Roanoke Plantation

Roanoke, about eight miles west of here, was the home of John Randolph (1773-1833), member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, delegate to Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, and minister to Russia. A talented orator, Randolph defended states’ rights during his three decades in public office. At Roanoke, primarily a tobacco plantation, Randolph bred celebrated racehorses. Hundreds of enslaved African Americans worked on his land. Randolph freed his slaves in his will and provided for their resettlement in Ohio. Widely known during his adult life as “John Randolph of Roanoke,” he died in Philadelphia and is buried in Richmond.