Before the Revolution, Charles Ridgely grew his fortune making iron and exporting it to Europe for finished goods. His land had all the essential elements for this business, nearby Baltimore had the port, he purchased his own merchant fleet, and even received tax incentives from the British government. He diversified into other businesses, growing corn, fruit, and bottling casks of port to sell in the city. And he didn’t pay most of his workers.

When the war began, Ridgely sold iron and supplies to the Americans. His craftsmen were skilled, and he was likely the largest enterprise in the country at the time. For cheap, he purchased the lands confiscated from Loyalists. But he didn’t adhere to the ideals of the American Revolution. In fact, he built the largest, most purely British Georgian mansion above, while the country was just finishing fighting its War of Independence from the British King George.

His nephew inherited the home in 1790 and served in Congress and as Maryland Governor, arguing for peace with Britain. By the 1820s, Hampton was 25,000 acres and included cattle, horse racing and marble quarries. For six generations, the Ridgely family held on to this property and protected the family wealth. The work was done by over 300 slaves at any one time, and the plantation was known to be one of the state’s largest and hardest driving plantation, where other slaves feared to be sold as punishment.

The ranger was unable to point to any contributions made to society by the Ridgely family over 200 years, but she did have much evidence that they enjoyed an aristocratic life and drank copiously. They had a huge ice cave dug into the hill, filled in winter, so they could enjoy ice cream during the summer. (They lived in their Baltimore house during the winter). The four main rooms have been marvelously restored to different time periods, Colonial, the Governor (photo), pre Civil War and post Civil War, each with elaborate displays that would make European nobility blush. The hall and rooms are filled with large portraits of the vain slaveholders, none of whom made the choice to see their slaves as equally human.

The overseers house, farm buildings and some slave quarters have been restored as well, and all can be seen from the front step, far down the hill. The park service has done admirable research on the life of the slaves, and I learned how generations of young Ridgely children were taught to maintain the system of control. Slavery impacts every aspect of humanity, and the stories here are told with some meticulous details to evoke hundreds of years of cruelty. The house was donated to the park service by a wealthy foundation in part to preserve the fine art collection.