A time capsule hidden beneath the statue opens
Skeletons believed to be two centuries old were unearthed while a developer was digging the foundations of a new Nashville project not far from a Civil War fort and cemetery dating back to 1822. .
For Nashville, this discovery marks the latest crossroads between the boom times and the city's rich and sometimes troubled history - where people long ago settled, fought, struggled, and then died. There are few records of the lands where they were buried or where new comforts sprang up near them, often their final resting place.
AJ Capital Management, in a court petition earlier this month, said it was working on a mixed development of Nashville Warehouse near Fort Negley when the company was working on the development. I pointed out that the discovery was made. Includes apartments and business spaces.
The fort, built by runaway slaves and freed blacks for the Commonwealth, has in recent years sparked a long journey from Nashville's old hub. It is a dot. Allies to a vibrant modern city trying to cope with rapid growth. It's located in a rapidly developing neighborhood of businesses, bars and restaurants, about half a mile away from a multi-building project that is partially completed and flanked by a giant guitar sign and construction cranes.
The company is seeking permission from the Lord Chancellor of Nashville to move the body, which includes skeletal fragments and thin pieces of wood, likely from the coffin, to the adjacent 200-year-old Nashville City Cemetery. increase.
An archaeologist hired by the firm wrote that her team found remains in her May and her June, and that they were not of her native American origin, "Presumed to be of the early 19th century," he said, referring to them as civil wars.
Archaeologists wrote that they were more likely to be "isolated burials and not a broader cemetery distribution," and that the remains were buried in 53 burial sites built for foundation work. It was found in only two of the 4 x 6 foot excavations. Both were found about 15 feet underground. State archaeological authorities, local police, and the county coroner's office have been notified.
Parts and remains of each burial were not exposed and were preserved in place, archaeologists write.
A spokeswoman for AJ Capital did not respond to a request for additional comment.
According to Learotha Williams, a professor at Tennessee State University who specializes in studies of African Americans, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, these potentially centuries-old people are Whether it was or not is an open question.
He did not rule out the possibility that the remains were Native Americans of early settlers, Civil War soldiers, or black workers at the fort. It was a level of respect not normally accorded to blacks of the time. It will be much easier," he said. He described Nashville's "spotty record" of sorting out the friction between growth and historic preservation.
Williams said the situation "has changed a bit", but there is still "a way forward" when it comes to Nashville's sensitivity to the history of marginalized peoples.
120} Most notably, an attempt to build this area a few years ago in the immediate vicinity of Fort Negley came under sufficient scrutiny and was later shelved after it was discovered that the land beneath was likely a burial ground. It was done.Developers plan to build a residential and entertainment complex adjacent to and near the foot of the fort on the site of Nashville's former minor league baseball stadium. I was.
After mounting opposition, the city ordered an archaeological survey, which revealed in January 2018 that human remains were likely still buried there, suggesting the slaves who built the fort. judged to be high.
The plans were canceled and instead the city envisioned a park to commemorate the fort and the people were forced to build it. The city is tearing down the baseball field and holding a public meeting about the overhaul. The final draft of the master plan is expected to be announced this summer.
After the Confederates surrendered to Union soldiers at Nashville in 1862, the Union forces took over 2,700 runaway slaves and blacks. were released from their homes and churches and forced to work in the forts where they lived in "smuggling camps". They were promised money for their labor, but few were paid. About 600 to 800 of them died.
The fort has deteriorated over the years. Works Progress Administration he rebuilt in 1936 and reopened in 1938, but the fort fell into disrepair again. According to the late Robert Hicks, it was the home of the Ku Klux Klan during the Jim Crow era, and an isolated softball field was later built nearby.
The new development where the bodies were found this year is further away from the fort, across a series of tracks from where the baseball field once stood.
- Civil War
- Tennessee
- Nashville
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