Hazelwood

Hazelwood was the home plantation of John Taylor of Caroline (1753-1824), agricultural reformer and political theorist. Taylor studied law under his uncle, the jurist Edmund Pendleton, and was an officer in the Revolutionary War. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates and in the U.S. Senate, where he was an ally of Thomas Jefferson and an advocate of states' rights. In essays and books he argued that agrarian vitality was essential to the success of the republic. Taylor conducted agricultural experiments here and published his findings. The forced labor of enslaved African Americans sustained the plantation. The house burned during the Civil War. Taylor is buried on the property.