Josh's South Carolina (Un)Known Project Reflection - May 2023

Written while Flying - May 26, 2023  

Josh Miller  

We spent the week straddling worlds 

Traveling back and forth  

From enslavement to present day in South Carolina - Charleston to Lexington 

Through the lives of Hannah and Warren Lorick  

And their enslavers 

From enslaved labor farms to unmarked cemeteries 

As Hannah sought to learn and unearth information about her ancestors 

We talked about the necessary discomfort many people must move through to understand these stories 

Reflecting on our experiences in Senegal and Natchez, Louisville and New Orleans 

And the vital role that telling these real and tragic accounts of history plays in moving society forward 

In seeking to understand the past

We must also remember the resilience of those whose livelihood and freedom were stolen so that others could build empires and generational wealth  

Subjecting people who deserved to be free to create things they would never own or benefit from  

For all people, an ethical approach to history is required 

And as we say these words 

People are systemically working to ban books and topics from Black history to stories featuring LGBTQ+ people  

To deprive people’s friends, family and neighbors of their rights, livelihood and humanity  

Their ability to vote and their feelings of safety  

We each play a role in understanding what happened in the past 

How it shapes our world today, including the systems that impact people’s well-being, sense of belonging and pride  

And how we can work together to create the world we deserve   

It won’t be by banning books  

It won’t be by removing the Pride section at the store  

Or commodifying Juneteenth and watering down how enslavement shaped our nation  

We must be bold  

Recounting the world as it was, not as we wish it had been  

Recognizing that those whose ancestors committed these treacherous acts didn’t commit them themselves  

No one is saying you, today, enslaved someone  

What we are saying, is that you sharing the truth about the past can free someone else  
 

That it can…  

Help them find their ancestors, their culture, their name  

Allow them to feel whole and connected to something greater  

Give them hope and a path forward  

Witnessing Hannah’s journey to find her people has been illuminating and heartbreaking  

At each turn, learning more about the pain inflicted on Black people enslaved in America  

Seeing her trepidation of traveling to yet another southern state while Black, and doing it anyway 
 

And her courage to hold people accountable and to share her journey with young people as a testament to what she wants to see changed  
 

The universe put us on this journey together  

One that feels so natural that we couldn’t have planned how the many parts of our work and travels over 8 years would bring us to this day  

And prepare us for the work ahead.  

Reflection from Charleston -  

On Tuesday, May 23, Hannah Drake, Damita Adams, Brianna Wright and I spent the day in Charleston, South Carolina for IDEAS xLab's (Un)Known Project. This included going to the McLeod Plantation, the Old Slave Mart Museum, and visiting Gadsden's Wharf near where the soon-to-open International African American Museum sits.  

Some learnings/takeaways: 

- The tour at McLeod Plantation - or "enslaved labor farm" as Paul, our guide said - included an ethical historical tour of what happened on the grounds with a focus on the people enslaved by the McLeod family, and discussion about how the organization that owns the site specifically decided not to host weddings and parties on the grounds. Many tour attendees noted that is WHY they came, because the site wasn't being used for events but to acknowledge the history of what happened there. Highly recommend - especially if Paul is your guide!  

- At the Old Slave Mart Museum, I learned that an enslaved person my age (34) in the 1850s would have been sold for around $550, and we saw additional examples of the transportation routes used to traffic enslaved people throughout the U.S. - by boat, rail, water and foot. It was great spending time with Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Fellow Latisha Waters, who joined us at the Old Slave Mart Museum and shared her knowledge about Charleston's history with us!  

 - According to the sign, an estimated 30,000 captive Africans disembarked from Gadsden's Wharf in 1806-1808, because at the time, that was the only wharf in Charleston permitted to engage in the transatlantic slave trade.