The Freed Slaves of Montgomery County
December 14, 2015
Clarksville, TN – Every human being has worth and deserves dignity. “Everyone matters” is an incredibly powerful humanitarian ideal, and one upon which the United States seems to continually both build and define. We hear the whispers of this ideal within the words of the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The generation of Americans which fought to free us from the tyranny of Europe in the late 18th Century probably could not have grasped how these words, and the spirit of the ideal they reflect would be used by subsequent generations to form the nation we live within today.
Unknown Slave Women and children
“Free at Last” traveling exhibition on Emancipation and Reconstruction on display at Fort Defiance Civil War Park
October 19, 2015
Clarksville, TN – For the last year of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area has expanded its traveling exhibition about emancipation and Reconstruction. “Free at Last!” tells the momentous story of the transition from slavery to freedom and the development of citizenship among formerly enslaved African Americans.
Doubled in size to eight banner stands, the exhibition now has panels focused on each of Tennessee’s three grand divisions. “Free at Last!” is available to museums and historic sites free of charge and is on view at the Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center in Clarksville from now to December 10th, 2015.
Clarksville Beginnings – Part 2: Revisiting the Massacre at Sevier Station; In Their Own Words
October 27, 2014
Clarksville, TN – I love history and find it fascinating – and you must enjoy it as well or you would not be reading this article! Yet, I could listen and listen to someone who is alive and well with me today go on ad nauseum about the dry facts from the past and get absolutely nothing from it.
But, to hear the very words of those who lived before us – those priceless journals, letters, and testimonies – that is gold to me! It is amazing to be able to peak into their minds and hearts for just a moment and experience with them the joys, the struggles, the hopes, and the pain of the experience of life.
That is what we have with the story of the lives of Valentine Sevier, his family, and community – their own words.
Sevier Station
