Video
William T. "Bill" Lewis: Chattanooga's Blacksmith
Transcript
Hello everyone, my name is Chris Young and I'm one of the Park Rangers at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Today we're standing at the corner of 7th Street and Market Street here in the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and you can probably hear the the cars driving up and down Market Street, one of the busier streets in the city of Chattanooga. It was near this area that William Lewis had a blacksmith shop prior to and during the American Civil War. Why is this story important? Well, it's extremely important to Chattanooga's history and Chattanooga's underlying history of those who are enslaved, because William Lewis was once an enslaved African American who purchased his freedom and his family's freedom. Today we're going to talk about William Lewis's story, also known as Bill Lewis. Now, I'm not going to use the derogatory term "Uncle." "Aunt" and "Uncle" were used in the south primarily as derogatory terms prior to, during, and after the Civil War for those who were speaking to African Americans. So we're not going to use that term because it was demeaning. So we're going to refer to William Lewis as the way he wanted to be called, or the way that he chose to be called- William or Bill. So in 1837, William Lewis moves to Ross's Landing, Tennessee. This is not Chattanooga yet, and it won't be until 1839. In 1837, Lewis moves here. He has an agreement with his owner whose name is James Lewis. Now let's take a pause here for just a moment. James Lewis is fairly well known, himself. Colonel Lewis lived in Winchester, Tennessee, that's Franklin County Tennessee north and west of where we are right now. Colonel Lewis was a patriot. He was an officer during the American Revolution. He fought at places like Brandywine, Trenton, Princeton, Germantown. He was at the surrender of Cornwallis's Army at Yorktown in Virginia and he's fighting for those ideals that in 1776 we sent to King George III, and more specifically that section of the Declaration of Independence that says, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Lewis fought for those ideals. He fought for those terms of independence, of equality, of liberty. Yet when William Lewis was born in 1810, James Lewis owned 25 enslaved people. In 1830, he owned 30. in 1840, he owned 30. In 1820, when William Lewis would have been 10 years old, his enslaver owned seven children that would have been around that same age.
This is the same James Lewis that fought for those ideals of revolution and independence.
By 1837, James Lewis, still owning around 30 individuals in Winchester, agrees to allow William Lewis to come to Ross's Landing as a blacksmith. He had been trained in that specific trade, and for $350 that would be paid annually to James Lewis, he would be able to essentially rent himself here in Ross's Landing. He had already purchased the freedom of his wife for a thousand dollars prior to coming to Chattanooga. That way, his children who were born would be free, because here, slavery followed that plight of the mother. So with her being free, her children would be free.
Not long after, by the 1850's, 1851, William Lewis had not only purchased his own freedom, but he had purchased the freedom of his mother, his brother, and his sister. All told, his freedom, his wife's freedom, and his mother and brother's and sister's freedom, cost him five thousand, one hundred dollars by 1851. That's well over a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars in today's currency, to find his own freedom, to purchase his own freedom away from James Lewis.
Between 1850 and 1860, turmoil is rampant throughout this nation of the coming and impending crisis. The stricter Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. 1852 with Harriet Beecher Stowe writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin." 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 1856 with "Bleeding Kansas." 1857 with Dred Scott and the decision of the United States Supreme Court telling him that he cannot sue for his freedom because he is enslaved property to his owner. 1859, John Brown and the failed insurrection at Harpers Ferry. 1860, Abraham Lincoln's election as President of the United States which leads South Carolina and other deep south states to secede from the Union on the basis of keeping people in perpetual bondage, much like the fate that would have been William Lewis's had he not been able to purchase his freedom and the freedom of his family.
By 1860, four million enslaved African Americans throughout the deep south states are still being held in bondage against their will. And it's going to take a bloody and gruesome war to end that institution. By 1862, there are Union spies and Union soldiers who have stolen a train in Big Shanty, Georgia called "The General," and most of you are probably familiar with this story. James Andrews steals The General, running it up the Western and Atlantic Railroad toward Chattanooga, Tennessee in an effort to destroy track and hinder Confederate movements moving toward Chattanooga, as a Union movement would move to the south and hopefully take Chattanooga for the Union cause.
By 1862 though, with James Andrews fleeing Confederates that are chasing him on "The Texas," Andrews and his raiders are captured. Many of them are going to be placed in jail here in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Swaim's jail. Lewis's blacksmith shop is called upon to fix the leg irons for Andrews' Raiders. It'll be Lewis, it'll be his son George specifically, that will help fashion the leg irons, take them to Swaim's jail, and fit them around the raiders. There are only a few of Andrews' Raiders that will get away, that will escape southern prisons. They will not be executed. And those individuals will be the very first recipients of the Medal of Honor.
Ironically, we have a museum here in Chattanooga, Tennessee
that tells the stories of those recipients of the very first Medals of Honor.
Jacob W. Parrott, the very first recipient of that medal, who was one of Andrews' Raiders, fought during the Battle of Chickamauga as a young officer, leading men in that battle as the very first Medal of Honor recipient.
Thankfully for William Lewis, for his family, for his friends, for those he knew who were enslaved here in Chattanooga, Tennessee and across the south, the ending of the American Civil War in 1865 also meant the death of the institution of slavery. Not only by the war, but by the passage of the 13th Amendment and then soon after, the 14th and 15th Amendments. Now, it's not to say that Chattanooga is not going to still continue to have turmoil, still not going to have Jim Crow laws enforced upon it, that's not going to also have sit-ins here in the city and marches for equality.
It's important to know our history here in this city. It's important to know
the grueling task of what it took to come to a realization truthfully. And as we are still making those strides
to fulfill that piece of the document that we sent to King George III in 1776- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator certain inalienable rights, and that among those are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." William Lewis is going to pass away in 1896 and be buried in Forest Hills Cemetery at the base of Lookout Mountain, here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That's going to be our next stop as we visit the final resting place of William "Bill" Lewis, here in Chattanooga. We'll see you there.
Welcome back everyone. I've just made the trip from downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, near where William Lewis's blacksmith shop was located, here to Forest Hill Cemetery, south of the city in Saint Elmo, just at the base of Lookout Mountain. Just to my right and to your left is the headstone of William Lewis. He dies in 1896 and soon after an obituary is printed in the local newspaper, and here's what it says. "An old citizen dead well-known figure in Chattanooga death from old age. At 1:15 pm yesterday William Lewis better known as quote "Uncle Bill Lewis" end quote passed on to his reward. He died from no other cause than old age and his last moments were very peaceful. He was 86 years of age and came to Chattanooga when it was known as Ross's Landing in 1837." It goes on to end by saying, "he leaves a wife and nine children six of whom reside in this city. He worked at blacksmithing in the little shop near the keystone block up until a few days of his death." William Lewis had purchased his wife's freedom, purchased his own freedom. Ironically, his own freedom that was purchased from Colonel Lewis, was from his own father. You see, William Lewis was the son of Colonel James Lewis of Winchester, Tennessee.
There is heartache all throughout the institution of slavery. Fear of being bought and sold to other owners, being ripped away from your family, being sold far away from everything that you knew. Lewis tried as well as he could as someone who was enslaved, and he succeeded in purchasing his wife's freedom, and his own freedom,
and his mother's and his brother and his sister's freedom. Not everyone was that fortunate.
This is the final resting place for Bill Lewis and I think it's fitting on such a beautiful day today, peaceful, that we talk about the sacrifices made by Lewis, by millions of enslaved people, to try to gain freedom however they could. Whether it was trying to purchase their own freedom, whether it was trying to escape and find freedom that way, or whether during the Civil War it was to rise up to enlist in the United States Colored Troops popping up all across the south and in northern states to fight for their own freedom in the United States Army.
By whatever means, 4 million people were set free by the close of the American Civil War, and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Thanks for joining us. I hope you contemplate William Lewis's story, Chattanooga's story, and the story and struggle for freedom. We hope to see you out in the field again soon.
Hello again everyone. Don't you just love those scenes at the end of the credits in movies that give you a little bit more of the story that you had been watching and set you up for the next one? Well, this is a piece of William Lewis's story. I don't know if you were aware or not, but there is a kid's book that was written by local Chattanooga author Rita Hubbard, called "Hammering for Freedom: The William Lewis Story." If you're interested in this book, it's really great for kids as far as the amount of words and the illustrations that are in the book. So I would encourage you, if you want a little bit more information about William Lewis that you can share with others, especially younger children, pick this book up and share William Lewis's story, and his hammering for freedom to them. Thanks again, and we hope to see you soon.
Description
William T. Lewis came to Ross's Landing, soon to be Chattanooga, in 1837, after purchasing his wife's freedom. He worked as a blacksmith in Chattanooga from the time he arrived, through the Civil War, until his death in 1896.
Duration
15 minutes, 21 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
04/10/2021
Copyright and Usage Info