SAR Academy fourth graders visited Philipsburg Manor in Tarrytown. Philipsburg Manor used to be a thriving farming, milling, and trading center owned by the Philipses, a family of Anglo-Dutch merchants. They rented land to tenant farmers of diverse European backgrounds and relied on a community of 23 enslaved Africans to operate the complex.

Students learned all about what life was like on a working manor and participated in various hands-on activities in the grist mill, the dairy, the barn and in the Philipses’ 300 year old manor house. The children now know how to separate the wheat from the chaff by using a flail and winnowing basket and how to grind wheat into flour in the gristmill!

Students were also able to get a close look at how the enslaved Africans, like Sampson, Kaiser, Flip and Tom, grew and harvested wheat, and how Caesar used his knowledge of mathematics and engineering to run and repair the gristmill. The tour guides were so informative and added to our prior knowledge about how slaves were treated on the manor, how they worked for no money at all, and how they created their own inner community.

The students sat at replicas of tables that the enslaved Africans sat at while snapping bean pods and separating them into bowls.

Despite the cold, rainy and blustery weather, this was an enriching and memorable journey back in time.