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Epilogue The Manor today is undergoing yet another radical transformation. Since Alice Fiske passed away, the descendant family has chosen not to keep the estate solely as private property. Recognizing the great historical value of the place—in all of its iterations—they have moved toward more public preservation and maintenance, in part by returning to some of the roots of the enterprise: food production. Now it is the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, a nonprofit community supported agriculture (CSA) farm, where the aesthetic of the formal ornamental garden is complemented by the beans, lettuce, strawberries, and eggs. As Bennett Konesni, a tenth-generation Sylvester descendant, put it, the goal now is a place “which harnesses the energy of a working farm to support preservation of our historic buildings and grounds,” citing the inclusion of many vegetables and fruits in the original plan of the formal garden as evidence of this complementarity (personal communication). The laborers are interns, young and idealistic people who are devoted to sustainable farming, rather than indentured or enslaved people who lacked better , or any, options. These farmers are mindful that they are not simply refashioning the place for the future, but they are also cautiously caring for the past, learning as they dig into the soil for planting to recognize the small remnants of past lives. More historical and archaeological research is in the future of Sylvester Manor. The focus on food has allowed the family and managing interests to pursue a preservation plan that does not privilege any particular period. Visitors are likely to hear about the history stretching from the 182 / epilogue Manhanset generations who initially inhabited and continued to work the plantation land, the generations who built and expanded the current Manor house, and those who marked the landscape with monuments. Hopefully the connection will be made between the labor of the plantation , making food and wampum, and the wealth of the later generations, including the means and the privilege in preserving the place for historical posterity. The stories that can be told from this place will, I hope, confront the assumptions many Americans still carry about racialized histories, the role of slavery in the northern colonies, and the enduring and active presence of American Indians in history. ...

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