Description: Piedmont Plantation tells the history of a unique plantation complex in North Carolina and of the Bennehan and Cameron families that owned and developed it. The narrative covers one hundred and fifty years and is based primarily on research in the many thousands of family papers deposited in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Interwoven with the family history of four generations are descriptions of the enslaved, the overseers, and of the buildings they erected and lived or worked in, all correlated with the agricultural enterprise that underpinned this 30,000-acre domain. Carefully researched, Piedmont Plantation will appeal to the specialist and general reader alike. Scholars looking for primary material will discover much useful information as well as guideposts to additional sources.
Brief description: Jean Bradley Anderson is a historian, teacher, professional genealogist, and pioneering local preservationist who taught at Duke University and North Carolina Central University. Anderson was a founding member of the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, now known as Preservation Durham. She is the author of numerous books including Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina (Historic Preservation Society of Durham) and The Kirklands of Ayr Mount (University of North Carolina Press).