{"id":1124,"slug":"belle-grove-plantation-escape-site-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Belle Grove's limestone manor went up in 1797 in Frederick County, built for Isaac Hite Jr. and Nelly Conway Madison Hite — James Madison's sister — on land Madison's father-in-law had given them. The plantation ran to 7,500 acres of the Shenandoah Valley, and the Hites' account books recorded the people who worked it: researchers have reconstructed the names of more than 270 enslaved men, women and children across the estate's working years, one of the fuller paper trails any Virginia plantation left behind."]},{"heading":"The documented escapes","paragraphs":["That paper trail is also why the site sits on the Network to Freedom — the escapes are in the record, not just the legend. One file holds a runaway advertisement offering fifty dollars for Daniel, who left carrying a forged certificate of freedom, a document that only exists because someone white wrote it for him. Another entry records a father named Jackson who managed to purchase his own children out of bondage in 1837 and carry them north to Pennsylvania. Four documented escapes is not a large number against 276 names — which is exactly the arithmetic the listing preserves.","In October 1864 the manor became Philip Sheridan's headquarters, and on the dawn of October 19 the Confederate attack at Cedar Creek nearly ended the war's reputation for him inside his own headquarters' reach. Belle Grove kept standing through all of it — the lists it kept turned out to matter as much as the walls."]}],"name":"Belle Grove Plantation Escape Site","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","PLANTATION","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"Belle Grove Plantation Escape Site is a historic site in Middletown, Virginia, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. HauntHunt files it with dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"336 Belle Grove Road/ P.O. Box 537","city":"Middletown","county":"Frederick","state":"Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.028027,"lon":-78.279174,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 44VA01, source row 695. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.35,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Belle Grove Plantation Escape Site is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Belle Grove Plantation Escape Site's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"The escapes are documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Middletown plantation—where the enslaved escaped the limestone manor.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 44VA01, source row 695. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 3; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}