Fred Miller, an Air Force veteran from Virginia, purchased a house near his childhood home in 2020 without knowing its history. The property, named Sharswood, was once a plantation built by a slave-owning uncle and nephew who shared his last name. Miller's family conducted research with the help of local historian Karice Luck-Brimmer and uncovered documents that proved their ancestors were enslaved at Sharswood, leading them to discover the likely burial site of their ancestors in a nearby cluster of trees. The discovery was made possible through conversations with Bill Thompson, whose family owned the property for over a century after purchasing it from Miller's relatives in 1917.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-07,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Fred Miller, an Air Force veteran, purchased a historic white house called Sharswood in southern Virginia for his family's gatherings without realizing its dark past. The 1850s-era plantation was built by slave-owning relatives who shared his last name, and he had never heard of the property or its connection to his own family. As Miller and his family researched the house, they uncovered a complex history that went beyond their ownership. The discovery led them to create a non-profit organization, Sharswood Foundation, to maintain the slave quarters and cemetery, and they have hosted an annual Juneteenth celebration with over 3,500 attendees.
Written for “Family Discovers Plantation Past” on 2026-09-07,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
When Fred Miller, an Air Force veteran, purchased the white, Gothic Revival-style house with the green roof near his childhood home in southern Virginia, he wanted a large space to host gatherings for his close extended family.
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he → purchase → family
He was not expecting to unlock hidden chapters from his family's past.
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He → expect → past
Miller did not know it at the time, but his new property was once a plantation.
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property → know → time
Named Sharswood, it was built in the 1850s by a slave-owning uncle and nephew who shared his last name.
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who → name → name
"If I had known there was a 'Miller Plantation,' I maybe could have… put a connection with the last name Miller and that plantation," Miller told 60 Minutes in 2022.
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Miller → know → 2022
"But I'd never heard of a 'Miller Plantation' or a 'Miller' anything."
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I → hear → Plantation
correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed Fred Miller and members of his family at Sharswood, speaking about what they unearthed about the property and its past inhabitants.
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they → interview → property
Fred Miller's sister Karen Dixon-Rexroth, who initially convinced her older brother to buy the property, and their cousins Dexter Miller and Sonya Womack-Miranda, did most of the research into Sharswood's past.
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cousins → convince → past
"Something drew me to knowing the history of this place," Dixon-Rexroth told Stahl.
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Rexroth → draw → Stahl
"I knew it was an old place from the 1800s, so I started from there, as far as looking at the previous owners, and also any records that were available online.
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that → know → owners
With time and the help of Karice Luck-Brimmer, a local historian and genealogist, the Millers were able to uncover documents that proved that their own ancestors were once enslaved at Sharswood.
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ancestors → uncover → Sharswood
"Since the revelation… I know that when the slaves brought food into the main house, they came up through the basement stairs," Fred Miller told 60 Minutes.
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Miller → know → Minutes
"And there's a distinct wear on the basement stairs from years and years of traffic, of people walking up those stairs, I'm thinking, 'Wow, these are my people.'
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these → be → stairs
When the 60 Minutes producing team of Shari Finkelstein and Braden Cleveland Bergan first visited Sharswood to meet the family and scout the location, they were part of a conversation between Dexter Miller and his former coworker Bill Thompson, whose family bought the property in 1917 and owned it for more than a century.
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family → produce → century
Thompson's sister sold it to Fred Miller in May of 2020.
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sister → sell → 2020
It was during this conversation that Miller asked Thompson the one question that had been on his mind for a long time.
"I said, 'Bill, there's one question that's been bothering me: Where is the slave cemetery?'
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cemetery → ask → me
He said, 'Dexter, it's right over there.'
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it → say → ?
I said, 'Right over where?'
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I → say → where
He said, 'You see those trees over there?'"
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You → say → trees
And with that revelation, as seen in the video above, the 60 Minutes team accompanied the Millers to a cluster of trees just beyond Fred's property line, where for the first time they saw the likely burial site of their enslaved ancestors.
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they → see → ancestors
Several weeks later, Lesley Stahl visited the site with Fred, who then lived in California, and his sister Karen.
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who → visit → California
"It was heart-wrenching', I'll tell you that," Fred Miller said about seeing the cemetery for the first time.
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Miller → wrench → time
"Just to think that all these years of me wondering, and it was right under my nose the entire time, right here."
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it → think → nose
Since our 60 Minutes story first aired in May 2022, Fred Miller moved back home to Virginia and established a non-profit Sharswood foundation to maintain the slave quarters and cemetery.
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Miller → air → quarters
He also offers tours of the house.
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He → offer → house
You can watch Lesley Stahl's full report on Sharswood below.
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You → watch → Sharswood
The video above was originally published on May 15, 2022.
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video → publish → May
It was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.
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It → produce → Prediger
