Area Historic Sites Partner With Slave Dwelling Project In Louisville

Press release from the City of Louisville:

October 10, 2020

On October 15, Joe McGill, Jr. of the Slave Dwelling Project will join area historic sites Farmington Historic Plantation, Historic Locust Grove, Oxmoor Farm Foundation, and Riverside, the Farnsley-Moremen Landing for an inaugural collaborative event to highlight the history of slavery at these respective sites, and how that history is relevant today in Louisville and beyond.

Joe McGill, Jr. is an educator, Civil War reenactor, and descendant of enslaved people. The Slave Dwelling Project began in 2010 at Magnolia Plantation in South Carolina and has since spread to 23 states on one-hundred-fifty historic sites. McGill’s work has focused on changing the narrative, one slave dwelling at a time, as he attempts to spend the night in every former slave dwelling still standing in the United States. The Slave Dwelling Project has attracted national attention, and McGill has been interviewed for The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Curbed, and HistoryNet.

“It is a pleasure that through this pandemic, historic sites are still building relationships with the descendants of enslaved people,” states Joe McGill. McGill first visited Louisville in August 2019 for a series of events at Locust Grove. These four local historic sites are planning for this first virtual event to usher in a series of events, both in person and online, in the coming months. This event is made possible with support from Kentucky Humanities, Montgomery Realtors, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

This virtual event will take place over Zoom on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30 pm.

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased online here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slave-dwelling-project-engaging-descendant-.... All proceeds from this event will be used for future collaborative conversations within the historic home community in Louisville.

This press release was produced by the City of Louisville. The views expressed here are the author’s own.