USA > Tennessee > Sullivan County > Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
January 1, 1871: Conducted a Sunday School Concert at Oak Grove-had a nice time-house was crowded-I gave a talk .- Com- pleted our "Twelve Lessons About Jesus."-Resolved to try to improve in knowledge and try to do right-Lord help me.
January 26, 1887: To-day we celebrate my father and mother's 'Golden Wedding"-We had a pleasant time .- Cold day.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SLAVERY DAYS.
The contention of the negro that he has arrived at his present state of development during the last forty years is absurd-it has been nearer four hundred years. It must be remembered slaves did not remain savages in bondage. The length of time slavery has existed in any community of the South marks the time of the negro's translation from savagery to civilization and enlighten- ment. Being a race of imitators with good-natured en- dowments and diplomacy they soon absorbed the customs of the people among whom fate had cast them.
Slavery is coexistent with the first settlements of Sullivan County. The earliest records we have-dating back to the last quarter of the seventeenth century- mention the purchase and exchange of slaves and more often the presence or possession of them. This, then, is evidence of their having had the benefit of over one hundred and twenty-five years in developing in this county alone over what they would have received had they remained in their original state.
The Island road, named for Long Island, from Kings- port through Virginia, was one of the great thorough- fares of slave-trade, as was the Blountville road, to Jones- boro and back through Virginia. This explains why there were more slave-owners along these two roads than there were along the Reedy creek road, running between and parallel with them. Being thus brought into contact with the trade the temptation to buy slaves was greater. This also created rivalry of ownership among the buyers. Where one man owned ten slaves his neighbor would soon be in possession of twelve or fourteen.
Literature controlling public sentiment has stamped the slave-trader with a stigma that would be hard to re-
273
SLAVERY DAYS.
move and the ban reaches all of them alike, even to-day. To these men more than any other cause is due the reputed bad treatment of slaves.
The slave trader usually had guaranty of the sale of a good many of his slaves before starting on a journey. Sometimes they were sold at auction-the age, tempera- ment, experience and strength governing the price. Buyers would examine the mouth and teeth of a slave as they would a horse. The price ranged from five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. The number in a "drove" varied from six to twenty-five. The unruly ones and those likely to attempt escape were hand- cuffed in pairs while the females were carried in wagons.
Next to the slave trader the negro boss of the planta- tion was the most dreaded and despised by the slaves. He was usually very tyrannical in the exercise of his brief authority and was harder on the laborers than his white owner might have been.
A man's wealth was often estimated by the number of slaves he owned rather than by his acreage of land. The Cobb family at one time owned more than one hundred slaves, but this high mark of possession usually preceded a division. When the young people of the family married and went to their new homes they were given their favorite servants. There have been instances where a favorite daughter of the family would find it hard to make a selection, all of the old slaves wishing to accompany her. These separations were very affecting.
The son of an owner of slaves was always provided with a body-servant who was considered his property. This servant was usually much older than his master. The selection for this position, in most cases, was the one who took the most interest in the young man and pleased him most, and the attachment between the two was very marked. The young master relied greatly on "uncle's" judgment and confided most of his affairs to him. He
274
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
would often discard a hat or garment if the old negro coveted it. On many of his rambles "Uncle Jim" was his companion and, be it said to his memory, there are rare instances where these old servants exercised any baleful influence over the young men of the South.
Many of those who enlisted for the war took their servants with them. They wanted to go and their pres- ence did much to cheer the Southern soldier-the young men knowing that should they be wounded they would be looked after, and if killed would not be left on the field of battle, but would be carried back and laid to rest in the shadow of the old home.
The attachment between the "young missus" and her old black "mammy" was even more marked and cordial, she always looking after the girl's every want. Nothing made her prouder than to be keeper of the keys of the family larders, and while the old servant performed the work of a menial she was the real "boss" of the house- hold. The children knew her permission was equivalent to the consent of the rest of the family.
This vesting of authority in her was simply an expres- sion of the love and confidence that all bore her. Should the young mistress make a journey of any length, her salutations, on her return, were not complete until "Aunt Mariah" had been greeted. In the sick chamber the old negro woman sat through the long night vigil, watching for any movement or sound that would indicate the condition of the patient. If death perchance occurred her grief was as uncontrollable as had been her joy over some pleasant surprise.
And that feeling that once existed between the two races is sometimes in evidence today. The descendant of a slave owner will greet an old remnant of bondage days with a smile and frequently a donation. Not a great while ago, in Sullivan County, an old ex-slave lay dying. A descendant of his former master, hearing of his illness, hastened to his bedside. As his life was ebbing away
275
SLAVERY DAYS.
he expressed great concern lest there should be no place to bury him. "Don't worry Uncle Jake," said the young man, "don't worry, if your own race can't find a place for you there's a little vacant spot in the cemetery by the side of father and mother-we'll bury you there."
The race is not without its quaint humor and philos- ophy. An old street preacher touring through Sullivan took his stand on a street corner in Bristol. He had but recently arrived from Alabama. "I was preachin' in Birmingham de otha day," said he, "when dey axes me did I b'lieve a niggah was as good as a white man. I looks 'bout me kind o' slant wise an' I sees a passel of white folks an' I says no-but I b'lieves, gem'men, dat a good niggah is better'n a bad white man."
Indian slaves1 worked side by side with negro slaves and in this way the latter absorbed much of the humor and quaint folk-lore of the Indian, but the Indian being a conservator would have none of the negro.
Slaves were often paid wages and were allowed a certain portion of time each week and a plot of ground to cultivate for their own profit. In this way many bought their freedom.
While perhaps there were no manumission societies, slaves were accorded humane treatment in Sullivan County and a few owners liberated a portion of their slaves and sent them to Liberia.
The reputed cruel treatment of slaves has been much magnified as far as this county is concerned, but of course we may have had a milder form of slavery than the corn and cotton countries. Some owners never even whipped their servants, while others did chastise the unruly ones when occasion demanded.
A slave owner, living near the mouth of Beaver creek, once ordered a slave up a tree to saw off one of the limbs. After the slave had climbed the tree he realized the
1Indians often sold themselves into slavery to pay gambling debts. Indian prisoners of war were also frequently made slaves.
276
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
predicament he would be placed in by sawing the limb off between himself and the trunk of the tree, and protested : "Why, massa, the limb will fall on me and break my neck." "Whose loss is it, suh!" replied the master. However, had a fatality been the result no one would have bemoaned the accident more than the master. From a commercial, if not a humane standpoint, great care was taken to guard the health of a slave and as no owner would care to cause the death of a thousand dollar horse neither would he indulge in projects that would imperil the life of a fifteen hundred dollar slave.
In most cases the negro, with his talent for mimicry, would assume the style and speech, as near as possible, of the family to whom he belonged, always taking the name of his last owner. If the family laid great stress upon ancestry, the slave believed the ancestry was his own also and thereupon assumed, often ridiculously, a dignified air in dress and in the use of words.
If the family was inclined to bluntness or combativeness the negro was often offensive or even dangerous. If the family was in but moderate circumstances and lacked prestige, the negro reflected it in a subdued look and did not care to discuss his family history.
Prior to the war a traveler, passing through Blount- ville, accosted a spry and lofty-aired negro and inquired : "Who do you belong to uncle?" "I's a Rutledge, suh," with a toss of the head indicating his surprise that anyone should be in ignorance of his family identity. On meeting another the same inquiry was put and was answered with: "I b'longs to de fambly, knows e'm?" in a tone that plainly showed he was ashamed of his master.
Society had its factions and cliques, and the line of social intercourse was as distinctly drawn among the blacks as among the whites. A "corn field coon" could not keep pace with the coach driver-the "gem'man" groom in waiting.
277
SLAVERY DAYS.
Outside of Sullivan and one or two other counties the greater portion of East Tennessee fought for the Union. The influence of Johnson, Nelson, Brownlow and Maynard was supreme. But those men were not anti-slavery in sentiment-they were opposed to fighting under any other flag than that of the Union. Many of their followers-the mountain whites-did not despise slavery as an institution, but they opposed the bringing of slave labor into competition with their own, and they despised the aristocracy of the slave-owner. It was the desire of the poor whites to throw the slave upon his own resources and thereby diminish free labor and withdraw privileges from the servant that even the savant was not permitted to enjoy. On the other hand Sullivan had, with perhaps the exception of Greene county, the smallest number of slaves of any county in East Tennessee, in proportion to its population. In 1795 it had seven hundred and seventy-seven while Hawkins county, which had been made out of Sullivan, had two thousand, four hundred and seventy-two,2 more than three times as many.
The songs of slavery have become a part of our lyric literature. But no one save the old time negro, when awakened by the inspiring memories of cabin days, can sing them as they should be sung, with their weird appealing melodies. They are the songs of captivity and have a melancholy that is peculiarly and characteris- tically their own. Some of these songs became blended with the Indian chants and can now be heard where there are groups of negro laborers-especially on public works- using the pick and hammer. The strokes of these im- plements measure time for them.
In a great majority of cases slaves belonged not only to the wealth but the culture of the land and in such homes they were taught to read and write and what is more- reverence. No people were, apparently, more reverential or more moved by spiritual influences. The negro had
2Tennessee Gazetteer.
278
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
more opportunities than the poor white and reached higher social privileges during slavery days than has ever been permitted him since, because then he never abused those privileges. This social phase did not mean familiar contact, but there was a friendly understanding be- tween master and servant.
On Sundays these slaves were expected to put on their best garments and attend church-a place being set apart for them, or in the more wealthy communities galleries were arranged for them.
As in the slave days when the greatest bugbear to the negro and his greatest dread, next to the trader, was the boss of his own color who was in charge of a number of hands, so today the greatest menace to his advancement has been the bad advice coming from some of the leaders of his race, or, what is perhaps worse, from evil designing whites. This is more pronounced in the press of the Northwest where the race problem is alarmingly discussed.
The authorities of Chicago undertook to control the anarchistic spirit, then creating disturbances there, and which resulted in the Haymarket riot, by dealing with the leading instigators, and the subsequent quiet that prevailed proved the wisdom of the procedure.
That legislation intended to reach the "low and vic- ious" will find upon investigation that that element gives forth only the irresponsible echo of some sentiment expressed by others more intelligent.
The race problem is agitating the minds of those who have to deal with it far less than it is the lookers on, and, while the country is sometimes racked with dread and shocked at the perpetration of crimes, the South holds herself in check by the recollection that the faithful old slave, in times that tried him, was the greatest safeguard of the sanctity of the Southern homes-and remembers, with increasing regard as the years go by, that the old "black mammy" rocked the cradle and helped to rear the courtliest race of white men and the proudest and purest race of white women the world has ever known.
JAMES P. SNAPP.
A BIOGRAPHY.
James P. Snapp was born August 3, 1823, west of Blountville on the old Snapp place. His early youth was spent on the farm. During that time, however, he lost no opportunity to get an education and in con- sequence was, at the close of his school life, one of the best educated men in the county. He attended Jeffer- son Academy at Blountville and finished a college course at Emory and Henry, graduating in the class with Dr. A. J. Brown, 1847.
Col. Snapp, after finishing school, taught for several years, between 1850-55, at the academy where his school life began. He then took up the study of law, which he finished, and, having an analytic, legal mind, would have made an able jurist but for the war diverting him from his chosen work.
In April, 1861 he was made captain of Company C, organized at Blountville, which became a part of the Nineteenth Tennessee regiment, under Col. Pitts. Snapp's company was in the battle of Shiloh and during that engagement occurred one of those incidents which appear ludicrous, even through the awfulness of battle. Two regiments of Federals, in the confusion, were taken by Col. Pitts' regiment, but he did not have enough men to hold them, and the enemy, recovering themselves and realizing the helplessness of the victor, were in turn preparing for a capture, when Pitts and his men saved themselves by slipping away.
In the fall of 1862 Snapp was made a major. Col. Pitts afterward resigned and James G. Rose succeeded him as colonel while Maj. Snapp became lieutenant-colonel.
He was in the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Fishing Creek, Wild Cat, Kentucky and others of less severity.
280
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
He attained the full rank of colonel before the end of the war.
At the close of the war he returned to his farm, but later engaged in the mercantile business at Union, now Bluff City, and sold goods successfully for a number of years.
Always well posted on current events he was often importuned to run for office, but he never entered ac- tively into politics.
Although never wounded in battle his bravery was of the daring type and he made an efficient officer.
He was a man of high moral character and his integrity tallied to a penny. Being a very candid man his out- spoken views engaged him in controversies that were not always amicably settled.
Col. Snapp was a close Bible student and took great interest in Sunday-school work. The young men who were fortunate enough to be in his class received that instruction which can only be obtained from a discerning mind and a conscientious student.
He was never married. During the last years of his life he retired to his farm west of Blountville and was much concerned in building up the farm interests of the county.
"He died June 30, 1901.
CHAPTER XXIX.
AGRICULTURE.
Sullivan County wheat took first prize over the world at the Vienna Exposition in 18721 and the bones of the swiftest horse of the racing days between 1845 and 1860 mouldered on a field at the old Fain farm, east of Blountville. Yet this is not a wheat county nor is it the habitat of the horse.
Nature has always indicated in advance what her climate and her soil are best suited for. In consequence the bison with its bifurcated hoof made a path to the salt-licks and from under the cover of cliffs cropped the grass along beaten trails that led even to our mountain tops. But the horse with his flat hoof did not belong to our rugged, stony highways. He was running his wild life out over the spungy turf of some western prarie.2
Likewise the wheat that was sown on our mountain- sides showed in every breeze that stirred its rivery ripples that it belonged to level culture-its original home being the rich bottoms of the river Nile. By the effect of these same breezes on the cornstalk and the shaggy growth of our trees we see that they are native and firmly rooted in the rocks and clay.
Tennesseans are a race of destroyers. This de- destructive spirit has been inherited through generations from our forefathers, who indulged their inclination in battle. Being denied any other means of statisfying this craving to destroy, we of later days lay waste the land.
When the first settlers cleared a piece of ground they
1 Allison's Historical Map.
2There is a tradition in the neighborhood of Kingsport that a wild horse found its way as far east as Bay's mountain. This horse in struggling for a foothold above the stream that ran along the mountain fell in and was drowned. It was a bay horse and in consequence of this incident the mountain was called Bay's mountain and the stream, Horse creek.
282
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
worked it until its producing quality was well-nigh exhausted. They made no effort to restore the humus to the soil; they cleared and tilled a new piece while the old tract rested and reacted. But they left here and there in these clearings sugar maples and nut-bearing trees. The former with their succulent sap, had they been spared, would have furnished a forest of wealth in the products of maple-sugar and syrup, as they do in Vermont and Ohio today.
The generations that followed, with a better knowledge of the chemistry of the soil, but ignorant of forestry, found a readier and more remunerative profit in saw logs, and they cut the maple for its bird's-eye finish while the walnut found its way into the cabinet-shop and the wagon maker used the hickory. They little thought to replace this growth with its cultivated congener, such as the hardy pecan and English walnut.
We have so abused the provident foresight of our ances- tors that legislative bodies are seeking the best way to preserve from wholesale destruction the forests of the Appalachian range, of which we form a part, while the government sends out a commission to study the social conditions and needs of farmers. Nature in this section is in the hands of a receiver. Then, too, our forefathers saw, in the tree growth of the fragrant wild crab-apple and the twining vines, a fruit country-and they planted orchards, and the vines with purple clusters climbed along the door of every cabin while the wild strawberry that grew on some far away hillside was served in delicious abundance. The orchards planted by that generation lasted one hundred years, and when they, in the natural course of their lifetime, gave out, the people gave up; they acted as though they believed that nature was traveling along with some political party and demanded a change.
As time went by and the people became safe from sur- prise attacks there was much work to do, in reconstructing.
283
AGRICULTURE.
But the toil of those years was tempered by the neighborly interest each felt in the other. "I'll help you hoe today and you help me hay tomorrow."
They communitised themselves. The work of the slow, plodding and laborious flail that bursted the heads of wheat, and the cloth which, shaken across the pile, winnowed it, did not dishearten them, for they saw jolly times ahead. The apple butter stirrings, corn shuckings and quiltings all found company and content.
The wooden plow mould, with its iron point, tore up the earth for sixty years.3 Then came the steel plow, and the flail was followed by the ground-hog thresher.
As the implements became more labor-saving, new ideas sprang up and were advanced as to what method should be adopted to increase the yield and enlarge the profits. This was the beginning of the fair and grange.
The first fair in the county was held at Blountville a few years before the Civil War. It was begun in a domestic way in the court-house and was conducted more in the nature of a bazaar. Products of the farm were exhibited, while the young women of the neighborhood, to whose interest was largely due the origin, brought their needle- work and dainty cooking, which no age has improved upon.
The merchants, seeing wider commercial possibilities, enlarged upon this, organized a company and held the fair at the east end of the town, where a race track of oval shape was provided.4 A pavilion sheltered the farm exhibits. These fairs continued up to the Civil War, when, like many other diversions, they yielded to the
3When we are inclined to laugh at the primitive methods of plowing employed by other countries, compare them with the plows used as late as 1840, when the steel plow was introduced here.
4The horse mentioned in the first of this chapter was the property of Gen. Stokes and was called Ariel. It ran the races from Richmond to New Orleans. So successful was it that through lack of competition it was ruled off the track. Not to be outdone Stokes had it dyed and entered it under a new name. Again it was successful and passed at many fairs without being detected. When the time came to remove the dye the hostler's instructions were to remove but half at a time, but, disregarding this, he removed it all, from the effects of which the horse died.
284
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
stern demand of living. To this day the old field where the fairs were held is called the fair-ground.
The next fair to be held was the Border Fair of Bristol, supposedly on the state line, and was the joint interest of Sullivan County, Tennessee, and Washington county, Virginia. Its first president was I. B. Dunn.5 It was an enterprise that was much appreciated by the county folk, both of the town and country-the best medium of agricultural social life we have had. It drew large crowds -usually lasted three days and the patronage both of entry and attendance made it successful in every way for a number of years. But these fairs can not be conducted successfully without the sympathy and cooperation of the farming element and attempts to revive them with- out their aid has proven unsuccessful.
A fair was organized at Thomas' bridge, on Beaver creek, in 1891, by Jacob and Marshall Thomas. The fair consisted chiefly of horse-racing and was conducted for two years with varying success.
The abandonment of the county fair, the camp-meetings and other assemblings-the bad roads, the withdrawal of the court from Blountville, the lack of the old time community spirit has done much to discourage farm life in Sullivan, and has driven much of its best energy to the thickly settled cities, while the lonesome day laborers strayed away to public works. The newspapers, that reached the people of the interior, told of great achieve- ments and progress beyond them while they remained the same, and the unknownness of places and people made country life only tolerable while the temptations to leave it were great.
The old time swapping spirit is gone swapping of good nature, swapping of labor, swapping of visits, swap- ping of products, and swapping of horses.
5I. B. Dunn was president of the Border Fair for three years, from 1875-78. He was followed by J. M. Barker, 1879-82; George W. Kuhnert, 1882, for one year. There has been some racing since, but no organized Fair.
285
AGRICULTURE.
Sullivan County in its physical formation is one beauti- ful park. There is enough level land for culture; there are enough slopes, if carefully turfed, for grazing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep,6 and enough broad limbed trees to shade them; there are enough clear cool springs for dairying, to make us famous for the products of this pursuit. Then, instead of the great loads of wheat wagon-hauled by the Dicksons and Rollers and Thomases, it would be more natural to see great herds of cattle and sheep-a better grade-driven by the Cartwrights and Hamiltons-not driven to slaughter, but to stock other sections not so favored as ours.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.