Belle Grove Plantation to host “Inalienable Rights: Free and Enslaved Black Crafting a Life in the Shenandoah Valley”

On Saturday, November 9, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Belle Grove Plantation will offer complimentary admission and feature special programming on the African American history of the site and of the Shenandoah Valley with speakers and special guests from The Slave Dwelling Project, Josephine School Community Museum, Shenandoah County Library, and Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.

“The Hite family at Belle Grove owned and enslaved 276 men, women, and children from 1783 to 1851. The site is engaged in ongoing research to learn more about their lives, contributions to the success of the plantation, and to remember and honor their legacy,” said Kristen Laise, Executive Director of Belle Grove.

The schedule for the event is listed below. Visitors are welcome to come by throughout the day for demonstrations, presentations, and programs and to tour the 1797 Manor House. Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, Joseph McGill will start the day as a featured speaker. The Slave Dwelling Project (www.slavedwellingproject.org) is based in Charleston, South Carolina and has a mission to identify, document, and preserve extant slave dwellings. They bring people together for overnight experiences to discuss the history of slavery and its ramifications. To date, Mr. McGill and his team have spent the night in dwellings in more than 22 states and Washington, D.C. This is the Project’s fourth visit to Belle Grove Plantation. The Slave Dwelling Project will spend Saturday night at Belle Grove with a group of students and staff from Lord Fairfax Community College and Shenandoah University. While Belle Grove’s slave quarters have long ago been removed, the lower level of the Manor House is one place where the enslaved worked and may have slept.

Joseph McGill, Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project pictured at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.

Living historians Dontavius Williams and Terry James who work with the Slave Dwelling Project will demonstrate hearth cooking throughout the day and conduct a morning and afternoon presentation in the Manor House’s historic kitchen. It will be followed by a program conducted by Ranger Shannon Moeck, Kneading in Silence: A Glimpse into the Life of the Enslaved Cook Judah, about an enslaved woman at Belle Grove. The Slave Dwelling Project’s participation in this event is made possible through sponsorships from Crescent Cities Charities and Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.

Dontavius Williams, living history interpreter with the Slave Dwelling Project and The Chronicles of Adam. He is pictured at Historic Stagville in Durham, North Carolina.

In addition, there will be talks by local historians. Archaeologist Matthew Greer who has been conducting archaeological investigations where Belle Grove’s slave quarters once stood will present his most recent research findings in his talk Enslaved Shenandoahans and Locally-Made Ceramics. Adeela Al-Kahlili, Board Member at the Josephine School Community Museum in Berryville, Virginia will give a presentation on Popular Literature and the Reality of Slavery and discuss how books such as Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather depicted enslavement compared to the experience of the formally enslaved who founded the Josephine Street Community in Berryville. Zach Hottel, Archivist at Shenandoah County Library in Edinburg will discuss the Archives research efforts in Bondage Biographies: Shenandoah County Enslaved Person Database.

The 5 p.m. History at Sunset program by Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park Ranger Shannon Moeck will end the day with Life in the Borderland: The Limits and Possibilities of Freedom for Enslaved and Free Blacks. She will discuss how the Northern Shenandoah’s Valley proximity to states that abolished slavery before the Civil War such as Pennsylvania and Maryland impacted the experience of the enslaved here.

SCHEDULE (all activities to take place in the Manor House; admission is complimentary)

• 10:00 am Belle Grove Opens
• 10:15 – 11:15 Presentation: The Slave Dwelling Project, Joe McGill, Founder of The Slave Dwelling Project
• 11:30 – 12:00 pm Hearth Cooking Demonstration, Dontavius Williams and Terry James, The Slave Dwelling Project
• 12:15 – 12:45 Program: Kneading in Silence: A Glimpse into the Life of the Enslaved Cook Judah, Shannon Moeck, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park
• 12:45-1:15 Break
• 1:15-1:45 Presentation: Enslaved Shenandoahans and Locally-Made Ceramics, Matthew Greer, PhD Candidate, Syracuse University and Lead Archaeologist of the Belle Grove Enslaved Quarter Site
• 2:00–2:30 Presentation: Popular Literature and the Reality of Slavery, Adeela Al-Kahlili, Board Member, Josephine School Community Museum, Berryville, Virginia
• 2:45 – 3:15 Presentation: Bondage Biographies: Shenandoah County Enslaved Person Database, Zach Hottel, Archivist, Shenandoah County Library
• 3:30 – 4:00 Hearth Cooking Demonstration, Dontavius Williams and Terry James, The Slave Dwelling Project
• 4:15 – 4:45 Program: Kneading in Silence: A Glimpse into the Life of the Enslaved Cook Judah, Shannon Moeck, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park
• 5:00 Upper Level of Belle Grove Manor House Closes
• 5:00 – 6:00 Presentation: Life in the Borderland: The Limits and Possibilities of Freedom for Enslaved and Free Blacks, Shannon Moeck, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park
• 6:00 pm Belle Grove closes

About Belle Grove
Belle Grove Plantation is located off Route 11 at 336 Belle Grove Road just south of Middletown, Virginia 22645 and is conveniently located to I-81 (use exit 302) and I-66. Belle Grove Plantation has been a non-profit historic house museum since 1967 and is a National Trust for Historic Preservation historic site. Belle Grove is also one of the partners in Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. More information may be found at www.bellegrove.org or www.facebook.com/BelleGrove.

About Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove commemorates a nationally significant Civil War landscape and antebellum plantation by sharing the story of Shenandoah Valley history from early settlement through the Civil War and beyond. The park is located within the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, a National Heritage Area. Created on December 19, 2002, the park encompasses approximately 3,700 acres across three counties and includes the key partner sites of Belle Grove Plantation (owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and managed by Belle Grove, Inc.), Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation lands and Headquarters, Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation lands, and a developing Shenandoah County Park. The Park Visitor Contact Station is located at 7712 Main Street in Middletown and more information may be found at www.nps.gov/cebe.