Mursch said he learned about the cabin’s slave history from the late Harry Stafford and the Holcombs. A written record by one of the Holcomb family members mentions six slaves owned by the Staffords in the mid-to-late 19th century. According to that record, the land was surveyed in 1765, the cabin was built in the late 1760s and the plantation house was built in the 1770s.