Joe McGill Visiting Two Slave Cabins Before Summer Ends
July 18, 2010
CHARLESTON, SC – Before the summer is over, historic preservationist Joe McGill will sleep at a well-known plantation site on the Waccamaw Neck in Georgetown County and later at a little-known “slave alley” in downtown Anderson.
On Saturday, July 24, McGill will spend the night at Hobcaw Barony, a 17,500-acre research reserve that was once a coastal rice empire that later became the 20th century winter retreat for Wall Street financier Bernard M. Baruch.
On Saturday, August 21, McGill will spread his sleeping bag on the floor in one of four tiny cabins on Morris Street in Anderson that is believed to be the largest slave alley left in upstate South Carolina. The buildings are owned by the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, a statewide organization with an office in Columbia. The Trust is a partner with the National Trust. (www.palmettotrust.org)
McGill’s crusade to travel the state to sleep in dwellings that were once the homes of enslaved people is designed to bring attention to the endangered structures.
He is a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since May, he has already spent the night at four sites, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens and McLeod Plantation, both near Charleston, the Heyward House in Bluffton and Goodwill Plantation near Columbia.
For more information, follow these links:
http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=10871
http://www.southcarolinaradionetwork.com/2010/06/22/efforts-taken-to-save-slave-dwellings/
http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/article/man_on_personal_quest_sleeps_in_slave_cabins/148604/
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/05/21/1246945/five-minutes-with-joseph-mcgill.html?story_link=email_msg
http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=10164
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/may/08/project-seeks-to-save-slave-cabins
http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0510/734165.html
