PROJECT: Behind the Big House, Holly Springs
Historic site tours developed to interpret slavery
Annual Event
The Behind the Big House program interprets the lives of enslaved persons through the structures in which they lived and worked.
The Behind the Big House program in Holly Springs, Mississippi, interprets the lives of enslaved persons through the structures in which they lived and worked.
The program focuses on the history and culture of enslaved Africans in northern Mississippi with public tours facilitated by experienced historical interpreters. Through narratives that have often been overlooked or suppressed, experts highlight the daily lives and work of enslaved adults and children within the context of the social, economic, and cultural context of northern Mississippi in the mid-19th century.
The program began in 2012 after Chelius Carter and Jenifer Eggleston, antebellum historic property owners in Holly Springs, discovered that one of the structures on their property was a former slave dwelling.
To Carter and Eggleston, it was clear that the personal lives and experiences of those enslaved in Holly Springs was missing from the larger narratives of the city’s Annual Pilgrimage Tour of Historic Homes and Churches (an event that began in 1938 allowing visitors to tour historic homes, cemeteries, churches, and museums in Holly Springs).
From that, Behind the Big House was born. It takes place once a year in April, for a four to five-day period, occurring during the annual pilgrimage tour.
