Nat Hancock
Nathaniel Hancock (March 1826 – March 9, 1917) was a slave in Scott County who became a permanent resident of the county after his emancipation and was a beloved figure about town in Huntsville. He is known as the “last slave in Scott County.”
Early life
Nathaniel Hancock is believed to have been born in Virginia in March 1826, but it isn’t clear who his parents were. When he died, the coroner noted on his death certificate, under “Name of Father” and “Name of Mother,” “Don’t know. He was born in slavery.”
Hancock was owned by John “Jackey” Potter Sr., the most prolific of the 10 slaveowners who lived in Scott County in 1860.
It isn’t clear how he got to Scott County. He did not appear on the 1850 slave schedule. He also doesn’t appear to have been on the 1860 slave schedule, because Jackie Potter was not listed as owning an adult male that year.
Hancock married Elizabeth “Betsy” Potter (1831-1914). She was listed in the 1850 slave census as a 15-year-old girl and was still owned by Jackie Potter (hence, her last name) in 1860. They had five children: Hager (born about 1855), Nathan (1857), Chatt (1865), Will (1878) and Testy (1879).
Civil War
Hancock served in the Union army during the Civil War, enlisting on October 1, 1864 as a private in Co. A, 13th Heavy Artillery Regiment, a “colored” unit. He rose to the rank of corporal before being discharged.
Latter Years
It’s not known how “Uncle Nat,” as he was known, obtained his freedom. However, it appears that most of Scott County’s slaves were emancipated by their owners around the time the Civil War began.
In Tennessee, military governor Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation on October. 24, 1864 that declared all slaves in the state to be free. However, Hancock had already enlisted in the U.S. army by that time.
When Uncle Nat returned from the Civil War, he was able to purchase his own farm in Huntsville, and became a beloved figure. Both of Scott County’s preeminent historians, H. Clay Smith and Esther Sharp Sanderson, wrote about Hancock in their books.
In Smith’s Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, he wrote that Hancock and Huntsville postmaster Melvin McDonald would play checkers all day while other townsfolks watched. In her County Scott & Its Mountain Folk, Sanderson wrote that “Uncle Nat was a congenial old man. The white folks played checkers with him in the stores and
In 1872, former President Johnson visited Scott County while campaigning for a seat in the U.S. Congress. There, where he had delivered his anti-secession speech 11 years earlier, he gave one of the final speeches of his career. As he did so, he read from an old slave poster: “I will keep at all times a good stock of negroes and all from selected stock consisting of field hands, blacksmiths, drivers of stock, and generally any type of help wanted. Also a good trade of trusted mammies and young and old seasoned cooks, seamstresses and granny women.” Johnson then looked at Uncle Nat, who was in the crowd, and said, “Mr. Hancock, you will never know the dread of such notices again.”
Death
Uncle Nat and Betsy lived long lives. Betsy died in 1913, at the age of 84. Nat died in 1917, at the age of 91. In addition to Hagar and Nathan, their children included Will, Chatt and Testy.
Both Hancock and his wife were buried at Huntsville Cemetery.
As part of an Eagle Scout project by Elijah West in 2023, members of Scott County Boy Scout Troop 333 cleaned up the old cemetery last year and discovered — for the first time — Betsie’s headstone. Also uncovered by the scouts were the stones of two of the Hancock children, Hagar and Chatt.