SLAVERY
Slavery in Maury County
Maury County was formed from Williamson County in 1807. Among the first settlers to bring slaves to the county were thirteen families from South Carolina, They brought slaves and established the Zion community. Soon Gideon Pillow arrived with slaves and developed property in the same area, as did the Polk family. The slaves cleared the family’s land and built their church, houses, and barns. The elders of the church kept excellent records of the marriages, births, and baptisms of their slaves.
As roads were built and the towns of Columbia, Spring Hill, and Mt Pleasant were established, the population grew. By 1850 the U.S. Census reports a county population of 10,850 whites and 12,070 slaves. There were also 51 free Black people.
Slaves in Maury County, despite being banned from education, became the skilled artisans of the county. Slave owners hired out slaves who were expert carpenters, cooks, seamstresses, barbers, masons, blacksmiths, and cotton gin operators. Examples of unpaid slave workmanship can be seen in grandiose antebellum homes throughout the county. On some occasions white owners schooled certain slaves to enhance their skills.
Slaves could not leave their farms without a permit from their owner. This rule was enforced by men know as patrollers hired by the county to stop any slaves who were away from their owners’ homes. Slaves caught without a pass were subject to harsh treatment from both the patroller and the owner.
Slaves developed relationships and formed families. They were married in church ceremonies at St. John’s and Zion churches. There was no law protecting slaves from their owners selling members of their families. Children were separated and sold from parents and wives from husbands. Masters had complete control over their slaves. Slave women were often sexually abused, as shown by the recorded number of mulattos listed on census records after Emancipation. It was not uncommon for the master to sell his slave child.
Slaves were given garden spots to raise vegetables. Their diet was augmented by the innards of animals slaughtered on the place, such as intestines for souse and chitterlings, pig feet and ears, and mountain oysters (hog testicles). House servants fared better than field hands. They were cooks, nurses, maids, buggy drivers, and horse trainers. They enjoyed good food and nice clothes, but their status did not protect them from being sold.
Registry of Blacks Who Were Baptized
Slaves Impressed for Railroad Service
Black Soldiers
Revolutionary War: Ben Mayes, South Carolina,
War of 1812: Charles Mayes
Living Conditions and Culture of Slaves
Slave Cloth and Clothing Slaves
Dress of the African American Woman in Slavery
The History of African-American Music
The Sale of Slaves
Thomas James Frierson of Maury County, who died intestate in 1848, owned 72 slaves. After much litigation, they were divided among his wife and children after his death.
Thomas Frierson Slave Schedule
Edgar M. Gregory, an official with the Freedmen’s Bureau, identified a site near Main and West Sixth streets in Columbia as the market square where slaves were bought and sold.
Newspaper Advertisements for Slaves
Court Documents Recording Sales of Slaves
Election Returns Showing Maury County Votes Not to Succeed from Union
The Hanging of Gilbert Dowell
The hanging of Gilbert Dowell is the only recorded lynching in Maury County before Emancipation. In 1867 his owner, Ben Dowell, filed suit against the main perpetrator for loss of property and won a judgment. As a slave Gilbert Dowell was considered property. Ben Dowell was awarded a judgment of $400.
Gilbert Dowell lived on the Ben Dowell property. His wife, Martha, lived on a nearby farm and belonged to James H. Gregory. J.H. Gregory took Martha and her two children to Louisiana and sold them. In retaliation, Gilbert burned a barn on the Gregory property, which resulted in the destruction of the barn and several horses.
Suspicion fell on Gilbert, who fled into hiding. Tracking dogs located him and he was brought to the barnyard where the fire had taken place. Word of the incident and his capture spread and a mob of around a thousand people gathered at the barnyard. Women brought food and children played.
A lynching mob was formed. Gilbert confessed and he was hung. The next day he was buried not far from the barn. The location of the lynching is given as 150 yards northwest of Gregory Spring on the Theta Pike.
Of the hundreds in the Theta/Santa Fe area of Maury County gathered to watch the hanging, only three men protested: John Gregory, Professor John McGill, and W.O. Roberts. Threats of personal violence were made against these men. Mrs. Ben Dowell, the owner of Gilbert, also pleaded in his behalf.
Eyewitness Accounts of Gilbert Dowell’s Lynching
Census of 1850 for Maury County
The following owned the most enslaved people in the county
Andrew Polk 167
William Polk 151
Jane Greenfield 138
Frederick Watkins* 93
Nathan Cheairs 91
A. Thompson 81
Wilkerson Barnes 71
* Father of Sam Watkins, author of Company Aytch
Many slave owners in Maury County possessed 50 to 90 slaves. For a full report click here.
1850 Census Giving Total Number of Whites, Slaves, and Free People of Color by Towns and Counties
Slavery Patrols
Slavery Patrollers, generally called pattyrollers or paddyrollers, by slaves were organized groups of armed men employed by the county to patrol the county roads and waterways to police the movement of slaves. Slaves were required to have a pass from their masters to leave their home place.
The paddyrollers were mostly lower-class white men who resented the slaves for working in jobs they felt they deserved. In addition to their salaries, the paddyrollers received a bonus from the slave’s master for each returned slave. Slaves were often beaten and otherwise mistreated, even with a pass.
The Maury County Archives has copies of court hirings of patrollers. An example would be: Jill Garrett Collection/County Court Records/Appropriation for J.T. Jones for patrolling of slaves 1856.
Judge William E. Kennedy and the Colonization of Liberia
From Jill Garrett’s book, Hither and Yon:
“A veteran of the War of 1812, Judge William E. Kennedy came to Maury County to serve as a circuit court judge. Apparently, his life was filled with sorrow as his wife, Elizabeth Willis, died in 1841 and all six of his children died in childhood. As he grew older, his fortune increased, and he made plans for the disposition of his property
A compassionate and religious man, his position as a slave owner troubled him. Contacting the American Colonization Society some years before his death, he began freeing his slaves, sending them to Liberia. He provided a year’s support for each one in the new land, including clothing and agricultural implements. In all, he is said to have sent 30 slaves back to Africa.
At least one of them, Cyrus, did not like his new home, finding it to be extremely savage, and worked his way back to the United States. He was still living in Columbia in 1875 and working as a blacksmith
Judge Kennedy kept only nine of his slaves, and these he provided for in his will. Four were cut out of his will because they “seen fit to run away to Federal service.” The five loyal slaves were to be freed, sent to Liberia, and also supported for one year. If they wished to remain in this country, they were to be given support. He made special provisions for his favorite servant, Jim Swift, providing for him for the rest of his life.
His will, recorded in the Maury County Courthouse, is long and involved, with many bequests to friends, family, churches, and schools. Among the bequests was a sum to be given to four tribes of Indians—the Chocktaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek—for the education of Indian youths. Money was left to the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States, to the Virginia Theological Seminary, and his library was given to his friend William V. Thompson. The judge was buried along with his family in the churchyard at Zion Church.”
From The Pulaski Citizen, December 1875:
“One of Judge Kennedy’s freed slaves, Cyrus Kennedy, made a deal with Judge Kennedy prior to departure to Liberia. Judge Kennedy agreed if Cyrus wanted to return to Maury County, he would arrange his return. However, Cyrus would once again become a slave. Life in Liberia was so horrendous that Cyrus returned to Maury County and slave status. Cyrus Kennedy made a name for himself as an exceptionally good blacksmith.”
Slavery’s Trail of Tears
The Buying, Selling, and Gifting of Slaves
Advertisement in the Maury County Press
Will Bequeathing Slaves as Property
Edmund Kelley
1818-1894
First Ordained Baptist Minister in Tennessee
Christianity and Slavery
Only two chapters in the Bible mention or rationalize slavery. One is Genesis 1:18-27, which has to do with the behavior of Noah regarding his nakedness. His son, Ham, saw Noah drunk and naked and told his brothers, Shem and Japheth, who covered him. When Noah sobered up and saw that Ham had told his other two sons, he cursed Ham, declaring him to be a servant of servants. A later version of the story had Noah turn Ham Black.
The other scripture is from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, in which he says, “Servants be obedient to your masters with fear and trembling as unto Christ….”
Samuel Mayes Arnell, a Maury County Unionist and Congressman during Reconstruction, who wrote admiringly in his journal regarding Aunt Doll, a beloved slave, said: “The Presbyterian Church was opposed to slavery and on six different occasions between 1787 and 1836 made formal declarations against it. Presbyterians were opposed as an institution, yet they recognized it as an economic necessity as long as it was sanctioned by the state.”
How Slaveholders Used the Bible to Justify Slavery
Registry of Blacks Baptized and Admitted to Communion
Slaves and Servants of Hamilton Place
Black Medical Knowledge and Cures
Africans brought many cures for disease with them from Africa. After arriving in America, they adapted their cures to similar or new herbs and methods. The slaves who arrived with settlers from the low country in South Carolina had a defined history of culture including medical treatment. They also added many cures to their knowledge by observing Native Americans. Their arrival in Maury County in 1805 can be followed in many cultural ways. Early cures they brought included:
• Aloe used as a poultice to treat snakebite
• Jerusalem artichoke leaves used for fatigue
• Black cohosh leaves chewed or boiled to repel bugs and cure worms in animals and humans
• Blackberry root made into tea for stomach trouble and pneumonia
• Pennyroyal leaves made into tea to cause miscarriage
• Clay from a creek or muddy place mixed with vinegar for sprains and rheumatism
• Cotton root bark chewed to stimulate sexuality or applied to the uterus during labor to ease pain or induce abortion
• Elderberry brewed (all parts of the plant) and applied to sores
• Holly leaves boiled and drunk for fever, measles, pleurisy, and smallpox
Slave Cemeteries
Armstrong Slave Cemetery / Pine Hill
Mt. Pleasant Pike, Ashwood
This small cemetery dates from circa 1830. Approximately 25 graves are located in this roughly rectangular lot. Most graves are marked only by fieldstone, but a number have cut stones marked only with first names, and sometimes dates. This cemetery is the only surviving resource associated with the Black slave population that toiled on Samuel Henry Armstrong’s plantation
Map
Clifton Place
Mt. Pleasant Pike, Ashwood
West of the gates to the farm is a small circa 1860 cemetery, abandoned for more than a century. Likely a slave cemetery for the plantation, the few recognizable graves are marked only by broken fieldstones.
Frierson Cemetery
2893 Hampshire Pike, Cross Bridges
More Details
Hunter Cemetery
7643 Highway 166, Mt. Pleasant
This cemetery was established in 1811. Hundreds of enslaved people are buried in unmarked graves in a section of the cemetery near the road.
Pillow Bethel House
Campbellsville Pike, Columbia
More Details and Map
Rattle and Snap
Mt. Pleasant Pike, Ashwood
Rippavilla Plantation, Spring Hill
More Details
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Mt. Pleasant Pike, Ashwood
A slave cemetery in the back.
Map
Thompson Cemetery
Kedron Road, Spring Hill
Zion Presbyterian Church, Mt. Pleasant
The slave cemetery is to the right side of the church property and includes a memorial marker to a slave hero of the revolutionary war.
Zion Markers