A Juneteenth commemoration at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens June 19-21
by Matt Poust | Contributing Writer
As part of this year’s Juneteenth Celebration at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in West Ashley, members of the public will get the opportunity to attend a slate full of programs that will help shed an unvarnished light on the lives that the enslaved lived on the property while listening in on talks from a diverse range of speakers working to improve upon the ongoing racial issues that exist in our country today.
In its third year at the plantation and gardens property, this celebration is part of Magnolia’s effort to share the voices and stories of those who lived and worked on the property, while creating a safe space for visitors to be educated in, according to Magnolia Sales Operations Manager Ivey Gibbs.
“We all feel very strongly about sharing the stories of those men, women and children who lived and worked on this property before, during and after the Civil War because their legacy is within these gardens and in the beds of the camellias that have been here for almost 200 years,” said Gibbs. “We want to bring attention to how life was for them, and we want to be a place where people can come and be safe to learn this information and ask questions without fear of being judged.”
The Juneteenth Celebration will take place from June 19-21 and start with an in-depth discussion between Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting survivor Polly Sheppard and Magnolia’s Director of Interpretations George H. McDaniel as part of the “Light Out of Darkness” program. With the 10-year anniversary of the Mother Emanuel tragedy taking place on June 17, Sheppard and McDaniel will engage in talks about Mother Emanuel’s legacy, the journey toward healing and the continued light it shines in the face of tragedy.
Following this opening event, Author Margaret Siedler and artist John W. Jones will take the stage on Friday, June 20, to discuss their collaboration on the book, Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth. With Jones’ illustrations offering powerful visual perspectives, the book depicts Siedler’s journey through uncovering and understanding her family’s genealogical past through extensive research of their sales of thousands of enslaved people.
Giving word on her work, Siedler explained that finding out about her own family ties with slave ownership inspired her to use herself as a storyteller and help share a more complete truth while asking people who are of majority European descent to take a step forward and bridge the racial divide that persists in our country today.
“I think the incentive is that when folks are able to acknowledge the truth of maybe what their ancestors did or were involved in and then actually share it, it’s very liberating,” Siedler said. “It’s very freeing, not shaming, how you lift the burden of the past by acknowledging it and sharing it and doing something about it today.”
The approach that Siedler has continued to use since the first art exhibition of her book is to help people experience the story and to encourage others to take a leadership role, asking them what they can do within their own circle of influence to help bridge the racial divide. Similar to her own efforts, Siedler noted her belief that this Juneteenth celebration at Magnolia is focused on people striving to share the truth, not in a shameful way, but in a way that allows others to receive and understand it.
Along with sharing his illustration collaboration in Siedler’s book, John W. Jones will also have eight of his paintings on display within Magnolia’s restored slave cabins as part of a special walking tour.
Starting off the final day of the celebration on Saturday, June 21, Magnolia will be welcoming back members of Inalienable Rights for a special family-friendly program. As the Living History arm of the Slave Dwelling Project, Inalienable Rights travels the country, offering individuals the chance to connect with living historians to learn a more personalized life of the enslaved community through engaging storytelling, hearth and open fire cooking and artisan demonstrations.
Rounding out the list of Juneteenth programs, a tribute to the lives and legacies of those formerly enslaved at Magnolia will be hosted at Magnolia’s African American Cemetary. The event will feature a reading of names of those formerly enslaved at Magnolia along with a special talk about their history, an a cappella performance, and a performance of two spirituals selected from the Gullah Geechee songbooks by Benjamin Seabrook of Summerville.
In anticipation of this year’s event and looking to the future, Gibbs said that this Juneteenth Celebration will be the biggest at Magnolia yet and that the site plans to keep adding more events and including more living historians for years to come.
“Each year has grown larger, and we hope that continues to happen over time, and we continue to be a place where people can come and learn about this history, and they can walk away knowing they both learned something and feel encouraged to do their own research,” said Gibbs. “We are making strides every day to give a voice to those who at Magnolia were often voiceless.”
