McGill overnights at historic Heyward-Washington
How I wish I could have been even a fly on the wall at this overnight to listen to the exchange between Paul Garbarini, Terry James, and Joseph McGill, Jr. Thank you for working to tell the rest of the story!
Robin Foster
About Our Freedom
Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1746-1809) was a patriot
leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and artillery officer with
the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution. Captured when the
British took Charleston in 1780, he was exiled to St. Augustine, Florida, but
was exchanged in 1781. Heyward sold the house in 1794. It was acquired by the
Museum in 1929, opened the following year as Charleston's first historic house
museum, and was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
Here you will experience a magnificent collection of Charleston-made furniture including the priceless Holmes Bookcase, considered to be the finest example of American-made furniture. Other buildings on the site include the carriage shed, with an 18th-century well just beneath, and the kitchen building (the only preserved kitchen of its time open to the public in Charleston), which was constructed in the 1740s. The exquisite formal garden features plants familiar to Charlestonians in the late 18th century, and the picturesque surrounding neighborhood was used by Dubose Heyward as the setting for Porgy and Bess.”
The rest of the story
The Slave Dwelling Project
By Paul Garbarini
Robin Foster
About Our Freedom
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| Heyward-Washington House |
Heyward-Washington
House Blog
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
"I can only say
that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a
plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."
George Washington
George Washington
No
stranger to tourists, arguably the Heyward Washington House is the most
historically significant stay to date for the Slave Dwelling Project. If one can overcome its biggest obstacle,
that is, finding a parking space close by, they could easily be amazed by all
the site has to offer. Its website, Heyward-Washington House, states the
following:
“Located
in the downtown Historic District, within the area of the original walled city,
this brick double house was built in 1772 by rice planter Daniel Heyward as a
town-house for his son, Thomas Heyward, Jr.
The City rented it for George Washington's use during the President's
week-long Charleston stay, in May 1791, and it has traditionally been called
the "Heyward-Washington House."
Here you will experience a magnificent collection of Charleston-made furniture including the priceless Holmes Bookcase, considered to be the finest example of American-made furniture. Other buildings on the site include the carriage shed, with an 18th-century well just beneath, and the kitchen building (the only preserved kitchen of its time open to the public in Charleston), which was constructed in the 1740s. The exquisite formal garden features plants familiar to Charlestonians in the late 18th century, and the picturesque surrounding neighborhood was used by Dubose Heyward as the setting for Porgy and Bess.”
The rest of the story
It
is those other buildings mentioned on the website that gives the Slave Dwelling
Project its purpose that is to tell the rest of the story. Of those other buildings, the kitchen is
where I along with Terry James and Paul Garbarini would spend the night on
Friday, June 15, 2012 but more about that later. Who made the bricks to build the Heyward-Washington
House and other houses in the city of Charleston prior to the emancipation of
slaves? Who physically built the houses? Who serviced the houses? It is questions like those that inspire me to
carry on with this project.
Thirty-five stays in eleven states has allowed the Slave Dwelling Project to become more
refined. I now insist on conducting at
least one public program to accompany each overnight stay. This works well for properties that are open to
public visitation on a daily basis. It
has also proven successful at some properties that are privately owned however,
that choice will continue to be at the discretion of the property owner.
.jpg) |
| Joseph McGill, Jr. |
The Slave Dwelling Project at the Heyward-Washington House
The
Heyward-Washington House presented a great opportunity to conduct a public
program before the stay. This stay was
also an opportunity for the Slave Dwelling Project to further enhance its
collaboration with the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. The publicity leading up to the event
generated a respectable diverse audience of project followers, neighbors and
new comers who in my opinion, made the question and answer period more
interesting than the lecture itself. The
weather cooperated to provide the best open air class room for the
project. The audience seated
comfortably, the “big house”, the kitchen, all the other buildings, and I were all situated within fifteen feet of each other.
Overnight
The
space where we would sleep was adorned with many of the items that may have
been found in a functioning kitchen of that period. We did not have access to the second level of
the structure but it was historically used for sleeping space. Like many stays before, the invitation was
open to anyone wanting to share the experience with me. That night, I would be joined by “Old
Reliable” Terry James and Paul Garbarini.
This would be Terry’s 11th stay and of course Paul’s first. Terry did not get here until very late into
the night so it gave Paul and me ample time for quality chat.
Some subjects of note were:
- the tourism industry in Charleston
- the freedman’s tag recently found on a plantation in the Charleston area
- my interaction with the group Coming To The Table
- and many more matters of interest.
Terry’s
arrival enhanced the opportunity to broaden the conversation. It was not long before the three of us were
asleep in the tranquil environment, Terry again sleeping in the slave shackles.
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| Paul Garbarini and Terry James |
The
following morning was met with haste.
Paul’s invitation for the three of us to have coffee at a nearby
establishment had to be declined because of a prior commitment that Terry and I
made. We had to be in Cheraw, SC by
11:00 am to participate in a Civil War encampment at the Southern African
American Heritage Center a trip that would take three hours. With that in mind, Terry’s usual routine of
meticulously taking pictures had to be hastened. To the best of our abilities, we left the
site just as we found it.
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| Slave dwelling at Heyward-Washington House |
Reflections
It
was my desire to interact with descendants of those who were enslaved at the
Heyward-Washington House. With the
challenges that exist for conducting African American genealogical research, I
should not have been surprised when I found none. I am often encouraged by followers of the
Slave Dwelling Project to connect the places that I stay to people who were
enslaved there. Despite not finding any
descendants of the enslaved, I was encouraged by an email that I got a few days
prior to the Heyward-Washington House stay.
The sender of the email reminded me that we both met at the national
gathering of the group Coming To The Table and regretted that they could not be
joining me for the stay as they had wished.
They further reminded me that they were a descendant of one of the slave
owners of the Heyward-Washington House. Moreover, this person was more than willing to share additional information but I will
let them be more forthcoming with that information in a manner with which they are
comfortable.
The
Heyward-Washington was no Mount Vernon, but George Washington did sleep
there. I did not find any descendents of
those who were enslaved at the Heyward-Washington House but I did find a
descendant of the enslaver. I also got
to further my research into urban slavery.
It is my hope that other opportunities like this are presented in the
future.
The Slave Dwelling Project
By Paul Garbarini
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| Paul Garbarini |
6/15/12
Thank you, Joe, for creating the Slave
Dwelling Project. The importance of your
work was obvious to me the first time I heard of it. The slave dwellings in danger of neglect and
loss need you, need all of us, to keep the memory of who lived there alive.
While
this home to enslaved people is not in danger of loss, the clarity of Charleston’s slave dwellings
is sometimes muddied by calling them by other names. Out buildings. Servant’s quarters. Carriage house. Dependencies.
Servant
quarters is not necessarily wrong. Some
indentured servants almost certainly slept away from the main house. Carriage houses also housed the enslaved
grooms and drivers charged with the care of the tack and horses.
My
favorite is “dependencies.” Who was
dependent on whom?
In
Charleston, from 1800-1850, the majority of the population was enslaved. Slave dwellings were everywhere. A few blocks away from here, according to the
1861 Charleston census, #33 Church St was inhabited by slaves and free blacks.
#35 Church the same. In # 59, slaves
lived there by themselves. #75, the
same. I still need to confirm the
houses and addresses because numbering changed, but the relative distance from here is the same. I do know that #20 Church was owned by
tinsmith Robert Forbes and housed all but one one of his slaves. The one slave
was William and he lived with Forbes at #12 Tradd just around the corner.
I
am a tour guide. I’ve studied and
researched historic properties. Any house in Charleston which was here before
1865 could have been a slave dwelling at one time or another. It was probably built in part with slave
labor.
The
Akan people of Ghana use the Adinkra symbol of Sankofa. It means, “go back and get it.” or "It is not wrong to go back for that
which you have forgotten.”
Why
am I here? For clarity. I’m here for clarity.
After
our overnight stay, I was compelled to
find out who really lived there and maybe track their descendants. Melanie Wilson, of the Charleston Museum,
clarified the address and the name of one of the owners. A widow, Margaret
Munroe, owned the property in the mid-1800’s.
She died in 1847. Her estate
carried on and ran it as a boarding house.
In the 1861 Charleston Census, the occupants were listed as
“slaves.” It was a common practice at
the time for slave holders to rent property in the city for those slaves who
were “hired out.” The owners would
profit from the labor of skilled craftsmen and women and pay them a very small
amount for their efforts.
In
1847, at Mrs. Munroe’s death, some of her property was sold including the
following people. Say their names out
loud:
Peter Mathias Henry
Louisa Martha Margaret
Eve Clarissa Daniel
Clarence Alfred Sarah
and two children
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1 comments
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