For the past 12 years, Joe McGill has slept in former slave dwellings in 26 states and the District of Columbia. He has done so to bring much needed attention to these often neglected dwellings and the enslaved people who lived in them.

Join the DC Preservation League for a webinar titled: The Educational Value of Sleeping in Slave Dwellings. This presentation will focus on the nights that Joe McGill has spent at the Octagon House, Lee Fendall House, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, Belle Grove Plantation, Liberia House and Prince George’s County. This event is virtual and will be streamed to Facebook Live. It will also be recorded for DCPL’s YouTube channel and will be accessible to the public.

Register here!

Joseph McGill, Jr., is the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project and a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC. By arranging for people to sleep in extant slave dwellings, the Slave Dwelling Project has brought much needed attention to these often neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment. As of the beginning of 2018, Mr. McGill has conducted over 250 overnights in approximately 100 different sites in 19 states and the District of Columbia. He has interacted with the descendants of both the enslaved communities and of the enslavers associated with historic plantations. He speaks with school children and college students, with historical societies, community groups, and members of the general public.

Since 2016, Mr. McGill expanded the Slave Dwelling Project to offer a program of living history called “Inalienable Rights: Living History Through the Eyes of the Enslaved.” The Project has held an annual conference every year since 2013. Prior to his current position, Mr. McGill was a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and served as the Executive Director of the African American Museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. McGill is the former Director of History and Culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Penn School was the first school built during the Civil War for the education of recently freed slaves. Mr. McGill was also employed by the National Park Service, serving as a Park Ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, South Carolina. Mr. McGill is a native of Kingstree, South Carolina. Upon graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. While in the Air Force, Mr. McGill served as Security Policeman in England, Washington State and Germany. Mr. McGill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Professional English from South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina. He is married to the former Vilarin Mozee, and they have one daughter, Jocelyn Mozee McGill.