About Marietta
The Marietta House Museum is owned and operated by Maryland-National Capitol Parks and Planning in Prince George’s County Maryland. Built in 1816, the house is a late Federal style brick house and past tobacco plantation, the former home of Gabriel Duvall and generations of his family, and the enforced home of many enslaved men, women, and children. Gabriel Duvall (1752-1844) was a lawyer, Maryland legislator, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Comptroller, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The Duvall family enslaved anywhere from nine to 40 people at Marietta during any given year between 1783 and 1864. The Duvalls enslaved multiple generations of the Duckett, Butler, Jackson, and Brown families at Marietta.
Marietta is a nationally recognized historic site which includes a cemetery, original root cellar, and Duvall law office, as well as 25-acres where visitors can walk the sites of the plantation outbuildings and slave dwellings. Guided tours of the historic house and site highlight the relationships among the enslaved people and their enslavers that were shaped in part by the nation’s founding documents and local slave codes. Hear the histories of families’ decisions to seek freedom through flight, the courts, and deeds. Since 2004, Marietta has been part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
The Marietta House Museum Library is a specialized research collection focusing on the social, economic, and cultural history of the Mid-Atlantic region. Our holdings include rare books and archival materials documenting African American history with an emphasis on slavery, including a database of enslaved individuals from Marietta. The collection also features resources on colonial and Victorian America, Maryland history, military history, tobacco farming, and Prince George’s County history. This unique repository supports scholarly research, genealogical studies, and public education on the region’s complex past.