Members of the group My Brother's Keeper in front of the slave cabin at Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown County, SC

Members of the group My Brother’s Keeper in front of the slave cabin at Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown County, SC

The Slave Dwelling Project, whose mission is to identify and assist property owners, government agencies and organizations to preserve extant slave dwellings, is proud to announce that it received a $2000.00 planning grant from The Humanities CouncilSC.  The grant will support initial work on the project titled: If These Walls Could Talk.

If These Walls Could Talk will make extant slave dwellings relevant by getting young students involved in their preservation and interpretation.  This will be done by having these students and their chaperones spend one night in a slave dwelling with the project’s founder, Joseph McGill.  Immediately before or after the experience the students will address a public audience about the importance of preserving, maintaining and interpreting slave dwellings.  They will then write about the experience which will be incorporated into a blog.  All of the experiences will be audio and visually recorded and a documentary will be produced which will debut at a public program that will be highlighted by performing artist Natalie Daise’s performance of “Becoming Harriet Tubman.”

Since its inception in 2010, the Slave Dwelling Project, founded in the state of South Carolina, has been highly successful in raising awareness about the necessity to preserve, interpret, maintain and sustain extant slave dwellings throughout the United States.

If These Walls Could Talk will help take the project to another level by engaging school districts, libraries, colleges, universities, museums and preservation organizations that exist wherever these extant slave dwellings are located throughout the state of South Carolina.  Additional fundraising will be necessary to hire a qualified film maker who can devote the time to documenting each slave dwelling sleepover where youths are involved and create a quality documentary that is worthy of honoring those who were enslaved in those dwellings.  You can find out more about the Slave Dwelling Project on its website at: www.slavedwellingproject.org