Joe McGavock
When Randal McGavock died, an enslaved man by the name of “Joe, aged 47” was listed in the inventory of his estate. One of twenty-two individuals, human property, inherited by Randal’s wife Sarah Rodgers McGavock. The inventory was simple and clear, males and their ages followed by females and their ages. When Sarah wrote her…
Rev. Henry C. Eddy
In the words of the great human philosopher, Mr. Rogers “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” We are living through a transformative moment in time, when it would be so easy to fall under the spell of an aggressor wearing the mask of a savior. My friends, know that for…
Truth and Tale
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…
Oral Tradition: The Heart of the Family Narrative
Note to Audience: This is a post I wrote a few weeks ago, but then I found something. Something that changed the narrative. Confused the narrative. There was a part of me that when I found the document, I wanted to pretend I had never seen it. Because it made not only the narrative that…
The Musicians
I love History and I always have as far back as I can remember. But I completely understand why some people don’t. History is an easy subject to make monotonous with places, dates and numbers…and SO much memorization. Unfortunately, that is overwhelmingly the way History is presented in our educational system: “The Battle of Franklin…
Correcting a Note
Mary Ann gave birth to her first baby, a fine boy, on February 5th, at least that’s what she always told him. The day she became a mother imprinted into her heart. The questions that swirl around in my mind are plenty. Was her baby created with love or was she forced? Did his daddy…
“White” hall,
The whitening of my hometown. The fields surrounding my junior high, Rosemore, were filled with cheers from the ball fields and a nearby elementary guaranteed delighted squeals and shouts on almost any given day. During the school year each junior high student had to run the perimeter of the property, a timed torturous endeavor known…
The Tipping Point
It was a little cloudy but warm. Fifty-four degrees in February was a good start to the day. Towns all over Tennessee were still celebrating the return of her sons from far off battlefields, and welcoming more home every day. However that morning in Columbia, the escalating tension in the air was so heavy Hannah…
The Trail of Consequence
Dick and Anna’s story was a symphony of notes composed through generations. Their children and grandchildren witnessed events that touched the history of our entire nation in ways even they couldn’t have imagined. Sometimes an event is the culmination of a series of people doing the wrong thing, the right thing or both, almost like…
A Spark
“On the night of either the 3d or the 4th of July, a body of one hundred negroes armed themselves in anticipation of a raid of the Ku-Klux, and stationed themselves about the old fortifications near the town [of Columbia].” These words were written in 1868, when the Ku-Klux Klan had waged a war on…
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Finding Josie 