Blythe Ferry

In 1838, during the forced removal later called the Trail of Tears, about 9000 Cherokees and Creeks camped at Blythe Ferry while waiting to cross the Tennessee River after being held captive in stockades a few miles away. Their suffering was captured in Butrick's journal, which compared their camp conditions to those of brute animals lying on the naked ground exposed to wind and rain, and he wrote that not only the Cherokees but also the Creeks and Seminoles had fallen by the same means of fictitious treaties; his reference to Nanny as a slave also shows the diversity among the detachments. On Oct. 16th 1838, J. Powell wrote at 10 O'Clock AM that only some twenty waggons had been gotten across the river because the proprietors of the ferry were determined to retard all exertions. The last detachment crossed on Nov. 12th, 1838, and in a report to Winfield Scott it was written that after reaching Blythe's Ferry on Saturday Nov. 10 and finding the great body of Peter Hildebrand's detachment of emigrating Cherokees quietly encamped, about twelve waggons had crossed, then four boats were put in requisition from dawn until dusk, with about sixty one waggons across by day's end, and by before 12 O'Clock the next morning eighteen waggons and all the people were over.

Sale Creek, Tennessee · United States