History is more than a series of dramatic moments and large-scale, sweeping events. More often, history is made in small moments, by everyday people, overcoming daily struggles and taking extraordinary action in the face of adversity. Today, historians—and the communities they serve—are rethinking how to tell those stories, finding ways to speak for those whose voices were silenced.
Several Rutherford County, TN, sites help to tell the stories of the county’s African American population, their challenges, triumphs and contributions. Additionally, the Rutherford County Historical Society website has valuable information about the lives of county residents throughout the years.
Oaklands Mansion: The Healing Process
Beautiful Oaklands was once the social center of Rutherford County, TN, but it also had an ugly side as one of the largest slave-trafficking plantations in Middle Tennessee. Today, Oaklands Mansion has become a leader in bringing to light the stories of enslaved people of the area.
Oaklands Mansion Executive Director James Manning said that he hopes Oaklands can also be part of a healing process, confronting the past and telling the stories of the enslaved as a crucial part of the museum's interpretation.
“Until recently, the interpretation of Oaklands Mansion focused almost entirely on the wealthy white owners of the former plantation,” Manning said. “Now we realize how one-sided that story was. Today we strive to include all people in the interpretation of the historic site. Through community partnerships and the establishment of an advisory committee with our first African-American board member, Bobbie Johnson, the telling of broader stories now impacts a much larger audience.”
Now, visitors to Oaklands can learn about the work and lives of enslaved people who lived on the plantation as well as the Maney family.
Oaklands sits on land originally owned by Hardy Murfree, namesake of Murfreesboro. His daughter, Sally Murfree Maney, and her husband, Dr. James Maney, began building a home on the land about 1818.Their son, Louis Maney and his wife, Adeline, expanded the home significantly, adding the Italianate design details the mansion is known for.
The Maneys inherited nearly 20 slaves from Sally's father. By 1850, the Maneys owned 121 slaves, spread across family holdings in Tennessee and Mississippi. Over the 60 years that the Maneys owned Oaklands, "they just kept buying and selling … hundreds of people," Manning said.
"These are individuals who would have built Oaklands, physically. The enslaved people dug the clay from the soil, made the bricks and physically built the house from the ground up," Manning told the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal in a 2021 interview.
By 1860, enslaved African Americans made up 25 percent of the state’s population. Seventy percent of those lived in Middle Tennessee, seen primarily as financial assets for their owners.
Untold Stories
Audrey Creel did her graduate thesis at Middle Tennessee State University on the enslaved people who lived at Oaklands. “Their stories of struggle and triumph are inspiring and noteworthy. It is my privilege to tell their stories” through the exhibit, "The Untold Story of the Maney Family Slaves: A Case Study in Slavery in Murfreesboro." The Oaklands website features those stories.
An Oaklands committee is working with the African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County to give a greater voice to people of color in telling the area’s story. Part of that process is honoring the unmarked graves of those buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Evergreen Cemetery, Section M
In 1872, Dr. Maney sold 20 acres to the city of Murfreesboro for use as a public cemetery. Those acres included Oaklands Cemetery, the resting place of the plantation’s enslaved.
Now called Evergreen Cemetery, Section M was the original burial ground of enslaved workers on the plantation. It includes the unmarked graves of at least 30 people once enslaved at Oaklands Plantation. Until desegregation, Section M was also the only public burial place for Black residents in the community.
The African American Heritage Society is partnering with Oaklands to build a memorial to honor the enslaved buried in Section M. Manning said that any records of slave deaths on the plantation that might have existed were destroyed by fire in 1940.
"Oaklands has not done our due diligence to research and interpret the African American contribution to the site,” Manning said. “So we're asking for the African American community to help us. We are hoping this project will turn up documentation."
Plans for the memorial project coincide with a renovation of Evergreen Cemetery. The memorial will then become part of Oaklands’ growing interpretation of the lives of enslaved people at the site, as well as part of programming through the African American Heritage Society, according to president Mary Watkins.
"This will be part of our living history tour,” Watkins says. “That's why we want to put markers out here — for the people who come after us so they can know how important African Americans are and what part they played in building the community.”
Stones River Stories
Oaklands is not the only historic site attempting to tell a more balanced story about the area’s past. Stones River National Battlefield, the site of one of the Civil War’s bloodiest conflicts, has several exhibits that highlight African American experiences during the war. Those stories are featured in the museum and throughout the battlefield. Jim Lewis, manager of Interpretation, Education and Cultural Resource Management Programs at Stones River says that the exhibits include information on the 111th U.S. Colored Infantry, which built the cemetery there, formerly enslaved laborers who worked for the Union Army, Black workers at Fortress Rosecrans, and the Freedmen’s community of Cemetery.
Explore More of Our Unique History
Rutherford County has multiple sites where the stories of our area’s African American heritage unfold in greater detail.
Bradley Academy
The original Bradley Academy, a school for white males, was the county’s first school. Among its students was future president James K. Polk. It was revived in 1884 to become the county’s first school for African American students. The current building was built in 1917-18 and served as a school for African American students, as well as a social and cultural center, until 1955. In 1990, the Bradley Academy Historical Association began to restore the school as a community center, and listed it on the National Register of Historic Places. Reopened in 1999, the Museum and Cultural Center houses an original classroom and exhibits on early settlers, the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.
Nearest Green Distillery
The distillery honors the story of former slave Nearest Green, the “godfather of Tennessee whiskey,” who taught Jack Daniels how to make the golden elixir. While still enslaved, Nathan “Nearest” Green was a distiller on the Lynchburg farm of the Rev. Dan Call. In the 1850s, an 8-year-old Jack Daniel began working for Call, learning about whisky making from Green. After emancipation, “Uncle Nearest” stayed on as distiller, continuing to pass on his skills.
After Daniel started his own distillery, he hired three of Green’s sons and, eventually, at least four grandsons. Today, seven generations of Green’s direct descendents have worked at Jack Daniel Distillery.
Author Fawn Weaver created the Nearest Green Foundation, which is responsible for a museum, memorial park, biography and college scholarships for Green's descendants. In 2017, Uncle Nearest, Inc., debuted "Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Whiskey." Since then, the Jack Daniel Distillery has officially recognized Green as its first head stiller and added his legacy to a large exhibit at the Jack Daniel's Visitors Center.
Tour this award-winning distillery, run by CEO Fawn Weaver and master blender Victoria Eady Butler, Nearest Green’s great-great granddaughter.
MTSU
Explore the university’s calendar of Black History Month events, running through the end of the month, and other resources for local history.
Sam Davis Home
Explore the exhibit “Recovering Their Story: The African-Americans on the Davis Plantation.” Learn about the lives of the site’s enslaved laborers, their beautiful work, and the information gleaned from archeological research on the site.
Hilltop-Rosenwald Park
Visit the replica of Smyrna’s Rosenwald School, once the county's largest school for African American students. It was one of 5000 Rosenwald schools in the nation, the result of a collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald of Sears and Roebuck.
Patterson Park/Myrtle Glanton Lord Library
Honor the lives of two dedicated community leaders who made a difference in the lives of Rutherford County’s Black residents. The park sits on the site of the former football field of Holloway High School, where the area’s Black students studied after Bradley Academy became an elementary school. Dr. James Patterson was a dentist who not only donated his services to treat children at Bradley, he worked as a tireless advocate for the area’s Black community.
Myrtle Glanton Lord graduated from Bradley Academy and became a respected teacher and activist. She taught in several communities, served on the Bradley Museum board and was named to the Tennessee Educators Hall of Fame. In 1999, she was named the state’s Most Outstanding African American Woman. She was instrumental in the creation of Patterson Park.
Other resources: https://rutherfordtnhistory.org/PeoplePlacesStories/black-history/
