Everyone familiar with Chattanooga knows about its history as a railroad hub and the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo song. But prior to connecting the American South to the Midwest, a different railroad system dominated the area: The Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was a covert network of abolitionists, safe houses, and secret routes in the United States, operating from the late 18th century until 1865. It helped thousands of enslaved African Americans escape to free Northern states, Canada, Mexico, and other territories.
It was not an actual railroad, but a secret movement that provided enslaved people with a way out of bondage. A path via "stations" and "conductors.” It was intentionally disorganized to protect participants. It consisted of "stations" (safe houses/basements), "station masters" (those who hid them), and "conductors" (those who guided them).
During a visit to the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, I read about Jacob Cummings. He was around three years old when he and his mother were enslaved by farmer James Smith who owned property on Moccasin Bend when Hamilton County was established in 1819.
Cummings met a grocery store owner who was an abolitionist who told him he should seek freedom and taught him how to look for the North star, how to follow it and to look for moss on the trees that grow on the north side.
On July 29, 1839, Cummings used what he was taught and used the Underground Railroad to flee the city. He is recognized as one of the first "railroad passengers" in the city. He used a canoe to cross the Tennessee River, landing on Williams Island. From there he swam across the river and landed on Walden’s Ridge. He then hid for a while in the Sequatchie Valley before making it to Kentucky and then Ohio.
It took Cummings four years of hiding and running before he reached the safety of Ontario Canada and later became a “conductor,” himself helping others to freedom.
The Chickamauga Battlefield was the site of the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War, but not many know that it was also part of the Underground Railroad network.
During a recent visit to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park I learned there were approximately 3,300 people enslaved in Walker, Catoosa, and Hamilton Counties in what we know today as this national military park.
Many of these enslaved people fled the city using the Underground Railroad to escape from torture and oppression. Area slaveholders routinely took out advertisements in the local newspapers, like the Chattanooga Daily Rebel, offering rewards for the capture and return of their slaves.
One example was prominent Chattanoogan, Reese Brabson, whose palatial mansion still stands on 5th Street. Brabson was a local attorney and politician who served his district both in the United States House of Representatives (1859-1861) and the Tennessee House of Representatives (1851-1852). He advertised offering a $100 reward for the return of his slaves Nance and Joe after they fled his property. The ad described Nance as a “girl colored woman, 25 years old” and described Joe as “same color as above.”
When the Confederate soldiers retreated Missionary Ridge on Nov. 25, 1863, Chattanooga went from being a city where the enslaved fled for freedom to becoming a city where enslaved people returned to be captured by Union forces. Many formerly enslaved joined the United States Colored Troops in Chattanooga.
Hubbard Pryor is the most famous freedom seeker in Chattanooga’s Civil War story. He escaped from Rome, Ga., through the Underground Railroad and enlisted in the 44th USCT. He was later captured by the Confederates and re-enslaved.
By the end of the war more than 6,000 formerly enslaved people were crowded into camps along the Tennessee River. Many died of diseases and seven hundred died from Smallpox and were buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Others were fortunate by fleeing the area entirely using “conductors,” who showed them a way to freedom.