At Bacon’s Castle, we are lucky to have a wealth of primary sources available for our interpreters to explore. The Hankins family owned Bacon’s Castle in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and were great curators of family history. There are about 200 Hankins Family letters cataloged in archives today, and most are held by the VMHC (Virginia Museum of History & Culture). I have been diving into this collection of letters for two years. Transcribing these letters had been quite the task; nineteenth century cursive handwriting is not the easiest to read. I think I now have it down pat, at least the Hankins handwriting! I am transcribing the letters for research purposes at Bacon’s Castle. Once the transcription is complete, I plan to create an index for the letters. Information from the letters adds to our understanding of the Hankins and the time they lived here. We use this information on tours, for social media, in the garden, and even for the preservation crew currently working on the castle.
My co-worker, Brenna, helped transcribe some of the letters. We have been able to identify names and duties of enslaved persons within the household. This enabled us to provide names to enslaved.org for their database, which is currently compiling names and locations of the enslaved, and assisting those doing genealogical work.
Transcribing these letters has allowed me to understand more about the Hankins family while they lived at Bacon’s Castle. One of the most interesting topics in the letters is about the food they grew and ate. A letter dated 26 January 1859, from Louisiana Hankins to her daughter Virginia, who was living in Richmond, mentions sending her some molasses and oysters, with instructions not to eat them on the same day, “for it could make you sick”. That would be a very weird combination I wouldn’t want to try.
There are several letters that talk about a love for cake and making lemonade. The Hankins also had a love for strawberries. They grew a patch of them in the front yard, which is referenced in a letter dated 26 April 1859, from Louisiana to Virginia. Louisiana states “I never saw our strawberry beds so full of bloom.” After reading the letter we were able to locate what we believe is the original strawberry bed mentioned in the letter. Brenna dug up some of the strawberries and I transplanted them over to the garden and we hope to see them growing this year. It is pretty amazing to read the letters which give us clues to things around the property that connect us to the Hankins!
Interested in learning more? Visit Bacon’s Castle, open Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and in June, July, and August we will be open on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.