NOVA Parks News
Tell Me Your Name--Understanding Carlyle House's Enslaved Individuals
In 2017, Carlyle House Historic Park undertook a new research project to improve their knowledge and interpretation of the site’s enslaved individuals. To undertake this important task, Carlyle House hired Maddy McCoy of Slavery Inventory Database. For more than a decade, Maddy has been working to restore enslaved individuals' identities and connect them to their living families. Slavery Inventory Database is one of the first known projects to systematically identify the recorded names of every enslaved individual documented within early records. The Database captures the names and other pertinent contextual information pertaining to slaves who appear in these records. After two years of intense research, the first phase of the project was complete. Prior to McCoy’s research, site staff knew from Carlyle’s 1780 probate inventories that he owned 67 enslaved individuals. Thanks to Maddy’s in-depth research, information about more than 40 additional enslaved individuals were discovered! As with any research project; the work is never complete. Site staff continues to work with Maddy on learning more about these individuals and the next phase of research, identify and reach out to descendants.
Using the newly discovered information, Maddy created the program Tell Me Your Name in 2019, a tour illuminating what we know about the enslaved community at Carlyle House. McCoy gave several presentations to volunteer docents and staff about how to incorporate this newly discovered enslaved information into the standard guided tour. The research completed by Maddy has proved instrumental in enabling Carlyle House to tell a more accurate and inclusive story about the 18th century and update our interpretation and school programs. It also serves as the foundation for the site’s regular offering of the Tell Me Your Name program.
During the summer of 2019, Carlyle House intern, Emma Bresnan, utilized Maddy’s information to update the Don’t Get Weary School program (based on the 1994 exhibit of the same name) and created the new adult specialty tour, Tell Me Your Name. The new tour has been offered multiple times until COVID-19 restrictions made it challenging to continue safely offering the tour. Site staff looks forward to bringing Tell Me Your Name back when it is safe to do so.
In addition to researching the enslaved populations at John Carlyle’s properties, McCoy conducted research at other Virginia historic sites including Gadsby’s Tavern, George Washington Mount Vernon, George Mason’s Gunston Hall, and many others. Maddy’s work made national headlines in 2018 when she was able to find the manumission document for Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax's ancestor, SImon Fairfax, written in 1798. Maddy’s important work continues to shed light on the stories of the enslaved individuals who literally built early America.
Interested in learning more about Slavery Inventory Database and why it is so important for historic sites to invest in this research and connecting with descendants? Join us virtually on Thursday, February 25th at 7pm for Breaking Down the Wall of Slavery at Carlyle House, presented by Maddy McCoy. Tickets are $5 per Zoom link and may be purchased via the Carlyle House website: https://apm.activecommunities.com/novaparks/Activity_Search/4507
