Overview

• The Nottoway Plantation mansion, once the largest antebellum home in the U.S., was destroyed in a fire attributed to an electrical cause.
• Owner Dan Dyess has announced plans to rebuild the structure, prompting discussions on how the site should address its history of slavery.
• The plantation, built between 1857 and 1859 by enslaved labor under John Hampden Randolph, housed at least 155 enslaved individuals by 1860.
• Reactions to the fire have been divided, with some mourning the architectural loss and others celebrating the destruction of a symbol of slavery.
• Critics have long accused Nottoway of minimizing its enslaved past, contrasting it with sites like the Whitney Plantation Museum that center on slavery's legacy.