{"id":30556,"date":"2024-03-14T15:27:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T19:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30556"},"modified":"2024-03-14T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T19:29:30","slug":"historic-buildings-and-the-stories-they-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/historic-buildings-and-the-stories-they-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic buildings and the stories they tell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Furman Department of History, in collaboration with the Upstate Preservation Trust<\/a>, will host Joseph McGill Jr. in a lecture about the Slave Dwelling Project<\/a> Monday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m. in Daniel Memorial Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public. Registration is requested at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McGill is founder and executive director of the Slave Dwelling Project and coauthor with Herb Frazier of \u201cSleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footsteps of Slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill\u2019s remarks will draw from his book and his multiple experiences spending the night in former slave dwellings across the state of South Carolina and throughout the U.S. Since 2010, McGill has spent more than 250 nights in extant slave dwellings at 150 sites covering 25 states and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

Lane Harris<\/a>, chair of the Furman Department of History, said it\u2019s important to bolster awareness about all aspects of our history, and slave dwellings are part of the narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Furman\u2019s Seeking Abraham Project<\/a>, the Slave Dwelling Project is attempting to tell the broader story of enslaved people that has been overlooked or ignored in the conventional histories of Upstate South Carolina,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McGill will discuss the time he spent at Furman\u2019s Cherrydale Alumni House<\/a>, a summer home of James Clement Furman, the university\u2019s first president. The home and acreage comprised a 1,200-acre plantation and remained Furman\u2019s and his wife\u2019s residence from 1857 until James\u2019s passing in 1891.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Sam Hayes ’20.<\/p><\/div>\n

McGill will also address UPT\u2019s acquisition and preservation of Oakland Plantation<\/a> in nearby Simpsonville. The purchase of the property was made possible through $1.2 million in grants from the South Carolina Conservation Bank and Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust. It includes a plantation house dating to 1823, a two-story cabin for enslaved people and nine other buildings. The cabin is one of three remaining in Greenville County, said Sam Hayes, UPT cofounder and board chairman and a 2020 Furman history alumnus.<\/p>\n

Harris said the collaboration with UPT to host McGill is essential for the wider community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in Sam and the mission of the Upstate Preservation Trust to safeguard these historic sites,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe hope people will gain a greater appreciation of the importance of local history and Mr. McGill\u2019s tireless efforts to amplify the voices of enslaved people. There\u2019s nothing more powerful than a local experience to help people understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

See related stories about Sam Hayes<\/a> and Upstate Preservation Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Furman History Department and Upstate Preservation Trust host Joseph McGill Jr. who sheds light on African American history by spending nights in buildings that housed enslaved people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":30559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,42],"tags":[2618,2623,2619,2617,2622,2620,237,2621,2624],"class_list":["post-30556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-history","tag-african-american-history","tag-cherrydale-alumni-house","tag-enslaved-americans","tag-extant-slave-dwellings","tag-oakland-plantation","tag-plantations","tag-seeking-abraham","tag-slave-dwelling-project","tag-upstate-preservation-trust"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}