The House That Unlocked A Family's History

When Fred Miller, a 57-year-old Air Force veteran, bought the green-roofed white Gothic Revival house next to his childhood home in Southern Virginia, he wanted a large gathering place for his extended family. He didn't expect to reveal a hidden chapter of his family's past.

Miller didn't know it at the time, but his new property used to be an estate. It was called Sharswood and was built in 1850 by a slave owner's uncle and cousin who bore her surname.

"If I knew there was a Miller plantation, I would probably be associated with the Miller name and this plantation," Miller told 60 Minutes. "But I've never heard of 'Miller Plantation' or anything by 'Miller.'

Fred Miller (left) and his sister Karen Dixon-Rexroth (right).

On 60 Minutes This Week, correspondent Leslie Stahl interviewed Fred Miller and his family in Sharswood and talked about what they found on the property and its previous occupants.

It was Fred Miller's sister Karen Dixon-Rexroth who initially convinced his older brother to buy the property, and his cousins Dexter Miller and Sonya Womack-Miranda did a lot of research into Sharswood's past.

“Something prompted me to learn about the history of this place,” Dixon-Rexroth told Stahl. "I knew it was an old place from the 1800s, so I took it from there, regarding the previous owners, as well as records available online."

Over time, and with the help of Carys Luck-Brimmer, a local historian and genealogist, the Millers were able to uncover records proving that their own ancestors were enslaved at Sharswood.

"After the fair ... I knew that when the slaves brought food into the main house, they would climb the stairs to the dungeons," Fred Miller told 60 Minutes. "And the stairs to the basement are visibly damaged from years of traffic jams. As people climb those stairs, they're like, 'Wow, these are my people.'"

When the 60 Minutes production team of Shari Finkelstein and Braden Cleveland first visited Bergan Sharswood to meet family and tour the area, they engaged Dexter Miller and his former partner Bill Thompson, whose family owns the property. bought in 1917 and owned it. . more than a century has passed. Thompson's sister sold it to Fred Miller in May 2020.

Bill Thompson (left) and Dexter Miller (right) worked together in the 1980s.

It was during this conversation that Miller asked Thompson a question that had been haunting him for a long time.

"I said, 'Bill, I have a question: where are the slave graves?' He said, "Dexter, over there." I said, "Any place?" He said, "See those trees over there?"

And with that revelation, as seen in the video above, the 60 Minutes crew escorted the Millers to a grove of trees on the outskirts of Fred's property, where they caught their first glimpse of their possible ancestral burial ground. A few weeks later, Leslie Stahl visited the site with Fred, who was living in California at the time, and his sister Karen.

Headstone in Sharswood slave cemetery.

"It's heartbreaking," Fred Miller said when he first saw the cemetery. "Just to think for years I've been wondering about it and it's right under my nose all the time, here."

Since our story first aired on "60 Minutes," Fred Miller returned home to Virginia and founded the non-profit Sharswood Foundation to maintain slave quarters and cemeteries. It also offers tours of the house.

You can see Lesley Stahl's full account of Sharswood below.

Man unknowingly buys an old plantation house where his ancestors were enslaved | 60 minutes 26:55

The video above was originally released on May 15, 2022 and was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Schafer Prediger.