Affricanna Town

Following emancipation in Tennessee, freed people from surrounding areas took refuge inside U.S. military lines at Clarksville and built a free Black village near Dunbar Cave. A former enslaver called the settlement “Affricanna Town.” The people who lived there built their own temporary homes and kept small garden plots. The village was inhabited mostly by families of U.S. Colored Troops soldiers, remained separate from the refugee camp in Clarksville managed by the U.S. military, and was not subjected to that camp’s poor conditions. Many in the African American community in Montgomery County today are descended from these survivors of enslavement.

Clarksville, Tennessee · United States