Zebulon Vance Birthplace State Historic Site

"The plantation’s distinguishing mark was its peculiar social order which conceded nearly everything to the slave owner and nothing to the slave. In theory, the planter’s rule was complete. The Great House, nestled among manufactories, shops, barns, sheds, and various other outbuildings which were called, with a nice sense of the plantation’s social hierarchy, “dependencies,” dominated the landscape, the physical and architectural embodiment of the planters’ hegemony."

- Many Thousands Gone, Ira Berlin

This North Carolina mountain plantation, tucked in the Reems Creek Valley, explores daily life in the early 1800s in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Visitors can peek inside our historic structures including: our loom house, tool shed, spring house, smoke house, and corn crib. 

For a more in-depth experience, interpretive guides lead visitors through our 1790 slave house and discuss the eighteen enslaved people that lived and worked on the Vance farm. Tours conclude at the reconstructed 1790s Vance home. Zebulon Baird Vance, one of North Carolina's Governors and U.S. Senators was born on this property in 1830. Guests will learn about the life that would come to shape him and his policies later in life.

Zebulon Vance’s notable career would begin long after his family left this farm and visitors are welcome to explore the exhibit in our visitor center and learn more about his time as governor, and how this early mountain life would come to shape him and his policies.

Hours of Operation:

Tuesday through Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, Closed Sunday, Monday, and most major holidays.

The site is entirely self-guided, but for a more in-depth experience visitors can take a 45-minute guided tour at 11:00, 1:00, or 3:00.

Admission is free. Donations are accepted and appreciated.