*Joseph McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, says his mission is to “identify and assist property owners, government agencies and organizations to preserve extant slave dwellings.”
Part of his mission is to go around and preserve slave quarters around the country — and also sleep in them to understand what enslaved Africans endured. McGill feels it is important to save such historical places.
“Five years ago, my experience with being a preservationist and a Civil War reenactor morphed into the Slave Dwelling Project. The concept is simple: Find extant slave dwellings and ask the owners if I can spend a night in them in order to bring much-needed attention to these often neglected dwellings,” he said in an interview on Lee & Low Books’ website.
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McGill also organizes tours of former slave quarters, of which he has slept in more than 80 of them to date.
“The experience that moved me the most was the opportunity to stand on an auction block at Seward Plantation in Brenham, Texas,” he said. “I thought about enslaved people standing on auction blocks having to expose their backs to show the potential buyers that there were no scars on their backs. Scars were indications that they were defiant and were beaten. No slave owner wanted to buy a defiant enslaved person to insert among his already docile and broken enslaved people.”
McGill admits that his project initially ran into resistance from people who currently own the plantations.
“The reception of this project to plantations and property owners has been mixed,” McGill said. “As expected, five years ago trying to convince those property owners of my intent was a challenge. Despite that, far more stewards said yes than no, which gave me that confidence to step out on faith to embark on this journey. Five years later, the project is still going strong and has become the clearinghouse for all matters pertaining to extant slave dwellings. More site stewards now reach out to me than I reach out to them.”
McGill believes his Slave Dwelling Project plays an important role in preserving a vital part of American history, while also helping to clear up misconceptions.
Joseph McGill on the slave dwelling project:
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