Dwelling on the Past
The Slave Dwelling Project visits Natchez
Addressing the Legacy of Slavery
Joseph McGill, who founded and took on the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, is not content with slavery being treated as a mere footnote in American history—not when it was the harsh reality for nearly four million individuals prior to the Civil War. “We know well about the nice, beautiful big house,” McGill explained. “What’s missing from that story are the lives of the people who enabled all that.”
As a means of filling in the often-neglected details of what actual life was like for the enslaved, through the Slave Dwelling Project McGill steps through the doors of the historic cabins, outbuildings, attics, and other places where enslaved people in America lived their lives, and he spends the night there. In the process, he’s realized that many of the places that enslaved people once lived are no longer still standing, or have been converted to garages, storage spaces, man caves, and the like. As a result, he’s had to expand his criteria a bit, and has also incorporated preserving these less-than-grand historic structures into the Slave Dwelling Project’s mission. “Eleven years and twenty-five states later and the District of Columbia, I'm still at it,” McGill said, expressing no intent to stop or slow down until his body mandates it. “Because I can't correct in my lifetime what it took over one hundred years to get wrong.”
“We know well about the nice, beautiful big house,” McGill explained. “What’s missing from that story are the lives of the people who enabled all that.”
Natchez's Efforts to Present Its History of Enslavement
I spoke to McGill, along with Executive Director of the Historic Natchez Foundation Carter Burns, ahead of McGill’s visit to the slave quarters at Melrose, which is part of the Natchez National Historical Park, on April 17. Natchez is a town known for its “big beautiful houses” and extensive plantation legacy, which drives much of its tourism. Conversations about better representing the Bluff City’s full history—namely, by including accounts of slavery’s role in that legacy—have become increasingly urgent in recent years, particularly in the wake of bestselling travel writer Richard Grant’s book The Deepest South of All and last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.
[Read about the legacy of Ibrahima, the African prince who was enslaved in Natchez, here.]
When I spoke with Burns and McGill in early March, Natchez was preparing for its annual Spring Pilgrimage beginning the following week—which included installing interpretive panels on enslavement at Longwood and Stanton Hall ahead of the events. Natchez’s antebellum roots being thicker than a live oak’s, organizations like The Historic Natchez Foundation and Visit Natchez have been working diligently to provide the infrastructure and tools necessary for historic property owners to better incorporate the history of slavery into their tours and other offerings.
“Eleven years and twenty-five states later and the District of Columbia, I'm still at it,” McGill said, expressing no intent to stop or slow down until his body mandates it. “Because I can't correct in my lifetime what it took over one hundred years to get wrong.”
“We're trying to assist everybody so that they can all have the tools they need to share those stories with their visitors,” Burns said. While McGill’s discussion at Melrose will mark his first official visit to the Natchez Historic Park (though he has conducted overnight stays for the project at Prospect Hill in neighboring Jefferson County and at Concord Quarters in Natchez before), Burns and McGill hope to continue to bring the Slave Dwelling Project to Natchez on an annual basis, and to expand upon and deepen the conversations already taking place. “I think that what you guys are doing there is great,” McGill said to Burns of the ongoing work in Natchez to better present the town’s history of slavery, “And we're just building on it.”
[Read about the Whitney Plantation's efforts to present the full history of slavery here.]
Sleepovers and Conversations about Racism
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when McGill conducted overnight stays, he would invite people to join him to spend the night in the spaces and for conversations around the campfire. In the process, project participants not only experienced one aspect of the harsh realities of life for enslaved individuals, but also had the opportunity to engage in discussions about how to practically address the repercussions of slavery in America today. “In these conversations, we talk about things basically centered around slavery and the legacy that it’s left on this nation,” McGill explained. These days the events are presented virtually, but the profound and difficult nature of the talks has endured. “Most of the people in these conversations are usually engaging with people who don't look like them,” McGill said. “And that’s the important thing, even in the mode that we're in now, looking at the screen and seeing the mosaic of people engaging in these conversations. We consider that success.”
Virtually or otherwise, McGill said the conversations “get very interesting,” and sometimes result in “jaw-dropping moments.” “What is now common is that most of the white folks who participate are descendants of slave owners,” McGill said. “And, you know, they want to participate because of that, and they don't shy away from it.” Once, for instance, a woman admitted her father was a member of the KKK. In conversation, these participants reckon with their own racism and their family history of it while also exploring difficult topics ranging from Confederate monuments to white privilege to plantation weddings. The Slave Dwelling Project does not merely aim to bring attention to the often-overlooked history of slavery, but to address its legacy in tangible and beneficial ways moving forward.
McGill explained that at the heart of the project is the question: “What history are we going to disseminate? Are we going to continue down the path that we were and tell a more watered-down, sugarcoated, more comfortable history? Or are we going to be real, and insert into that narrative the fact that, yeah, we're a great nation, but along the way, we’ve committed some flaws—or we did some things, some atrocious things?”
“Most of the people in these conversations are usually engaging with people who don't look like them,” McGill said. “And that’s the important thing, even in the mode that we're in now, looking at the screen and seeing the mosaic of people engaging in these conversations. We consider that success.”
Inspiration for the Slave Dwelling Project
Accurately filling in that narrative and raising awareness of the history of slavery inspired McGill to embark on the project. Yet, when McGill first began the overnights, he did so alone. “That was that kind of period where folks were just kind of sitting back and waiting…trying to ignore what I was doing, because they were hoping that it would just go away,” McGill said. For his first ever overnight, McGill stayed in a slave cabin at Magnolia Plantation in South Carolina, where he is currently the History and Culture Coordinator on a full-time basis. There was a wedding on the grounds that night. As he tried to sleep, McGill could hear the beat of the live band playing at the reception, as well as the loud caws of peacocks and a tree limb repeatedly hitting the roof in the wind.
Finding those graves, sunken into the earth, McGill felt the magnitude of his mission. He was doing it for them. “When they were here on this earth, they were muted,” he said. “So I knew that this project and I would be their voices to carry their story forth.”
“I eventually got to sleep,” he said. “But it was the next morning when I got up, which was Mother's Day of 2010, that I started to explore, not knowing where I was going,” McGill said. "I ended up in the graveyard where the enslaved people are buried. If someone was born enslaved and died free, they had a headstone. But if they were born enslaved and died enslaved, their graves weren’t even marked. So, I had to find the indentions in the earth—because if they were buried at a wooden box, you know, that wooden box would eventually give way, and that Earth would conform accordingly.” Finding those graves, sunken into the earth, McGill felt the magnitude of his mission. He was doing it for them. “When they were here on this earth, they were muted,” he said. “So I knew that this project and I would be their voices to carry their story forth.”
Joseph McGill will be visiting the slave quarters of Melrose Estate April 17 as part of The Slave Dwelling Project, including Facebook Live broadcasts at 11 am and 6 pm, and a virtual campfire discussion via Zoom at 7 pm. This event is funded by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
Register for the Zoom discussion here.