Coming Back Home: The Meggett Family & Their Slave Cabin
Emily Hutchinson Meggett (far left), 85, and Isabell Meggett Lucas (second from far left), 87, two matriarchs of the Meggett family of South Carolina, were among 21 Edisto Island residents who visited the our Museum for the first time yesterday, April 10. Lucas was born in the Edisto Island slave cabin, which is prominently featured in the Slavery and Freedom exhibition in the Museum. Her sister-in-law, Meggett, grew up in a cabin nearby. The cabin is prominently displayed in the history galleries of the Museum and is believed to be one of the oldest preserved slave cabins in the United States.The two-room wood cabin dates to the 1850s, and members of the Meggett family inhabited the cabin until as recently as the 1980s. Meggett is the wife of the deceased Jessie Meggett, who grew up in this former slave cabin in South Carolina. Several generations of the Meggett family joined the 87-year-old to view the cabin exhibit for the first time.
The Meggett Family slave cabin stood on Edisto Island from 1851 to 2013. During their tour, they shared memories of growing up in the house and playing on the land that was once a plantation.
Several generations of the Meggett Family were greeted by our co-curator of the Slavery and Freedom exhibition Nancy Bercaw, digital archivists, and staff.
“We are delighted to host the Meggett family at the Museum,” said Nancy Bercaw, co-curator of the Slavery and Freedom exhibition. “This is a milestone in the life of the Museum—being able to truly humanize an object on display; this cabin is more than a cabin; it is a home. While the current exhibition features the cabin as it was used during the period of slavery and emancipation, we see the cabin as a living object that holds hundreds of truly moving stories about the people who lived in it from 1853 to 1981. Having this cabin on view is a powerful way for Museum visitors to learn about the Meggetts and other families who lived on Edisto in the 20th century.”
Photo:The Meggett Family brought photos to add to our collection. They explained their family tree and highlighted artifacts connected to the slave cabin.
Once out of the galleries, the Meggett Family went to the Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center, on our 2nd floor, to share their family’s memorabilia in connection to the slave cabin and oral histories. The Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center is a space where you can delve into digital resources related to family history and learn how to preserve your own family photographs, documents, and heirlooms.
While being interviewed, two elders of Meggett Family shared that they didn’t know that they were growing up in a slave cabin when they were children and that slavery was rarely spoken of by their loved ones.
“All of us living in there (in the Meggett family row of cabins), we were all together—like family,” Meggett said. “We played together, ate together; the kids, we would fight together, learn together.…We never talked about slavery. We never talked about being poor. And we never went to bed hungry.”
Our Museum Founding Director Lonnie G. Bunch III also met with Isabell Meggett Lucas of the Meggett Family, thanking her and her family for their contribution to our Slavery & Freedom gallery.
“It was so exciting, so exciting,” Lucas said. “I never thought I’d see a house that I lived in be in a Museum…not in my lifetime. People can look at that house and the pictures around it and know that everything didn’t come easy back then.”
The Meggett Family slave cabin remains a powerful symbol in our Slavery & Freedom gallery and highlights the transition to freedom after emancipation.
