Abraham "Abram" Bledsoe

Abram's story reaches us through local histories written long after the events, and they differ on details. One early history calls him Abraham or Old Abe, a man enslaved by Anthony Bledsoe, who was plowing in a field near Greenfield in April 1793 when Native warriors attacked and who ran for the fort with a pursuer on his heels. The same history places his encounter with the Cherokee chief called Mad Dog only days later, at nightfall on the path from Bledsoe's Lick to Greenfield, rather than two months later.

What the plaque says

Abraham "Abram" Bledsoe African American Frontiersman Between Isaac Bledsoe's fort and Anthony Bledsoe's Greenfield, the frontier slave, identified in early accounts only as "Abram" and belonging to Col. Anthony Bledsoe, thwarted an April 27, 1793 Indian attack on Greenfield. Two months later, surprised by Cherokee Chiefs "John Taylor" and "Mad Dog" in a canebrake between the forts, he mortally shot the latter. In 1813, "Abram" met the lost child Josephus Conn Guild and guided him to safety. Guild never forgot this act of kindness.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 20 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Ryman Auditorium — 30 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• National Museum of African American Music — 30 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Bledsoe's Fort and Monument — steps away
• Bledsoe's Lick — 0.4 mi
• William Brimage Bate — 0.4 mi
• First Settlers in Middle Tennessee — 0.5 mi