Video
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
Transcript
Hello everyone.
My name is Chris Young, and I'm one of the park rangers here at Chickamauga and Chattanooga
National Military Park.
Did you know that Chickamauga and Chattanooga is now part of the Underground Railroad's
Network to Freedom that's administered by the National Park Service?
We have several different sites that have connections to the Underground Railroad and
the struggle for those enslaved African Americans here in North Georgia and in East Tennessee
who are trying to escape the bondage of slavery and find their way to freedom.
What we're going to do is go to several of those different sites that have those deep
connections of freedom and finding freedom for those who are enslaved here within and
just outside the bounds of the national military park.
So, I hope that you'll come with us today and take a few minutes to learn a little bit
about the African-American history here as it pertains to the Underground Railroad and
the Network to Freedom.
So, what we're going to do is take a look into Chattanooga.
Between 1800 and 1860, historians tell us that over one million enslaved African Americans
were sold from the Upper South states, states like Virginia and the Carolinas, into the
Deep South, or the cotton states, like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
So, between those 60 years, we have a million people who are being forcibly migrated, or
forcibly taken, from their homes from the Upper South and being sold into the Deep South
states, and wouldn't you know, that Chattanooga is right in the center of that internal slave
trade, that interstate slave trade, that's occurring here within the United States because
of the river, because of the roadways, because of, eventually, the railroads that come through
Chattanooga, Tennessee, it's going to be pivotal in the movement of those enslaved people from
the Upper South into, and in route to, the cotton kingdom of those Deep South states.
The first place that I want us to take a look at is on Moccasin Bend, part of Moccasin Bend
National Archaeological District, and we're going to talk about two specific stories that
occurred there that deal with escaping the institution of slavery by two individuals,
one who was successful and will actually become an agent on the Underground Railroad
himself.
So, the next place that we'll see you is at Moccasin Bend in Tennessee.
And now, we've ventured out to one of the other park units, Moccasin Bend National Archeological
District, and this is a unit of the national military park that tells the story of 12,000
years of human habitation out here, and most people think that it's primarily focused on
American Indian history, or even that of the Civil War, but it has a much deeper history
here too, because there is part of that Underground Railroad story here on Moccasin Bend.
We're close to the terminus of the 1805 Brown's Ferry Road that would have ended just behind
me and would have taken you across the Tennessee River, over to Brown's Ferry.
In December of 1818, John Owens of Virginia was bringing his enslaved property from the
Upper South state down to Alabama, where he was migrating to, near modern-day Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, and as he was making that trek from Virginia to Alabama he passed through this
area, which would have been near Ross's Landing at the time, not Chattanooga, as it's known
today.
He would have come along this Brown's Ferry Road, and as he's waiting for the ferry boat
to cross the Tennessee River, he would have had to pay the ferry boat toll to get across
the river, one of those enslaved people that Owens owned, her name was Nelly, she escaped
at Brown's Ferry, and she escaped and ran off here, and it took them almost an entire
day to find her, Owens says in 1818.
Unfortunately, Nelly doesn't make her way to freedom.
She is re-captured, re-enslaved, and finds her way in Owens' party down south into Alabama,
making her way to Tuscaloosa.
However, several years later, there is going to be a successful escape here on Moccasin Bend
as part of the Underground Railroad.
On July 29, 1839, Jacob Cummings, who is the enslaved property of James Smith, who actually
owned a farm here on Moccasin Bend, at the request and pressing of an abolitionist in
Chattanooga, he decided that he was going to escape.
Cummings later tells us, he says, "I was at the lower farm [which was the farm here on
Moccasin Bend] and I made my mind to take Leonard's advice [Leonard was the abolitionist]
and at about 11 o'clock in the morning, I started.
I went across to the island [to Williams Island, which is just down the Tennessee River]
I took Leonard's advice at about 11 o'clock in the morning, I started.
I went across to [Williams] island in an Injun [sic] canoe and stayed for about two days
when the woman who lived on the island with her husband - they were poor folks - told
me that she thought they was coming to search the island and so I walked to the lower end,
and we had high waters then, I bound up my clothes up in a bundle and tied them on my
head and went in.
I never swam more easily than that half mile and tuck right up Walden's Ridge."
Just beyond Williams Island, that you saw in the distance, Walden's Ridge, or Signal
Mountain, as it's call it today, is the way that Jacob Cummings ascended that ridgeline
to make his a way to freedom.
Cummings traveled for four years on the Underground Railroad prior to making it to Ontario, Canada,
where he gained his freedom, but you might think that that's the end of the story for
Jacob Cummings, but it's not, because Cummings, much like the more famed Harriet Tubman that
we know, came back, and he became an agent on the Underground Railroad, helping others
in the same plight that he found himself in 1839, running away, trying to find freedom.
The next place that we're going to stop will be John S. Henderson's house, just south of
the Chickamauga Battlefield, where we'll hear about another enslaved person who tried to
gain freedom from the Henderson farm.
We'll see you there soon.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm now standing along the historic LaFayette Road, at the John S. Henderson house-site.
In 1860, over 3,300 enslaved African Americans were held in bondage in Walker County, Georgia,
Catoosa County, Georgia, and in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Most of them were not held on large plantations.
They were held on smaller farms like John S. Henderson's farm here, but that didn't mean
that they didn't try to escape and gain freedom.
In January of 1863, John Henderson placed an ad in the "Chattanooga Daily Rebel," the
local newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he ran that ad looking for an enslaved
man named Bill, who had run away.
Bill likely was trying to escape slavery after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued
by President Lincoln, and even though it was not a large plantation, Bill tried to escape
from this small plantation here just south of Chickamauga Battlefield and likely headed
through current park lands trying to gain his freedom.
We have to keep that in mind, that when we think about the institution of slavery, a
lot of times, we think about large plantations producing lots of cotton to be sold in markets,
and we forget to think about just those 3,300 enslaved men, women, and children who lived
in these North Georgia counties and Southeast Tennessee county, that toiled on small farms
like the John S. Henderson farm here in North Georgia.
Hello again everyone.
Welcome to the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
After the Battles for Chattanooga, in November of 1863, and Confederates were pushed back
into North Georgia, the city of Chattanooga, once held by the Confederacy, now became a
beacon of freedom for those who were escaping bondage in North Georgia and in East Tennessee.
So, this city became flooded with those who are searching for freedom.
By the end of the Civil War, there were over 6,000 enslaved people who made their way to
Chattanooga and were living along the riverbank of the Tennessee.
Unfortunately, around 700 of those who escaped slavery died in one of the local hospitals
due to smallpox.
They're buried today in the national cemetery, along with members of the United States Colored
Troops.
The USCT, or the United States Colored Troops, were formed of African Americans who were
freedmen, or those who had escaped bondage and found their freedom.
Chattanooga is going to be an area where there are multiple units that will be formed that
escaped African Americans are going to join, and probably one of the most famous of those,
is going to be Hubbard Pryor.
Hubbard Pryor escapes from a plantation in Polk County, Georgia.
He makes his way up from that Northwest Georgia county up to Chattanooga, probably coming
through areas that might have even been part of Chickamauga Battlefield, and then, makes
his way to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and enlists, in 1864, in the United States Colored Troops,
in the 44th USCT that's formed just on the north bank of the Tennessee River.
Hubbard Pryor enlists, as do a lot of other formerly enslaved African Americans, but
he's not going to be in the army for very long because Hubbard Pryor is going to be
captured in October of 1864 by Confederates as they're making their way to Tennessee on
the 1864 Tennessee Campaign.
Pryor, along with many of his comrades, are going to find themselves back in slavery,
whether it be their masters coming and reclaiming that enslaved property, or whether, in the
case of Pryor, you're sent to work for the Confederate government on railroads.
Thankfully, the war is not going to last much longer after October of 1864, and Pryor will
regain the freedom that he sought as he escaped that plantation in Polk County, Georgia.
Here, in this section of the Chattanooga National Cemetery, I'm surrounded by members of the
United States Colored Troops, many of whom laid their lives down after escaping the bondage
of slavery in search of bringing freedom not only to themselves, but their friends and
family members who remained on plantations and farms throughout the South.
We encourage you to come and visit Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and
the multiple units and sites inside, and just outside, those military park bounds to understand
Chattanooga's role and the national military park's role in finding freedom for those enslaved
African Americans on the Network to Freedom and the Underground Railroad.
Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you again soon.
Description
The stories associated with escaped enslaved people scatter the landscape in and around Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. This short introductory video highlights some of the areas connected to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Duration
12 minutes, 44 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
02/23/2021
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