Like the Manor House, the slave cabin reveals something of the complex history of its inhabitants. Various oral histories and reminiscences tell us that this is one of a row of cabins that stood here, although the number of cabins is not known and awaits archaeological exploration.

This 1830s cabin is relatively large at 18' by 16', but is still typical of slave housing just prior to the Civil War. The chimney appears to be original and would have been superior to many of the wooden chimneys still used for much poor housing at mid-century. Its walls of hewn and sawn pine planks is a common method of Chesapeake construction for simple agricultural buildings. However, John Michael Vlach, in his study of slave architecture, Back of the Big House, notes that this particular cabin is unusually well constructed--a testimony to the African-Americans who built it. The frame is entirely hewn and sawn, rather than left partially unworked as in the manner of some cheaper quarters. As was typical, the interstices were daubed with clay and mortar. One notable difference from other such structures, earth fast posts were abutted to the plank walls to prevent them from buckling. The posts were held in place by pegs. This is the only known example of this method of stabilization.

The cabin contains a loft that was originally lighted by two windows with hinged shutters--not sash windows. Originally, no windows existed on the ground floor. The plan is a conventional single room plan seen in the region from the early 18th-century. Originally a stair or ladder rose to the attic through an opening in the ceiling in the southeast corner near the fireplace.

The cabin's partial visibility to the Manor House is typical of 18th and 19th-century Tidewater plantations. Its proximity indicates that is likely housed slaves who worked in the Manor House. This cabin and those adjacent to it, were placed atop the 18th-century Rolling Road. By the time of its construction in the 1840s, the road was no longer used as Sotterley Creek had silted in and the plantation wharfage had moved further down the Patuxent. Therefore, in the most pragmatic sense, the row of cabins was situated well: in sight of the Manor House, on a narrow strip of hardpacked land not usable for tillage, between the ravine and the fertile fields.