In 1902, William Nivison Blow Jr., a U.S. Army captain disillusioned with the changes sweeping the South, secured full ownership of his family's plantation in southeastern Virginia. Seeking to revive the image of the Southern gentleman, Blow spent years organizing scattered family records, aiming to craft a narrative that would inspire future generations with pride in their heritage. His collection contained business ledgers, letters, and documents revealing the harsh realities of slavery, including the buying and selling of enslaved people and their resistance to bondage. Despite acknowledging accuracy, Blow’s unpublished account perpetuated popular myths about the loyalty of enslaved individuals, urging his cousin to invent traditions if none existed.

Historian Alan Taylor’s recent study, "Tower Hill," offers a detailed examination of the Blow plantation and its legacy, challenging these sanitized family stories. Drawing from the extensive Blow archive held at the College of William and Mary, Taylor reveals the plantation's history as one fraught with violence, exploitation, and a fragile social order reliant on brutality. His research illustrates how the system of slavery exacted profound suffering not only on the enslaved but also on the enslavers, who lived in constant fear of insurrection and collapse.

The story traces back to Richard Blow, a Virginia patriarch who prospered during the American Revolution by navigating the Tidewater coastline for trade. Richard briefly engaged in the transatlantic slave trade before becoming a bank president, with Tower Hill serving as a country retreat. Much of Taylor’s narrative centers on Richard’s relationship with his son George, whose correspondence over four decades illuminates the contradictions of slaveholding society. George Blow, born in 1787 and living through the Civil War, simultaneously espoused paternalistic rhetoric and enforced brutal discipline, routinely separating families and using bloodhounds to capture runaway enslaved people. His letters reveal a belief in "moderate whipping" coupled with a perception of enslaved people as "fellow beings," a stance reflecting a disturbing mixture of cruelty and self-justification.

The Blows’ deepest anxiety was an uprising, which materialized in 1831 with the Nat Turner rebellion in nearby Southampton County. Turner, an enslaved preacher who interpreted biblical signs as a call to end slavery, led a revolt that resulted in the deaths of 64 white Virginians, including members of the Blow family. The subsequent retaliation by militias and vigilantes led to the lynching of more than 100 Black people. Although the rebellion shook the foundations of Virginian society and prompted some leaders to consider gradual emancipation, the prevailing belief eventually settled on the idea that the revolt was an isolated event, securing the system’s continuation.

Taylor disputes this rationale, presenting evidence that widespread support for resistance existed in the region and that Turner’s rebellion might have been premature relative to a larger planned insurrection. The Blows themselves seemed aware of slavery’s instability; some family members contemplated abandoning Virginia for lands free of slavery. Notably, George Blow’s correspondence in the immediate aftermath of the rebellion is absent from the historical record.

A prolific historian, Taylor is known for his expansive narratives on early American history, and "Tower Hill" specifically evokes themes found in William Faulkner’s "Absalom, Absalom!," echoing its exploration of the enduring legacies of race, violence, and myth. Taylor argues that the Blows, like many slaveholders, chose to suppress the moral contradictions of slavery through denial and tradition, perpetuating a legacy marked by cruelty and self-delusion.

The plantation’s story extends into the present. Once a site of intensive exploitation, the land around Tower Hill now bears scars from centuries of environmental depletion and economic shifts. The plantation has passed into private ownership, and the surrounding area, shaped by the history of slavery, suffers from poverty and environmental degradation. Taylor observes that the county’s current largest employers are state prisons, underscoring the ongoing social consequences of this fraught history.