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AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - Air Force veteran Fred Miller uncovers his family’s ties to Sharswood plantation Tue Sep 8 18:26:48 2026

Air Force veteran Fred Miller bought a Virginia country house for family gatherings, then uncovered its plantation past and his own family’s connection to slavery. Miller purchased the fully furnished Sharswood house and 10.5 acres in May 2020. He later learned the property had once anchored a 1,300-acre plantation, 60 Minutes reported. Family research and […] The post Air Force veteran Fred Miller uncovers his family’s ties to Sharswood plantation appeared first on American Almanac .

Air Force veteran Fred Miller bought a Virginia country house for family gatherings, then uncovered its plantation past and his own family’s connection to slavery. Miller purchased the fully furnished Sharswood house and 10.5 acres in May 2020. He later learned the property had once anchored a 1,300-acre plantation, 60 Minutes reported . Family research and an examination by preservationists turned a real-estate purchase into something far more personal. Miller’s relatives traced their local roots while experts studied a deteriorating building believed to have housed enslaved people. Miller, then described as 57, was an Air Force veteran and civil engineer who worked for the service. He wanted land near his Virginia hometown where his extended family could spend time together. His younger sister, Karen Dixon-Rexroth, spotted the for-sale sign. The property stood less than a mile from their mother’s home in rural Pittsylvania County, near the North Carolina border. Dixon-Rexroth remembered calling Miller after seeing the listing: “Me and my mom was ridin' past the house and I saw the for sale sign. I said, "Oh, my goodness. We have to get this house." I call Fred. "Fred, this house is for sale." He's like, "What house?" I said, "You know the house. The-- the scary house," I call it.” A $220,000 listing opened a buried family history Miller offered slightly more than the $220,000 asking price. The sale included the furniture, the main house and the surrounding acreage. Bill Thompson had grown up at Sharswood and still lived nearby. Thompson said his family had owned the property since 1917, and his sister inherited it before selling it to Miller. Miller said he had doubted that a Black buyer would ever own the house. Thompson asked why he would think that, but Miller’s answer reflected the history he was only beginning to uncover. When Miller first drove up as the new owner, the moment stopped him at the road. He told Lesley Stahl: “The first time I drove up to the place-- all I could do is stop by the edge of the road there and just look up in-- in amazement. Like, wow, this is-- this is mine.” Dixon-Rexroth spent nights and weekends researching the property online. She found that the main house was known as Sharswood and had been built around 1850 in the Gothic Revival style. The family also learned that Sharswood had been part of a much larger plantation during the 1800s. Miller had assumed his ancestors had endured slavery, but the property gave that history a physical setting close to home. That setting mattered in Pittsylvania County. The program said more than 14,000 enslaved people lived in the county before the Civil War, while Virginia held just under 500,000. One worn building changed what Sharswood meant The main house was only part of the discovery. Behind it stood a dilapidated structure that drew the attention of historic preservationists Dennis Pogue and Doug Sanford. Pogue had formerly worked at Mount Vernon, while Sanford had formerly worked at Monticello. Their examination found remnants of original siding and handmade wrought nails. Sanford said the building likely dated to the late 1700s. He believed builders first made it as a house for a White family, then divided it into two single-room dwellings for enslaved households. Pogue did not claim absolute certainty about every stage of the structure’s history. He explained the experts’ conclusion this way: “It's got a complex history, but we think part of that history, a big part of that history, was it was a-- a quarter for enslaved folks.” Sanford said hundreds of thousands of such buildings once stood across Virginia. Fewer than 1,500 were believed to remain when he discussed the Sharswood structure. Its survival exposed the divide built into the property. The large home faced one way; the cramped quarters stood behind it. Miller described that contrast in direct terms: “It just showed that it was two different worlds: this front, big, beautiful world here, and lavish; and you go right behind the house and there was a whole different story. It's kinda crazy for me just to even walk around out there.” The evidence supported a careful conclusion. Preservationists believed enslaved households had occupied the building, but the examination did not definitively settle every question about who lived there or when. Sarah Miller’s 1868 birth record helped restore a broken family line Fred Miller’s second cousins, Dexter Miller and Sonya Womack-Miranda, took up the family-history search. Sonya said the work began as a hobby, while Dexter described the research as addictive. The family identified Sarah Miller as an ancestor. Her death certificate showed that she was born in Pittsylvania County in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. Fred and his mother, Betty Dixon, visited Sarah’s former house several miles from Sharswood. Dixon remembered staying there when the cabin had no electricity. Marian Keyes, a former schoolteacher and one of the family’s oldest living relatives, also remembered Sarah. Keyes described her as strict and recalled seeing her outside with a broom. But the older generations had said little about slavery. Keyes explained how complete that silence had been: “Nothing. They did not talk about it. I don't know whether they were afraid, whether it was too miserable or painful, or they wanted to forget it, I don't know. But they did not talk to us about it at all. And we didn't ask them questions about it.” The research could not answer every question. It did not establish from the cited documents that a named Miller ancestor lived in the surviving quarters at Sharswood. What the family did establish was a local lineage, a plantation’s history and the likely use of a surviving building for enslaved households. Those pieces gave substance to a past that relatives had rarely discussed. Sharswood also became what Miller first wanted: a gathering place. His relatives met there for games, food competitions and time together, now with a deeper grasp of the land beneath them. Ownership cannot undo injustice, but it can put memory, property and responsibility into the hands of a family willing to preserve the truth. The post Air Force veteran Fred Miller uncovers his family’s ties to Sharswood plantation appeared first on American Almanac .