Slavery in Scott County at the dawn of secession
Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in a new series by the Independent Herald, entitled “Enclave: Scott County’s unique role in the American Civil War.” To understand that role, it is necessary to understand the role of slavery in Scott County. So that’s where our story begins.
As the 1850s turned to the 1860s, one issue more than any other embroiled America: Slavery.
By the 1850s, the battle lines had already been drawn between the slave states of the South and the anti-slavery states of the North. The Missouri Compromise, adopted in 1820, admitted Missouri as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in lands north of the 36°30’ parallel. But in 1854, Democrats passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened the Kansas and Nebraska territories to slavery, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise. That same year, angry Whigs met in Ripon, Wisc. to form a new political party with a primary purpose of opposing the expansion of slavery in the western territories. And, so, the Republican Party was born.
In 1860, it became increasingly obvious that Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln — the Republicans’ nominee — had a strong chance of becoming president. And although Lincoln didn’t campaign as an abolitionist, it was also becoming increasingly clear that slavery’s days were numbered. Many southerners vowed to secede from the United States if Lincoln were elected.
So the stage was set for America’s greatest crisis. The South was set to break away in an attempt to form its own nation. And within the South was Tennessee, which was a slave state, but one where anti-Union sentiment wasn’t nearly as strong as it was further south, in places like South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama. And within Tennessee was Scott County, where slavery was hardly an issue at all.
Understanding the role that Scott County would play in the American Civil War isn’t possible without first understanding the role that slavery played in Scott County. Slavery wasn’t non-existent in Scott County, but it was closer to it here than anywhere else in Tennessee.
In 1860, on the eve of Lincoln’s election and the secession that followed, there was one county in Tennessee where fewer than 100 slaves were owned: Scott County.
Created in 1849, when the Tennessee General Assembly carved out a new county atop the Cumberland Plateau, Scott County had been formed from portions of Anderson, Campbell, Fentress and Morgan counties. In 1850, the first time the U.S. census was taken after Scott County was created, there were a total of 37 slaves here. That same year, there were 1,868 whites living in Scott County. The total population in Scott County was 1,905. Less than 2% of the population belonged to someone that year, a number that far trailed much of the South.
A decade later, in 1860, the census was taken again, and the population of Scott County had exploded. There were 3,519 people living here. But only 59 of them, or about 1.7% of the population, were enslaved.
Nowhere else in Tennessee were there so few slaves in 1860, although slavery was relatively uncommon across the northern Cumberland Plateau. In neighboring Morgan County to the southwest, there were 120 slaves, or 3.6% of the population. In Fentress County to the west, there were 187 slaves, or 3.7% of the population. In Campbell County to the east, there were 366 slaves, or 5.5% of the population. And in Anderson County to the southeast, there were 583 slaves, or 8.3% of the population.
As a general rule, there were far fewer slaves in East Tennessee than in Middle and West Tennessee. That’s because there were fewer farms and plantations in East Tennessee that relied on slave labor. But up and down the Tennessee Valley, from Bristol to Chattanooga, at least 1 in 10 people belonged to someone else, including in Hawkins County, Grainger County, Jefferson County, Knox County, Roane County, Blount County, Monroe County, McMinn County, Bradley County and Hamilton County.
Further west, in places like Davidson County and Williamson County, more than half the population were enslaved. In Fayette County, east of Memphis, less than 40% of the population were free men.
Of course, the deeper south or the closer to the coast one traveled in 1860, the greater the number of slaves — and, thus, the greater the resentment towards the abolitionist movement that was growing in the North. But in Scott County, slavery was a back-burner issue. Outside of a handful of counties in the mountains of Virginia, there was no county anywhere in the 11 slave states where a lower percentage of the population was enslaved than in Scott County.
Across the Confederacy as a whole, one out of every three families claimed ownership of black slaves in 1860. In Scott County, only 10 people owned slaves.
The slave-owners of Scott County
When the 1860 U.S. census was conducted, there were 10 slave-owners in Scott County: William Bashers, Jane Buttram, Thomas Chambers, James L. Chitwood, Caswell Cross, Hiram C. Marcum, John Potter, Robert Ross, H.G. Redman, Ewell Smith.
Jane Buttram was the most prolific slave-owner in Scott County as of 1860. She was an elderly Huntsville widow who owned a total of 22 slaves. Many years after marrying her husband and moving to Tennessee, Buttram returned home to visit her family in North Carolina. While she was there, she was given a slave, who made the return trip to Tennessee with her.
It isn’t clear how Buttram acquired her other slaves. But in 1860, 16 of the 22 slaves owned by Buttram were minors, younger than 18. Nine of them were younger than 10. The oldest of her slaves was 29.
There were also two free black women who lived with Buttram in 1860: a 72-year-old black woman named Molly, and a 50-year-old mulatto (mixed-race) woman named Susan. Both had been listed as slaves belonging to Jane Buttram in the 1850 census, but apparently were granted freedom between 1850 and 1860.
Most of Buttram’s slaves had been freed by 1861.
Thomas Chambers was an elderly farmer, the son of Revolutionary War veteran William Chambers and the father of Scott County’s first elected registrar, Riley Chambers. He owned a total of 10 slaves in 1860: A 50-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman, and eight children between the ages of one and 15.
Hinchea Gillum (H.G.) Redman was a 33-year-old farmer from Elgin who had migrated to the Cumberlands from North Carolina. He owned seven slaves: a 47-year-old man, a 32-year-old woman, and five children between the ages of one and six.
Caswell Cross was a 38-year-old farmer from Upper Jellico Creek. He also owned seven slaves: A 35-year-old woman, a 19-year-old woman, and five children ranging in age from one month to 15 years.
John Potter Sr. was a 65-year-old farmer from Huntsville. He owned four slaves: A 25-year-old woman, a 6-year-old girl, an 8-month-old girl, and a 3-year-old boy.
James L. Chitwood was a 57-year-old farmer from Winfield. He owned three slaves: A 48-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl.
Robert Ross was a 61-year-old farmer from Winfield. He owned three slaves as well: A 40-year-old woman, a 15-year-old boy and a 10-year-old boy.
Ewell Smith was a 47-year-old farmer from Williams Creek. He owned one slave: A 3-year-old boy.
Hiram C. Marcum was a 47-year-old farmer from Buffalo Creek. He owned one slave: A 1-year-old girl.
William Bashers was a 35-year-old farmer from Huntsville. He owned one slave: A 26-year-old man.
Interestingly, 45 of the 59 slaves owned in Scott County in 1860 were younger than the age of 18, and most of those 45 were young children. Because so little information was included in the U.S. census, one is left to draw his own conclusions as to why or how that came to be. However, it’s especially interesting that two of the slave-owners had only one small child: Ewell Smith’s 3-year-old boy and Hiram Marcum’s 1-year-old girl.
A little more information can be gleaned from the 1850 slave schedule, which included names of the slaves owned in Scott County (a rarity in the 1850 and 1860 censuses).
In 1850, for example, John Potter owned one slave, a 15-year-old girl named Betty. Obviously it’s a near certainty that the 25-year-old woman owned by John Potter in 1860 was Betty, and it can be assumed that the three children — all of whom were mulatto, or mixed-race — were her children.
Also in 1850, Jane Buttram owned 17 slaves, including the two older women who would be freed by 1860. The others included a 23-year-old woman named Sarah, a 22-year-old woman named Carline, a 21-year-old man named Noah, a 21-year-old woman named Betty, and 10 children between the ages of one and 17. Using the gender and age of the slaves mentioned in the 1860 census, it appears likely that most of those children were still living with Jane Buttram at that time.
Slave-owners on the 1850 slave schedule who do not appear on the 1860 slave schedule include Joseph Ryan, Janes Angel, Edison Baker and Jacob Lafevers.
As a final note, it’s also interesting that while Hiram Marcum appears on the slave schedule, he and his family were well-known Union sympathizers, and would pay a heavy toll for their loyalty to the United States as the war unfolded.