Charleston Currents – Joe McGill

FOCUS: Interest in Slavery to Freedom Tour spikes at Magnolia

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | With rapid-fire questions, Georgia nurse Leonza Hudson wanted to know where the enslaved people at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens attended church and cook and were the children taught to read.

He and his wife, pediatrician Tamara New-Hudson, directed their questions to Joseph McGill as he led the couple and eight others through four former slave dwellings open daily during Magnolia’s Slavery to Freedom Tour.

The African-American couple, who lives in Decater, Ga., said they were drawn to Charleston for its history. A Google search steered them specifically to Magnolia for a lesson on slavery. They said slavery was not taught in the all-white schools he attended in Michigan and at her school in Maine.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 09/21/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

NEW for 9/21: Magnolia tour spikes; Parasite ad; Trolls; Big ship

IN THIS ISSUE:
TODAY’S FOCUS: Interest in Slavery to Freedom Tour spikes at Magnolia
COMMENTARY, Brack: Parasite ad may backfire to help Graham
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Morris Financial Concepts, Inc.
NEWS BRIEFS: How to spot a troll, thanks to Clemson
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Dog day afternoon
CALENDAR: Green auction is under way, live event is Saturday
NEW BOOK: New history book is now in local stores

by Charleston Currents · 09/21/2020 · 1 comment · Full issue

FOCUS: Magnolia Plantation to host Underground Railroad conference

By Herb Frazier | Scholars, living historians and enslaved descendants will gather Nov. 3 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens to show that the Underground Railroad was more than a network of secret routes to northern states and Canada that enslaved Africans followed to freedom.

Through exhibits, performances and demonstrations, presenters will reveal that the Underground Railroad also included rebellion, maroon communities and people escaping south to Florida and beyond.

“We Are One”
“Uncovering the Underground Railroad: Perspectives in Freedom” will be held Nov. 3 at Magnolia. The Slave Dwelling Project, South Carolina Humanities and the National Park Service have joined with Magnolia to sponsor this event designed to dispel commonly-held beliefs about the Underground Railroad.

by Charleston Currents · 10/15/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Prints in Clay at Gaillard to celebrate spirituals, culture

Staff reports | As the last vestiges of summer are replaced by the chaos of back to school, the Charleston Gaillard Center is bringing the Lowcountry a reason to celebrate fall with Prints In Clay, a multi-disciplinary event celebrating the impact of the African-American culture on the city of Charleston.

Prints in Clay features an evening of commissioned arrangements of African–American spirituals featuring the powerful voice of mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges accompanied by an instrumental septet and Lowcountry Voices as well as a two-week photography exhibit by the Slave Dwelling Project in the grand lobby of the Gaillard, tours of the back buildings and former work lots of Charleston’s private historic homes, and a historically informed dinner featuring the food of the African diaspora.

The event title, Prints in Clay, comes directly from Joe McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. In describing one patron’s experience during a slave dwelling tour, McGill noted …

by Andy Brack · 08/27/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: Slave Auctions marker unveiled in Charleston

“Slave Auctions” is a new historic marker unveiled March 10 at the corner of Gillon and East Bay streets next to the Old Exchange Building.

The new marker acknowledges the significance of the area around the building as a destination for the domestic slave trade. The marker focuses on slave auctions that occurred just north of the Exchange while also acknowledging other areas downtown where slaves were often sold.

by Charleston Currents · 03/14/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs