Tatanya Peterson, a descendant of Hampton and Grace Hathcock, shares her family genealogy.
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
Help us share the stories of all the people who lived and worked at the Historic Haile Homestead! We're looking for volunteer docents to lead tours on Saturdays or Sundays once per month. Just a four-hour commitment. Training and docent manual provided. Click on the
"How To Help" tab above to learn more! Apply on-line!
WELCOME to the Historic Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation. In 1854, Thomas Evans and Serena Chesnut Haile moved their family from Camden, South Carolina to Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida. Their 6,200 square foot home was built by 56 enslaved laborers. The Historic Haile Homestead is unique in the nation for its "Talking Walls." For a reason lost to time, the Haile family wrote on the walls of their home - over 12,500 words in almost every room and closet! Come visit us this weekend and see this gem of history, frozen in time. Let the walls speak to you of joys and sorrows of more than a century ago. Visit the Allen and Ethel Graham Visitors Center and Museum! Learn about the enslaved laborers and freedmen, whose stories are intertwined into the fabric of our tours! We have videos to watch while you wait for your tour to begin: "Beginnings" and "Enslavement to Freedom." Learn about a group of cotton planters who relocated from South Carolina to Florida. And more importantly, learn about what slavery was, the brutal truth of it, and how Reconstruction and Jim Crow impacted freedmen in Alachua County and Florida.