay that made the bricks.
Now Vanessa Venable owns the plantation, or 600 acres of it. The chimney is her haunting and triumphant little ruin. Mrs. Venable, a schoolteacher for 42 years and past president of the Prince Edward County N.A.A.C.P., lives with her husband, the Rev. H.R. Venable, in a brick bungalow on the site of the slave owners' house.
The order...
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