Book signing hosted at Heyward House

The Historic Bluffton Foundation will host Joseph McGill Jr. and Herb Frazier, authors of “Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery,” for a public book signing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 8 at the Heyward House, 70 Boundary St. in Historic Downtown Bluffton.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase in the Heyward House gift shop prior to, during and after the event.

McGill, a historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 based on an idea that was sparked and first developed in 1999. Since founding the project, McGill has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist.

The slave cabin at the back of the Heyward House is featured in the book.

Events and gatherings are arranged around McGill’s overnight stays, and they provide a unique way to understand the often obscured and distorted history of slavery.

The project has inspired difficult conversations about race in communities across the United States. Together, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier, a journalist and author of three other books, give readers an important unexpected immersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history. For more information, visit historicbluffton.org.