An African American chain gang at work in Swannanoa Cut on the Western North Carolina Railroad, near Round Knob in Buncombe County.
Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center
The United States railroads are celebrated infrastructures that first connected the country through travel in the 19th century. The Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad was revered due to its ingenuity which made the mountains more easily accessible to the rest of the nation, despite their complicated terrain.
The railroad also provided great economic opportunities for Western North Carolina residents, contributing to the oil, logging, and steel industries. However, the Black men and women who built the Western North Carolina Railroad have been ignored in the telling of its history. This is why the African American Experience (AAE) project highlights the roles of enslaved Africans, African American convicts, and laborers of the 20th century played in building the Western North Carolina Railroad.
Enslaved People and the Western North Carolina Railroad
The first railroad track in the United States became active in the 1830s, and the Western North Carolina extension was running from Salisbury to Asheville by the late 1850s. The idea was for the railroad to cut through the mountains from Morganton to Asheville, and further west. Due to the railroad’s construction, there was a very high demand for enslaved laborers during the mid-19th century in Western North Carolina.
Enslaved people were assigned many tasks such as digging track beds, laying tracks, working as cleaners, brakemen, maintenance workers, and cooks. While roles like cooking and cleaning are stereotyped as women’s tasks, enslaved men and women both performed these duties. It is likely that enslaved women were used for physical labor in the direct building and construction of the railroad as well. While some enslaved people who lived in the region were used to build the railroad, enslaved people from the Piedmont and eastern areas of the state were often rented out to railway companies as well. Because enslavers in the mountains felt they needed their own enslaved labor to maintain their land and businesses, many enslaved people who worked on the railroad were hired out from their owners from other parts of North Carolina. Most railroad companies did not own enslaved people, but it was common for enslavers to hire out an allotted amount of their human property to railroad companies. Railroads and mining are the two industries that utilized rented enslaved labor most in Western North Carolina.
Nicholas W. Woodfin and James W. Patton were the largest enslavers in Buncombe County, and they contributed to much of Asheville’s railroad construction. Using their own enslaved people, enslaved people that were hired out, and white labor, they headed this portion of the Western North Carolina railroad construction in 1861. This year marks the start of the Civil War, and there is evidence that the high demand for enslaved laborers to work on the railroad continued further into the war. Advertisement for “100 able-bodied negroes” was released by the Western North Carolina Railroad in December of 1861. A similar advertisement for 50 enslaved laborers was released months later in 1862.
William H. Thomas of the Cherokee Nation and Augustus S. Merrimon of Asheville wrote letters to Governor Zebulon B. Vance in 1862 requesting more enslaved labor for the railroads. However, based off the year’s agriculture, the number of enslaved people available to work the railroads was low. A great portion of the railroad was destroyed in 1864 by General Stoneman of Stoneman’s Raid when he marched through Western North Carolina into Tennessee.
Convict Labor and the Western North Carolina Railroad (1875-1892)
The South found itself in a poor economic status after the Civil War and worked to rebuild itself financially during the Reconstruction Era. Consequently, the state’s prisons needed employment for its inmates and the Western North Carolina railroad became bankrupt. Some of its previous tracks and tunnels were damaged due to lack of use, inconsistent management, and little available labor during the Civil War. Given the major travel, tourism, and industry that the expansion and completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad would bring, the state found it vital to connect it with rails that led to other southern regions with profitable markets such as the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.
Accustomed to the free labor forces that slavery brought to the South, the Railroad used cheap convict labor to build the railroads. Seven-eighths of the convicts in North Carolina were predominantly Black men and some women, many were imprisoned due to petty crimes and exaggerated charges. Some Black people were even randomly collected off of the street and charged with made up crimes to increase the railroad labor force, as prosecutors were instructed to bring more people into the prison system. The standard sentencing was three years of hard labor. Like enslaved people of the previous decade, many of these convicts were leased to railroad companies and were likely formerly enslaved themselves. Laying railroad tracks, digging tunnels by hand, and working with harmful chemicals were dangerous tasks that resulted in death and permanent injury for many convict laborers. The living conditions provided for these men and some women were dangerous, as they were underfed, improperly clothed, and made to sleep in box cars resulting in disease and starvation.
The Railroad Incarcerated Memorial Project (RAIL) is led by Dr. Dan Pierce of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. RAIL aims to uncover and share this history of the Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad with the public. The Project specifically highlights the tracks at Swannanoa Grade and the seven tunnels that are located between Old Fort and Ridgecrest in Buncombe County across the Blue Ridge Escarpment. This portion of the railroad was built by more than 3,000 convict laborers in the late 1870s, at least 139 of these laborers died and were buried in unmarked graves along the tracks between Old Fort and Ridgecrest. This story connects to the narrative of African American graves that exist in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This railroad was a part of a system that provided access to the Smokies and expanded the markets in places like Asheville and Swannanoa.
While headed to a workstation at the Cowee Railroad Tunnel on December 30, 1882, 15-year-old Charles Eason, along with 18 other African American convicts on a chain gain, went overboard their workboat and drowned. They were crossing the Tuckasegee River, which runs through Bryson City, Dillsboro, and Sylva, North Carolina with 11 other convicts and prison guards. Their chains restricted them, leaving them with no way to save themselves from drowning in the freezing river. Anderson Drake was one of the 11 who survived. He was an African American convict who saved himself before diving back into the water to save a white prison guard named Fleet Foster. Foster later accused Drake of stealing his wallet and pistol when he saved him, which allegedly was later found amongst Drake’s belongings. The following day he was beaten and sentenced to an additional 30 years of hard labor. Drake was never rewarded for his bravery. The nineteen convicts who drowned to death were thrown into a mass grave in Dillsboro of Jackson County, North Carolina. Currently in 2022, the RAIL Project is conducting research and working to commemorate those who were lost in the Cowee Tunnel disaster.
The Bryson City Race Riots (1907-1908)
The South found itself in a poor economic status after the Civil War and worked to rebuild itself financially during the Reconstruction Era. Consequently, the state’s prisons needed employment for its inmates and the Western North Carolina railroad became bankrupt. Some of its previous tracks and tunnels were damaged due to lack of use, inconsistent management, and little available labor during the Civil War. Given the major travel, tourism, and industry that the expansion and completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad would bring, the state found it vital to connect it with rails that led to other southern regions with profitable markets such as the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.
Accustomed to the free labor forces that slavery brought to the South, the Railroad used cheap convict labor to build the railroads. Seven-eighths of the convicts in North Carolina were predominantly Black men and some women, many were imprisoned due to petty crimes and exaggerated charges. Some Black people were even randomly collected off of the street and charged with made up crimes to increase the railroad labor force, as prosecutors were instructed to bring more people into the prison system. The standard sentencing was three years of hard labor. Like enslaved people of the previous decade, many of these convicts were leased to railroad companies and were likely formerly enslaved themselves. Laying railroad tracks, digging tunnels by hand, and working with harmful chemicals were dangerous tasks that resulted in death and permanent injury for many convict laborers. The living conditions provided for these men and some women were dangerous, as they were underfed, improperly clothed, and made to sleep in box cars resulting in disease and starvation.
The Railroad Incarcerated Memorial Project (RAIL) is led by Dr. Dan Pierce of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. RAIL aims to uncover and share this history of the Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad with the public. The Project specifically highlights the tracks at Swannanoa Grade and the seven tunnels that are located between Old Fort and Ridgecrest in Buncombe County across the Blue Ridge Escarpment. This portion of the railroad was built by more than 3,000 convict laborers in the late 1870s, at least 139 of these laborers died and were buried in unmarked graves along the tracks between Old Fort and Ridgecrest. This story connects to the narrative of African American graves that exist in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This railroad was a part of a system that provided access to the Smokies and expanded the markets in places like Asheville and Swannanoa.
While headed to a workstation at the Cowee Railroad Tunnel on December 30, 1882, 15-year-old Charles Eason, along with 18 other African American convicts on a chain gain, went overboard their workboat and drowned. They were crossing the Tuckasegee River, which runs through Bryson City, Dillsboro, and Sylva, North Carolina with 11 other convicts and prison guards. Their chains restricted them, leaving them with no way to save themselves from drowning in the freezing river. Anderson Drake was one of the 11 who survived. He was an African American convict who saved himself before diving back into the water to save a white prison guard named Fleet Foster. Foster later accused Drake of stealing his wallet and pistol when he saved him, which allegedly was later found amongst Drake’s belongings. The following day he was beaten and sentenced to an additional 30 years of hard labor. Drake was never rewarded for his bravery. The nineteen convicts who drowned to death were thrown into a mass grave in Dillsboro of Jackson County, North Carolina. Currently in 2022, the RAIL Project is conducting research and working to commemorate those who were lost in the Cowee Tunnel disaster.
This little-known historical event was brought to light in recent years, but at the time of its occurrence it was a story that was covered nationwide. The Bryson City Race Riots began at night on Sunday December 29, 1907 at the Southern Railway Station of Swain County. An altercation between white and Black railway workers led to gun fire being exchanged. Five white men were shot and many were injured. A 1908 New York Times article claimed that fifty white men were attacked by Black men in the night. The Raleigh Evening Times claimed on December 31,
1907 that “Bad blood has existed between the whites and blacks for some time. The negroes have indulged in the practice of throwing heavy iron railroad spikes and rocks at white men at night. Serious trouble had been momentarily expected and both whites and blacks have been armed for several days. About twenty white men were standing on the platform of the station when a squad of negroes approached, stopped short a distance away, and without further warning began to shoot into the crowd…” While all chaos and violence was blamed on the Black railway workers, there is no information on the root of the “trouble” between the white and Black workers, no information on how many Black people were killed or injured, and no accounts of the event taken from the perspective of Black railway workers, Black rioters, or Black residents of Bryson City.
The event at the railway station led to reported riots which lasted for several days, resulting in the implementing of a 9pm curfew for African American residents; those who did not abide by the curfew were arrested. During the riots, at least twelve African Americans were arrested and put in jail. Lawson Howell and Will Trotter were two African American men who were believed to be leaders of the attack at the Railway Station. The two men were arrested without bond shortly after hiding out in the Balsam Mountains. On October 20th, 1908 William Trotter escaped the chain gang that he was placed on as a convict and was captured in Clarksville, NC. According to The Asheville Citizen Times on January 3, 1908, Swain County police wished to transfer Trotter to Buncombe County. The paper stated that “requisition papers” needed to be obtained by the Buncombe County sheriff in order for this to happen. The term requisition refers to the claiming of property, language that mirrors the history of enslavers and slave catchers capturing or claiming rights to an escaped enslaved person. The treatment of a convict as though he or she is property is supported by the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, but essentially states that slavery is not legal in the United States unless the individual who is enslaved (imprisoned) is being punished for a convicted a crime. The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. This is why convict labor and the treatment of convicts, as discussed in the previous section of this brief, are so similar to United States slavery.
The Lenoir Topic newspaper wrote that two more African American men, Tom DeHart and Carey Fisher were jailed and charged with carrying concealed weapons. The newspaper further wrote, “It is said that for several nights past the negroes have sought to terrorize the whites by throwing railroad spikes. The people of Bryson City are not going to take the law into their own hands if they can avoid it but they are determined that the negroes shall behave themselves. It is understood here that the negroes are sufficiently amused and that for a long time in the future they will give no more trouble.” However, the riots continued days later, and the The News of Frederick, Maryland reported that African American rioters burned the Swain County Courthouse down in response to the actions being taken against them. The courthouse was assigned to the care of an African American man named Christenbury Howell who was not involved in the riots, he remained the caretaker after the courthouse was rebuilt. The new courthouse was then destroyed in 1910 due to a dynamite explosion that was accidentally set off by white residents.
The newspaper reports of the time make no mention of violent action taken against the Black community and the suspected Black rioters in Bryson City, however one can assume that ‘peaceful’ or just action was not taken. Additionally, the white community and railway workers are victimized in the reports, given that this is who governed the community and the news coming out of the town – the reported events of the riots must be considered with suspicion, as the voices of Black residents are absent from this local story.
The Railroad and The Great Migration (Early- Mid 20th centery)
After emancipation, sharecropping, domestic work, and railroading were the most popular industries for Black people. Railroad jobs were low paying, and railway companies sought out Black employees because they could pay them less than whites. Most railroad jobs were held by Black men, and they were limited to the same roles that Black railroaders held pre-emancipation (maintenance workers, brakemen, track layers, etc.) Because railroading jobs were in such high demand from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, many Black men and their families migrated to areas near the Smokies and other parts of Appalachia to work the railroads. Additionally, Black people from Western North Carolina and East Tennessee along with other Black
Southerners migrated to more Northern and industrial areas for better railroading opportunities, educational opportunities, and an attempt to escape the Southern racism that existed in the mountains. Much of this movement occurred during the phenomenon called the Great Migration. The first Great Migration occurred from 1915 to 1940 when roughly 1.6 million African Americans relocated to the North from the South. The Second Great Migration occurred from 1940 to 1970 when more than 5 million African Americans relocated to urban areas. Industries like the railroading and coal industries boosted the economy in many Northern states and industrial locations throughout the country including many Appalachian spaces.
