Free Hill Road

Free Hill belongs to a pattern. After the Civil War, freed Black residents of Sumner County founded several communities of their own, among them Village Green and Free Hill. They also organized what Tennessee's encyclopedia describes as the nation's first agricultural fair created by and for Black citizens, and that fair was held every year for nearly a century. By the twentieth century Gallatin's Black leaders had built strong churches and schools, and businesses grew up too, from barbershops to taxi services, along with a baseball team, the Travelers.

What the plaque says

Free Hill Road In 1860, Sumner County's population of African descent consisted of 7,700 slaves. After America's Civil War, emancipated slaves settled on this high hill and road in the Rockland Community. According to oral tradition, Free Hill Road received its name when freed slaves moved to this area and they were its only residents. In 1993, Free Hill Road was annexed into the City of Hendersonville and area roads were named for some of the original families.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 6.5 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.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 12 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Ryman Auditorium — 12 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 — 12 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

• Hendersonville, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Depot — 1.6 mi
• William Henderson — 1.7 mi
• Rock Castle — 2.4 mi
• First Long Hunters — 2.6 mi