The stories associated with escaped enslaved people scatter the landscape in and around Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. This short introductory video highlights some of the areas connected to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
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.
Clark Lee, an enslaved man near Ringgold, Georgia, was brought into the war by his enslaver's brother-in-law, just a few weeks before the Battle of Chickamauga. He was awarded a Tennessee State Pension in 1923, but was it for his service to the Confederacy or for the "loyalty and service" to the one who enslaved him?
On the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, we will explore the connections these two historic anniversaries have in common.
