Southwest View of the Seat of Henry Marchant, South Kingstown

Rhode Island, c. 1785

Without early images of Casey Farm we can infer from this drawing of a nearby property and other sources what life was like during South County’s plantation era. Gardens and haying fields surround a fine house bounded by tall stone walls. A horse-drawn chaise and a pacer horse pass on the road. International trade through Newport and a reliance on the labor of enslaved people to work the plantations gave wealthy land owners a luxurious lifestyle until emancipation in 1784.