Thank you, Caroline!  This is a moving piece that brings great hope for what the future will hold as we think about bringing attention to slave dwellings and their first occupants. It is great to see descendants take part.  We appreciate you sharing the history of Nacoochee Valley as well as the impact of The Slave Dwelling Project experience at the African American Heritage Site at the Sautee Nacoochee Center.  We published Attention to Slave Dwellings:  "By any means necessary,"  by Joseph McGill, Jr, for those who may have missed it. 

Robin Foster

About Our Freedom

"It's Living History" in Nacoochee Valley

Submitted by, Caroline Crittenden, project coordinator

In 1822, slaves came to Nacoochee Valley in Northeast Georgia against their will with the early white settlers to clear and cultivate the land in corn fields, gold mines and mills of wealthy white landowners. There were 462,198 slaves in Georgia in 1860 according to the federal census. In that same year, 263 black people in bondage were reported in White County.

"We were worked in all weathers,” wrote Frederick Douglass. “It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night. The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights too long for him.”

One hundred and fifty years after emancipation, the descendants of a slave owner in Nacoochee Valley preserved slave dwelling, an antebellum artifact, and the impact of a “peculiar institution” on Nacoochee Valley during that dark moment in our nation’s history. Descendants of slaves, who still live in the Bean Creek community nearby, also wanted this cabin preserved as a “memorial and sacred space” where their stories and cultural traditions would be interpreted from the African American perspective. According to the blind matriarch in Bean Creek, “If we don’t keep this history alive and preserve what’s left, our children and grandchildren will never know the history and hardships of our ancestors.”

And so it was, on April 27 at the African American Heritage Site at the Sautee Nacoochee Center.

A re-enactment about runaway slaves who became black Union soldiers and a presentation about the Slave Dwelling Project in front of the Nacoochee slave cabin was the kind of program envisioned by those who have been so deeply involved in this preservation project.  

Collaborators from Bean Creek were enthralled by the re-enactment and reassured that this project is guided by a determination to honor this unique heritage, a shared legacy of slavery, and a desire to strengthen the ties that bind. 

Proud to play his part, Bean Creek resident Lawrence Dorsey participated for the first time as a re-enactor, a silent back drop for Joseph McGill’s program. Lighting lanterns and tending the fire, Lawrence was a freedman wearing a hand-stitched block shirt made from 1850 fabric.

As the sun set behind the cabin and dusk descended, the lanterns hanging from tree branches drew our attention toward the black soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment Volunteer Infantry. The audience was transported to the nineteenth century by figures assembled in front of the rustic cabin with authentic military uniforms, guns and equipment used during the fight for freedom.

Echoes of “Am I Not a Man” were words once uttered by Frederick Douglass during the War, “If anyone asks if a slave would fight, tell him no. If anyone asks if a Negro would fight, tell him yes.” Recounting the assault on Morris Island and the battle at Battery Wagner, Joseph McGill told of the terrible loss of life suffered by the 54^th, which ultimately proved that former slaves serving as black soldiers would fight ferociously for freedom. More the 200, 000 black soldiers fought on the battle fields of freedom because the 54^th did not falter from fear or fatigue. “Tell them we did not fight with our backs to the enemy. We died facing forward!”

When re-enactor James Brown began his harrowing account as a runaway slave, recaptured and tortured and undaunted, he captured the crowd’s attention with the BOOM of a black powder rifle, like those used by black soldiers in blue. “Before I be a slave, I be buried in my grave,” he wailed. The re-enactors’ performance of story telling and the Slave Dwelling program was compelling.

Questions during the “talk-back” (Q&A) session ranged from the Slave Dwelling Project, to paraphernalia worn by soldiers during the Civil War, to the suffering of people in bondage, to other slave dwellings in Georgia. When the program ended, the audience toured the cabin by the light of a fire and lanterns to examine the furnishings, to read the “interpretive laundry” and talk to the Joseph McGill and James Brown before night fell.

The highlight of the evening for me was being with a small group who gathered with Joseph and James in the cabin long after the audience was gone. I was grateful for the time and attention they devoted to Bean Creek residents Sabrina Dorsey and Stacey Allen as they shared their personal experiences with overt and latent racism, with discrimination as children and as adults.

McGill’s presence and his performance provided an opportunity for Sabrina to uncork bottled up feelings in the intimate setting and safety of the cabin with Joe and James and Stacey that night. Another companion, Sabina’s contemporary and classmate, shared her "ah haaah" moments, when her social consciousness was awakened, as a young white college student, by dramatic scenes of police brutality and instances of social injustice during the Civil Rights era. 

Andy Allen was pleased that her son Stacey shared the experience and spent the night with Joe and James. As a close personal friend, I was moved by the way Stacey “took” to Mr. McGill and Mr. Brown, like a child watching in wonder, soaking up wisdom and oral history, sitting on the knees of his elders.

Stacey embraced his junior status role and nickname "Youngblood" as he sat quietly rocking by the flickering fire, poking embers, nursing his pipe, listening intently to Joe and James, absorbing the "awesome" experience, and sipping some “Oh, Be Joyful” (Brown’s brandy). 

Stacey settled in for the evening as though that cabin were his home. For all intents and purposes, it could be his ancestral home, and it will be there for his grandchildren. Indeed, it may have been the same or a similar dwelling for one or more of his ancestors who lived in bondage. 

I quietly savored every moment, every expression, but sensed that Joe and James might like to pursue their conversation in private with those young impressionable people. It was a magical evening, and I was privileged to have been a part of it. Framed by an open door, the soft glow of lanterns created silhouettes of the black figures gathered within the cabin as I drove away into the dark night at midnight. 

The dim light spilling from the doorway of the dark slave dwelling was like an antebellum image in a time warp, like an aged sepia print or a tin type snapshot of a moment that symbolized the culmination of a quest to save this cabin and include the history of black people in the story of Nacoochee Valley. Thirteen years of fundraising and preservation work was triggered by a chance encounter with a young black girl who visited the local history museum one day when I happened to stop by to buy a book about the area’s environmental and historic resources.

This little local museum highlighted the history of Native Americans and early white settlers who migrated to the Sautee and Nacoochee valleys. After perusing the artifacts and reading the text, an inquisitive black student commented that there were no exhibits about African Americans on display. “There’s nothing here that speak to me or tells the story of my people.” Her critique was concise and absolutely correct. When asked what she would like to see, she replied, “I want to know about slavery and the contributions of black people to our community.”

This young girl’s observation about the omission of black people from the history of the Valley launched a project that focused on the history of black people in Bean Creek and eventually wove the threads of history of Native, European and African Americans into the textured fabric that tells a more complete story about this little corner of Northeast Georgia. A casual comment created a unique collaboration between the descendants of slaves and slave owners.

An immeasurably valuable but vulnerable antebellum artifact was saved when a dilapidated and deteriorating slave dwelling was discovered, donated, and restored by the descendants of the slave owner and slaves preserving a shared legacy of slavery. Together, we preserved this antebellum dwelling and establish an African American Heritage Site for the inclusion of the black experience in the history of the Valley. According to Andy Allen, who desegregated school buses in White County, Georgia, 35 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, “It’s not about you; it not about me. It’s about preserving our history and historic sites for future generations.” We wanted to reveal the history and inhumanity of slavery and confront the lingering legacy of racial injustice endured by black people. We wanted to tell the truth about our history, celebrate the contributions of African Americans, and strengthen bonds between black and white residents in our community.

On his quest with the Slave Dwelling Project, Joseph McGill travels from one hard planked bed to a rough sawn or swept dirt floor to another lumpy sleeping pallet, never knowing if he’ll be sharing the night with others or the mattress ticking with a bed of mice, bed bugs or something sinister. On the night of April 27^th, he slept in the relative comfort of a cabin once occupied by the “house servants” of a slave master in Georgia.

In 1860, E.P. Williams owned of 18 slaves and 3 slave cabins. Built on a foundation of hand-hewn timbers and framed with lumber bearing the tell-tale marks of a sash saw, the 16 x 28 “single pen” Nacoochee slave dwelling perched on stacked rock piers in plain view of the Unicoi Turnpike for more than 150 years, the only slave cabin to survive in the region. The conspicuous location and quality of the cabin’s construction may have reflected the slave owner’s desire to display his prosperity and his “benevolence” toward the black people enslaved and exploited by him.

The Nacoochee slave cabin (circa 1850) survived, in large part, because the property owners remodeled it as a cottage, long after emancipation, for use by subsequent generations of white family members. It is a supporting structure on the National Register of Historic Places. Now fully restored and framed by 19th century landscaping and antebellum artifacts, this cabin provides a focal point for the story of a people whose labor contributed in countless ways to life in the hills and valleys of Northeast Georgia. The impetus for restoring this cabin came from a sense of urgency shared by the descendants of slaves and slave owners about preserving this vulnerable and vanishing history.  

On a larger scale, Joseph McGill’s Slave Dwelling Project is calling the nation’s attention to the plight and importance of preserving antebellum structures that once sheltered thousands of enslaved black people. Sabrina, Stacey, Andy, Lawrence and other Bean Creek residents are full of praise for what Joe and others are doing to raise awareness about this unique and largely untold story.

To see this cabin “occupied” once more during Joseph McGill’s sleepover was an opportunity for reflection. Three direct descendants of enslaved people slept in the Nacoochee cabin the night he came to the Valley. That image of dark figures huddled around a rustic table and highlighted by flickering flames with light and laughter spilling through an opened doorway onto the swept yard of red Georgia clay will stay in my memory. It will inspire and motivate me and my Bean Creek collaborators to present many more meaningful programs like the Slave Dwelling Project.

We were extremely fortunate to have someone from the National Trust for Historic Preservation visit our African American Heritage Site and grateful that Joseph McGill included the Nacoochee slave cabin in his Slave Dwelling Project. We are honored that McGill slept here, his first slave dwelling in the state of Georgia. We are grateful he made it such a rewarding experience. 

Among the 129 people who attended the event, we were pleased to have representatives from the Georgia Department of Economic Development; University of Georgia/School of Environmental Design & Historic Preservation; the African American Programs Coordinator for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources/Historic Preservation Division; Appalachian Studies Center; the director of White County Community Planning & Economic Development;

members of the Sautee Nacoochee History Museum and the White County Historical Society, as well as many others from near and far, black and white.

Caroline Crittenden, project coordinator

Below are some comments about the program by people who were in the audience:

Allen Stovall: (our UGA landscape architect from Athens, GA)  [My wife and I truly enjoyed last night's slave dwelling project and were happy to be there. The audience seemed [highly attentive and inquisitive.] It was good to see Bean Creek folks there. Lawrence is a treasure. You have created an important missing piece of local history through this project and it's encouraging to see how it's being presented and the potential for networking with groups across the state and region.

Candice Dyer: (writer and contemporary of Stacey Allen and Sabrina Dorsey, commenting on the intimate follow up conversation in the privacy of the cabin after the program):  I had such a good time last night -- staying up past midnight having an intense, honest, and illuminating conversation with people who can teach me something about life. I don't get that nearly enough. But it also dawned on me how important it was to Stacey to spend the night there and that he and the other guys might want some space and time to reflect while they were there, and that I might be distracting or detracting from that -- unintentionally. I sincerely hope that wasn't the case. Thank you again so much for cluing me in to this -- I hope you'll keep me in your magical loop! 

Stacey Allen: (descendant of slaves owned by the Williams family, Andy’s son) It was awesome! The Slave Dwelling Project has regional and national significance.

Jim Johnston:  (cabin donor and descendant of slave owner E.P. Williams) Well done.

Denise Hartzell: (former history teacher who said she would crawl over broken glass to get Joseph McGill to come to her class of young black students in Atlanta, to talk about his project)    

How I wish I'd been a fly on the wall of the cabin for the late-night conversation! Those are the moments to be savored, and the biggest reason, to treasure and protect the cabin, come what may... As time goes on, it will be a place where descendants of slaves, slave owners and folks from "off" (like me!) can gather to share experiences and emotions, to promote mutual understanding and (hopefully) healing. Joe McGill's evening got us off to a good start at that.

McGill is "still waters," meaning that he's a thinker... We connected in conversation about the slaves who had to live in the attic in the house in Connecticut. He seemed to understand that we had done our homework, and respected what he was up to. We had a snippet of conversation about the slaves in that attic and Anne Frank...it was going to get interesting, we got interrupted... That's another reason I hate that I missed the late night chat. When I mentioned listening to NPR on my commutes to and from Atlanta, he was surprised and commented that he didn't think that this "red state" was NPR territory. He pronounced our little corner of the world "interesting."

Ham Schwartz: (proprietor of the Stovall House, where the DNR/HPD African American Programs Coordinator stayed. According to documentation and the oral history of Valley residents, this B&B was built by a pathologically brutal slave owner at the opposite end of the treatment-of-slaves continuum from the slave cabin’s original owner E.P. Williams.) 

"The event was excellent, outstanding, captivating!"

Charles Aiken:  “The evening's event was excellent in every way! Thought provoking, socially significant, historically actuate. There was quite a crowd, and I was especially pleased to see so many of the Bean Creek residents. The Nacoochee cabin is a jewel, and you have guarded it and ensured that the Heritage Site would be a treasure for the community of black and white.” 

Anne Prescott (African American from Douglasville): Thank you so much for making it possible to share this often hidden history at the Heritage Site. The impact slavery had on our society is still with us. What you're doing is meaningful and so important. It was a wonderful evening.   

By Joseph McGill, Jr. | Field Officer | Charleston Field Office

National Trust for Historic Preservation | William Aiken House l 456 King Street, 3rd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina 29403 |

Phone: 843-722-8552 | Fax: 843-722-8652 | joseph_mcgill@nthp.org| www.PreservationNation.org

When the slave Dwelling Project was in its infancy, I got an inquiry from Caroline Crittenden, project coordinator of the African American Heritage Site at the Sautee Nacoochee Center in Sautee Nacoochee, GA.  We set the date for the stay, but because the project was not well established at the time of Caroline’s inquiry, she was determined to do her home work to check its legitimacy.  I found her method of checking that legitimacy quite interesting.  She informed me that she would take a 5 hour trip to Charleston, SC to hear a lecture that I was scheduled to give on the Slave Dwelling Project at the Charleston, SC County Library.  Sure enough, she attended the lecture.  I imagine that I said everything that she needed to hear because the proposed date for the stay stayed on the 2012 schedule.

Jeanne Cyriaque , African American Programs Coordinator Historic Preservation Division of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, wrote an article for Reflections which is the newsletter of the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network.  In that article she stated: “The cabin was once home to servants of the Williams family.  After emancipation, the family maintained the cabin.  The original cabin is 16 by 28 feet with one room and two front doors, but the Williams family added a bath, bedroom, dining room, kitchen and a front porch for the family members.  In the 1930s, the granddaughter of E.P. Williams lived in the cabin.  Over the years, the circa 1850s cabin began to deteriorate.  In 2002, Sautee Nacoochee Community Association director Jim Johnston and his family agreed to donate the slave cabin for preservation and a proposed heritage site with the condition that it be moved to another location.”  The cabin was moved to the current site of the Sautee Nacoochee Center.

At some point from the initial commitment for me to spend the night in the cabin, the program associated with that stay began to develop.  In keeping with the living history programs that are constantly done at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, Caroline requested that I develop a character that had escaped slavery and become a soldier of the Union army.  I have never proclaimed myself to be a storyteller but I knew the person who could deliver.  James Brown, a member of Company I, 54^th Massachusetts Reenactment Regiment had been telling that story quite effectively for years.  I convinced Caroline that James Brown was indeed her man. 

A few days prior to the stay, Stacey Allen left me a voice message which stated he had invited himself to share the slave dwelling experience with me.  Several attempts to return Stacey’s call only resulted in busy signals.  Had I reached Stacey the gist of my conversation would have been about my willingness for him to stay with us in the cabin.  I would have also talked about others who said that they would stay but for some reason or another didn’t follow through.

Joseph McGill, Jr.

I must admit that I was skeptical about going into the mountains of Georgia.  The movie, "Deliverance" would often come to mind.  Ninety-eight percent of the people I talked to about Sautee Nacoochee, GA never heard of it.  I expected to see no other African Americans there; so travelling with James Brown gave me comfort.  The site being located in White County did not help matters.

James and I arrived at the site in a deluge with thunder and lightning to boot.  When the rain subsided, we made contact with Caroline and got our first look at the slave cabin.  Because of its use for interpretation, it was in my opinion heavily adorned.  I immediately claimed the bed.  It rivaled the biggest slave cabin that I had seen to date.

James Brown

After we were joined by Jeanne Cyriaque at the site, we then proceeded to a local restaurant for dinner.  There we were joined by two local reporters.  When we got back to the site the audience was already gathering for the 7:00 pm program that James Brown and I were scheduled to give.  I was surprised to see that there was diversity in the Sautee Nacoochee area as indicated by the impressive crowd of 100 plus that showed up for the program.  Food was being served and the crowd was being entertained by a singer/banjo player.   Using the slave cabin as a back drop, the audience was treated to a slave dwelling lecture by me with the climax of the presentation being James Brown telling the story titled “How I Became A Soldier.”  Needless to say the crowd was mesmerized by the performance because James Brown delivered just as I knew he would.  As a result, they were totally engaged during the question and answer period as darkness descended upon us.  It was during this time that I finally met Stacey Allen, the gentleman who would be spending the night with us in the cabin. 

After the crowd left, the three of us who were scheduled to sleep in the cabin were joined by Candice Michelle Dyer, one of the reporters who joined us at the restaurant for dinner; Sabrina Dorsey, the first cousin of Stacey Allen;  and Caroline Crittenden.  The conversation was rich and involved the history of Sautee Nacoochee; slavery in Sautee Nacoochee; history of the slave cabin and the Slave Dwelling Project.  At some point during the conversation, it was revealed that Stacey Allen was the descendent of a slave and slave owner.  This was interesting because recently I have been coming into contact with more and more people who fit this category.

Photo credit:  Stacey Allen

I now knew why Stacey invited himself to stay and was thankful that he did.  Well after midnight, everyone was starting to fade.  Carolyn left to go home and Sabrina Dorsey left to report to her job at a local prison.  The remainder of us including the reporter retreated to our respective spots in the cabin and made ourselves as comfortable as possible.  I quickly learned that the bed was not as comfortable as it looked.  The conversation continued as we all began to slowly drift off to sleep.

The next morning I woke up to a very beautiful day.  A breakfast of pancakes and sausages was served at the community center at the site with lots of community members participating.   Many of the participants were anxious to know how we all slept the previous night to which we all responded well.  Both James and I left with the promise that we both would return if invited.

Sautee Nacoochee was the 35^th stay of the Slave Dwelling Project.  This was the first stay in the state of Georgia which now totals 11.  I was in denial when I was told at my previous stay in Holley Springs, Mississippi by a local artist that what I was doing was art, yet I found myself using a slave cabin as a backdrop and incorporating the skills of a storyteller to further the intent of the Slave Dwelling Project.  What also struck me as interesting is that since I have become involved with the group Coming to the Table whose members consists of descendents of slaves and descendents of slave owners and combinations of both, people of the aforementioned categories  always seem to find me as in the case of Stacey Allen.  Be it through this blog, print media, broadcast media, group affiliations, social media or through the performing arts, my intent is to bring much needed attention to the slave dwellings that once housed my ancestors and I am willing to do that by any legal and feasible means necessary.

Andy Allen (left), Caroline Crittenden (center), Stacy Allen (right). Photo credit:  Billy Chism, White County News.

Stacey Allen:


A huge thanks to Mr. Joe McGill and Mr. James Brown.  I look forward to sharing with you all again in the future.