Cemeteries, graveyards and memorials are visual reminders of our public memory of the enslaved. They exist because our ancestors desired to memorialize those buried there. Unfortunately, many historic African American cemeteries have been forgotten; some of them paved over, others taken over by developers. It’s up to us to save the ones that remain. By visiting and honoring the sacred places of our ancestors, who were enslaved and freed to survive mostly on their own, we give humanity and dignity to their memory. This morning, our AAHGS Nashville Chapter hosted a moving and insightful set of p ..read more

John F. Baker Jr. Many thanks to John F. Baker Jr. for his presentation yesterday, “Finding the Stories Behind the Names: John F. Baker, Jr. Makes It Plain“. John shared the important and impactful work he’s done to research the Washington families of Wessyngton Plantation. John shared details from his research and the methods for how he captured the stories and insights in his book, Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation. If you do not have his book, it is a must-read! John’s done some incredible work and his story is worth reading. To learn more about John and the Washingtons of Wessyngton, v ..read more

Today we held the first meeting of the year and had an important presentation from our guest speaker, Dr. Camille Westmont. Dr. Westmont is a historical archaeology postdoctoral fellow at Sewanee: The University of the South and shared information about a project she is working on – a volunteer indexing & transcription project, to be more precise, of records created by the Lone Rock Stockade, which was the largest convict stockade in Tennessee. Dr. Westmont is the coordinator of an online volunteer transcription project for records from the Lone Rock Stockade (which was in Grundy County, T ..read more

Neighborhood History Uncovered in Quarantine Ever since we all began to splinter into isolation because of the coronavirus pandemic, just about every first Saturday members and friends of AAHGS Nashville have been gathering around our computer screens for our monthly meeting, looking into our collective past. The August meeting focused on destruction of African American neighborhoods to make way for interstate highway systems, and similar projects given “right of eminent domain.” AAHGS Nashville member Deborah Washington was so moved by the discussion, she dug into her family archives to find ..read more

Our chapter had another informative and educational meeting Sat., Aug. 1st! Our third quarterly meeting of the year was held via Zoom, as will all remaining meetings of the year, due to COVID19. Featured guest Zachary Keith, an archivist and map curator at the Tennessee State Library & Archives, shared a website he’s been working on to show – through geographic mapping overlays – the destruction of African American neighborhoods of Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and Knoxville caused by urban renewal in the 1950s-60s . The maps are striking.  In these two, for example, you can clearl ..read more

Learotha Williams, “Dr. Josie Wells,” North Nashville Heritage Project. Dr. Learotha Williams, the history professor at Tennessee State University known for his North Nashville Heritage Project, has taken the preservation venture to a new level. He launched a new website, May 11, 2020, that offers museum-quality exhibits and serves as a vehicle to share his digital collections with researchers, educators, and enthusiasts alike. In turn, users of the site can submit their own images and inspiring stories about North Nashville history and culture. “Think of memories you carry with you to Gr ..read more

Yesterday, AAHGS Nashville partnered with Andrew Jackson’s The Hermitage for a day of education to help individuals with preserving their family histories. The event was held at Tulip Grove Mansion, a Greek-revival home built between 1834-1836 by Andrew Jackson Donelson, the nephew of the President’s wife (Rachel Donelson) and adopted son and heir of President & Mrs. Jackson. Tulip Grove The Jackson family owned and enslaved many individuals on this property, thus, it is highly important that activities such as the one we had yesterday, are held to help ensure that we promote the ongoing r ..read more

On Saturday, January 18th, we held our first meeting of the year. We were fortunate to have Dr. Angela Sutton present and showcase a variety of emotionally moving monuments around the world created to memorialize the experiences of enslaved populations. Dr. Sutton shared these projects as a context for the potential that lies before the city of Nashville as plans are considered for a monument/memorial at Ft. Negley. Dr. Sutton discussed the following sites: Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud in Puerto Rico – erected in 1956, the “Monument to the Abolition of Slavery” acknowledges the co ..read more

In the genealogy blogging community, there are a series of daily writing prompts that are shared to help with ideas for blogging. Today is Saturday, and one of the prompts is “Surname Saturday.” So, for this post, we took inspiration from the blogging prompt and are writing a short blurb about Bell families in middle-Tennessee. The idea to do this came about earlier today, while I was engaged in a conversation with fellow AAHGS board member, Natalie Bell. We spoke about the numerous Bell families here in the middle Tennessee area. Undoubtedly, many can likely trace their lineages back to affil ..read more

This week, many of us will be around friends and family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  It’s the perfect time to grab a family member or two and ask them to share a few of their stories! Each year at Thanksgiving, StoryCorps – a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage people to share their stories, encourages story sharing through their Great Thanksgiving Listen project. Visit the website for details on how to use the app, suggestions for interview questions, and more.  Stories can be private, but if you choose, it can be shared online with other users and archived at ..read more