Chapman State Park is located along the Potomac River a 30-minute drive south of Washington, D.C. Until 1914, the grounds were owned by the Chapman family. The state of Maryland purchased the property in 1998 and turned it into a public park. Nathaniel Chapman, a wealthy Virginia planter, bought the land and plantation in 1751. On the property is Mount Aventine, a mansion built between 1800 and 1860 that served as the center of the plantation. For many decades, the Chapman family benefitted from labor done by enslaved people on the…
