Many of From the Porch’s subscribers are most likely aware of the ongoing preservation of slave cabins by Joseph McGill. His slave cabin project began when he started sleeping in former slave cabins and documenting them as he did so. If you are not aware of his work, check it out on Facebook at: Ngrams.com
R&R’s interest in cabin architecture stemmed initially from our early work in documenting the brick slave cabins at Historic Brattonsville, Hightower Hall, and later at the White Home in Rock Hill. However, there are similar style cabins across the state, several in Fairfield County. J.I. Robinson, the co-founder of R&R and an R&R scholar, has also played an important role in helping date cabins at various locations throughout S.C. He routinely researches and is often sorry to be the one to burst bubbles when the cabin’s technology shows a post Civil War domestic house, rather than a slave dwelling. In many cases architecturally there is little difference. Just note the construction similarities between the building at Pinckneyville and those at Brattonsville. Revolutionary Colonel Wm. Bratton supervised the brick building at Pinckneyville, and his son John, the brick slave dwellings at Brattonsville – two distinct periods and two generations apart. R&R has been asked to come to Lancaster County look at another questionable slave cabin — we love it!
As we have added thousands of sites to R&R, it has been interesting to note the few slave cabins documented. On the other hand, there are tons of great tenant houses and even dozens of domestic houses built at the turn of the century for household help, usually the all-important cook. In most cases these homes appear very similar to those of former slave cabins, and in many respects their occupants were both held in bondage in some form. Our message is that just because someone states a building was a slave cabin doesn’t make it so! Please be very careful, and if R&R can be of service in helping with Joe McGill’s very important documentation, please contact R&R.
Enjoy two featured properties this week showcasing domestic architecture in two different periods of Southern history.