Shirley Plantation

Shirley Plantation is an estate on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, between Richmond and Williamsburg. Settled in 1613, it is considered the oldest active plantation in Virginia and passed to the Hill family in 1638, whose operations there are counted among the oldest continuously run family businesses in North America. Enslaved laborers, numbering roughly 70 to 90 at a time, worked the fields alongside earlier indentured servants who had been the primary labor force until the early 1700s. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.