The Slave Dwelling Project: Online Lecture

Wednesday, February 7 | 7:00 pm | Online | Free; donations accepted.

Authors Joseph McGill and Herb Frazier discuss their new book, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footsteps of Slavery. The book is Joseph’s enlightening personal account of his groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in former slave dwellings—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. Read more below.

Book Chats

Tuesdays, Jan 23 | 7:00 pm | Online | Free; donations accepted.

Join the Center Church History Team for informal book chats on Sleeping with the Ancestors. How does this project influence your understanding of slavery? What more would you like to learn? Reading the book is encouraged, but not required. 

DONATIONS:
Donations for this program are accepted on behalf of The 1636 Heritage Partnership, a secular non-profit organization that works to preserve the historic 1807 Meeting House and 1909 Church House of The First Church of Christ in Hartford, also known as Center Church. The organization also offers educational and cultural programs to promote the appreciation of Center Church.

More about The Slave Dwelling Project

Joseph McGill Jr., a historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 based on an idea that was sparked and first developed in 1999. McGill tours the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings—throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Events and gatherings are arranged around these overnight stays, and it provides a unique way to understand the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill’s own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories. Altogether, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier give readers an important and unexpected immersion into the history of slavery.

Joseph McGill Jr. is a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, and the founder and director of The Slave Dwelling Project. Previously, as a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mr. McGill worked to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, Georgia, and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. He is a former executive director of the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a former director of history and culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. He has also served as a National Park Service park ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston.

Herb Frazier is the special project editor at the Charleston City Paper. He is the author of Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories, co-author of We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel with Marjory Wentworth and Dr. Bernard Powers Jr., and co-editor of Ukwell: Searching for Healing and Truth, South Carolina Writers and Poets Explore American Racism, with the late Horace Mungin. Frazier edited and reported for five daily newspapers in the South, including his hometown newspaper, the Post and Courier in Charleston. He has led journalism workshops in Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ghana, Suriname, Guyana, and The Gambia. He was a visiting lecturer at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. Frazier is also the former marketing director at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston.

Sponsors / Partner:

The lecture is made possible with support of Lest We Forget, the Fred & Elizabeth Boyajian Lecture Series at The First Church of Christ in Hartford/Center Church and The Teacher's Library at Center Church. The program is presented in coordination with the 1636 Heritage Partnership, a secular non-profit organization that works to preserve and educate the public on Center Church’s historic buildings.