In 1902, William Nivison Blow Jr., a U.S. Army captain, secured full ownership of his family’s long-neglected plantation in southeastern Virginia, hoping to revive the lifestyle of a traditional Southern gentleman. Blow, disenchanted with post-Civil War changes, sought to preserve and instill pride in his family’s history, despite its roots in slavery and economic decline. His efforts included sorting through an extensive collection of plantation records, which contained documents on agricultural troubles as well as the buying, selling, and treatment of enslaved people.
A recent historical study by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alan Taylor provides a comprehensive examination of the Blow family plantation, located at Tower Hill near Portsmouth, Virginia. Taylor's research draws on the family archives now housed at the College of William and Mary to disentangle myth from reality. He paints a portrait of a family deeply entangled in the violent, exploitative system of slavery, aware of both its moral contradictions and the constant threat it posed to their security.
The story of the Blow plantation spans multiple generations, beginning with Richard Blow, an 18th-century Virginia patriot who prospered by evading British blockades during the American Revolution and later served as a bank president. Tower Hill served as his country estate. His son, George Blow, born in 1787, witnessed the end of the Civil War before his death in 1870. Despite proclamations of benevolence and paternalistic attitudes toward enslaved people, the Blows sanctioned harsh discipline and family separations, treating enslaved individuals primarily as commodities. George Blow’s correspondence reveals a complex mix of perceived enlightenment and ruthless pragmatism, including instructions to moderate physical punishment yet deploying bloodhounds to recapture runaways.
The plantation’s history is notably marked by the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, one of the most significant slave uprisings in American history, which unfolded a few miles from Tower Hill. The insurrection resulted in the deaths of 64 white Virginians, including members of the Blow family, and led to violent retaliations against African Americans throughout the region. After the revolt, some family members contemplated leaving Virginia “for a new Country” free from slavery. However, missing letters from George Blow during this critical period raise questions about family perspectives on the crisis.
Taylor challenges prevailing interpretations that viewed the uprising as the act of a few extremists, highlighting evidence of broader support for resistance within the region. He suggests that Turner’s rebellion may have prematurely interrupted a larger planned revolt across Virginia and possibly North Carolina.
The legacy of Tower Hill is further complicated by the post-emancipation generations’ reluctance to confront slavery’s brutality, preferring myth and tradition over truth. Taylor’s study shows how this denial perpetuated social and environmental degradation. Today, the plantation land, once intensely farmed by enslaved labor, remains ecologically depleted, dominated by scrubby pine trees and industrial uses such as lumber operations and hog farming. The county’s economy, Taylor notes, is heavily dependent on state prisons, reflecting continuing systemic challenges rooted in the region’s historical foundations.
Taylor’s work situates Tower Hill as a microcosm of the American South’s troubled history with slavery, inheritance, and the long aftermath of oppression, underscoring the enduring complexity of memory and identity in places shaped by such legacies.