A Landscape Of Inequality

The Jackson family presented white visitors with an idyllic planter’s life that depended on the unpaid labor of over 150 enslaved black men, women, and children. Without their grueling work, the family could not have lived so lavishly. At the end of Andrew Jackson’s life, only about ten of the enslaved people he owned worked in and around the mansion, while a few others, including the blacksmith and carpenter, had special skills. Most of the enslaved worked in Jackson’s fields, tending and harvesting crops in labor that lasted from sunup to sundown for nearly the entire year because of the variety of crops grown at The Hermitage. Following a common farm management practice of his time, Jackson kept enslaved families together because owners believed this discouraged escape, since an entire family was unlikely to make a safe passage to freedom. He also clustered housing for the enslaved into a small, closely monitored area. On this unequal landscape, the enslaved forged their lives.

Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance), Tennessee · United States