Rock Castle (Hendersonville, Tennessee)
Rock Castle State Historic Site, located in Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tennessee, is the former home of Daniel Smith. Construction began in 1784; its completion was delayed by conflicts with area Native Americans and the house was completed in 1796. It is listed with the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public. It is one of the Tennessee Historical Commission's State-Owned Historic Sites and is operated by the Friends of Rock Castle in partnership with the Tennessee Historical Commission.
Location
SE of Hendersonville on Indian Lake Rd
139 Rock Castle Lane, Hendersonville, TN 37075-4522, USA
July 8, 1970
George Smith[edit]
George Smith was the son of Daniel and Sarah Smith. He was born in Virginia in 1775 and moved with his family to Sumner County when he was about eight years old. George would grow up to inherit the home. As an adult, he incurred a large amount of debt as a result of his struggles with both drinking and gambling. George's son, who was a surveyor and a soldier like his grandfather, would end up having to bail his father out of debt to maintain the house.
Slaves at Rock Castle[edit]
Few records survive regarding the history of enslaved people at Rock Castle. However, two enslaved people are frequently named in surviving documents. A woman named Easter, who worked in the house as a maid or nanny, lived in a loft above the dining room with her husband Alfred. The Smith family referred to this man as "Uncle Alfred," a common occurrence between slaveholding families and the enslaved people who most personally and closely served the family. A newspaper from 1910 also tells the story of an unnamed enslaved man who worked as a foreman on the farm being abducted from the site by Native Americans and taken east. When Smith was a Senator, the enslaved man contacted him to plead for a bounty so that he could be set free from his most recent captivity. Smith offered $900 to the Native people who abducted the unnamed enslaved man, and was transferred from the abductors to the plantation landscape of Rock Castle. The man was quoted as saying that he was "anxious to return to his old master and home."[16] More reliable records show that by 1860, the Smiths owned 98 slaves.[17] There are two letters of bill of sale that name the following slaves being sold from George Smith to Harry Smith in 1833:
Isaac, Martin, Charles, Cheshire, Larkin, Ina, Toby, Wilson, David, Henry, Sarah, Rachel, Judy (or Juda), Baty, Mitchel, Daniel, Jeffrey, Patricia, and Patricia's two children, Henrietta and Silva (or Silvia).[18]