Slave descendants reuniting at former N.C. plantation

Raleigh, N.C. — Descendants of slaves removed from Africa to clear swamps for a North Carolina plantation are holding a reunion at the site, with some spending the night in a reconstructed slave cabin.

About 40 descendants of two slaves named Kofi and Sally planned to gather Saturday at the Somerset Place State Historic Site, a former plantation in Creswell in eastern North Carolina. Six family members are among a group staying overnight on the grounds.

Mina Wilson, 57, of El Cerrito, Calif., is one of those spending the night as part of the Slave Dwelling Project. “I think it will be a deeply spiritual experience,” she said. “I think we’ll be talking and communing with the energy there.”

Kofi and Sally were brought to Creswell from the coast of west Africa along with 78 other enslaved people, arriving in 1786, said Karen Hayes, site manager for Somerset. The swamp land had to be drained and cleared of century-old trees before crops could be planted, and the slaves did the back-breaking work in North Carolina’s heat and humidity.

They first spent two years digging the 6-mile transportation canal connecting Lake Phelps to the Scuppernong River so people, crops and equipment could be moved. The canal is 20 feet wide and up to 12 feet deep.

“They were dealing with mosquitoes, snakes and heat exhaustion,” Hayes said. “And they didn’t know why they were here and why they were captured.”

Those who collapsed on the side of the canals were left there by white overseers and then buried in the morning, she said.