5th Grade ESL Tennessee History
Part One: Slavery and Tennessee's War

 Slavery was part of Tennessee history.
Arguments about whether it was good or bad contributed to
the Civil War.

As Tennessee changed from being the Wild West to being farmland, more slaves were brought in to work on the farms.

In 1790, 10% (1 in 10) of all Tennesseans were slaves.
By 1860, at the beginning of the Civil War, 25% (1 in 4) of all Tennesseans were slaves.
This dramatic change happened in just 70 years!

Slaves in Virginia in 1862
PHOTO: Library of Congress
   What was life like as a Tennessee slave?
1) Slaves had many different jobs.  Many worked on farms planting and harvesting corn, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. The larger the farms, the more slaves were needed. West Tennessee had large cotton plantations. 40% (4 in 10) of West Tennesseans were slaves!

Why were so many slaves needed on the the cotton plantations?
2) Other slaves were stone masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and shoe makers.  Some worked as house servants.
3) Slaves also worked on very large projects. They operated mines; they dug the tunnel through the Cumberland Plateau for a railroad; and they built much of the State Capital Building.
4) Life for slaves was very hard.
  • They were considered second-class citizens. They were not allowed to learn how to read or write. They could not vote. Why might a slave's life be harder if he or she could not read, write or vote?
  • Many were sold and taken away from their families.
  • If they ran away and were caught, many were badly beaten.

Hannah Jackson, a slave at the Hermitage
PHOTO: The Hermitage
   Were there people who were against slavery?
1) In 1796 and 1832, when Tennesseans wrote new constitutions, some Tennesseans wanted to get rid of slavery. But they were in the minority, and therefore the constitutions did not ban slavery.

2) Abraham Lincoln did not support slavery. When he became President, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas decided to secede. In February, 1861, most Tennesseans wanted to stay in the Union. But, after President Lincoln raised an army to fight the South, many Tennesseans changed their minds. By June, 1861, most Tennesseans (except for East Tennessee) wanted to secede from the Union.

Our New Tennessee History Words

* dramatic: A dramatic change is a very large and noticeable change.
* tobacco: Cigarettes are made of tobacco.
* lumber: Cut down trees are made into lumber.
* plantations: A plantation is a very large farm.
* stone masons: Stone masons build and work with stone.
* blacksmith: A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from iron or steel.
* second-class:  If you are considered second-class, people treat you as unimportant.
* constitution: The laws under which a country is governed is called its constitution.
* ban : If something is banned, it is illegal.
* secede: States would secede when they decided to leave the United States.
* Union: The Union was another word for states that remained in the United States during the Civil War.

There are many places on Tennessee History for Kids to learn more about this time in history. Click here to read about how slavery helped Nashville becoming a publishing center; here to read about Parson Brownlow, a Tennessee governor who may have been the greatest insulter to ever live; here to read about Henry Foote, a harsh critic of Jefferson Davis from Nashville who was elected to the Confederate Congress; here to read about William Walker, a Tennessean who played a part on the international stage; here to read about Matthew Maury, the father of oceanography; here to read about the development of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railway; and here to read about how an argument about slavery caused a county to change its name... sort of.
  Click here to go to the next section.