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Photo provided by HHS
Joseph McGill, founder of the
Slave Dwelling Project, travels the country spending the night in historic slave dwellings to bring awareness to their existence, history, and need for preservation. On Friday, September 9, he will spend the night at Historic Huguenot Street in the Bevier-Elting House cellar, marking his first visit to the Hudson Valley. The following evening, Historic Huguenot Street will host a special reception with Mr. McGill, during which he will provide his initial thoughts about the previous night’s experience and touch on his mission to preserve historic slave dwellings across the country and particularly in places where traces of them have disappeared.
A descendant of slaves, Mr. McGill founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, having worked for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Charleston, South Carolina, and seeing the need for preservation of historic slave dwellings first-hand. Since 2010, Mr. McGill has spent the night in dozens of slave dwellings throughout the country, at times even in antebellum wrist shackles.
