Divided Loyalty // Herb Frazier & Joe McGill Jr.

×

Expand

Charleston Library Society

Event Image Sizing for Web - 200

Divided Loyalty // Herb Frazier & Joe McGill Jr.

Historic preservationist Joseph McGill Jr. and journalist Herb Frazier, renowned in Charleston for their incredible insights and documentation of various areas of our history have newly compiled stories of Native Americans and free and enslaved people of African descent during the Revolutionary War in South Carolina in a special report, “Native Americans, Black Patriots and Black Loyalists in the Revolutionary War in South Carolina,” made possible by the SC250 Commission. Join us with Evening Post Books for a special discussion and preview of this report that has been expanded to a book set to publish later in October – Divided Loyalty: Uneven Paths to Freedom in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War – outlining varying perspectives of how individuals ‘chose sides’..

Purchase Tickets on our website!

About Herb Frazier

Herb Frazier is a Charleston, South Carolina-based writer. He’s a senior editor for the Charleston City Paper and the former marketing director at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston. Before he joined Magnolia, Herb edited and reported for five daily newspapers in the South, including his hometown paper, The Post and Courier. Herb’s international reporting includes West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall, humanitarian post-war relief efforts in Bosnia and Rwanda during its post-genocide recovery, social and political issues in Japan and South Korea and Cuba’s cultural ties with Florida and Lowcountry South Carolina. He also reported on the military conflict in Sierra Leone. Herb has written about the historical and cultural ties between West Africa and the Gullah Geechee people of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Herb represented South Carolina on the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, created by the U.S. Congress in 2006. He also served as secretary of the Jazz Artists of Charleston, which supports the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. Currently, Herb is a member of the Historic Charleston Foundation Board of Trustees. He is the author of Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories. He is a co-author of We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel with Marjory Wentworth and Dr. Bernard Powers Jr. Herb also co-edited a collection of poems and essays titled Ukweli: (pronounced – you ̶ quail – lee) Searching for Healing Truth, South Carolina Writers and Poets Explore American Racism with the late Horace Mungin. Herb’s latest book, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery, is a collaboration with Joseph McGill Jr., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. Herb’s forthcoming books are Crossing the Sea on a Sacred Song, which tells the story of an African funeral song that links a Georgia family with a woman in Sierra Leone. He and McGill are the co-authors of Divided Loyalty: Uneven Paths to Freedom in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War.

About Joseph McGill Jr

Joseph McGill, Jr. is a public historian, preservationist, author, and educator with over three decades of experience in heritage interpretation, museum leadership, and community-based public humanities. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Slave Dwelling Project (SDP), a nationally and internationally recognized nonprofit organization based in Charleston, South Carolina, dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and elevating the history of the enslaved. Since founding the organization in 2010, Mr. McGill has conducted more than 250 overnight stays in former slave dwellings across 25 U.S. states and Canada, transforming these historic spaces into platforms for storytelling, education, and racial reconciliation. Through programs such as Campfire Conversations, Inalienable Rights: Living History Through the Eyes of the Enslaved, and Sleeping with the Ancestors, The Slave Dwelling Project has become a model for truth-telling and descendant engagement at historic sites nationwide. Mr. McGill’s nationally acclaimed book, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery (Hachette, 2023), coauthored with journalist Herb Frazier, chronicles his personal and professional journey to preserve the dwellings of the enslaved and amplify their stories. The book has been featured by The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Booklist, and The Washington Post, praised for transforming preservation work into a powerful form of restorative public history. Before founding The Slave Dwelling Project, Mr. McGill served as a Field Officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation (2009–2016), where he supported sites across the country in advancing inclusive preservation practices and interpretation of African American history. A U.S. Air Force veteran and a native of Kingstree, South Carolina, Mr. McGill earned his Bachelor of Arts in Professional English from South Carolina State University. His interpretive work has extended to partnerships with institutions such as the International African American Museum, James Madison’s Montpelier, Belle Grove Plantation, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Beyond his professional life, Joseph McGill’s family anchors his mission. He is married to Vilarin Mozee McGill and is the proud father of Charity Barriere Muhammad and Jocelyn Mozee McGill. His deep sense of duty to truth-telling, preservation, and intergenerational education continues to guide his work to ensure that the stories of the enslaved—America’s Ancestors—are preserved, honored, and taught with dignity and reverence.

About SC250

SC250 Charleston is intended to serve as an umbrella for Charleston-area community organizations, governmental entities, and business enterprises interested in conceiving, building and sponsoring initiatives that commemorate the American Revolution and the leading roles played by Charleston’s people and places. This program is sponsored (in part) by the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission. SC250 was established by the SC Legislature to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary-Era and highlight the state’s significant role in securing America’s freedom by engaging and inspiring South Carolinians and visitors through heritage tourism, rural economic impact initiatives, and educational programs. Contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of SC250, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by SC250.