A Very Different View: Living and Working in 1700s Alexandria (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

A Very Different View: Living and Working in 1700s Alexandria
Alexandria's Changing Shoreline
In 1749 the town of Alexandria was laid out on 10 to 15 foot bluffs around a crescent of shallow water. The back edge of John Carlyle's property, where you are standing now, was about 15 feet above the Potomac River. The street below the cliff, now Lee Street and directly in front of you, was known as Water Street. By 1800, the owners of the riverfront lots had filled in the shallow water, extending their land and the town boundaries approximately two blocks to the east.

Lay of the Land
Here, at the corner of his property, John Carlyle built a two story warehouse to store goods for his mercantile business. He had many other outbuildings, including a smokehouse, dairy, offices and kitchen. A blacksmith's forge on the property may have been run by an African-American slave.

People not Property: The Lives of the Enslaved Workers
Nine enslaved African Americans lived and worked here in 1780. Their names were Jerry, Joe, Cook, Penny, Charles, Sibreia, Cate, Moses and Nanny. These names are found on an inventory of John Carlyle's property, alongside tables, tools, ladders and books; a sad illustration of the attitude towards slavery during the 1700s. One enslaved worker, Penny, was purchased from a nearby plantation when she was just a young teenager. She lived and worked here her entire life. If we could hear her voice, what would she say?

Erected by Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.