UPDATE: Thank you for your interest in attending the Shaw Mansion Sleepover from June 7-June 8, 2024. Registration is now closed as we have reached capacity for this event. Those who filled out the event inquiry form will be contacted via the email address provided. Please visit slavedwellingproject.org to learn more about Joseph McGill’s work and discover other Slave Dwelling Project events.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet Joseph McGill on Sunday, June 9 at the Phelps-Hatheway House in Suffield, where he will be signing copies of his most recent book, Sleeping with the Ancestors. The book will be available for purchase in the gift shop. Learn more about that event here.

Join Joseph McGill of the Slave Dwelling Project as well as staff from the Hempsted Houses and the Shaw Mansion as we continue the conversation around the truthful narrative of American history and the legacies of slavery.

The Shaw Mansion was built in 1756 for captain Nathaniel Shaw and was home to ten enslaved people. On his deathbed, Nathaniel Shaw Jr. emancipated all ten enslaved people in 1781. During the conversation, participants will learn about the lives of Caesar Shaw, Celia Shaw, James Tilley, and Prince who were four of the ten enslaved people on the property.

This program is part of the Hempsted Houses’ Juneteenth Festival. See the full list of events here.

Supported in part by: The Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the Chelsea Groton Foundation, Inc, and Connecticut Explored, Inc.  

In partnership with: New London NAACP, OIC, and the New London County Historical Society

If you have any questions, contact Site Administrator Lynette Fisher at hempsted@ctlandmarks.org. 

Photo credits: Shaw Mansion – New London County Historical Society (nlchs.org)

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