Fighting for Freedom (Promise Land Civil War Heroes)

Promise Land was a community founded soon after the war by formerly enslaved people north of Charlotte. At its height it had stores, churches, a school and about thirty houses. Promise Land School enrolled 97 pupils in 1905, and the schoolhouse was listed on the National Register in 2007. The Nesbitt brothers, John and Arch, both Colored Troops veterans, settled here near the farms where they had been enslaved, and John bought land that included the school's site with a back pension. Heirs still own land in the community, and a festival is held each June.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center — 23 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.
• Dunbar Cave State Park — 24 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.

More markers nearby

• Promise Land — steps away
• Theodore and Lizzie Vanleer Edmondson — steps away
• Civil War In Charlotte — 2.3 mi
• Cumberland Furnace Iron Plantation — 4.2 mi