6 minute read
Road to Emancipation
BY DAVID BRITTON, PARK MANAGER AT DUNBAR CAVE STATE PARK AND PORT ROYAL STATE HISTORIC PARK
The Freedmen Of Affricanna Town and Clarksville’s Civil War Contraband Camp
The story of Clarksville and Montgomery County during the American Civil War usually recalls the events of February 1862, when gunboats ascended the Cumberland River from the recently fallen Fort Donelson, landing at
the riverfront in Clarksville. We think of the Confederate Fort Sevier, captured by the United States Army and renamed Fort Bruce, later renamed again as Fort Defiance. If we are more attuned to local Civil War stories, perhaps we think of Riggins Hill and the U.S. Army-sponsored picnics at Dunbar Cave.
However, the journals of Nannie Haskins and Serepta Jordan, as edited by historians Minoa Uffelman, Eleanor Williams, Phyllis Smith and Ellen Kanervo, have shown us that the whole story is far from the white-male, militarydominated one with which we are familiar. Though they were Confederate sympathizers with a great deal of antipathy toward the U.S. Army, both journals remind us that war is never fought only on the battlefield. Clarksville was a community wholly and totally engaged and affected by the war. Further, these historians have demonstrated that there is still a massive untold story that includes everyone alive in that moment. Here, this includes the stories of recently emancipated African Americans. Clarksville is a community that was partially built by the stolen labor of enslaved African Americans. Their story deserves to be told.
Soon after the U.S. Army captured Clarksville in February 1862, many enslaved African Americans made the precarious trek away from their places of enslavement and into the military lines at Clarksville. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in January 1863, but this did not apply to the enslaved people of Tennessee. This stopped few from coming to Clarksville. By the end of 1863, the 16th United States Colored Troop Regiment was recruiting at Fort Bruce, affording African American men the opportunity to serve in the Army. For many, this was an act of deliberate autonomy in their newfound freedom. However, most of these men who came to Clarksville to enlist or seek protection also brought families. The hundreds of recently enslaved people amassed around Fort Bruce in New Providence and in Clarksville around the military garrisons of the 83rd Illinois Regiment, seeking protection. In early April 1864, Col. A.A. Smith of the 83rd IL, Post Commander, and Lt. C.D. Provine of the 16th USCT established a formal “contraband camp.” This camp provided the formerly enslaved with food, clothing and shelter, as most had left their places of enslavement with only the clothes on their backs. Over the course of 1864, nearly 2,000 men, women and children came to the camp seeking refuge. By September of that year, about 200 had died
of disease, most of whom were children. In March 1865, the U.S. government established the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands to provide necessities and medical services for the recently emancipated, or “Freedmen.” A Bureau office was established in Clarksville to regulate and maintain the camp, and to provide labor contracts between Freedmen and former enslavers.
The camp at Clarksville consisted of several rudimentary barrackslike structures for housing, divided into 14x14 rooms with brick chimneys and bake ovens. Some camped in tents, others lived in abandoned buildings in Clarksville. Other structures in camp were offices, mess halls and schools. Capt. William Brunt of the 16th USCT was placed in charge of the camp in May 1864. By July, he secured permission to use the buildings of Stewart College as lodging for teachers and officers, and as a shoe-making school for the Freedmen. This camp was situated on 350 acres, most of which was dedicated to crops like corn and tobacco. The epicenter is now College Street, near where the former Vulcan Corporation Plant stood.
While this camp was one of the most populated statewide, it was not the only such effort at community-making in Montgomery County. Enslaved populations had created their own communities among and between places of
Freedmen’s Village, Alexandria, Va. | Photographer unknown, ca. 1865
Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
enslavement, as autonomy and identity pervade and persist even through barriers of slavery. Some of these places likely remained communities after emancipation. In some cases, new communities were forged, or old communities given
place names, such as Cabin Row and Round Pond in the southern part of Montgomery County. It is possible that there were dozens of intentional and makeshift villages of Freedmen across the county, and hundreds throughout the South. One village that manifested in 1864 was Affricanna Town, a community established at Dunbar Cave. “Affricanna Town” was enslaver John N. Barker’s name for the community. Barker owned Dunbar Cave, and the village was
at least partly established on his land. He made several mentions of the activities of Freedmen at Dunbar Cave and nearby. Barker had little recourse, as he was a known Confederate sympathizer and the Freedmen’s Bureau had the authority to temporarily seize property for use by Freedmen. By late 1864, a population of Freedmen of unknown size settled and created a community at Dunbar Cave. They were likely drawn together by existing relationships between the Barker and Warfield plantations, and the one thing that has drawn people to the cave for thousands of years – fresh water.
In 1865, a missionary named Lyman Abbott noted that some distance away from the military camp near Clarksville was a village “… where freed persons were allowed to erect their own house if they could procure their own lumber.” In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration interviewed many formerly enslaved people to recount their experiences. Among these interviewees was Samuel Bell of Indiana. Bell told the interviewer that he was enslaved
Enslaved populations had created their own communities among and between places of enslavement, as autonomy and identity pervade and persist even through barriers of slavery.
Freedmen’s Village, Hampton, Va. Artist unknown, 1865
Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
in Montgomery County and had gone to the contraband camp as a young man. Growing tired of camp life, he requested permission to go live and farm in Dunbar’s Hollow, the valley created by the stream that emanates from Dunbar Cave. Bell also recounted his exploration of Dunbar Cave while he lived there.
By 1867, Affricanna Town had dissipated. It served a temporary purpose – to manifest autonomy and newfound freedom. However, it is likely that many of the residents stayed in the area. The 1870 Federal Census shows several African American families living along what is now Idaho Springs Road and Dunbar Cave Road – the former Barker and Warfield plantations. Over time, the village, like many others, was largely forgotten, aided in its disappearance by the mainstream local historical narrative. Dunbar Cave and the surrounding area was developed into a resort by 1879. Today, Dunbar Cave State Park recognizes the presence of an African American space and the accompanying story with
three new wayside interpretive panels that provide the visitor with introspection into the era. Park programs are offered on the story of the village. This winter, a new state historical marker will be installed roadside at the park, commemorating this place that represented freedom, personhood, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for many African American families.
DUNBAR CAVE PROGRAMS AND EVENTS:
tnstateparks.com/parks/ dunbar-cave
PORT ROYAL PROGRAMS AND EVENTS:
tnstateparks.com/parks/ port-royal
CURRENT PROJECTS OF THE TENNESSEE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORICAL GROUP:
tnafricanamericanhistorical group.com
