Nashville, Tennessee Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===18th and 19th centuries=== In 1689, French-Canadian trader [[Martin Chartier]] established a trading post on the Cumberland River, near the present-day site of the city.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ajlambert.com/history/hst_ucpt.pdf |title=Alvin Wirt, "The Upper Cumberland of Pioneer Times," 1954. |access-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010100950/http://www.ajlambert.com/history/hst_ucpt.pdf |archive-date=October 10, 2015 }}</ref> In 1714, a group of French traders under the command of Charles Charleville established a settlement and trading post at the present location of downtown Nashville, which became known as French Lick. These settlers quickly established an extensive fur trading network with the local Native Americans, but by the 1740s the settlement had largely been abandoned.<ref>{{cite book | last = Albright | first = Edward | year = 1909 | title = Early History of Middle Tennessee | url = http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnsumner/early12.htm |pages=18–19}}</ref> In 1779, explorers [[James Robertson (explorer)|James Robertson]] and [[John Donelson]] led a party of [[Overmountain Men]] to the site of French Lick, and constructed [[Fort Nashborough]]. It was named for [[Francis Nash]], the [[American Revolutionary War]] hero. Nashville quickly grew because of its strategic location as a port on the [[Cumberland River]], a tributary of the [[Ohio River]]; and its later status as a major railroad center. By 1800, the city had 345 residents, including 136 enslaved African Americans and 14 free African Americans.<ref name=SP1L132>{{Cite book |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3151-9 |last=Cumfer |first=Cynthia |title=Separate peoples, one land: The minds of Cherokees, Blacks, and Whites on the Tennessee frontier |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |date=2007 |page=132}}</ref> In 1806, Nashville was [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] as a city and became the [[county seat]] of [[Davidson County, Tennessee]]. In 1843, the city was named as the permanent capital of the state of [[Tennessee]]. Knoxville, Kingston & Murfreesboro were prior locations of the state capital.<ref>{{Cite book |title=All About Nashville: A Complete Historical Guide Book to the City |year=1912 |page=54}}</ref> The city government of Nashville owned 24 slaves by 1831, and 60 prior to the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. They were "put to work to build the first successful water system and maintain the streets."<ref name="slavemarketincludedauction"/> Auction blocks and brokers' offices were part of the slave market at the heart of the city.<ref name="slavemarketincludedauction">{{cite news |last1=Zepp |first1=George |title=Slave market included auction blocks, brokers offices in downtown Nashville |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/112668696/?terms=%22Rees%2BW.%2BPorter%22 |access-date=April 7, 2018 |work=The Tennessean |date=April 30, 2003 |page=16 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-access=registration}}</ref> It was the center of plantations cultivating tobacco and hemp as commodity crops, in addition to the breeding and training of thoroughbred horses, and other livestock. For years Nashville was considered one of the wealthiest southern capitals and a large portion of its prominence was from the iron business. Nashville led the south for iron production.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/iron-industry/ |title=Iron Industry |access-date=March 17, 2020 }}</ref> [[File:Old nashville riverfront.jpg|thumb|left|Nashville riverfront shortly after the [[American Civil War]]]] The cholera epidemic that struck Nashville in 1849–1850 took the life of former U.S. President [[James K. Polk]] and resulted in high fatalities. There were 311 deaths from cholera in 1849<ref>{{cite web |url=http://millercenter.org/president/polk/essays/biography/print |title=James Knox Polk |publisher=Miller Center, University of Virginia |work=American President: A Reference Resource |access-date=January 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609071701/http://millercenter.org/president/polk/essays/biography/print |archive-date=June 9, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=NashCityCemetery>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenashvillecitycemetery.org/masons.htm |title=Cumberland Masonic Lodge 8; Existing Tombstones |publisher=Nashville City Cemetery Association |access-date=December 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119150110/http://www.thenashvillecitycemetery.org/masons.htm |archive-date=January 19, 2019 }}</ref> and an estimated 316 to about 500 in 1850.<ref name=Bowling1866>{{cite book |url=http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/pdf/nlm:nlmuid-34720190R-bk |title=Cholera, as it appeared in Nashville in 1849, 1850, 1854 and 1866 |publisher=University Book and Job Office, Medical College |location=Nashville, TN |last=Bowling |first=William King |year=1866}}</ref> Before the Civil War, about 700 free [[free people of color|Blacks]] lived in small enclaves in northern Nashville. More than 3,200 enslaved African Americans lived in the city.<ref name=BitterSoutherner>{{cite web |url=https://bittersoutherner.com/how-hot-chicken-really-happened/ |title=How Hot Chicken Really Happened |website=The Bitter Southerner |last=Martin |first=Rachel L. |year=2018}}</ref> By 1860, when the first [[American Civil War|rumblings of secession]] began to be heard across the [[Southern United States|South]], antebellum Nashville was a prosperous city. The city's significance as a shipping port and rail center made it a desirable prize for competing military forces that wanted to control the region's important river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the first Confederate state capital to fall to [[Union (American Civil War)|U.S.]] troops, and the state was occupied by the U.S. Army for the duration of the war. Many enslaved African Americans from Middle Tennessee fled as refugees to Union lines; they were housed in contraband camps around military installations in Nashville's eastern, western, and southern borders. The [[Battle of Nashville]] (December 15–16, 1864) was a significant Union victory and perhaps the most decisive tactical victory gained by either side in the war; it was also the war's final major military action in which Tennessee regiments played a large part on both sides of the battle. Afterward, the Confederates conducted a [[war of attrition]], making [[guerrilla]] raids and engaging in small skirmishes. Confederate forces in the [[Deep South]] were almost constantly in retreat. In 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, the Nashville chapter of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] was founded by Confederate veteran [[John W. Morton (Tennessee politician)|John W. Morton]]. He was reported to have initiated General [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] into the white-sepremacist organization.<ref name="tennesseanobit">{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/119557576/?terms=%22John%2BW.%2BMorton%22 |title=John W. Morton Passes Away in Shelby |work=The Tennessean |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-access=registration |pages=1–2 |date=November 21, 1914 |access-date=September 25, 2016 |quote=To Captain Morton came the peculiar distinction of having organized that branch of the Ku Klux Klan which operated in Nashville and the adjacent territory, but a more signal honor was his when he performed the ceremonies which initiated Gen. [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] into the mysterious ranks of the Ku Klux Klan.}}</ref> The latter became Grand Wizard of the organization, which had chapters of this secret, [[insurgent]] group forming throughout the state and across the South. They opposed voting and political organizing by [[freedmen]], tried to control their behavior by threats, violence and murder, and sometimes also attacked their White allies, including schoolteachers from the North and Freedman's Bureau officials. Whites directed violence against freedmen and their descendants both during and after the [[Reconstruction era]]. Two freedmen, [[Lynching of David Jones|David Jones]] and [[Lynching of Jo Reed|Jo Reed]], were lynched in Nashville by White mobs in 1872 and 1875, respectively.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Night of Excitement. David Jones, the Murderer of Murray, Taken from the Jail by a Mob. Murderer Offers Resistance, and is Shot Twice. Afterwards Taken to the Public Square and Hanged in Front of the Station House. The Hanging Witnesses by Immense Crowd of Excited Citizens. Efforts of the Mayor to Restore Quiet. Gov. Brown Makes an Appeal in Behalf of Law and Order.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/80864273/?terms=lynching|access-date=May 3, 2018|work=Nashville Union and American|date=March 26, 1872|page=4|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A Fearful Outrage. A Negro Murderer Lynched by a Few Citizens in Nashville—A Mob Looking On and Endorsing the Deed. The State Disgraced by a Supine Set of Officers—An Unmitigated Outrage Against Law and Decency. A Crime for Which the Perpetrators Out to be Made to Pay with Their Lives—The Whole State Demands It. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/39789147/?terms=%22jo%2Breed%22 |access-date=June 5, 2018 |work=Memphis Daily Appeal |date=May 3, 1875|page=1|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration }}</ref> Reed was hanged from a bridge over the river, but survived after the rope broke and he fell into the water. He successfully escaped the city soon thereafter.<ref>{{cite news |title=Marshall's Exit. A Fast Man's Career, with the Usual Ending. The Little Game He Played on Ex-Collector Peabody. His Address Is Now Somewhere Beyond the Rio Grande. What He Claimed to Know about the Jo Reed Affair. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/118747772/?terms=%22jo%2Breed%22 |access-date=June 5, 2018 |work=The American |date=December 25, 1875|location=Nashville, Tennessee|page=1|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration }}</ref> In the aftermath of the Civil War, the [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] of [[Fisk University]] in Nashville emerged as a beacon of hope and cultural pride. By 1871, this ensemble began touring the U.S. and Europe, earning international acclaim for their performances of [[Negro spirituals]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=II |first=Vann R. Newkirk |date=November 13, 2023 |title=How the Negro Spiritual Changed American Popular Music—And America Itself |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/12/fisk-university-jubilee-singers-choir-history/675813/ |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> Their success not only provided vital funding for their university<ref>{{Cite web |title=About The Fisk Jubilee Singers |url=https://fiskjubileesingers.org/about-the-singers/ |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=Fisk Jubilee Singers |language=en-US}}</ref> but also marked Nashville as a significant center for African American music and culture, laying the groundwork for the city's enduring musical legacy. In 1873, Nashville suffered another cholera epidemic, along with towns throughout Sumner County along railroad routes and the Cumberland River. This was part of a larger epidemic that struck the Mississippi Valley system and other areas of the United States, such as New York and towns along its major lakes and rivers. The epidemic is estimated to have killed around 1,000 people in Nashville,<ref>{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=Joseph K.|date=1875|title=The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwwPAAAAYAAJ|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=478|author-link=Joseph Barnes (American physician)|via=Google Books}}</ref> and 50,000 total. [[File:View from Capitol. Nashville, Tennessee (5614200862).jpg|thumb|View from the [[Tennessee State Capitol]] {{Circa|1865}}]] Meanwhile, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and developed a solid manufacturing base. The post–Civil War years of the late 19th century brought new prosperity to Nashville and Davidson County. Wealthy planters and businessmen built grand, classical-style buildings. A replica of the [[Parthenon (Nashville)|Parthenon]] was constructed in [[Centennial Park (Nashville)|Centennial Park]], near downtown.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Nashville-History.html |title=Nashville: History |website=City-data.com |access-date=September 28, 2016}}</ref> On April 30, 1892, [[Ephraim Grizzard]], an African-American man, was [[lynching in the United States|lynched]] in a spectacle murder in front of a European-American mob of 10,000 in Nashville. He was a suspect in the assault of two white sisters.<ref name="richmondthemobhaditsway">{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/246663111/?terms=%22ephraim%2Bgrizzard%22 |title=The Mob Had Its Way. Ephraim Grizzard Taken from Jail at Nashville and Lynched |work=The Richmond Item |location=Richmond, Virginia |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |page=2 |date=May 2, 1892 |access-date=April 27, 2018 |url-access=registration}}</ref> His lynching was described by journalist [[Ida B. Wells]] as: "A naked, bloody example of the blood-thirstiness of the nineteenth century civilization of the Athens of the South."<ref name="wellsuniedstatesatrocities">{{cite book |url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.beal/usatro0001&i=17 |title=United States Atrocities: Lynch Law |publisher="Lux" Newspaper and Publishing |first=Ida Bell |last=Wells |author-link=Ida B. Wells |page=7 |date=1892 |jstor=60222131}}</ref> His brother, Henry Grizzard, had been lynched and hanged on April 24, 1892, in nearby Goodlettsville as a suspect in the same assault incident. From 1877 to 1950, a total of six lynchings of Blacks were conducted in Davidson County, four before the turn of the century.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |title=Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror. Supplement: Lynchings by County |website=Equal Justice Initiative |edition=3rd |page=9 |date=2017 |access-date=May 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023063004/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |archive-date=October 23, 2017 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). 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