I recall that at the onset of the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, one of my unwritten rules was that I would only seek to spend nights in extant slave dwellings located in the places where they were originally built. As an employee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation at that time, it was the preservationist in me leading my thoughts. Context is important in maintaining historical integrity. Had I held true to that rule, I would not have slept at three presidential, and several national, state and local historic sites.

When your own idea becomes bigger than you, sometimes fate takes over. When the Slave Dwelling Project was in its infancy, C. Preston Cooley and his lovely wife Bonnie were my coworkers at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, SC. Both Preston and Bonnie have been employed at the Dallas Heritage Village in Dallas, Texas for the past six years. Many of the historic buildings at that site were moved there from elsewhere.

Early in 2018, Preston contacted me about the Slave Dwelling Project coming to the Dallas Heritage Village. What was unusual about the request was that Preston also wanted some members of the living history team to accompany me on the trip. This would be an expensive endeavor, because in addition to paying honorariums, there would be airplane tickets involved for me, a cook, blacksmith, brick maker and storyteller. Preston did not balk at the prospect. So, on went the planning. I had travelled out of state with members of the living historians before, but never with more than two of us flying. Our planning team of Prinny Anderson, Jerome Bias and me, would be challenged in coordinating this trip. Entered Lisa Lopez, Director of Visitor Experience at the Dallas Heritage Village. She took on the challenge and helped to make it happen.

The Dallas Heritage Village is on a quest to change its narrative. Gone will be the days of interpreting the history of the site only from the perspective of the enslavers. The Dallas Heritage Village is preparing to go to a place in its interpretation that many sites refuse to go. Despite that hesitation by some sites, the Slave Dwelling Project has worked with many sites that are doing a fantastic job of disseminating a complete narrative to its audience. To that end, the Slave Dwelling Project can assist with interpreting the antebellum history of the Dallas Heritage Village.

This trip to the state of Texas would not be the first to sleep in slave dwellings. In 2011, I visited Egypt Plantation in Egypt and Seward Plantation in Brenham.

This trip to Texas would be intense. I always ask my host to maximize my time that I am with them. A trip to the Jackie Townsell Bear Creek Heritage Center was in order. 

A group of nearly one hundred diverse people attended a lecture about the Slave Dwelling Project at the Irving Art Center. Time constraint did not allow all the people who wanted to ask questions to do so, a good problem to have. One participant wrote this blog.

Dallas Heritage Village

The conversation around the campfire before the sleepover was a group of about thirty-five people which made for an interesting conversation. Most of the campfire participants were staff members of the Dallas Heritage Village with a few other invited guests. They were there to get morsels of information of how to interpret slavery at their site. Some of that information was weaved throughout the conversation. Surprising to me was that a lot of local African American history was disseminated. The conversation went on as our cook, Jerome Bias, used the open fire to cook corn bread in two Dutch ovens. Although it was Winter in Texas, the night was exceptionally cold, so the campfire was definitely needed.

Surprisingly, no one introduced themselves as being descendants of slave owners, nor did anyone mention it during the conversation. Playing the odds, I knew that some of them had to be descendants of slave owners. Revealing the descendants of slave owners is something that I am accustomed to in such settings. It is not that I ask people to include this information in their introduction, but sometime during the conversations, this fact is usually revealed without my prompting.

Despite slave owning ancestors not being discussed, the conversation was still rich. Some of that content will be revealed in accounts by others who shared the experience.

Only three people would sleep with me in the cabin. Luckily, the cabin had a functional fireplace and was sealed tightly. I got up three times during the night to put wood on the fire. I thought about enslaved people who may have slept in the big house on pallets, their purpose was not to keep the fire going at night for the warmth of themselves, but for those who enslaved them.

Dallas Heritage Village

Morning and off to the hotel to shower and don my period outfit. Dontavius, cook and story teller, prepares breakfast on the fire that I kept going all night. Bacon, eggs and hoe cakes were prepared for the living historians and staff. Our light source was electric, but Dontavius and I pondered trying to make breakfast inside the cabin with the light source historically being candles or a lantern. That experience makes one realize why a lot of the cooking was done outside and in a communal fashion for the enslaved.

The living historians took their stations. Jerome Bias, the lead cook; Dontavius, assistant cook and story teller; Gilbert Walker, blacksmith; Rodney Prioleau, brick maker, they all had an option to spend the night with me and others in the slave cabin, but they all chose their hotel room instead. The visiting public interacting with the living historians would be experiencing the site from the point of view of the enslaved.

Gilbert Walker, Blacksmith, Photograph by John Lehman

The audience was sporadic. Interpreting the cabin space generally and telling people about the Slave Dwelling Project was my responsibility. Many of the visitors had visited the site before. A great percentage of the African Americans were visiting the site for the first time. The exchanges made me aware that a large percentage of the visitors had consumed a history that glorified the enslavers. The interpretation by our living historians countered that history of which most of those visitors were accustomed.

Jerome Bias

Our last morning at the site was a debrief. Over a breakfast prepared in the hearth by Jerome Bias, the living historians discussed with the Dallas Heritage Village staff, the impact of our visit and how the Village will continue to move forward with changing its narrative. We all made a verbal commitment that we can all move forward together.

Elizabeth Qualia
Curator of Collections & Interpretation
Dallas Heritage Village

The Miller Cabin, Dallas Heritage Village

When I first heard a description of the Slave Dwelling Project, I thought: what a unique experience! I want to sleep in a slave dwelling. Then the more I learned about what would be required of me that weekend as curator I began to flip-flop. Did I really want to stay the night? Would I be able to handle Saturday’s events on less sleep than I’m used to? Couldn’t I do it next year? Did I know too much about the cabin? Ultimately the appeal of the experience was too much of a draw and I decided to spend the night in our Miller Cabin.

Dallas Heritage Village

I learned a lot from the campfire conversation and during the living history portion of the weekend. I was very pleased at the number of people who braved the cold to be there. Yes, it does get cold in Texas. I feel ours was a more academic conversation than sometimes seen (of course I’ve never been to any others). I was reminded of the power of language and how terminology evolves. It can give agency or take it away, ie: “enslaved” instead of “slave.” Being the curator at DHV I am very aware of my responsibility to make sure the organization uses the best language to tell our stories.

Then came the sleep over. I felt like I was pretty well prepared. I had my sleeping bag and pillow. I even had music to help me relax. We had a fire going to stave off the frigid air. It was pretty cozy and certainly not the worst “camping” experience I’ve ever had.

As I lay on the wooden floor, snuggled in my sleeping bag, nose freezing cold despite the fire, with music playing softly in my ears, I tried to calm my mind and think about the people who used this log cabin as a home. I was glad I was sleeping by the fire and thought about how miserably cold the loft would be. I tried my best to imagine the daily life contained in those walls.

The cabin we slept in has been many things: a frontier dwelling, a pioneer’s family house, a neighborhood school, the home of enslaved people, a home of freed people, and now it is a persevered historical structure and a museum exhibit. With all of this in mind the names of two former occupants stood out to me that night: Arch and Charlotte who lived there before and after emancipation (1865 in Texas). My mind began to chant: Arch and Charlotte… Arch and Charlotte… Arch and Charlotte. At some point the words changed to: you won’t be forgotten… you won’t be forgotten…

I made a promise that night. Don’t ask me if it was to Arch and Charlotte or if it was a promise to myself; I don’t know and I don’t think it matters. It’s a promise I intend to keep.

Melissa Prycer
President & Executive Director

Millermore, Dallas Heritage Village

After 15 years at Dallas Heritage Village, I’ve done a little bit of everything around here. Except one thing: I had never spent the night in one of our historic buildings. With Joe’s visit, I knew I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.

Dallas Heritage Village

We have around 20 exhibit buildings at DHV, and Miller Cabin doesn’t make many visitors’ Top 10 lists. It’s small and usually the first stop during a visit. It was the white Miller family’s first home when they arrived in Texas in 1847. After Millermore was completed in 1862, Arch and Charlotte, two of the enslaved, lived there with their family. After emancipation, it continued to be a home for various workers, and we know that a descendent of the enslaved lived there as late as 1940. It was a home for African Americans far longer than it was a home for pioneers.

We’re in the middle of a major reinterpretation project of Millermore and the cabin. Though no final decisions have been made yet, I have a feeling we’ll be talking much less about the frontier story and much more about all the people that made their home there over the years.

I didn’t sleep well that night. I was grateful to have a cot, but it was cold that night by Texas standards (low 40s). The fireplace didn’t do quite as much as we were hoping, and my face was freezing. I thought of the many, many people that have also slept in that cabin over the years—white and black, young and old. I thought about the weather. Though we were cold, I definitely don’t want to invite Joe to come back in July or August!

And though I didn’t get much sleep, I did wake up reinvigorated. This reinterpretation project has already expanded beyond our original scope, but I had been spending most of my time thinking about how to expand the stories told at Millermore. I was passing by the little cabin just like so many of our visitors. But after spending the night, I think we’re all thinking differently about Miller Cabin—and what stories should be told in that space.