Williamsburg | Still a work in progress, Great Hopes Plantation's eerie, breeze-swept quiet is starting to speak softly but pointedly about the slavery that built the foundations of parts of colonial America.

In its fifth year, one of Great Hopes' most telling features is this working, living plantation's proximity to the most opulent icon of Colonial Williamsburg, the Governor's Palace.

Trees and a large berm help hide from view the Duke of Gloucester Street's well-to-do homes and the palace's clippered formal gardens. They're actually just a good stone's throw from the rambling, dusty expanse of this "middling" estate's endless labor.