Comments on: Slave Housing

By: Michael Hait, CG(sm)

Michael Hait, CG(sm) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:06:29 +0000

You missed a great resource, that has hundreds of photos of slave housing from the 1930s through the present: the Library of Congress. The site contains the photographs and accompanying documentation of the Historic American Buildings Survey, which began under the Works Progress Administration. I wrote about these photographs of slave housing in an article almost two years ago: http://www.examiner.com/african-american-genealogy-in-national/discovering-where-slaves-lived

By: John F. Baker Jr.

John F. Baker Jr. — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:57:06 +0000

I live in Robertson County, Tennessee in Springfield, which is about 30 miles from Nashville. The plantation where my ancestors were enslaved is 10 miles from my house. The plantation is called Wessyngton, and was established in 1796 by Joseph Washington, a distant cousin of President Washington. The search for my ancestry started when I was in the 7th grade and spotted a photo of four former slaves. I later learned that two of them were my great-great-grandparents Emanuel and Henny Washington who were born slaves at Wessyngton. At the time of my research there were about 14 cabins still on the plantation. There is only one left now but I have pictures of the originals. In 1993 I participated in an archaeological dig where my ancestors’ cabin used to be. In 2009 Simon & Schuster published my book about the history of the plantation The Washingtons of Wessynton Plantation: Stories of My Family’s Journey to Freedom. I also have a website if you are interested in more history about slavery. The book is 432 pages and has over 100 pictures, some dating before the Civil War.

By: Liv

Liv — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 04:28:20 +0000

You asked, “Have you done a search for pictures of surviving slave housing in the area where your ancestors lived?”

I have not done a major search for surviving slave houses in my area, but I heard that there is one not too far from the Houston area. Your post has me thinking that my one of my next road trips need to be at the slave house!

Just in case you are not familiar with him, Joseph McGill, with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, was preserving slave houses and the history that surrounds them through the Slave Cabin Project last year. His blog about his sleepovers experiences in those cabins is WONDERFUL – http://blog.preservationnation.org/tag/slave-cabin-project/