Oakland's Mansion

Bring your class to visit the oldest preserved home open to the public in Murfreesboro. Initially constructed around 1815, the house witnessed the rise and fall of plantation society, survived devastating natural disasters and wars, and remained intact in the face of vandalism and neglect.

 Parallel Lives: The Maney family and the enslaved. 

The objective of this program is for students to gain an understanding of the lives of the Maney family and the enslaved laborers at Oaklands in the 19th century. By using primary documents like census records, court records, and Maney family papers, we are able to piece together what life was like for those who lived and labored at Oaklands prior to, and just following emancipation.

This program introduces students to some of the enslaved by name and the variety of tasks they performed like constructing the mansion, laboring in fields, tending livestock, and serving in the mansion. Students will discover how the lives of the enslaver and the enslaved in Murfreesboro were intertwined and how European and African cultures combined to create the community that we live in today.

Student field trips include a guided tour of the mansion and grounds by one of our education staff and one add-on activity including…

• Games and pastimes. Students will learn about games and toys from the past and will have the opportunity to play on the front lawn or on the front porch of the Mansion.
• Bug Bags. Students will discover the various uses of herbal plants in the 19th century and how they were dried, mixed, and placed in bags to keep insects from mattresses, linen drawers, and trunks of clothing. Students will fill a drawstring muslin bag with an herbal concoction to take home.
• Beaded Bracelets. Students will learn about the meaning and importance of colored glass beads in African spiritual, material, and family culture and how beads are often found at archaeological sites relating to enslavement. Students will make a colored beaded bracelet to take home.

We have one field trip coordinator ticket available.  If you register as the field trip coordinator,  you will be responsible for greeting group members as they arrive, checking attendance, and interfacing the the venue staff as the group leader.   SENHE will provide you with details ahead of the event.  Field Trip Coordinators get free admission.  :)