Completed in 1816, Farmington was the center of a 550 acre hemp plantation owned by the Speed family and sustained by nearly 60 enslaved African Americans. Abraham Lincoln, a good friend of Joshua Speed's, visted for three weeks in 1841.
"Farmington Historic Plantation, the home of the John and Lucy Speed family and as many as 57 enslaved black Americans, was a 550-acre hemp plantation in the 19th century. The main house is Jeffersonian-Federal style architecture designed by Paul Skidmore. Abraham Lincoln visited his "most intimate friend," Joshua Speed, here in August 1841. It was the only time historians can place the future president spending extensive time on a slave plantation."
