Man unknowingly buys former plantation house where his ancestors were enslaved

Fred Miller thought he had found a large Virginia house for family gatherings. Instead, the property led him into a hidden chapter of his family’s history.

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Oh, my goodness. We have to get this house.

Miller, an Air Force veteran, bought the home in his southern Virginia hometown after his sister Karen Dixon-Rexroth spotted it for sale. He had never heard the name Sharswood, the grand white house near the road, and did not know it had once been a plantation.

Miller lived in California, where he worked as a civil engineer for the Air Force, but regularly returned to Virginia for birthdays, fish fries and family gatherings. His extended family included hundreds of relatives, making the large property especially appealing. Dixon-Rexroth remembered calling it the “scary house” when she first saw it, yet she urged her brother to buy it.

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You know the house. The-- the scary house

The house eventually became the starting point for research into the property’s history and the family’s connection to it. Miller and his relatives uncovered that their ancestors had been enslaved at Sharswood, turning a purchase intended for reunions into a deeply personal journey through the past.

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One day, out of the blue, my sister called me and told me about a big house up the road for sale.