Sleeping with the ancestors : how I followed the footprints of slavery
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York : Hachette Books, 2023.
Physical Description
xiv, 337 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm
Summary
"In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in former slave dwellings that still stand across the country--revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. 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. Since founding the project, McGill has been touring 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. The project has inspired difficult conversations about race in communities from South Carolina to Alabama to Texas to Minnesota to New York, and all over the United States. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project 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 listeners an important unexpected immersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history"--
Contents
- Dusting off an old idea
- Embarking on a yearlong project
- Honoring the ancestors
- A homecoming
- A chapel for the enslaved
- Another state
- Expanding my horizon
- What history tells us
- Higher learning
- Presidential slaveholders
- Living history in our federal, state, and county parks
- Above the Mason-Dixon line
- Resistance
- Garden clubs
- Family reunions
- Impressions of the enslaved.