Executive Director Bonnie LePard announced on Tuesday that Oatlands Historic House and Gardens was awarded a $20,000 Interpretation and Education Fund grant by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, made possible by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will be used to study the cultural landscape of slavery at Oatlands. Once home to the largest enslaved community in Loudoun County, the buildings, and landscape at Oatlands were interconnected to the lives of the enslaved people who lived and labored there.

Much of the original plantation layout is still intact, and it was designed by George Carter of the Virginia family dynasty to specifically express his wealth and place in society and to maximize functionality within the slave plantation system.

Similar studies have been done in the Chesapeake, Tidewater, and lower Piedmont areas, but this is believed to be the first large-scale analysis in Northern Virginia. A summit scheduled for November will bring together experts from multiple disciplines to analyze the cultural landscape, identify locations high in probability for additional slave dwellings, and prioritize locations and topics for research and archaeological work. Their work will be compiled into a historic cultural landscape report that will guide future research, archaeology, interpretation, preservation, and programs at Oatlands. Discoveries made during the Summit will be incorporated into Oatlands' tours, programs, and other interpretation. The process for analyzing the landscape and developing interpretation will be shared as a training tool for other historic properties. Two local historic sites and other National Trust Historic Sites in Virginia will be invited to participate in the November summit.

"Our mission is to tell the whole story of Oatlands," said LePard, "This cultural landscape of slavery study is an opportunity to learn more about the hard life and work of people once enslaved here." The grant project furthers the work of Oatlands' Reclaim Your Story initiative to research and document the enslaved community, locate descendants, interpret slavery, and educate the public about African American history in Loudoun County. To learn more about the enslaved community at Oatlands, visit www.oatlands.org/slavery.

About Oatlands Historic House and Gardens: Oatlands is a 360-acre self-supporting National Trust Historic Site and National Historic Landmark. The site features a stunning landscape with magnificent gardens, 1804 mansion and 19th century brick dependencies, including the Oatlands greenhouse, the second oldest greenhouse in the nation. For more information, visit www.oatlands.org or call 703-777-3174. Oatlands is located six miles south of the Town of Leesburg on U.S. Route 15. 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane, Leesburg, VA 20175