Chapter 2. Take Your Shot
TAKE YOUR SHOT
WHITNEY
“The unofficial story?” Gail chuckled. “After Wilfred beat Cornelia and the boys, he ordered his eldest son to fetch a jar of moonshine from his still.” Gail lifted her chin defiantly. “Little did Wilfred know the jar included what’s known as the foreshot.”
Buck cocked his head. “The foreshot’s the bad part you’re supposed to throw out, right? The stuff that’ll turn you blind?”
“That’s right,” Gail said. “Doesn’t take much to kill a person, either. Wilfred’s son made sure his daddy had enough.”
Tyler’s brows rose, saying what his mouth didn’t: This is a darn good story.
“The boys dug a hole and buried their father under the manure pile.” Gail shrugged.
“Seems an appropriate place for the man. With Cornelia being a woman and the slaves belonging to her husband, who was purportedly away on business, she had no legal right to free the slaves herself. She and her sons loaded up the carriage with Martha, Virgil, and their children, closed the curtains on the windows, and drove them into Kentucky. Somehow, Cornelia had heard about a safe place they could be taken to. My guess is that a hotel guest saw how well Cornelia treated the enslaved people at the stable and realized she was a quiet though kindred spirit in the abolition movement. They might have told her about the station on the Underground Railroad. At any rate, Cornelia started Martha, Virgil, and their kids on the road to freedom.”
I knew from studying Tennessee history in school that the state had a complicated history when it came to slavery.
Not everyone had agreed on the issue, and the differences in opinion varied greatly across the wide state.
In the east, the mountainous terrain allowed for only small farms, and only one in twelve people was enslaved.
Shortly after Tennessee became a state, Quakers started an abolitionist movement there.
While there were some large farms and plantations in middle Tennessee, only one in three persons there had been a slave.
In the western part of the state, which was flat and well-suited for agriculture, slavery formed the foundation for the economy.
Enslaved people comprised between sixty to eighty percent of the population.
After Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, slaveholders feared such a thing could happen here.
The Tennessee legislature imposed jail time on anyone who produced, circulated, or possessed materials encouraging resistance to slavery.
The legislature also enacted laws forbidding free Black persons from moving to the state.
Women had yet to obtain the right to vote, but lawmakers disenfranchised free Black men who lived here.
Obviously, free was a very loose term. Black people who resided in Tennessee but were not enslaved were nevertheless rigidly regulated.
They were required to register with the county clerks.
They were not allowed to sell or give alcoholic beverages to another person, which prevented them from working at establishments that served liquor.
They could not buy things from an enslaved person or sell anything to an enslaved person without the specific written consent of the slaveholder.
Black workers could not go on strike. They were prohibited from having an enslaved person in their homes at night or on Sundays without the permission of the slave’s purported owner or employer.
After a slave rebellion in Stewart County, the city council in Nashville outlawed schools for Black children.
Black people were not permitted to assemble in public.
Even their love lives were highly controlled.
Free Black people were not permitted to marry enslaved persons without the permission of the slaveholder.
Some laws applied to white folks as well, such as the law that prohibited a white person and Black person from marrying.
These harsh measures led more white people to embrace abolition.
With the country divided on slavery, Congress attempted to keep the nation together via legislation such as the Compromise of 1850, which included a Fugitive Slave Act.
The act required slaves to be returned to slaveholders, even if the enslaved person was apprehended in a free state.
The act also imposed a responsibility on the federal government to find, return, and try escaped slaves.
Because of such laws, it was not enough for escapees to reach a free state.
They had to leave the United States entirely to fully secure their freedom.
Curious, I asked, “Did Martha, Virgil, and their kids escape into Canada?”
“They did, praise Jesus.” Gail looked up at the sky and raised her hands in gratitude before returning to the story.
“Cornelia had taught Martha on the sly how to read and write, and Martha sent a letter to Cornelia a few weeks later to let her know they were safe. Cornelia then offered to transport the rest of the enslaved folks who worked for the family to the Underground Railroad station in Kentucky, but none took her up on it. With their legal status in limbo and kidnappers looking for Black folks they could kidnap and sell into slavery who knows where, they might have figured the risks were too great. Or perhaps they sensed change was on the horizon and figured they’d stick around to see what might happen.
At any rate, with her husband out of the picture, Cornelia took over the livery operation and turned things around rather quickly.
With the earnings, she built better houses for the enslaved folks and even hired a tutor to teach their kids.
She paid the workers for their labor though that was hush-hush, of course.
Family lore says this stable eventually became a stop on the region’s Underground Railroad.
Enslaved folks were hidden in the hayloft, then carried off by Cornelia’s sons in carriages and wagons to the next station in Kentucky. ”
“Wow.” I looked over at the barn again, feeling a sense of awe. If the stones could talk, what stories they’d have to tell!
Tyler looked at the barn, too, then turned his attention back to Gail. “As a journalist, I have to ask: Do you have any proof the barn was a stop on the Underground Railroad? Maybe a diary Cornelia kept? Cryptic references in the livery books?”
Gail shook her head. “White folks could be jailed for helping people escape, so they didn’t keep records that might be used against them.
When the war ended, there was still a lot of division and violence, so people were reluctant to share their experiences publicly.
Mostly, they just shared their stories within their families. ”
Tyler dipped his head to indicate his understanding.
“Just two or three years after Martha and Virgil left,” Gail continued, “the Civil War broke out.”
While Tennessee originally voted to remain in the Union, opinions shifted with the fall of Fort Sumter and only a few months later Tennessee joined the Confederacy.
Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and the first state to rejoin the United States when the war ended.
In the meantime, however, many Union loyalists had fled to Kentucky.
“When the war ended,” Gail said, “Martha and Virgil returned with their children. They might not have owned this place, but it had been their home. Things had been tough for them in Canada, and they knew they could get work here. Cornelia welcomed them back with open arms. Of course, it wasn’t all peaches and cream when they returned, but I suppose it was about as good as things could get back then.
The Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras were rough.
Everyone did their best to succeed despite the odds and repeated threats.
More than once, the men and boys had to defend their lives and this property with guns.
They kept a dozen dogs around to bark warnings. ”
I could hardly imagine living under such constant fear.
“Martha’s and Cornelia’s families remained close over the generations,” Gail said, “and eventually intermarried. My mother is from Virgil and Martha’s line, as I mentioned earlier.
My married name is Pittman, but my maiden name was Womble.
My father is a direct descendant of Wilfred and Cornelia, and of that eldest son who brought his daddy the tainted moonshine and carried Virgil and Martha’s family to Kentucky.
That’s how I came to inherit this property.
” She turned toward the barn doors and motioned for us to follow her.
“Come with me. I’ll show you the inside. ”
As we approached the cockeyed door, I looked up and noticed a horseshoe nailed over it.
Superstition said a horseshoe over a barn door would ward off evil and bring good luck.
Shoes were placed with the open end facing upward to catch and keep the luck.
I wondered if a horseshoe had been in place when those escaping slavery had hidden out here, whether the shoe had brought them sufficient luck to lead them all to safety and freedom.
Gail noticed me eyeing the horseshoe. “Virgil made that. It’s got his touchmark on it.”
Tyler cocked both his head and his pen. “Touchmark?”