Last updated: September 23, 2023
Lesson Plan
The Free State at Fort Donelson
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 8.L.1
- Additional Standards:
- National Council for Social Studies
Theme 2: Time, Continuity and Change
Theme 3: People, Places, and Environment - Thinking Skills:
- Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
Why were Civil War forts considered refuge sites for freedom-seeking slaves?
How did their lives transform after living at Fort Donelson?
Objective
To help students understand:
1) the significance of the 1862 Battles at Forts Henry, Heiman, and Donelson for freedom-seeking enslaved
2) to use primary resources to understand how freedom-seekers started new lives
3) to learn why Fort Donelson (US) became a recruitment site for African American soldiers
Background
Tennessee was one of several states in which slavery was legal during the 19th century. Enslaved African Americans numbered 25% of the total population. Free Persons of Color did live and work in the urban areas such as Nashville but in the rural areas, African Americans were predominately enslaved. In Middle Tennessee, enslaved individuals lived and worked on small farms, larger plantations, or iron furnaces. The state's economy and prosperity depended upon their labor and sacrifice.
When the Civil War begin in 1861, Tennessee was one of the last states to secede from the Union in June. As part of the northern border of the Confederate States of America, politicians, engineers, and leaders decided to build earthen fortifications along major waterways. This was a tremendous task which requires large amounts of people and labor. A call went to the state's slaveholders to send enslaved laborers to the areas in need of laborers, and this meant that enslaved laborers would build the massive forts placed along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Slaveholders were promised that their workers would be cared for, fed, and sheltered while they were loaned for the support of the war effort. There was urgency and vulnerability on the part of Confederates in the state--no defensive positions existed and no armies defended the borders.
We do not have records of how these workers lived and worked while constructing the forts. We can assume that they camped near the fort construction site, slept in tents, and cooked their food over the campfire. Their lives were most obviously affected by the weather, since they lived and worked outdoors. Laborers likely were kept under supervision, by Confederate soldiers, who camped, conducted military drills, and worked on building the fortifications too. Both groups were effected by illnesses like influenza and pneumonia, and enslaved laborers may have contracted mumps, measles or chicken pox as the soldiers did. An additional request went out to neighboring Confederate states in late 1861, for more enslaved workers to held build defensive works. Only the state of Alabama sent workers to help with the construction of Fort Henry and a new fort named Heiman.
By January 1862, the Confederates knew that Union forces were in nearby Kentucky, and anticipated that an eminent attack would occur the river fortifications. What happened to the enslaved workers is unknown. Many laborers were likely returned to their owners and some may have been fortunate to escape their condition. We do know that some enslaved came specifically with their slave owners, who volunteered with the Confederate army, and stayed with their owners during the battles in February 1862.
The Confederate forces surrendered at Fort Henry on February 6, 1862. Within ten days, the Confederate leadership at Fort Donelson would surrender over 13,000 soldiers to the Union forces. This strategic victory was the first major one for the Union forces since the war begin in 1861. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant captured the major waterways, prisoners, and within another two weeks, the first Confederate capital would be taken at Nashville, TN. Confederate soldiers were loaded on steamboats and taken to prison camps in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Massachusetts. But what became of the enslaved?
There's not a lot of evidence, except for newspapers, Union military records, and personal accounts by Union soldiers. Many researchers believe that enslaved workers were moved out of Dover before the surrender. But other accounts, primarily from newspapers and letters, document that enslaved stayed in or near Dover, near the captured fort, under the protection of Union forces. General Grant , after the surrender in February 1862, did ask his superior commander what to do with the large number of slaves living in and around the forts. Some of those men were enrolled as workers for the U.S. Army. Some enslaved even followed their Confederate owners to prison camps. At the prison camps, they were allowed to leave, and we know of at least two instances of former slaves joining United States Colored Troop (USCT) regiments, later in the war.
Enslaved persons still continued to come to the three forts, throughout the remainder of the war, seeking food, shelter or protection. By the winter of 1863, it is documented that nearly 300 former enslaved lived at Fort Donelson. Where they stayed is unknown, but since the Union Army occupied the town of Dover and martial law was declared nearly throughout the region, families, women and children, or individuals may have found shelter in vacant homes or built structures near the boundary of the Union garrison. The numbers did fluctuate through the years. Reports from various Freedmen's Aid Societies state that the quasi-free African American community built their own school, established churches, and had their own gardens. As long as African Americans stayed near the Union garrison, or in a town that was occupied by the Union Army, they often did not fear re-capture by slave owners. However, slave owners did come into the Union garrisons at Forts Henry, Heiman, and Donelson and sought to have their slaves returned. It was a precarious situation for these freedom-seekers; legally they were not free by the laws of the state of Tennessee (and Kentucky too). Union commanders did return enslaved to owners, if they could prove ownership. The military had no formal guidance on the subject of slaves. For example, Senator John Bell of Tennessee, who owned a portion of an iron furnace company near Fort Donelson, had loaned 400 enslaved to help with the fortification. But a newspaper account in March 1862 states he requested the return of his 400 slaves. Some commanders and Union soldiers often aided in the escape of runaway slaves, refusing to return the enslaved, hiding them or sending them out on the Cumberland River while owners look for the slave in the camp. One Union commander, Colonel Abner C. Harding, was an ardent abolitionist. Colonel Harding even gave weapons to former enslaved African American men to help to defend the Union fort during the Battle of Dover in 1863. Other soldiers, including army chaplains, gave former slaves money or bought them safe passage on steamboats heading North. Until Congress passed laws to provide the legal framework for U.S. military officials to refuse to return slaves to owners, they had to follow the law. More guidance would come with the presidential Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. With this proclamation, former enslaved African American men in Tennessee and Kentucky could now enlist as soldiers. Their wives and children would now be considered free from bondage too.
In March 1865, the citizens of Tennessee passed the Thirteenth Amendment (Kentucky would be the last state in the country to pass the Thirteenth Amendment). Those formerly enslaved were now free. Tennessee would re-enter the United States after the citizens passed the Fourteenth Amendment and gained approval by the U.S. Congress. The state would not experience what many of the other former Confederate states did during the Reconstruction Period, although the Freedmen's Bureau did have an agents in Tennessee who documented the numbers of African American schools and reported any violence or criminal acts toward freedmen and women.
Teachers should be prepared to use a primary document, maps, and other materials to present the history of Fort Donelson NB from the perspective of freedom-seeking enslaved men, women, and children. The focus is more upon how refugees sought protection, freedom, and opportunities to create new lives.
Preparation
Students should be shown in the classroom the postwar map of the National Cemetery area at Fort Donelson NB. This is the best evidence that has been located about the Free State and it's size and location.
Read and study the Widow's Pension filed by Caroline Dorris. Some of the copied documents are very difficult to read, and only a few of the large pension file was uploaded for this activity. Mrs. Caroline Dorris began her initial request for a widow's pension after the Civil War, after her husband, Joseph Dorris' death. She continued to struggle with the pension (and even requested a larger pension) for over 20 years.
We encourage you to think about what struggles may have occurred from the time that freedom-seekers traveled to the military Fort Donelson: did they have food? were they treated well? were they welcomed by the military? Throughout the war and until it ended, where did freedom-seekers live? What does the evidence, 1867 map and the Widow's Pension, tell you about the lives of former enslaved African Americans?
Materials
Military sketch of the Fort Donelson National Cemetery, depicting the Free State near Fort Donelson
Brochure/booklet developed by the National Park Service
Download Slavery: Cause & Catalyst
Clerk's statement of marriage
Death certificate summary of soldier
Download Return of Death certificate
Request for pension by Caroline Dorris
Download Declaration for Widow's Pension
Discarge from Military Service - Joseph (Jacob) Dorris
Affadavit on behalf of Widow Dorris
Depositions (two) by neighbors or landowners
Download Depositions by neighbors
Visuals from the national battlefield, facts, and information
Download Powerpoint (converted to Adobe pdf)
Lesson Hook/Preview
Prepare students by showing portions of DVD's or videos about the Underground Railroad or United States Colored Troops (USCT).
To provide more specific information on Fort Donelson, show students the 20 minute audiovisual Fort Donelson: A Place for Heroes and visuals from the park powerpoint (pdf).
Procedure
1. Prepare students for the study of Fort Donelson by showing the 20-minute video or short lengths of other appropriate films about runaway or freedom-seeking slaves. You might even show films that depict African American men who joined Civil War military units or play 19th century music which focuses on the topic of freedom and change. We suggest that you request the UGRR Traveling Trunk for your classroom activity.
2. Use the powerpoint slides to provide visuals for the classroom (older students). These have slides with scenes of the battlefield.
3. Use the suggested lesson, either virtually or as a pre-visit activity before the field trip to the park.
4. Consider follow-up activities to reinforce the significance of this Civil War fort. Good suggestions include researching pension records.
Vocabulary
Freedom seeker
Department of the Interior
pension
affadavit or deposition
Medical terms: rheumatism, apoplexy
Assessment Materials
What Would You Do?Using materials within the course or other documentation about Free Persons or formerly enslaved African Americans, this exercise prompts students and educators to think about the costs and consequences of escape. Examine how life will change: where will you live, what about your children, how do you find family, etc.?
This activity could be addressed as a classroom, during your park tour, or in groups.
Students should be prepared by using visuals in this activity and reading sections of the primary documents to understand how difficult life was for former enslaved men and women. In fact, the struggles continued: discrimination, lack of housing or land ownership, impoverishment, and poor living conditions were a large part of the postwar story.
Prompt discussions with a few of these questions:
Where did families live?
When men joined the U.S. army, what happened to their families?
Was educational opportunities available, and if so, were they allowed to be educated with other children?
If they could find land to build homes, did they own their own parcel of land?
Where could men and women work after Fort Donelson and the U.S. military moved out of the area in the summer of 1865?
Additional Resources
Park Histories | Park History Program (nps.gov)
Select the pd file for The African American Experience at Forts Henry, Heiman, and Donelson
Purchase a soundtrack of 19th century music from Eastern National Songs from the Lower Mississippi Delta - New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
African-Americans at Fort Donelson - Fort Donelson National Battlefield (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Landscape of Liberation (tn.gov)
Related Lessons or Education Materials
Educator Resources - Teachers (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)