Great Hopes Plantation

I like to think that I know Williamsburg pretty well, after four years there for college and having been back many times since graduating. But each time I visit, I discover something entirely new to me. Case in point: Great Hopes Plantation, a recreated working farm near the Visitors Center. Until a few days ago, I had no idea this gem was here in the ‘Burg.
Great Hopes Plantation represents a «middling» farm — or a small farm owned by a member of the middle-​class — meant to sustain farmer, family, and slaves. Here, interpreters build wells, drive oxen to plow the fields, plant gardens, raise chickens and other livestock, harvest cotton, construct barns, and grow tobacco.
Knowledgeable guides and interpreters take you through a day in the life of a farm slave, have you pick your own cotton (which, I learned, does not mean picking it off the the plant, but picking the seeds from the bolls for future plantings), teach you how to drive oxen («Git up!», «Haw!», «Whoaaaa!»), and have you draw your own well water among other activities of daily Colonial farm life. If you time your visit right, you might also help to plant crops like vegetables or cotton too.
Great Hopes is fascinating and worth a visit precisely because it depicts a life led by most free people in Colonial times, as well as providing a rare, comprehensive picture of life as a farm slave. The well-​bred or high-​brow lived in towns like Williamsburg or on much larger plantations. But most citizens were middle-​class: hard-​working farmers leading a life much like the one depicted at Great Hopes. A stop here makes an informative addition to any trip to Williamsburg.