There is a moment when truth and tale collide. This collision can cause a narrative to fall apart or merge into a vibrant human story. I’d like to say it’s a magical moment when all the stars align. But the truth is, it doesn’t happen by chance. It starts with having an open mind and understanding the ever evolving nature of building a human narrative. The deteriorating or merging begins with the amanuensis lucky enough to be the one to write it down. But ultimately it is the responsibility of every historian to accept change and learn more and do better, so we can tell the stories of the people we research with honesty.

I’ve fretted over how to tell this story, because I want to tell the story about how the information was found. It was a journey all in itself. The process of reaching through time and pulling out facts that fit together and create narratives gives me a boost of endorphins, a happiness not for me but for the people I research. I have trouble containing the sorrows and excitements in finding the details of their lives. The emotions hit me hard and make me want to learn more. But for now, no process. Enjoy Ann’s story

Ann Wright Richardson

On April 30, 1819, Randal McGavock petitioned the Davidson County Court to emancipate three mulatto slaves in his possession. Randal was no stranger to the court system. He was a lawyer and a clerk at the State Supreme Court. He had a keen working knowledge of the ins and outs of the law. For a move this emboldened he put up bond of $1000 and had two securities to insure that the slaves being emancipated did not become a burden to society when given their freedom. The laws for emancipation were unyielding and inhumane.

To the court Randal pleaded his case. The three young slave girls: Minerva, age 7, Caroline, 5 and Ann, 2 were only his property from a technicality. He said they were and should be the property of Thomas Wright, their father. Thomas, a free man of color, and an enslaved woman named Clara McGavock were husband and wife. Several years before, Thomas had attempted to purchase Clara from Randal, but as his own emancipation had not fully passed through the courts, the bill of sale for Clara could not be completed. Without his own freedom, Thomas could not own property. Randal stated that since that time Thomas had become fully emancipated and they were both “desirous” that the children should be free. The court approved the petition and that day emancipated forever Minerva, Caroline, and Ann.

Although Clara was not freed, it is likely the Wrights lived together as a family. Ann passed on to her children that she was born free, never knowing she had been emancipated when she was young. Such a moment would be impossible for a young child to understand the enormity of, yet Ann remembered having sisters and living with her family as free people. This time that she remembered with fondness came to an end when her father died. By 1823, Ann was listed as an orphan in the Williamson County Court Minutes. Her mother, Clara, was still alive but because of her status as a slave, she could not be a guardian for free children. Minerva, Caroline and Ann were left up to the mercy of the courts.

On July 7, 1823 another petition was made in the court regarding Ann Wright, this time by Dr. A. B. Ewing. He requested to have an eight or nine (she was actually seven) orphan child named Ann Wright bound to him till the age of eighteen. He and his wife would make sure she was taught to read and to learn the skills of a seamstress and at the age of eighteen and the “expiration of her apprenticeship to give her two suits of clothes, two sheets and two blankets.” The Ewings had a unique household in 1830. Living in the Ewing home in Franklin were four free people of color, four enslaved people and seven white people. Ann would have lived among free colored people and enslaved colored people alike, not just in her community but in her home. Religion was an ever present facet of life in the Ewing household. They were known for promoting education of all kinds within their home, even among their enslaved.

Meanwhile Ann’s mother, Clara, remarried to a fellow slave, Joe McGavock. She had five more children before 1830: Patrick Henry, Martha, Fannie, Joanna, and Susanna. Ann lived within close proximity to her mother and siblings and it can be assumed by the close connection they and their children had later in life that she was indeed a part of their family. It is unknown, as yet, what immediately became of Ann’s sisters, Minerva and Caroline, upon their fathers death. But they begin to show up in the court records in Davidson County by the late 1820’s for “running a bawdy house.” It is an incredibly sad reality that these two had such different lives from their sister. Two young women, freed, and the only commodity they had to offer was their bodies.

Ann was married to John Richardson, a free man of color, in 1831, depending upon when her birthday fell in the year, she would have been only fourteen or fifteen years old. Dr. Ewing released Ann from her apprenticeship and signed for her to be married. The marriage was performed by the Rev. James H. Otey, a minister who became the first Episcopal Bishop from Tennessee. It was an unusual occurrence for a free person of color to be married by a minister who was so socially prominent. It perhaps is indicative of the affection and respect the Ewings had for Ann and her husband. Ann and John moved to Nashville where John ran a successful barbershop. They had two babies, Julia and Caroline, born free. They built a strong foundation for their family.

Ann’s story started with Thomas and Clara. The freedom Thomas Wright wanted for his family was interrupted by his death. His daughters, practically babies when he died, had a rough road to travel being free in a society plagued with slavery, but they survived. Clara never became free, but she lived and had five more babies. She was an enslaved mother to both free and enslaved children. Though, all of her children would be free at the end of their lives. We don’t know all the aspects of their human journey, but with a merging of Ann’s memories passed down through her family and documents found in the courts we are beginning to have a fuller understanding of their lives. Because it is truly learning more and doing better, for them.

The descendants of Clara and her two husbands, Thomas Wright and Joe McGavock attended family reunions until the mid Twentieth Century. Ann’s daughter Caroline “Carrie” is second from the left, second row from bottom.