Susquehanna Plantation in Greenfield Village, October 2007

Henry Carroll owned this southern Maryland house (pictured here at Greenfield Village) in the decades before and after the Civil War. Its form -- one room deep with porches -- invited cooling breezes in the warm, humid climate. In 1860, the Carrolls raised tobacco and wheat on their 700-acre plantation. Seventy-five enslaved African Americans provided the skill and labor that supported the Carroll family's comfortable life.