{"id":16758,"date":"2024-02-13T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/?p=16758"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:14:11","slug":"discover-the-fascinating-history-of-franklins-black-citizens-on-this-house-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/blog\/discover-the-fascinating-history-of-franklins-black-citizens-on-this-house-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover the Fascinating History of Franklin’s Black Citizens on This House Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Franklin is famous for its historic home tours, which tell the story of the Civil War\u2019s bloody <\/a>Battle of Franklin<\/a> from the perspective of the families who lived through it. But until recently, visitors at <\/a>Carnton<\/a> and <\/a>Carter House<\/a> only heard stories of Franklin\u2019s white citizens. Now, thanks to a community effort that\u2019s been named <\/a>\u201cThe Fuller Story,\u201d<\/a> the complex and tumultuous history of the town\u2019s African American population is being uncovered, resulting in a more nuanced and realistic look at the city\u2019s past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"[March to Freedom Statue]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bronze statue called\u00a0March to Freedom<\/em><\/a>\u00a0now stands in Franklin’s Public Square honoring the U.S. Colored Troops, along with historical markers telling of the market where Franklin\u2019s enslaved people were sold, an 1867 race riot, how Reconstruction affected the black population, and more. The\u00a0<\/a>Battle of Franklin Trust<\/a>\u00a0has added a Director of African and African American History to its staff. Now, Kristi Farrow is uncovering fascinating new information about the enslaved people at Carnton and Spring Hill\u2019s\u00a0Rippa Villa\u00a0<\/a>on an almost daily basis.\u00a0And in the Hard Bargain neighborhood to the west of downtown Franklin, the\u00a0<\/a>McLemore House<\/a>\u00a0has opened for tours. Built by former enslaved person Harvey McLemore, it tells the story of how Franklin\u2019s African American citizens endured and overcame hardships and racism after the Civil War in their bid for equality as citizens of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"[View of Hard Bargain, 1878. Photo courtesy of Rick Warwick & The Williamson County Historical Society.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in 1829, Harvey McLemore continued working at Carnton as a freed man for his former owner, W.S. McLemore, until 1880, when he bought four lots from W.S. in Hard Bargain. He built a home on the property and certainly had no idea at the time that the house would shelter his descendants for the next 117 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[The McLemore House. Photo courtesy of Rick Warwick & The Williamson County Historical Society.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covering two city blocks, Hard Bargain evolved into a community of skilled black laborers during the Reconstruction years after the Civil War. Today, about 130 homes stand there, and a number of its residents are descendants of the community\u2019s original homeowners. Harvey McLemore continued living in Hard Bargain until his death in 1898. He left the house to his wife, Eliza, with instructions to pass it on to his only daughter, Mary Matthews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"[Maggie Matthews, year unknown. Photo courtesy of Rick Warwick & The Williamson County Historical Society.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By all accounts, Matthews was strong and courageous. She managed to get the court to grant her a divorce from her abusive first husband in 1901, and she also secured ownership of the house in the process. She went on to remarry in 1918 and sent her daughter, Maggie, to Nashville\u2019s first African American Catholic school. Maggie went on to study cosmetology in New York City and become a professional hairdresser. She opened her salon in the front hall of her home\u2014the same home built by her grandfather\u2014and lived there until she died in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[The McLemore House & Museum today]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvey McLemore\u2019s descendants continued living in the house until 1997. That\u2019s when the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County bought the home in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The Heritage Foundation sold the home that same year for one dollar to the newly formed African American Heritage Society of Williamson County, which opened it as a museum in 2002. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the McLemore House has been renovated and preserved and is open again to the public for tours. Tours include stories of the residents of the McLemore House and Hard Bargain and last about 30-45 minutes. Tickets must be purchased online. To find out when the next tours are scheduled, go to the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franklin is famous for its historic home tours, which tell the story of the Civil War\u2019s bloody\u00a0Battle of Franklin\u00a0from the perspective of the families who lived through it. But until recently, visitors at\u00a0Carnton\u00a0and\u00a0Carter House\u00a0only heard stories of Franklin\u2019s white citizens. Now, thanks to a community effort that\u2019s been named\u00a0\u201cThe Fuller Story,\u201d\u00a0the complex and tumultuous history of the town\u2019s African American population is being uncovered, resulting in a more nuanced and realistic look at the city\u2019s past.\u00a0 [March to Freedom Statue] A bronze statue called\u00a0March to Freedom\u00a0now stands in Franklin\u2019s Public Square honoring the U.S. Colored Troops, along with historical markers [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":16759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[390,239,234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-things-to-do","category-tours"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99957651,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions\/99957651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitfranklin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}