Civil War Franklin: The African-American Experience

Franklin's freedom is still visible in Hard Bargain, the 15-acre neighborhood William S. McLemore subdivided in 1873, where freedmen were among the first buyers. Harvey McLemore, born into slavery about 1835 and sold to the lawyer in 1859, bought four lots and built his house in 1880, the third Black purchaser there. His family kept it until 1997, it joined the National Register in 1999, and it is now the McLemore House African-American Museum. Downtown, A. N. C. Williams, born enslaved in 1844, ran a general store that served customers of both races for sixty years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — steps away
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Fort Negley — 17 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 18 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.
• Ryman Auditorium — 18 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.

More markers nearby

• Civil War Franklin: Women's Experience — steps away
• Battle of Franklin, Eastern Flank: McGavock Slaves and the Civil War — steps away
• Battle Ground Academy — 1.1 mi
• Carter House — 1.2 mi