Chasing the footprints of the chattel slavery that gripped this nation takes members of the Slave Dwelling Project to some interesting places. Some of these places are welcoming and do a great job of interpreting the stories of the people who were enslaved there, however, this concept of changing the narrative is new and resisted by some. The challenge of confronting incomplete narratives is exacerbated by ignorance of the subject matter or denial that slavery existed in that place we seek to spend nights in extant slave dwellings. The chase also allows for some interesting bonds to be developed between the Slave Dwelling Project, individuals, and entities. A recent trip to Missouri and Kansas would prove interesting.
Chris Lese
After eight years of spending nights in extant slave dwellings at historic sites throughout the United States, there are still some who still don’t get the intent of the Slave Dwelling Project. There are also those who think that the Slave Dwelling Project’s method of honoring the enslaved Ancestor may be a little too “in your face.” While there is that existence of deniers, there is also Chris Lese. Since 2013, I have met history teacher, Chris Lese, and his class at various places in the United States to sleep in slave dwellings. These sleepovers have been conducted in the states of South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Wisconsin respectively. A trip to New York City was postponed and is pending rescheduling.
Chris Lese and Joseph McGill
After each school year, Chris embarks on these journeys and I have been fortunate enough to have joined him and his students and chaperones. This year Chris planned a ten-day excursion with stops at historic sites in Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. Unfortunately, my travel schedule would only allow me to hang out with the group for the first two days of the trip in Missouri and Kansas.
2018 Western
Civil War Adventure
Monday – Day 1, May 28 (Memorial Day):
*4:30 am Leave MUHS Parking lot – Eat breakfast & bring a Bagged lunch
Rock Island, IL 8:00 Rock Island Confederate Prison Camp
Springdale, IA John Brown, Union Cemetery/Slaves
Kearney, MO 3:00 Outlaw Jesse James Farm Tour
Pleasant Green, MO Burwood Plantation
6:00 pm Meet up With Historian Joe McGill
Sleep: Burwood Plantation Slave Cabins
Tuesday – Day 2, May 29: Burwood Plantation Tour of Surrounding Area
Osawatomie, Kansas 10:30 Tour John Brown Museum & Historic Site
Topeka, WI 2:00 Brown Vs Board of Education
Sleep: Lecompton Museum
Wednesday – Day 3, May 30th
Junction City Buffalo Soldier Monument
Nicodemus Nicodemus Reconstruction Community
Sleep: Eads, CO Methodist Church
Thursday – Day 4, May 31st
Sand Creek, CO Sand Creek Massacre National Battlefield
La Junta, CO Bents Old Fort
Denver, CO Black American West Museum
Laramie, WY Fort Laramie
Sleep: Fort Robinson, Nebraska
Friday – Day 5, June 1:
Sleep: Fort Robinson Officer’s Quarters, Nebraska
Saturday – Day 6, June 2:
Buffalo, WY Fort Phil Kearney Historic Site
Fetterman Massacre Site
Crow Agency, MT Little Bighorn Battlefield
Sleep: Little Bighorn Campground, Crow Agency, Montana
Sunday – Day 7, June 3:
Black Hills, SD Swimming, Natural stone Waterslides
Mt. Rushmore National Park/Crazy Horse
Devil’s Tower National Park
Sleep: Black Hills State University Dorms, Spearfish South Dakota
Monday – Day 8, June 4:
Wall, SD Minuteman Nuclear Missile Site, Near Wall, SD
• Delta-01 Launch Control Facility Tour
• Delta-09 missile silo
Eagle Butte, SD Cheyenne Reservation
Sleep: Eagle Butte Dorms
Tuesday – Day 9, June 5:
New Ulm, MN Civil War Sioux Uprising
Sleep: Flandrau State Park, New Ulm Minnesota
Wednesday – Day 10, June 6:
Drive Home To MUHS
John Brown
For these excursions to work, willing stewards of historic properties must be involved and willing to allow us to utilize their property not only as a classroom but also as a place for a sleepover. These are highly unusual requests which, if granted, gives the Slave Dwelling Project its distinction. We both looked for slave dwellings in Kansas but were unsuccessful.
Vicki McCarrell
We met at Burwood Plantation in Pilot Grove, Missouri. I have known the owner, Vicki McCarrell, from a prior sleepover there in 2011, my first venture into the state with the Slave Dwelling Project. Vicki and I also got to hang out together when I attended the Missouri Preservation Conference in 2015. Vicki is now retired and an avid traveler. When we made the request for the sleepover on her private property she did not hesitate to grant us permission. Yes, Vicki gets it.
Everyone arrived at the site at the appointed time, four van loads containing Chris, students, and chaperones. Some of the young men and chaperones, I knew from previous trips. The extant slave dwelling was the only one of five still standing on Vicki’s property and could not accommodate all the students and their chaperones, so tents were pitched accordingly. Having already spent a night in the dwelling, I had a choice of sleeping there or the big house which, unlike the slave dwelling, was built after the Civil War. Maybe they were expecting more, but the property is encroached upon by farmland and a highway, so calling it a plantation might be an exaggeration or misleading. The slave dwelling’s close proximity to where the original big house was located is an indication that the original enslaved inhabitants serviced the big house that was on the property at the time the slave cabin was built.
A tour of a nearby local cemetery revealed that there are people buried there who were born during the time of slavery. It was highly likely, that some of those formerly enslaved people buried in that cemetery were enslaved at Burwood Plantation, where we would spend the night. A headstone was toppled prior to us getting there, an effort to lift it back into place by the young men was unsuccessful. My fear of ticks began to dominate my thoughts. The church associated with the cemetery is on the property and is in an advanced state of demolition by neglect which is a constant threat to the African American built environment.
The rural location of Burwood Plantation dictated that pizzas from the local Casey’s would be our dinner.
Vicki McCarrell
Our conversation would be in response to my and homeowner Vicki McCarrell’s presentation to the group. I spoke on the Slave Dwelling Project and Vicki spoke on the slavery that existed at Burwood Plantation. The presence of the enslaved who inhabited the property is well documented and Vicki was unhesitatingly forthcoming with the information. It sparked some interesting questions from some interesting students.
We also visited Pleasant Green Plantation. I spent a night there in the slave cabin when I visited in 2011.
John Brown
Chris and my effort in finding an extant slave dwelling in the state of Kansas proved fruitless, although we know that there were enslavers who were inhabitants. One can easily speculate that historically having enslaved people so close to abolitionists would not be a wise move, hence bleeding Kansas.
John Brown
The actions of John Brown were hot and heavy in Kansas’ effort to become a state. We visited the John Brown Museum Historic Site in Osawatomie, Kansas. Our method of getting there was different and interesting to me. While travelling through Missouri, we did this odd thing of going onto an unpaved road lined with white rocks which made lots of white dust. This road went on for miles. It would cross other paved roads and still go on for more miles, something I had never experienced before. It gave me a lot of time to think about why the NAACP would have a current travel ban in Missouri. Although, alone in my vehicle, I was thankful that I was among a convoy of 4 others.
John Brown
The cabin that John Brown inhabited while in Kansas is located inside the museum. In fact, the cabin is the museum. The interpretation there is far from sugarcoated and satisfied my way of thinking. Anyone with a revisionist view of history would not do well at this museum. Chris and I left there with a verbal commitment for a future sleepover inside the cabin. The floor space inside that cabin is minimal, many tents would have to be pitched on the grounds of the museum to accommodate the overflow, but we’ve done this before at many historic sites.
Brown Versus the Board of Education
A trip to Kansas would not be complete without a trip to Brown versus the Board of Education, a National Park Service site located in Topeka, Kansas. How embarrassing it was to have to admit again among the students that my home state of South Carolina again was on the wrong side of history in the Briggs versus Elliott case which became part of the Brown versus the Board of Education supreme court case. John C. Calhoun, Preston Brooks, Ben Tillman, Dillon Roof are all men who prove that South Carolina has a long history of committing acts aimed to, oppress other than them and their kind, and, to promote White supremacy.
Lecompton, Kansas
In chasing the footprints of slavery, sometimes I spend nights in buildings that do not fit the category of a slave dwelling. The Old Charleston Jail and the Old Exchange Building both in Charleston, SC are such buildings. The Brentsville Jail and the Lee County Courthouse both in Virginia are also building that are not former slave dwellings. Although, not former slave dwellings, they are on the periphery of the Slave Dwelling Project’s mission. We spent a night at the Lecompton Museum.
Lecompton, Kansas
The museum has an interesting story. When Kansas was vying to become a state, Lecompton was vying to become its capital. Lecompton’s attempt to become the state’s capital was so serious that a constitution that would allow Kansas to enter the Union as a slave state was drafted there. Luckily, the constitution was never adopted. Amazingly, we witnessed a reenactment of the proceedings. The audience participated in the reenactment based on the side of the room they sat. Just my luck, I sat on the side that was proslavery. My first instinct was to move to the other side of the room, but that would have made my bias obvious, so I let the situation play itself out and amazingly, I was satisfied with this form of living history.
Our conversation that night covered all the places that we visited that day. There was one young man in the group who was convinced that not all slave owners were bad people and he defended his position well. In the past, while interacting with this group, I’ve always had at least one person who disagreed with my way of thinking. My most memorable disagreement with a member of the group was on our trip to northern Virginia and me stating that I would have been in Nat Turner’s camp when he conducted his slave revolt. This encounter was what I love most about hanging out with this group.
Chris Lese and I are already planning our trip for 2019. Should we do Harpers Ferry, West Virginia or the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia? Chris had another thought, let’s do Cuba!
Before I took my flight back to Charleston, SC, I gave myself a treat. I visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Vicki McCarrell, Pleasant Green, MO
Burwood Plantation
It was a pleasure to share the history of Missouri’s Little Dixie Region,
especially the former Burwood Plantation, with 20 students and 5 teachers
from Milwaukee. To watch the eyes of young men seeing graves of slaves and
the church that their children worshiped in, made me smile. These
youngsters soaked up the history, asked questions, slept in a slave
dwelling and enjoyed being part of the history of this area. Good for them
– and for their teachers and Joe McGill, who keep this history alive.