The Brownsville Raids

The cotton raiders burned here in July 1862 was the county's whole economy. Haywood County, carved from Madison in 1823-24 and named for Judge John Haywood, was settled by planters who built a plantation system on the forced labor of enslaved people. James Bond, who arrived in 1828, made one of the largest fortunes in Tennessee from cotton grown that way. Early railroads carried the bales to market, and the county courthouse was rebuilt in brick in 1845. After the war the crop came back, worked now by tenant farmers and sharecroppers rather than enslaved hands.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 3.7 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.
• Alex Haley House Museum — 19 mi
  The 1919 bungalow in Henning where Alex Haley heard the family stories behind Roots, now a state historic site and museum with his grave in the front yard.

More markers nearby

• Fighting for Freedom (Haywood County African American Soldiers) — steps away
• Brownsville — steps away
• Elbert Williams — steps away
• Golden Circle Life Insurance Company — steps away