Franklin's wealth, like much of the North's, was located not in its cities and towns but in its rural agricultural land, where its richest citizens depended on the movement and production of wheat, oats, and livestock.

Slavery brought not only wealth but also roads, bridges, railroads, canals, and turnpikes to Augusta, in an elaborate display of building, enterprise, and growth.

Slaveholders in Augusta did not monopolize the best soil nor did they crowd out nonslaveholders or small slaveholders.

Slavery was ubiquitous and systemic in Augusta County's economy and society. No town or place in Augusta was without slavery, no person distant from it. Slavery extended into every corner of the county, concentrating in no one area.