Just 20 years after the end of slavery, four Black men, John Hardy, Carter Hardy, Robertson Simmons and Bolling Morris, purchased the 521 acre Gray’s Creek Farm (today known as Smith’s Fort), for $2,500 (around $88,000 in 2025). This farm included woodlands, farming fields, an orchard, a 1765 brick manor house, and the archaeological remains of John Smith’s 1609 retreat fort.
The Hardy and Morris families were connected through marriage; Bolling Morris married Ella Hardy, Carter Hardy’s sister and the daughter of John Hardy. By 1914 the Bolling Morris family was the sole owner of the property.
By 1928 Bolling Morris was under financial duress. He was pressured by several people into selling the property to the Williamsburg Holding Company, who later transferred ownership to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA, now Preservation Virginia). It is important to acknowledge the role that the APVA played in shaping the racist dynamics of Black land ownership and dispossession. We are now committed to rectifying the past prioritization of white and colonial narratives at this site, which now highlights the important significance of its 19th and 20th century Black land ownership.
