Basil Turner

The 1860 census noted that the owner of Oatlands, Elizabeth O. Carter, the widow of George Carter, as Loudoun County’s largest slaveholder, owning 128 slaves. One of those slaves was Basil Turner. When emancipation came Mr. Turner opted to remain at Oatlands, working for hire. He remained there until his death. This photograph was taken sometime in the early 1900s.

By the time of his death, Basil had worked for several Oatlands' owners. After the Civil War, the son of the Carters, George Carter II, and his wife, Kate, began operating Oatlands as a summer boarding house for wealthy residents of nearby Washington, D.C. This venture did not prove successful, so the property was sold to Stilson Hutchins, a co-founder of the Washington Post. Hutchins never lived at Oatlands and sold it to Mr. and Mrs. William Eustis in 1903. The plantation remained in their hands until the death of Mrs. Eustis in 1964. After her death, two of the Eustis’ daughters, Mrs. Margaret Finley and Mrs. Anne Emmet, presented the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1965.