Joe McGill Resumes Slave Cabin Project for 2011
March 6, 2011
CHARLESTON, SC – March 6, 2011 – Historic preservationist Joseph McGill returns to his slave cabin project in 2011 with an overnight stay on Saturday, March 12, at Middleton Place along the Ashley River near Charleston.
McGill, a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a Civil War re-enactor, began the project in May to raise awareness of the need to preserve endangered slave cabins. Last year, McGill spent the night in eight cabins in South Carolina and two in Alabama.
When McGill began the project his original intent was to focus on dwellings in South Carolina. But the project has grown beyond his expectations. This year, McGill is planning sleepovers in North Carolina, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri.
“I am going to do more out-of-state sleepovers than in the state of South Carolina, which is a departure from my original intent, but that is a good thing,” he said.
The project’s popularity also has prompted three property owners to call McGill for advice. Two property owners have volunteered to have slave dwellings moved to their property. McGill said he’d prefer that dwellings be “preserved in their original locations, but we know that is not always possible.” A third property owner in the ACE Basin is interested in preserving a slave cabin on the land after hearing about McGill’s slave cabin project.
McGill also has gained research assistance from Dr. Cheryl O. Lane, an assistant professor of education at Francis Marion University.
McGill will have company during the visit to Middleton. His 14-year-old daughter, Jocelyn McGill, will join him to have quality time with her father. “History is beginning to grow on her,” McGill said of his daughter, an eighth grader at Marrington Middle School. Jocelyn will write the blog entry from Middleton. McGill’s cabin project blog can be found at: http://blog.preservationnation.org/tag/african-american-heritage/page/4/
McGill is founder of the 54th Massachusetts, Co. I, Civil War Reenactment Regiment. Three members of the regiment joined him last year during four cabin visits. Terry James of Florence accompanied McGill to Brattonsville in York County, Mansfield in Georgetown and Morris Street in Anderson, and James Island residents James Brown and Ernest Parks participated at McLeod Plantation on James Island.
McGill has spent the night in dwellings at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston; Heyward House at Bluffton; Goodwill Plantation near Columbia; Hobcaw Barony near Georgetown; and Old Alabama Town and Riverview Plantation near Montgomery, Ala.
