The Juneteenth Holiday and its Connections to Williamson County

Update:  In 2020, due to concerns about the spread of CoVid19, the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County will be hosting a Virtual Juneteenth Celebration. They have planned a week-long observance of this holiday on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.  Please follow them there for videos, articles, photographs and information about Juneteenth and local African American history.

History of Juneteenth. Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day and is an American holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865 - the day when Major General Gordon Granger announced to the enslaved people in Texas that they were free.  This was more than 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect and two months after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. 

General Gordon Granger
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

General Granger had arrived in Texas after a long career in the military that included time in Franklin, Tennessee.  During the Civil War, from approximately March to May 1863, a fort was constructed by the US Army on Figuers Bluff overlooking downtown Franklin, the railroad depot, and the Harpeth River. Much of this work was conducted under the command of Gen. Granger and the fort was subsequently named for him - Fort Granger.

The Fort was constructed by thousands of men in the federal Army as well as many African American men who were freeing enslavement. The 98th Ohio Infantry was in Franklin during this time and their doctor frequently wrote columns in their hometown newspaper reporting on events that affected the soldiers.  On April 1st, 1863, he wrote from Franklin that, 

"It is astonishing to see the contraband [runaway slaves] coming in - drove after drove. I think old Abe's Proclamation is doing up the business finely. When first issued I felt opposed to it, thinking it impolite; but since my return to Dixie I have quite changed by opinion. I think it is sapping the very foundation of the Rebels' last hope.

There are not less than five hundred runaway slaves in Gen. Granger's Corps. They, at an average of $500 would amount to a quarter of a million dollars. Our mess has one that sold for $1,700 a few years since."

 

Belmont_(Ohio) Chronicle
Thursday, Apr 9, 1863
Column is written by Dr. Henry West of the 98th Ohio
while they were stationed in Franklin, Tennessee

Some of the black men who worked on Fort Granger later enlisted in the segregated part of the US Army called the US Colored Troops, including in particular the 15th US Colored Infantry. According to a Congressional report, the Fort Granger laborers were only paid for one month's work, despite having worked for 9 months.  The men were “induced to sign pay-rolls for this balance, which were taken by Lieutenant Brisbane, who was the quartermaster at this post at that time. The white laborers were paid, but not the colored. These colored men were afterwards enlisted by Lieutenant Powell of the 15th colored regiment, and assigned to companies A and B, and are on duty at Columbia, Tennessee. Lieutenant Wharton is at the front, on Major General Thomas’ staff. He has not furnished them certificates, or any evidence whatsoever, of their claim against the government. It was represented to us that when Lieutenant Brisbane paid them the ten dollars, he had money sufficient to make the payment. He kept the rolls, and took them away with him.”

This was likely the case for several men from Williamson County who enlisted in Companies A & B of the 15th US Colored Infantry during this period:

• Company A
• Pvt. Anderson Boxley, died of disease
• Pvt. Abraham Creight
• Regimental Blacksmith, George Harrison
• Drummer William Jordan, died of disease
• Pvt. Henry Morse
• Pvt. Rubin Wilson
• Company B
• Pvt. Thomas Bowden
• Pvt. George Boxley
• Pvt. Henry Bradley
• Cpl. Joseph Cole (member of color guard)
• Pvt. William Hillem
• Pvt. Peter Hughes, died of disease
• 1st Sgt. Thomas Macklemore
• Sgt. Samuel Polk
• Pvt. Peter Ratcliffe (buried in Franklin's Toussaint L'Ouveture Cemetery"

As the Civil War came to a close, some US Colored Troop regiments were kept on active duty and sent to the US-Mexico border to provide security.  Among them were many regiments of US Colored Troops soldiers that included several men from Williamson County.  General Granger was at the helm when these troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19th and issued his famous Order No. 3 - announcing the end of slavery there.

Daily Dallas Herald (Dallas, Texas) July 1, 1865, Page 1

This day has been celebrated as Juneteenth every year - particularly in Texas. Early on, the celebrations often included prayer services, inspirational speakers, and often a recitation of the Emancipation Proclamation. Sometimes, people who had been enslaved would speak. Often special food and strawberry soda was served, games were played and music performed. In middle Tennessee, the Nashville newspapers reported on these celebrations - such as this article reporting on the 1883 Juneteenth celebration.

The_Tennessean_Wed__Jun_20__1883

The Juneteenth celebrations eventually spread from Texas to nearby Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Later, emigrants brought their celebrations from those states to their new homes; it was especially popular in Alabama, Florida, and California.

Emancipation Day Celebrations in Tennessee

In Tennessee, African American communities initially celebrated their emancipation on either January 1st - in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation - or in August to celebrate the state's abolition of slavery.

January 1 Celebrations.  As early as the very first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a celebration was planned in Nashville for January 1, 1864. A parade through downtown Nashville was mapped out. It is important to remember that at this point, the War was still raging in Tennessee and slavery had not been legally abolished here although it was quickly unraveling in practical effect.

The_Nashville_Daily_Union
Friday, January 1, 1864

In this article from 1871, the newspaper described an Emancipation Day celebration in Nashville at the Ninth Street Colored Church that included a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and a speech by Judge Cox which recounted the life's story of Robert Garner.  The story of Garner and particularly his wife Margaret later became the basis of Toni Morrison's book Beloved.  After Cox's speech, Garner - who was in attendance in Nashville - answered some questions of the attendees.   

The Tennessean, Friday January 6, 1871

During the late 1880s through the 1910s, the Emancipation Day celebrations in Nashville became large-scale events with Fisk and the other African American colleges taking part. The newspapers reported on committees forming to decorate the Tennessee legislature, readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, music, speeches, and street parades.

The_Nashville_Globe_Fri__Jul_30__1909

This article from the Nashville Globe newspaper describes a celebration in Franklin at Shorter Chapel on the Emancipation Proclamation anniversary. Shorter Chapel and other African American churches continue to observe this event with Watch Night services on New Year's Eve each year.

The_Nashville_Globe_Fri__Jan_12__1912

August Celebrations in Tennessee.  

In Tennessee, African American communities appear to have also been celebrating Emancipation in August as well as January since the late 1800s. On August 8, 1898, in Clarksville over 1,000 people gathered at Porter Bluff Park to parade. Over the years this celebration grew. Black townspeople flooded the city’s streetcars while several thousand participants from cities as far south as Nashville and as far north as Indianapolis came by train, steamboat, buggy, horse, foot, and later by motor bus and car. In 1984, Emma E. Williams Burt, wife of the operator of Clarksville’s first hospital, Dr. Robert T. Burt, described the first celebration this way:

People came from far and near—train loads of people—to celebrate Homecoming. There was a parade. We were always in it with our decorated buggy and always won a prize. After the Parade everyone went to Porter’s Road [Bluff] Cave to celebrate where there were games, speaking, barbecues, and people had a great reunion.

Over the years, on the "Eighth of August", black Clarksvillians have continued to celebrate the date, as do several communities on the western Tennessee-Kentucky border. In 2007, Governor Phil Bredesen signed House Bill No. 207 acknowledging August 8 as “Emancipation Day,” an annual day of special observance to recognize the freeing of Andrew Johnson’s personal slaves and “the significance of emancipation in the history of Tennessee.”

1897 Exposition Celebration: Emancipation Day

The Nashville American, September 20, 1897

In September 1897 Tennessee hosted the Exposition and September 22nd was heralded as "Emancipation Day."  Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute was one of the speakers. Famous organist of the time, Will Accooe, performed as well.

Modern Juneteenth Celebrations. Juneteenth celebrations fell out of favor across the United States in the mid-1900s until a resurgence in the interest in African American history in the last 20 years.  Now the holiday is observed across the United States. These events still include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations often include street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. 

Juneteenth in Franklin

In 2005, the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County hosted the first modern-day Juneteenth celebration in Franklin at the McLemore House. 

The_Tennessean_Thu__Jun_9__2005

The_Tennessean_Mon__Jun_20__2005

It is important to remember that the end of slavery did not happen on one date or at one time.  It was a very personal process - it happened on an individual basis.  Some enslaved people claimed their freedom by escaping early in the War. Others, due to personal circumstances (i.e., age, or motherhood) waited longer to leave.  There was no magic wand that ended slavery all at once.  Andrew Moss, a white Unionist in Franklin described the process this way in a January 1866 newspaper article

The tenure of slavery was thoroughly cut in my county, by some means, during the fall and winter of 1862-3 but I don't know who done it. It is said that the proclamation of President Lincoln done it, but I am not sure that that is the fact, as I know that the cord was fast unwinding before his proclamation was issued. 

The basis for all these holidays was a celebration of the end of slavery - an institution that was deeply embedded in the fabric of Williamson County from its foundation until the Civil War. There is not a piece of land in the County that is not touched by the stain of slavery. On this blog, I have traced the stories of many individual people who were enslaved here - I encourage you to read some of their stories this Juneteenth and marvel at their lives and accomplishments:

• Martha Harrison was born around 1849 and grew up in the Hillsboro (now called Leiper's Fork) area of Williamson County, TN. She was enslaved by the Buford and Cunningham families. She said in an interview in the 1930s that “N****** ain’t scared of white folks now."
• Pvt. Miles German was born abt 1833 in Franklin, TN and enslaved by the family of Dan German Sr. in the area where the McKays Mills subdivision is today.
• Pricilla Holland Gray was born in 1830 in Williamson County and enslaved by Amos & Sophia Holland. She lived to be 107 and described her emancipation this way "When freed, our white folks didn't give us nothing."
• Millie Simpkins was born abbout 1837 in Williamson County, TN. She described emancipation this way: "we didn't get nothing when we were freed. Just drove away without nothing to do with. ...Some of the slaves might have got something but I don't know nobody that did." 
• Louvenia Marshall Mayberry was enslaved as a child by Judge John Marshall in downtown Franklin. She was then sold to the Marshall's son in law who kept her in bondage past the end of the Civil War when she told him she knew, "I'm free, just as free as the birds in the air." 
• Green Irving Currin as born in Williamson County about 1842. He became the first African American to serve in the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature and was a champion of Civil Rights. 
• Vergy Andrews was enslaved by Rev. Mark Andrews' family in Franklin, TN where the indoor soccer complex is on Downs Boulevard near Jim Warren Park. "They told us we were free, but of course we didn’t know where to go nor nothing."
• 1st Sgt. George Jordan was born in Williamson County in 1848. In 1866 he joined the US Army and then Co K, 9th US Cavalry - the Buffalo Soldiers. He is the only person from Williamson County to earn a Congressional Medal of Honor.
• The Young Family About 1850, Charlotte Young, her husband Sam, and their infant son Sam Jr were sold in Virginia and brought to Franklin, TN. They had been sold by human "speculators" as Charlotte described it in an 1877 newspaper ad searching for her lost mother.
• Cpl. Abraham McGavock and his parents Dafny and Daniel Perkins. Cpl McGavock was the youngest son of Daphne Perkins. Enslaved by Nicholas Tate Perkins in Franklin, TN. Daphe described that "I became free by the coming of US Troops into our Country in 1863." 
• 1st Sgt. Andrew Ewing 1st Sgt. Andrew Ewing was born in 1831 in Williamson County, TN, and enslaved by Alexander Ewing. In 1863, he enlisted in the 12th US Colored Infantry and served as its highest-ranking black soldier. 
• Wiley and Jane Brown Scruggs  Wiley Scruggs was enslaved by Joe Scruggs on a farm where the Westhaven subdivision is in Franklin, TN. In an interview, he described how his mother wanted to escape during the Civil War, but being a child, he was too afraid to leave.
• Pvt. Edward "Ned" Scruggs was born about 1836 in Williamson County, TN and enslaved by Ed Scruggs on Carter's Creek Pike about where Grace Chapel is today. On September 24, 1863, he enlisted in Company F of the 13th US Colored Infantry.
• Pvt. William Holmes was born in Virginia and served in the 5th Mass Colored Cavalry. He was in Galveston on June 19, 1865 (#Juneteenth
  
  ) Following the Civil War, he settled in Williamson County, TN where he married, raised a family & is buried.
• The Granville and Catherine Crump family  Granville Crump, a blacksmith, and his wife Katherine were born in the 1830s in Williamson County, TN. Their children attended Fisk University - a daughter was a Jubilee singer. A son was a community activist and leader.
• Pvt. Granville Scales was born 1845 in the College Grove area of Williamson County, TN. He enlisted in the 44th US Colored Infantry and was taken POW 2x and escaped 2x. He lost an arm in combat but stayed in the USCT until his regiment mustered out. 
• The Bostick Family of Triune Charlotte & Washington Bostick and their family was enslaved by John Bostick's family in Triune. Their children were sent to Arkansas to farm cotton and 3 sons enlisted in the US Navy during the Civil War. Then they established a black town in IL
• Pvt. Freeman Thomas was b. 1845 in the Cool Springs area of Franklin, TN. He enlisted in the 12th US Colored Infantry: "This was the biggest thing that ever happened in my life. I felt like a man, with a uniform on and a gun in my hand."
• Pvt. John Dubuisson served in the 100th US Colored Infantry & fought at the Battle of Nashville. Following the War, he married and settled in Franklin where he raised a very successful family. His son owned a Negro league baseball team in Arkansas. 

These are just a sampling of Williamson County's native sons and daughters.  Their stories are our stories and deserve celebrating.