For almost 15 years, I owned five acres of land in southwestern Ohio where we build a house and lived. I enjoyed the peace and quiet those five rural acres provided. Captain John Ridgley of Baltimore, Maryland, also bought some land to build a house for his family. He owned 25,000 acres. I tried to imagine how much land this was by visualizing my five acres repeated 5000 times. I failed.

Ridgeley gained his wealth from an Ironworks business that he owned, primarily making pig iron. During the American Revolution, he profited by selling the iron to the Continental Army. The profits from the iron works were made larger by the fact that he didn't pay 350 of his workers, which helped make him very wealthy.

John Ridgley named his mansion "Hampton", but he did not it for very long, dying just two years after its completion. The home, land and business passed to a nephew and stayed in the family for five more generations. Unfortunately, after the Civil War, the business profits declined. The now ancient iron works could not compete with more modern methods and now having to pay all these employees didn't help the bottom line.

Over the next few decades, the ridgely sold parcels of land to pay for the upkeep and costs of maintaining their home. Finally in the 1940s, they realized they needed to sell and were able to sell to the National Park Service.

The house itself is indeed quite beautiful with very ornate furnishings and artwork. The entry way alone was large enough that my entire current house would fit inside of it, no exaggeration. Tours of the house are available and free with a ticket picked up at the visitor center. The park does not get a lot of visitors, so getting tickets even on a weekend day was no issue.

Though the house and surrounding lands are indeed quite beautiful, I feel they are tainted by the fact that the builders felt the need to use slavery to create it.