Utopia In Tennessee: Part 2, Black Utopias
- lvenegas13
- Aug 23
- 11 min read
Updated: Oct 14
This is the second installment on Utopias in Tennessee, past and present, this time on Black Utopias. In the previous post we explored the reasons why intentional societies have been created, and the unique role Tennessee has played. While utopian settlements often combine ideals, we focused on two Religious Utopias that are thriving today, and in the third and final segment we will look at Political Utopias.
Tennessee has a fascinating history of African Americans who sought a promised land where they could have their freedom, own their own property, live safely away from violent racism, and could start their own businesses, churches, and schools. For most formerly enslaved African Americans trying to carve out new realities, these were dreams that seemed so out of reach, and yet here, in these three stories, we find a true resolve to establish new and better lives for Black Americans in 1800’s Tennessee.
There were a number of settlements created by newly freed people after the Civil War. Most were temporary towns that grew organically when emancipated people flocked to Union occupied forts, such as Affricanna Town at Dunbar Cave (1864-1867 or 1872) in Clarksville, but many Black people ended up living on the fringes of the towns they once lived near as slaves. Rarely were there entire communities just for African Americans, let alone towns that would last for generations, or settlements that preceded the Civil War, and yet Tennessee had both! So, were Black Utopian societies successful and peaceful, or did they succumb to tragedy or scandal as did so many other utopias? Here are the stories of three Black Utopias in Tennessee with very different beginnings and outcomes: Free Hill(s), Nashoba and Promise Land.
FREE HILL(S), CELINA, TN
1816 – 1878 (possibly to today)
Freehill Community Club, Inc.
1828 Freehill Rd, Celina, TN 38551
(931) 243-2220
What’s astonishing about Free Hill (or Hills) is that it was an African American community established before the Civil War, not after it, and it has a riveting story! Located just outside Celina on I53N heading to Kentucky, you will see a historical marker on the left and a two-lane road heading into the community. There are conflicting stories about how it became settled and named Free Hill, and here are some thoughts as to how it came about.
In 1816, 2,000 acres of land were purchased by Virginia Hill, the daughter of a wealthy North Carolina plantation owner, who bought the land for newly freed slaves of her fathers. So, the name Free Hill could refer to not only the surname Hill, but also to the legal status of those who lived there, and possibly the fact that it’s quite hilly as well. Folklore says that the slaves were mulatto (a person of mixed white and Black ancestry) and could have been Virginia’s own children Rube, Josh, Betty and Marie, but were most likely her father’s or white overseers’ children. Word spread quickly among African Americans and the settlement quickly became a haven for runaway slaves, black outlaws, and the formerly enslaved. It flourished as a community where African Americans could avoid segregation and intolerance – but only for a short time. A private plot of land owned by Black people during slavery? In rural Tennessee, this had the makings of real trouble.
At the height of its existence, there were three hundred people, two grocery stores, two churches, two restaurants, three clubs and skilled artisans. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Free Hill to become the subject of violence by the white population of Celina. They terrorized the residents, burned down the school and church, and drove all Black residents from the town in 1878 before they could participate in elections. The land which had been a proud community of free African Americans was almost entirely stolen by their white neighbors, and they were shamefully allowed to keep the land by Congress. (Cordell Hull, I’m looking at you.)
Today, the most notable feature is the community center which was once a Rosenwald School (Dickson near Promise Land had one as well). The school opened in 1929 on donated land and was part of a system of education designed specifically to educate African Americans in rural communities. At one point there were 354 Rosenwald schools, but only around 30 buildings are still standing. The name refers to part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company Julius Rosenwald, who created the Rosenwald Fund and operated the schools with enormous influence by Booker T. Washington. Free Hill’s school stayed open until 1966 when Clay County school was integrated, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
As farming fell by the wayside so did the number of residents; today the population is around 70. Free Hill marks its important history with an annual Homecoming as well as other events such as fish fries, fashion shows and hat shows. I was not able to find the number of descendants of the original settlers that still live in Free Hills, but I hope they were not all chased away and some continue to live there. I will say that a popular eatery we ate at in Celina called Ollie's Place is owned by a descendant of Free Hills and is very popular among both African Americans and whites, so I believe racial tensions have subsided quite a bit in this area. (President Obama ate there too!)
I also came across another Free Hill community that was in Athens, TN established in 1850 by educated freed African Americans, but not a lot of available research: Free Hill: Renewal and Rememory – Rural Assembly
(Research based on Free Hill, Tennessee - Wikipedia, The Free Hill Community - Clay County Tennessee)
NASHOBA: 1825 TO 1830 In Germantown, outside Memphis, TN
(Although no one is entirely certain of its location. Surviving records say it was located near the Wolf River and is most likely in the Germantown area, a suburb of Memphis, where there are historic businesses and a church named Nashoba nearby )
Sometimes it takes an outsider to envision a utopia where it is most needed. In the case of the Nashoba Commune, it was a Scottish-born feminist, utopian socialist and social reformer named Frances “Fanny” Wright with big ideas for abolition. She dared to dream of a place in the South where emancipation was possible during the antebellum south, and she thought she had the connections and willpower to make it happen. (Fanny was so forward thinking and a complicated and fascinating character who deserves a post, book, or movie just about her!)
Fanny left Scotland after the death of her parents to come to the US. She travelled all over the states and became disturbed by the slavery she witnessed in the south. She believed she had the solution as to how best to transition African Americans successfully from slavery to freedom. She published A Plan for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the United States Without Danger of Loss to the Citizens of the South in 1825, where she suggested that Congress set aside federal land to prepare slave owners and their slaves for emancipation. Inspired by experimental communities in the US at the time like New Harmony, IN, she proposed her own radical utopia: a settlement where enslaved people would work to purchase their freedom from their owners while receiving an education. To do this she would need land to create a model farming community, and money to purchase slaves from plantations. The commune would have a school where the residents would learn how to read and write, and they would start agrarian businesses to support themselves. Importantly, these slaves would remain enslaved until they had worked off the cost of their purchase, and this was projected to take around five years per person. Wright wanted to purchase children and women as well as men in the hopes that families would be kept together as long as possible. Eventually the newly emancipated slaves would be sent to live outside of the US – a concession to plantation owners who did not believe that former slaves would be wanted or happy in the south. (Or the North? Was that not an option on the table?) All lofty and controversial ideas, but could she make them work?
“The plan included setting up a school for industrial education of the slaves, along the lines followed on some large plantations where skilled slaves were taught carpentry, shoe- making, black-smithing, sewing, weaving, etc. It has been said that “She [Frances Wright] anticipated the work of Hampton Roads [Hampton Institute] of nearly half a century, of Tuskegee nearly a century”…Frances Wright's Experiment With Negro Emancipation, by Helen Elliott, 1939
Thanks to the Marquis de Lafayette, Wright was introduced to Andrew Jackson. Lafayette had heard that Jackson treated his slaves with kindness, that he might be open to the idea of gradual emancipation, and that Tennessee had more favorable feelings towards abolition than other southern states. We do know that Jackson and John Overton helped Wright find land outside Memphis in 1825. She purchased around 2,000 acres (some sources say 320 acres) of what was once Chickasaw territory and named the site “Nashoba,” meaning Wolf in their language. But given the quality of the land they offered Wright, I have to question the good intent of Jackson and Overton.
Wright started the social experiment by purchasing eight slaves herself, hoping that if she invested her own money plantation owners would follow. Unfortunately, Wright did not have a full grasp of the economics involved with slavery, and hardly any plantation owners were interested in her settlement. This was just the first of a series of problems for Wright. Add a poorly chosen location, and scandalous views on sexual freedom, equal rights for women, interracial marriage and opposition to organized religion, and it is clear that Wright and her “social experiment” would become newspaper fodder.
Soon after clearing the first of the marshy land, mosquito-borne illnesses gripped the small settlement, and this was followed by scant harvests. When Wright left for Europe in 1826 to recover from malaria the settlement quickly declined. Scandals arose surrounding “free love” among the community, interracial relationships, and harsh treatment of slaves by supervisors. By the time Wright returned in 1828 she also found the colony close to financial collapse, and there were few investors interested in saving it. By January 1830 she accepted defeat; Wright chartered a ship and took thirty slaves to Haiti where they were freed. She personally lost around $16,000 on her utopian experiment, and moved to New Harmony in Indiana soon after, another Utopian society. There she became the coeditor of The New Harmony and Nashoba Gazette (later renamed The Free Enquirer) where she continued to defend her views. I wonder what ever became of the former slaves in Haiti? Did they feel like they were finally free to make their own lives, or angry that they were dropped into a foreign country where they knew no one and didn’t speak the language? I’d like to think that somehow they not only survived but flourished.
(Research based on the following sites and articles: Nashoba | Tennessee Encyclopedia, Nashoba Community - Wikipedia, View of Frances Wright's Experiment with Negro Emancipation, Frances Wright - Wikipedia)
PROMISE LAND: 1881 TO PRESENT, CHARLOTTE, TN
Promise Land Heritage Association
707 Promise Land Rd
Charlotte, TN 37036
615-707-2130 – Serena Gilbert
promiselandtn.com – great site for research, virtual tour, and info on the music &arts festival
The story of Promise Land is an astonishing tribute to self-determination, resilience, and pride. In contrast to the sad sagas of Free Hills and Neshoba, this 150+ year old community is an amazing success story! Promise Land is an unincorporated settlement near Charlotte, TN, settled by freed people shortly after the Civil War around 1870, including veterans of the US Colored Troops in Tennessee. (For a fascinating look at the USCT who are buried at Mount Olive in Clarksville click here.) Some of the settlers had chosen this land to be close to their employment at Cumberland Furnace where many had also worked as slaves, and the land was purchased with help from the Freedmen's Bureau.
What originally began as a 1,000-acre section of land for homesteads became a truly organized community in 1881 when Arch and John Nesbitt donated land for a church and school after receiving their war pensions. Now the small farms were joined by a Baptist Church, Methodist church, and an Episcopal congregation, and the Promise Land school which offered many African Americans a chance for education for the first time. There were stores, restaurants and hangouts for the community. This incredibly special place was created by Black people for Black people, at a time when Jim Crow laws and segregation made things very dangerous to be African American in the south. Instead, the people here flourished, found shelter from violence and discrimination, and established their own spiritual and societal nourishment and enrichment.
At one time the population reached around 250 people, and education was highly prized among the residents as a means of bettering their opportunities and status. Although there was a Rosenwald School in Dickson to provide elementary education for African Americans (Free Hill had one too), the Promise Land School taught its own elementary and higher grades. When the Rosenwald School expanded to include a secondary education, it was renamed Hampton High School, and the students who were sent there from Promise Land for high school were recognized for having a higher percentage of matriculation and graduation from college than any of the other African-American communities in the county! There was even a well-known group called the Promise Land Singers who were famous for their all-night singings that drew both Blacks and whites, and they were the first African-Americans to broadcast on Dickson's radio station.
Unfortunately, when the younger generation left for college, many did not return. In addition, a large number of the community left during the Great Migration to go to the north and other areas for better opportunities, and this led to most of the businesses and churches being lost. But the dream of Promise Land would not die. Progeny of the original settlers still hold on to some of this land, and today there is renewed interest by the city of Charlotte and Dickson County to recognize the history and accomplishments of this community.
My experiences growing up in Promise Land were profoundly shaped by the strong sense of community, the supportive relationships within families, schools, and churches, and the overall feeling of belonging. This fostered a unique and formative environment that continues to influence me today." - Della Bryant
Serina Gilbert, Executive Director of the Promise Land Heritage Association is a descendant of original settlers on both sides of her family. She is following in the footsteps of her mother Etta Vanleer Gilbert and several other community elders who have fought tirelessly to have Promise Land honored for its historic importance and to preserve the school and St. John Methodist Church. This is a site so inspirational to others that it is recognized nationally as a rare intentional community for Black people, it has had acclaimed visitors such as Senator John Lewis, and has been discussed in numerous books and articles on Black Utopias. Ms. Gilbert herself has co-written a book called From The Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land published by Vanderbilt Press. She will be a speaker at the Tennessee State Museum on September 13th, and a featured author at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 18 and 19, 2025. If you can, go hear Ms. Gilbert speak about her real-life experiences of growing up in this special community. She is an excellent speaker, and you will not regret it!
Today, the school and church are available for private tours, and both serve as museums to the unique community they serve. There is also a Promise Land Festival in June every year that gathers descendants from all over the nation and those who support the efforts to keep this special place alive. It also took part in a Juneteenth celebration this year, so look for more of these in the future!
The idea of African American Utopias is an enthralling subject that deserves a deep dive unto itself, and there are some great books that explore the African American experience. I highly recommend Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and The Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson, who is himself descended from the settlers of the Promise Land Community! If you haven’t done so already, I hope you’ll read Part One of the Utopia in Tennessee series Religious Utopias, and Part Three Political Utopias. I hope you have enjoyed reading these blogs and that you’ll consider visits to some of the current Utopias in Tennessee!
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