I get the most push back from people when I talk about slavery in northern states. In those states, African American history is more than just the Underground Railroad or the northern army that helped to rid this country of slavery during the Civil War. There are easily accessible primary sources that document slavery in northern states, but they are often ignored. The deniers of these facts of northern slavery would prefer the southern states to bear the burden of enslaving people in this great nation. I will not let this miscarriage of history continue to happen on my watch. I will do all within my powers to insert the stories of the enslaved Ancestors into the historical narrative.

Since 2010 members of the Slave Dwelling Project have visited twenty-three states and the District of Columbia conducting programs at historic sites that once enslaved people. Eight of those states have been in the north and include Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

Hempsted Houses

For the second consecutive year, the Slave Dwelling Project was invited to participate in the Juneteenth program at the Hempstead Houses in New London, Connecticut. Juneteenth: A festival held annually on the nineteenth of June by African Americans (especially in the southern states), to commemorate emancipation from slavery in Texas on that day in 1865.

This would be the Hempsted Houses fifth annual Juneteenth celebration. My host, Aileen Novick, would have to do a lot to top what she did when I participated in the program the previous year.

Aileen planned a powerful weekend of festivities. My first night of accommodations would be spent in the “Big House,” a bed and breakfast.

Aileen arranged dinner with some powerful guests, Jean Jordon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP and Tamara K. Lanier who is currently involved in a lawsuit with Harvard University about images of her enslaved Ancestors. 

Our first full day of activities would start with a visit from 5th graders from Jennings Elementary School which is within walking distance from the Hempstead Houses. In period dress, local living historian, Tammy Denease, educated the students about the enslaved cooked Dinah.

I, of course, talked about the Slave Dwelling Project. The students were most surprised that twelve of our former presidents were slave owners, which makes me wonder, at what age is it appropriate to teach students real history and not the sugarcoated version which makes the Native Americans the enemy and the enslaved people happy about their lot in life?

Hempsted Houses

The most powerful element of what we now do is our campfire conversations. Last year’s campfire conversation at the Hempstead Houses was one of the most powerful. The invitation was open to anyone who wanted to attend.

This year would not disappoint. The crowd of about thirty-five was just as diverse and dynamic as the previous year. There were some who were participating for the second consecutive year, but most participated for the first time. The participants were diverse and came from various elements of the community. There was one person who traveled from New Jersey and one who traveled from Baltimore, Maryland for the experience and they both spent the night with us. Topics included local slave history, slavery in Connecticut, what inspired me to start the Slave Dwelling Project and what keeps me motivated?

Hempsted House, New London, Connecticut

Last year we were prevented from sleeping in the garret of the Hempstead House because of a bat that inhabited the space. Aileen Novick assured me that the bat had been relocated far, far away, however, I and several others saw a bat in the house when I was presenting to the school kids. Was this the same bat or another? Despite seeing the bat earlier, I and several of the ten people who would sleep in the house were determined to sleep in the garret because research has proven, that is where the enslaved Adam stayed. Five of us slept there with no known visit from the bat. It could have been my snoring that kept the bat at bay.

The next morning, our breakfast of eggs and bacon was cooked in the heart of the Hempsted House.

Day two would be the meat of the Juneteenth celebration. A day of entertainment and education was planned. I participated in a panel discussion titled Bringing the History of Slavery Out of the Shadows in Our Communities. Also involved in the panel were: Dennis Culliton, Founder and Director of Witness Stones Project in Guilford, CT and Tamara Lanier, VP New London NAACP, currently involved in a lawsuit against Harvard University’s Peabody Museum for rightful ownership of daguerreotypes of her Ancestors.

Another success, as in the previous year, I could not stick around for Sunday’s festivities. I had a reservation to spend the night in the manor of a former Supreme Court Justice.

Hempsted House, New London, Connecticut

Catherine Carey
Hempstead Houses

I slept in the big house at the Hempsted Houses, New London, CT to commemorate people we forget, deliberately forget, in my opinion. I slept in the attic to mark that slavery, an institution that continues to harm me today, happened here.

“Last weekend I slept in a slave dwelling,” I said. Three men stepped back, eyes opened wide, and smiled. Then they nodded. They kept nodding and their smiles grew wider. One threw up his hands and told me, “You do things.” The others said cool and yeah. Then, on my corner, we got talking.

The three men and I talked about today’s harm. One of them asked, “You’ve lived here a long time, 30 years, why?” Because my neighbors take care of me. I haven’t shoveled snow in 5 years. I stroll around the neighborhood with my small white dog and feel safe. My neighbors and I talk. We share our happy and sad occasions with each other.

Other white people are curious about my neighborhood. They listen then tell me that they don’t have this neighborly ambiance. Their faces and words express feeling deprived of something. When these same white people visit me and see that most of my neighbors are black they change their opinion of my neighborhood. They ask, “Is it safe?” I feel sick inside.

I appreciate The Slave Dwelling Project and the Hempstead Houses for giving me the experience to share. They gave me stories to share that spark conversations about slavery and the harm it does to me, my neighbors, and our country today.

Hempsted House, New London, Connecticut

Aileen Novick, Project Manager, Hempsted Houses
June 7, 2019 Sleepover Reflection

Having Mr. McGill return for a second year to our Juneteenth Celebration in New London, CT was an amazing experience. Our Hempsted Houses site is working to share more of the history of slavery in New London and New England. We hosted a Friday Community Campfire featuring Mr. McGill that attracted a diverse audience from the city and beyond. People are so interested in his work to bring more attention to the places where the enslaved of this country lived and worked. We had a visitor who lives near one of our other CT sites who sat next to me at the campfire. He had never been to Hempsted, and he was interested in how and what we tell about the two enslaved people we know lived at the site.

Aileen Novick

Adam Jackson was the first enslaved person we know of to live at the Hempsted House. He was purchased by Joshua Hempsted in 1727 and became responsible for the farm work at our site and at another piece of farmland owned by the family. Our best research, based on our house and the history of slavery in New London and the region, points to Adam Jackson living in the garret (or attic) of our wooden ca. 1678 home. This visitor asked me if I thought we were “white washing history” with this idea that Adam lived in the house. Wasn’t that too nice a spot? Wasn’t he in an outbuilding like in the South?

Slavery in New London was different with often just one enslaved person living with a family in their house. During many months of the year, the garret was not a pleasant spot for sleeping. It was storage for foodstuff, as well as a sleeping quarters. It is the place that Mr. McGill wanted to sleep in to experience a night like Adam Jackson. As we prepared to sleep in the house that night, I kept coming back to that visitor’s question. Much differently than this visitor, I have always wondered if Adam Jackson was ever given a break from sleeping in the garret. Our garret is on the third floor. The fieldstone foundation keeps the cold of winter in this house, and the garret would have been quite frigid and had no fireplace. With the stone foundation and limited sun entering the house, it can be nice on the first floor of the house during the hottest days. The garret is a different story. In the summer, we don’t always take visitors up there, as it gets too hot and stuffy for people.

For the over 30 years that Adam had to live and work here, there is a work record for him in the colonial diary of Joshua Hempsted. While we know a lot about that work life, some of the most important information of Adam’s daily life remains unknown. Which room did he sleep in? What food was Adam Jackson given to eat each day? I wondered what he would think of this community sleepover, of the people gathering together to recognize his life and to think more about this place where he had to live and labor.

John Jay

Chief Justice John Jay

In the very early stages of the Slave Dwelling Project’s existence, I would find myself calling antebellum historic sites to request permission to spend a night in their slave dwellings. My limited knowledge of slave dwellings had me thinking that they were all located on plantations in southern states. Fast forward to now and we are vetting historic sites that are now calling us and seeking our service. We have gone as far west as Texas and as far north as Massachusetts spending nights in slave dwellings.

Suzanne Clary

I got the call from Suzanne Clary, President of the Board of Trustees for the Jay Heritage Center about a sleepover. Suzanne became aware of my trip to New London, Connecticut and thought that visiting Rye, New York would be a convenient add on to the trip. Prior to that call from Suzanne, I knew very little of Chief Justice John Jay. I have since learned that while he advocated for the freedom of enslaved people in the state of New York, he simultaneously enslaved people. As a lawyer, he wrestled with human rights versus property rights.

John Jay’s thought process assisted in granting gradual emancipation of enslaved people in the state of New York. Age was a factor, so gradual emancipation for the enslaved people on New York spanned 1799 – 1827.

Jay Estate

For the presentation at the Jay Heritage Center, I would not have the stage alone. I shared it with Dr. Larry Spruill, a history professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Decades earlier, Dr, Spruill did some research at the Bush Lyon Homestead in Port Chester that indicates that one of the buildings was an extant slave cabin. We visited the site, there we met Dave Thomas and Joan Grangenois-Thomas. Mr. Thomas reminded that he met me when I visited New Paltz, NY. In the absence of evidence of a chimney and not having access to the interior, I could not verify or deny Dr. Spruill’s conclusion that the small red building was a slave cabin. My recommendation to the stewards was to do some archaeological work along the wall to see if there is evidence of a place that a chimney was once attached to the building. 

From there we visited the African American cemetery that Dave Thomas and Joan Grangenois-Thomas are care takers. Formerly enslaved people are buried there. One member of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry is buried there. Important, because I am a Civil War reenactor of that regiment. At the cemetery, we met this random guy from New Orleans, Louisiana who was in search of and found the grave of a Civil War soldier who served at Port Hudson in Louisiana. When I told him that I was coming to New Orleans to spend a night in the Beauregard-Keys House, he gave me detailed information about the house. He was aware of the house being built for an auctioneer.

The public presentation was standing room only. While my presentation was general and about slavery that existed in this nation with an emphasis on northern states, Dr. Spruill’s presentation addressed slavery as it pertained to the Rye, New York area.

The property does not have an extant slave dwelling. Archaeology has proven where that structure once stood. A tour of the upper levels of the manor, revealed places where the enslaved could have slept. Those spaces were offered to me, but I chose to sleep on the bottom level on the nice, soft carpeting.

The house is undergoing major renovations with exposed wall beams throughout. My thrill was the powerful sources I encountered, John Jay’s letter contemplating freedom for enslaved people versus honoring the property rights of the enslavers. A manumission document granting an enslaved person his freedom was also powerful.
I very seldom sleep in slave dwellings alone anymore. The Jay manor would be that rare exception. Suzanne found herself a spot somewhere else in the vastness of the manor. The security guard patrolled. I was left alone in this vast room with my thoughts. Human rights versus property rights??????

Suzanne Clary

Reflections of Suzanne Clary.