WELCOME

The 8th national Slave Dwelling Project Conference took place October 3-5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in collaboration with University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies. This year’s theme,The Illusion of Freedom: Slavery in the Northern States explored American chattel slavery that was present in northern states prior to, and after the American Revolutionary War in the 1780s. While gradual emancipation began after the Revolution, the complicity of northern states allowed the institution of enslavement to persist nationally. Current American ideology purports the North’s role in the American Revolution, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War as asylum for the enslaved–nothing could be further from the truth. Less is known about northern participation in chattel slavery that existed in the United States and the legacy of chattel slavery that continues to disenfranchise the African American population and contribute to systemic racism. The 8th conference of the Slave Dwelling Project, the first in a northern state, examined those roles as the nation prepares for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution in 2026.

Banner Image: Interpretation of “Scenes in cotton field – Blacks picking; White men watching; large factory in background” with a 1777 Philadelphia map all courtesy of LOC.gov.

CONFERENCE DETAILS

The 8th SDP Conference featured an engaging keynote address by Michael Harriot, hosted by the McNeil Center at the University of Pennsylvania. A columnist at theGrio and a staff writer on The Amber Ruffin Show and author of Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America.  His work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC, BET, and on his mother’s refrigerator. He is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and CNN and earned the National Association of Black Journalists Award for digital commentary as well as TV news writing. Participants had the opportunity to participate in more than 40 informative and enlightening sessions by many notable scholars and historians in historic Philadelphia, PA with many off-site experiences as well. This year’s conference took place October 3–5, 2024 at both the Museum of the American Revolution and the Philadelphia Marriott Old City. 

Significant funding for the conference has been generously provided by

Additional support for the conference has been generously provided by

The 2024 Slave Dwelling Project Conference is the 8th National Conference. Previous Conferences include the following:

• Savannah, Georgia Preserving Sacred Places (2014)
• North Charleston, South Carolina A History Denied: Preserving Tangible Evidences of Slave Dwellings (2015)
• Columbia, South Carolina Using Extant Slave Dwellings to Change the Narrative (2016)
• Charlottesville, Virginia (2017)
• Middle Tennessee State University Slavery, Resistance, and Community (2018)
• Virtual held with Clemson University Changing Narratives in Changing Times (2021)
• Charleston, South Carolina The Stono Rebellion and the Atlantic World (2022)