- Slides: 45
Transitional Spaces, Transitional Times: Looking at Slave Dwellings Beyond the Civil War • Leigh Ann Gardner, Interpretive Specialist • Noel Harris, Ph. D Student • Tiffany N. Momon, Master’s Student • Torren Gatson, Ph. D Candidate • Marquita L. Reed, Ph. D Student Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
Goals of the session • Discuss how African Americans carved out their own spaces and places in the Southern landscape and how that is interpreted. • Discuss how slaves took former cabins belonging to their masters and created their own homes and how that is interpreted today. • Discuss how the formerly enslaved created a “new town” in Virginia following Emancipation and what happened to that space. • Discuss how one home, built by a former slave in the years following Emancipation, tells a big story not just about the builder but about the neighborhood as well.
HARDING CABIN Belle Meade Plantation Nashville, Tennessee Noël Harris Ph. D Student - Middle Tennessee State University October 9, 2015 Photo courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives
Roberta Seawell Brandeau, ed. , Homes and Gardens of Tennessee, 3 rd ed. (Nashville, TN: Reprinted by Friends of Cheekwood, by Permission of the Garden Study Club, 1974), 128.
2009 Changes to reflect the life of Bob Greene and his family 2009 Changes to reflect the early years of the Harding family at Belle Meade
Susanna Mc. Gavock Carter. Image courtesy Belle Meade Plantation Bob Green. Image courtesy Tennessee State Library & Archives
“Bonnie Scotland” by Stewart Treviranus. Image courtesy Tennessee State Library & Archives Last will of Bob Green. Davidson County Will Book 36.
Bob Green on the porch of the cabin. Courtesy Tennessee State Library & Archives
Transitional Neighborhoods: The New Town Community of Blacksburg, Virginia Tiffany Momon Middle Tennessee State University Sanborn Map of Blacksburg, Virginia April, 1921 Sheet 1
Brief History • First plot of land purchased by Gilbert Vaughn in 1874 • Settled by formerly enslaved individuals from the area • Averaged 15 families • Home to the St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall Sampson Campbell 1880 Resident of New Town. Photo Courtesy of Special Collections, Virginia Tech Library.
“Most concentrated place where Blacks lived in Blacksburg. Most Black you could call a neighborhood. Gave it its own identity. Free slaves, emancipation went into the outside of the town and set up a community. People left the farms and started their own communities. A new place they called it New Town. ” - Oral History Interview
Courtesy of Martha Shupp Phillips Thesis “A Negro Neighborhood for Blacksburg” (unpublished, 1948).
Migration Courtesy Google Maps Kentland Plantation. Courtesy of the James Randal Kent collection (Virginia Tech). Solitude Plantation. Courtesy of VA Tech Special Collections. Smithfield Plantation. Courtesy of www. vacelebrates. org.
Deeds and Land • Deeds featured stipulations about what could and could not be done on the property. • Land often deeded to other family members upon death. December 1928 Sanborn Map of New Town
Structures – Laura Anderson House • Lot purchased in 1884 by John and Laura Anderson. • Deed states “cannot erect a house where any [bad] conduct shall be carried on, bar room, pool table, restaurant, or any public house in which good order could not be enforced. ” Laura Anderson’s Home. Rear Elevation. Courtesy of the St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall. Laura Anderson. Courtesy of the St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall Scale Model of Laura Anderson’s Home on display at the St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall. Front elevation,
Structures – German Hall House • Home to Willie and Susie Harris • May have been built or remodeled using remnants of the Virginia Tech German Hall • Home to the Harlem Barbershop • Demolished in 2005 Photo of 213 Gilbert Street in 1986. Home originally built around 1936. Courtesy of Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks. (1986). Historic District/Brief Survey Form. Blacksburg, Virginia.
“Had a business there at one time. In the basement of a house. Corner of Gilbert and Turner is where my business was. At Willie and Susie Harris’ house. ” - Oral History Interview
Structures – The St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall • Built on land deeded by neighbors who lived near the structure in 1905 • Wood framed structure built by members of the Odd Fellows • Restored by the Town of Blacksburg in 2009 Photo of the St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall in 2013. Personal photo. .
“The hall made the neighborhood popular. People from all over came to the hall. Came here for dances and recreation. We used to have big dances. Everybody from all over, Wake Forest, Christiansburg, Radford, used to come here and dance. ” - Oral History Interview
Structures – Unidentified Owners Miss Birdie’s House? Courtesy of Martha Shupp Phillips Thesis “A Negro Neighborhood for Blacksburg” (unpublished, 1948). Alley of New Town? Courtesy of Martha Shupp Phillips Thesis “A Negro Neighborhood for Blacksburg” (unpublished, 1948).
Neighborhood Decline Roanoke Times July 14, 2005 213 Gilbert Street “German Hall House” in 2004. Courtesy of Christine Rodriguez and Scott Gartner “Odd Fellows Lodge” (unpublished).
“We moved out in 1959 or 1960. All the children had grown up and gotten married and things. People died out. It’s sad. ” - Oral History Interview
Today • Collegiate Square Shopping Center • Renamed to North End • St. Luke’s Odd Fellows Hall Museum Courtesy of Google Maps
“Sense of community was lost. Maybe that’s too strong of a feeling. African Americans who lived in New Town they lost a sense of community. Hate that they changed the neighborhood name to North End. ” - Oral History Interview
Mc. Lemore House Torren Gatson Ph. D Student, Middle Tennessee State University Marquita Reed Ph. D Student, Middle Tennessee State University
Brief History • The nineteenth century marked a time of massive change for American life and culture. • The institution of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction shaped Americans views issues of race, class and gender. • In Tennessee, the driving force of the local and state economy was slavery “Freedmen Voting, ” (1871), The Granger Collection
Brief History • After the Civil War, Reconstruction carved an identity for African Americans in Tennessee. • Harvey Mc. Lemore lived through each of these periods in American history that would transform his existence. • There is little known of the origins of Harvey Mc. Lemore. “Emancipation, ” Thomas Nast (1865). Rare Book and Special Collection, Library of Congress
Slavery Getty Images: Hulton Archive
The story of Harvey Mc. Lemore represents the story of not only African Americans but of several key points of African American history. v. Emancipation v. Reconstruction v. Citizenship v. Black industrial/agricultural entrepreneurship v. Family Heritage
Harvey Mc. Lemore • Harvey Mc. Lemore (ca. 1829 - death unknown or ca. 1898? ) first appears as a slave on Atkins and Bethenia Mc. Lemore’s 427 -acre plantation near Spring Hill/Thompson’s Station. • Harvey was directly mentioned in Atkins J. Mc. Lemore’s estate inventory upon Atkins’s death in 1849. Harvey was again recorded in 1850, within circuit court records pertaining to the heirs of the Atkins J. Mc. Lemore estate. • Nine years later on October 17, 1859, Harvey was sold to Atkins’s son, William Sugars (W. S. ) Mc. Lemore, for $1, 100. William’s sister, Bethenia J. Mc. Lemore, performed the Bill of Sale. John Winston Coleman Jr. Collection
Harvey Mc. Lemore On January 1, 1866, Harvey Mc. Lemore entered into his first labor contract with his former owner, Judge W. S. Mc. Lemore. Now a free man, Harvey agreed to cultivate 40 acres of the judge’s land in corn and cotton for two thirds of the profit made from their sale. In 1880, almost 15 years to the day when Harvey entered into his first work contract as a free man, he purchased 2 acres of land from Judge Mc. Lemore, the same man who had once owned him. Harvey bought lots 14, 15, 16, and 17 for $400, and began construction on the home that would shelter and safeguard his family for the next 117 years. From Williamson County In Black & White (Rick Warwick)
Mc. Lemore exhibit Recreating the importance and interpreting the home Themes Family Daily Life Harvey Mc. Lemore Community Entrepreneurship
Interpreting Exhibit Space
Example of a current interpretation of African American life at the Mc. Lemore House
Examples of proposed text from mock panel A Centennial of Change The nineteenth century marked a time of massive change for American life and culture. The institution of slavery the Civil war and Reconstruction have shaped the way Americans view issues of race, class and gender. In Tennessee, the institution of slavery was a driving force in the local and state economy. Civil War battles and the abolishment of slavery reshaped the Tennessee landscape. After the Civil War, Reconstruction carved an identity for African Americans in Tennessee and throughout the United States. Harvey Mc. Lemore lived through each of these periods in American history that would transform his existence. There is little known of the origins of Harvey Mc. Lemore, however the information that is available tells a remarkable story of a man that survived the institution of slavery and upon gaining his freedom became a successful landowner.
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