We Make Learning Fun

The idea of spending nights in slave dwellings is not an easy concept for some. Even today there is often push back to the Slave Dwelling Project’s effort to honor the enslaved Ancestors. There are those among us who would much rather have the subject of slavery go away. Surprisingly, those people come in many hues of Black and White and all shades in between. In their minds, slavery is something we should get over. To those people, I say, lead, follow or get out of the way. Despite the resistance, there are those who embrace our mission. Not only do they embrace our mission, but they also do what is necessary to interact with us.

In October 2013, an article was written in Smithsonian magazine by Tony Horwitz titled: One Man’s Epic Quest to Visit Every Former Slave Dwelling in the United States. I met Tony when he was conducting research for his book titled Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. You can find my content in that book on pages 47 – 48, I am that Park Ranger at Fort Sumter. For the Smithsonian magazine article, Tony spent a night with me in a tabby slave cabin on Ossabaw Island, Georgia and Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia.

Current board member, Jonathan Williams saw that article. He contacted me with the idea of coming to McMichael High School where he was assistant principal to talk to students about the Slave Dwelling Project and about spending a night in a slave cabin at McCollum Farm. Since that initial trip, Jonathan Williams has hosted the Slave Dwelling Project three more times at the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, Cooleemee Plantation, and Old Salem.

This year’s visit would be a conglomeration of several elements of all those past sleepovers. We met at McMichael High School again where Jonathan is now principal. The plan was to brief the students there and then take them to visit McCollum Farm, Coolleemee Plantation and spend the night at Old Salem again. Our goal was to get the student to examine how slavery existed at all these sites through the landscape and built environment.

For me, McCollum Farm brought back memories of a slave cabin that was frightening. It has a dirt floor which is not appealing to me. It was also the place where I ate turtle stew for the first time, hated it. This time would be different, we did not have to sleep in the cabin, good because one of the students saw a snake crawling out of the cabin. The cabin was in bad shape when we slept there years ago and even worse shape now, demolition by neglect could be its fate if the deterioration is not arrested or reversed.

The meal this year would not be turtle stew but eggs, fish, hoecakes, and strawberries all cooked there on an open fire. To my amazement, the students were not finicky as I thought they would be and they gobbled the food down like champs.

The property owner, Mr. Dick Cartwright, was there and reminded us that descendants of the enslaved people are still granted access to the site by request. The big house was not occupied by tenants this time, so we explored its interior. I wanted the students to understand spatial segregation within the big house, in other words, how the enslaved people interacted in the big house with their enslavers. How did the enslaved people enter the space? Could they function within the space and not be seen if that was the wish of the enslaver? What do the buildings, including the big house, being constructed of hand-hewn logs tell us about its history? The buildings on this site are in desperate need of restoration but they are still standing.

Mr. Cartwright gave us a walking tour of the property and told us about his days growing tobacco on the property. This was special for me because it brought back memories of the days that I worked on tobacco farms in my hometown of Kingstree, South Carolina when I was young. There is even a tobacco barn on the property like many of which I climbed into to hang sticks of tobacco.

In contrast, Coolleemee Plantation was a much different experience. Historically, the Hairstons were among the richest enslavers in the state of North Carolina. In fact, the empire of the Hairston’s extended into the state of Virginia. The built environment on this site, as opposed to that of McCollum Farm, is a testament of that wealth. Moreover, the buildings on the Cooleemee property are well preserved. The big house was built of milled lumber. The bricks used were made there on site.

Like McCollum Farm, the current owner of Coolleemee Plantation, Spurgeon Foster, was on site to give us a private tour. The big house on this property is much grander than that of McCollum Farm and all the students were impressed by its magnificence. Its winding staircase is one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. I wanted the students to answer the same questions in understanding spatial segregation that existed in this space. How did the enslaved people enter the space? Could they function within the space and not be seen if that was the wish of the enslaver?

Even the outbuildings, kitchen, and smokehouse expressed wealth. I had no fear of sleeping in the slave cabin on that site when we visited years ago. 

Old Salem would be quite the experience for the students. Slavery there was different. The enslaved people were owned by the whole community. Imagine being community property and being rented out, the Moravians had some interesting beliefs.

Old Salem was full of activities for the students. The young men of the group dropped off their sleeping gear at Single Brothers House where they would spend the night. Single Brothers House, that name itself screams segregation. The young ladies would sleep in the tavern. Our first program was in the log church where we learned the history of Old Salem. This was followed by a program on gourds and how they were used historically by enslaved people. We also got a great lesson on the history of the banjo which was originally an African instrument.

Our dinner of chicken potpie and hoecakes was cooked in the hearth of the Single Brothers House. Some of the students assisted the cooks while others proceeded to the garden where they gathered ingredients for the meal. My observation of the students engaging in this element of the day gave me joy. All the students wanted a piece of the action as they were thoroughly engaged in their assignments and always looking for more activities of which to engage.

The campfire conversation was robust, we debriefed on some of the activities of which we were involved in throughout the day. The students were quite vocal in describing current day racism. The task of the adults was to help the students examine how today’s racism has a history that was rooted in some of the slavery that we examined at the sites that we visited.

We slept in our assigned spaces. We had a simple breakfast. We went our separate ways. There were hard lessons learned, but we had fun in the process.

A Tale of Three Properties by Prinny Anderson

With a busload of inquisitive students, the Slave Dwelling Project set off to explore three different environments in which enslaved people lived and worked – a smaller farm, a large plantation, and a town. We intended to learn about the locations, the landscape, and the agriculture and then think about what the working lives of the enslaved people might have been like and how their family and social connections might have been shaped by the environment.

Basic elements of the enslaved experience remained constant from one location to the other. The enslaved people were not free. They were required to work at the jobs their owners set for them, and they were required to live where their owners put them, with or without their family members. They could be sold away from home and family; they could be given as gifts; they were subject to the whims of any white person in their vicinity.

The smaller farm was slightly over 1,000 acres in extent, at its largest, located in the rolling hills of the piedmont, near enough to at least one farm owned by a relative, but otherwise at some distance from other farms and from town. The cash crop was tobacco, along with corn and wheat to be sold, and both livestock and crops grown for subsistence. Two hundred acres were under cultivation, and the rest of the land was either resting fallow or in wood lots.

Seventeen enslaved people lived near the owner’s family on the farm. There were 3 slave dwellings, one near the house and two farther away. Because the farm was small, the enslaved farm laborers most likely worked on all the crops, although a few may have been assigned exclusively to tobacco processing. One or two enslaved people would have been engaged in processing and preparing food for the owner’s family, building and repairing farm and household items, keeping house and looking after the children. Everyone would have worked hard, with the added exertion of frequently traversing the hilly landscape. We don’t know whether the owner, his wife and their children worked in the fields, in the farmyard, or in the house alongside their enslaved laborers, but that could have been the case. The small community of 17 would have been somewhat isolated, primarily with its own members for support, entertainment and conversation. Only travel to transport farm goods to market or to attend church services in town would have allowed for intermittent contact with other African Americans. The owner’s family may have had a few more chances to socialize in town, but everyone, black and white, was most likely isolated.

The large plantation we visited, Cooleemee, encompassed thousands of acres, with three miles of highway frontage, from the main gate to the river. Travel was as often by water as by land. The acreage is flatter than the piedmont land, with only gently rolling relief. One area has several springs which provided water for a set of rice fields.

There would probably have been more definite divisions of labor, with some enslaved people working in and around the big house and a few specialists such as a carpenter, grooms and hostlers, and a blacksmith. The majority of the enslaved community would have worked in an assigned set of fields, on the two or three crops that land supported, for many hours to produce the owner’s vast wealth. The main variety in their working lives would have been seasonal.

The size of the plantation meant that groups of enslaved people existed at distances from one another, living near the fields where they worked and not necessarily housed with family members. Family contact would have been intermittent, requiring travel around the plantation or even to another large neighboring property. Social isolation would have been the case for everyone, owners and enslaved. Only wagon drivers and boatmen who transported plantation goods to market would have gotten away. The owner’s family may have socialized during trips into the nearest town or if they went to a townhouse in Winston-Salem or Salisbury.

The urban environment of even a small town like Salem was very different from either the farm or the plantation. In town, enslaved people had more frequent contact with a greater number of people. The opportunities for family life and for ongoing friendships with other African Americans were enhanced through church attendance, which was central to life in a Moravian community, for free and enslaved, for black and white. As in the rural settings, there was differentiation of work assignments, with domestic work, specialized trades work, and farm labor, and some individual enslaved people may have carried out a variety of types of work while the work for others was more repetitious. In Salem, enslaved workers were not owned by individuals; they were owned by the church and rented out as needed. The disadvantage of this system, for the enslaved workers, was that husbands and wives and work-age children could be separated from each other by being rented out to different locations.

The outstanding differences across the three environments, for enslaved people, involved social and family life, having a variety of work assignments versus doing the same tasks every day, and physical proximity between enslavers and enslaved people. All three environments were a mix of positive and negative features for their enslaved inhabitants.

Jon Williams – Principal, Dalton L. McMichael High School, Mayodan, NC

Five years ago, I learned about the Slave Dwelling Project from a copy of the Smithsonian Magazine in my daughter’s orthodontist’s office. I was teaching high school social studies at the time, and I read about Joseph McGill who has set out to stay in every extant slave dwelling still standing in the United States. I was fascinated by this project and the purpose of bringing to light the contributions of the people who lived in the “Little House” behind the “Big House.” As a history teacher, I constantly was looking for ways to make learning relevant and real to my students, and the work of Joe McGill was doing just that for so many students, educators, community members and others. I then contacted Joe and planned a visit of the Slave Dwelling Project to stay in my home county in a slave dwelling that had long been forgotten.

Since that time, I have transitioned from being a teacher to an administrator. I have now planned five educational experiences for my students at McMichael High School, William Ellis Middle School, Walkertown High School, and back again at McMichael with the Slave Dwelling Project. My experiences have come full circle as this overnight included a full day’s activities where we visited three sites where my students had had previous visits – McCollum Farm (Madison, NC), Cooleemee Plantation (Advance, NC), and Old Salem Museum and Gardens (Winston-Salem, NC).

As all overnight experiences with the Slave Dwelling Project, this one was special in its own way. It was the culmination of the five years I have been working with Joe on visits. We were able to coordinate with many people to secure visits to the three sites, and it was unique in that students and staff could see three different landscapes and types of buildings used to enslave people. McCollum Farm served as a great example of rural slavery with a more modest farmhouse, outbuildings, and one still standing slave cabin. Cooleemee served as a great example of plantation slavery with the beautiful big house, outbuildings, and one remaining restored cabin. And, Old Salem Museum and Gardens served as a great example of spaces where urban slavery would take place.

The participants on this trip were able to get a glimpse of the places where slavery occurred and also experience sleeping in a place where slaves once stayed. The project is growing and growing. The work is important work, and I am thankful for Joe and his vision of bringing to light the true history of these spaces. I look forward to next year for another great visit of sharing histories, experiencing history first hand, and introducing more people to the Slave Dwelling Project.

McMichael Student – Selena Zenquist

The Slave Dwelling project was a very interesting trip. I didn’t know what to expect when we got to Old Salem or even the other sites. When we got to McCollum Farm it was really cool seeing the people in their clothes and cooking like they would back then. Their site was older but it really has the sense of the past. The other place was Cooleemee Plantation, they had a more maintained property. The house was beautiful as well as the yard, the slave cabin was something I would even stay in, it was nicer than the first site. Now the last site Old Salem was a time machine. When we first got there, we went to where we were sleeping, which was on the top floor of the Tavern. And the boys slept in the Single Brothers building. We had also gone to the first church that was set up like a museum which had some stories of slaves. And the other church had a graveyard in the front but when we walked in it was more of a traditional church but also a museum. There they also had the younger ones upstairs learning, and you could see their chairs and attendance records. For me the best part was cooking, some girls split up and either cooked or went to the garden. The kitchen was lit up by a couple of candles and it was really nice. Later that night we went and talked around the fire then went to bed. Which was not that great cause it was so hot but overall the experience was cool to go through.

McMichael Student – Taylor Priddy

To me, the trip was amazing cause I got to see places I probably would’ve never seen! Also because I’ve always been a bit of a history geek so seeing these places and hearing about the memories of it and its people was just amazing! For sure it is a trip I will never forget and made some awesome memories with my friends there that I will forever cherish! So, I thank the Slave Dwelling Project for the amazing opportunity they gave me!

McMichael Exchange Student – Khondaker “Sam” Rashid (Bangladesh)

This trip was one of my highlights during this school year. As an exchange student, it was great to see and experience this part of American history and learn about the lives of the slaves. My favorite part of the trip was the instrumental part because it was interesting to see what the instruments were like in their primitive stages.

McMichael Guidance Secretary and Chaperone – Tracie Jones

The trip that we took to the slave dwellings was very eye-opening. I cannot imagine living as the slaves did year after year. It was hard to hear all the heartache these people went through. After sleeping on a hard floor for only one night was devastating to my whole entire body. Each dwelling we visited showed the vast differences. I have a new found appreciation to all who were enslaved and deeply sorry for what they went through. I believe this type of field trip would be great for any age group. I do believe we have come a long way, but there is still a ways to go when it comes to racism. I pray that God put a love for all in everyone’s heart. We must continue to teach our children that God made us all and that no one is better than the next person. Thanks to all the slave dwellings/plantations that allowed McMichael High to visit and learn from our past.

McMichael Social Studies Teacher – Don Bredamus

What a privilege it was to accompany some of my students on the Slave Dwelling Project trip. There was a deep satisfaction, as a teacher, in seeing the students grow in their understanding of the lives of slaves in America. Many of the realities of the slave experience were driven home to the students in a hands-on manner.

Professionally, the opportunity to walk the paths slaves used, to eat some of the seasonal food slaves ate, and to sleep where slaves slept broadened my understanding of the slave experience, enriching my teaching. Personally, I was moved by the narratives we were exposed to; whether it was the experience of 17 enslaved people living in a small number of rough huts, three hundred enslaved people living within eyesight of a beautiful big house, or one hundred and forty Moravian slaves being lent out by the church leadership. The story of suffering people overcoming tremendous obstacles is inspirational and experiencing first-hand just a few of those obstacles drove home my need to know more in order to accurately understand our history.

Mr. McGill and the other Slave Dwelling Project leaders are to be credited for their work in bringing the reality of the slave experience to students and teachers, increasing our understanding of what slaves went through and grappling with the questions of the relationship between those experiences and how they impact our thinking today. I am grateful to have had this unique opportunity.