Affricanna Town

Freed people had been fleeing to Union lines at Clarksville since the city fell in February 1862, and by the end of 1864 about two thousand Black refugees had arrived. As conditions worsened in the Union-run camp, families, probably including those of men in the 16th United States Colored Troops, built small homes from scavenged materials near Dunbar Cave and kept garden plots. The landowner and the neighboring plantation owner called the place Affricanna Town. Later census records show Black families living nearby, so some likely stayed. Markers in the park list the names of people enslaved there.

What the plaque says

Affricanna Town 1864-1867 Following emancipation in Tennessee, freed people from surrounding areas took refuge inside U.S. military lines at Clarksville. Exercising their newfound freedom, they built a free, Black village near Dunbar Cave. A former enslaver called the settlement "Affricanna Town." Those who lived here built their own temporary homes and kept small garden plots. It was mostly families of U.S. Colored Troops soldiers that lived at the village. The village was separate from the refugee camp in Clarksville managed by the U.S. military and was not subjected to the refugee camp's poor conditions. Many in the African American community in Montgomery County today are descended from these survivors of enslavement.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dunbar Cave State Park — 0.4 mi
  A Clarksville cave with 800-year-old Mississippian artwork, later a resort and Roy Acuff's dance stage, now a state park with seasonal guided tours.
• Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center — 3.8 mi
  An intact earthwork fort above the Cumberland and Red Rivers in Clarksville, begun with forced Black labor and later a contraband camp and recruiting center for Black soldiers.

More markers nearby

• Wilma Glodean Rudolph — 1.0 mi
• Howard White "Smiley" Johnson — 2.5 mi
• Burt High School — 2.7 mi
• Cave Johnson — 2.8 mi