Georgia State University’s Mellon-sponsored Intersectionality in the American South Collective (GSU-Mellon IAS) partnered with the College of Charleston’s Carolina Low Country and Atlantic World Program (CLAW) and The Avery Center to host a three-day symposium, “Ancestries of Enslavement: When and Where I Enter,” from July 10–12, 2024. With a focus on Intersectionality and Social Justice, the symposium invited public and academic scholars and activists to reflect on the nature of enslavement in the American South and how this legacy shaped and continues to inform a transforming American South.
With the Avery Center as the hosting venue, attendees gathered for an enriching and knowledge-building experience. The symposium featured keynote speaker Dr. Kendra Field, Historian and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University. Utilizing her own family’s history as an example, Field’s keynote reminded listeners of the long and multifaceted history of African and Native American relationships. Participants also visited cultural and historical sites, including the Aiken Rhett House and the McLeod Plantation. The tour of the McLeod Plantation, guided by Cultural History Interpretation Coordinator, Toby Smith exemplified the power of this historic site and its guide to inspire reflection, memorialization, and a transformation of conscience. Smith brings the lives of the enslaved to the forefront, allowing visitors to understand more fully the central role that Blacks on this plantation (and throughout the US) played in generating wealth in the 19th Century south.
The symposium also included a collaboration with Georgia State University’s Gullah-Geechee Field School. This intensive week-long immersion in South Carolina’s Gullah Geechee community was led by historians, Dr. Tiffany Player and Dr. Ras Michael Brown. Students visited key historical sites related to the Denmark Vesey conspiracy, the Stono Rebellion, Sullivan’s Island, and the Gullah Wars, providing a deep dive into the rich cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee people. They, along with symposium participants, also toured the historic Aiken Rhett House, where they again were provided a more in-depth look at the lives of the enslaved, whose labors were utilized to source the wealth of one of the state’s most well-known planters.