Sleeping with the Ancestors, Joseph McGill Jr.
Sleeping with the Ancestors, Joseph McGill Jr.
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Sleeping with the Ancestors
How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery

Author: Joseph McGill Jr., Herb Frazier

Narrator: Joseph McGill Jr., Herb Frazier

Unabridged: 10 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep in former slave dwellings—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America.

Since founding the  Slave Dwelling Project project in 2010, historic preservationist Joseph McGill Jr. has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings—throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill’s own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories. 

Together, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier give readers an important emersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history.

Contains a new afterword and reading group guide.  

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chelsea on April 26, 2023

"Sacred spaces can serve as classrooms." "Sleeping with the Ancestors" chronicles the author's experiences over the last decade plus as he endeavours to locate extant slave dwellings across the United States and spend a night sleeping in each one. The author, Joseph McGill Jr, is a Black historian, p......more

Goodreads review by Brandon on May 06, 2023

As I began reading this book, I got serious Confederate in the Attic vibes; I'm glad McGill calls out Tony Horowitz in the first couple of chapters because I think reading them together could be really powerful. However, for those who aren't familiar with that style of writing, Sleeping with the Anc......more

Goodreads review by David on August 09, 2023

I had the privilege of hearing Joseph McGill give an impromptu lecture at the Old Slave Market Museum in Charleston, SC. I also visited the Magnolia Plantation. McGill since 2010 has been sleeping in slave quarters and slave-built buildings since then. But the sleeping in cabins part is only they ve......more

Goodreads review by Karen on May 29, 2024

Absolutely fascinating book about a man honoring and seeking the history of his ancestors and the stories of those enslaved whose experiences , traditions, and dwelling places don’t get the same spotlight that is given to those who enslaved them. The author himself has a fascinating story: a veteran,......more

Goodreads review by Dakota on January 24, 2024

I overall enjoyed the book, and really got into it once I realized that I had been on a tour that the author led at Magnolia Plantation! However, the book does become repetitive and hard to follow. I struggled to find some connections the author was attempting to make. The way that the book also jum......more

Quotes

“In this gripping personal account, Joseph McGill Jr., and Herb Frazier seek to deepen and broaden our understanding of the horrors our African American ancestors endured for generations by chronicling McGill’s experiences sleeping in former slave dwellings. I firmly believe that our history must be told and should be understood if we are to avoid repeating our worst mistakes. Sleeping with the Ancestors will further that goal by serving as a tremendous historical reference from which all can learn.”—Congressman James E. Clyburn

“Scripture teaches to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). Joe McGill walks the walk, and his hands-on, day-and-night journey inspires—one dwelling at a time. Few have done more than this determined South Carolinian to heal the scars of enslavement and lead us back—all of us—to the generations of ancestors whose unpaid labor shaped America. I feel lucky to have slept on some hard floors, seeing him stir the embers, share the meal, and invite the conversations that we all need to have.”—Peter H. Wood, Duke University historian, author of Black Majority and Strange New Land

"A soul-stirring memoir by a modern-day crusader who confronts our Nation's original sin to save forgotten national historic treasures in tribute to our enslaved ancestors who dwelled in them." —Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black, Carnegie Mellon University historian and author of Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War

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