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April 13th- 15th
Delve behind the hoop-skirts and mint juleps to the hard life behind the big house.
The south has a rich and varied history. The storybook life seen on the silver screen is often just one side of our past. Behind the grand mansions, beyond the freshly pressed linens, laid small and intimate slave dwellings where work, toil, and history also happened.
Many historic figures began their lives in these small dwellings such as Civil Rights icon and journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett who was born a slave and freed four years later. She strove to give rights to women as well as end lynching and was eventually driven from the south to Chicago. Learn more about this human rights pioneer as well as our unique past in the Behind the Big House Tour, April 13th- 15th during the Holly Springs Pilgrimage of Homes.
In addition to touring five of the towns historic mansions included on this year’s Pilgrimage, guests will be allowed a rare look into the lives of Holly Springs’ slave population during the “Behind the Big House Tour.” See another side of antebellum life through these surviving structures and a historic interpretation by Joseph McGill, an interpreter with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council and partnerships with the Holly Springs Garden Club, The Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum, and Preserve Marshall County and Holly Springs, Inc.; McGill will spend a few nights in Holly Springs’ slave cabins and then bring their story to life during the weekend long event. “For so long folks have been visiting the plantation and going into the big house, and without those structures, the big house could not have existed,” says McGill.
Schedule:
Thursday, 12 April
3:00 – 4:30 – Slave Dwelling Project Presentation by Joe McGill at Rust College
Friday, 13 April
10:00 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Joe McGill at Hugh Craft House slaves’ quarters.
(Lunch Break from 12-1)
Saturday, 14 April
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Joe McGill at Burton Place slaves’ quarters.
(Lunch Break from 12-1)
*All quarters will be available to tour unmanned during the entire Pilgrimage but see schedule above to meet Joe. For more information on his project go to www.preservationnation.org.
Sponsored by Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, the Mississippi Humanities Council and Holly Springs Tourism * Recreation Bureau.
*Photos courtesy of The Collection of Chesley Thorne Smith.
Get a more personalized tour of Historic Holly Springs with our audio tour. Click the link below to learn more.
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