Tennessee: Guide to the State

This volume, published by the Federal Writer's Project, provides a paragraph on President's Island. Read it here. Either I have grossly underestimated the size of the island, or this publication grossly overestimated it, but the stated size in this text is 32,000 acres.

The article also states that the island was named after Andrew Jackson, who for a time owned land there. Most people I believe reject this explanation for the island's name.

See also History of the City of Memphis, Tennessee. Here, the editor likewise writes that the island is named after Andrew Jackson. He dates the naming to 1820.

President's Island, Aerial View

Click here.

The island appears in the distance. The elevation is 700 ft.

Photo courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives

Cultural Geography

Geography

Though President's Island* has always suffered flooding, it is said to exist on high ground. Though people assume that the island is named after Andrew Jackson, who appears to have once owned land there, the name predates this history. The truth is that the island, earlier called President Island, was so called because of its size. Known also as Island No. 45, it is one of the largest, if not the largest, on the Mississippi River. Its size is approximately 9,000 acres. The island, possibly also referred to as "Great Island," is located three miles from Downtown Memphis (and one mile below Fort Pickering) and can be reached via the Jack Carley Causeway.

During the War

Probably the most exact description of the camp was offered by General David Tillson, at one point head of the Freedman's Bureau at Memphis. Tillson, evaluating the camps in the city, reported that the camp was generally well run but that the streets were poorly laid out.

While most camps have been perceived as wretched, it is clear that refugees at President's Island were not without housing. Someone has referred to the "huts" of President's Island while Coffin noted that housing consisted of tents. Even when Coffin visited in 1863, it would appear that structure-wise and spiritually a community already had been created, for Coffin talks about attending church services on the island.

After the War

Far too little writing on the subject of President's Island has been done locally. From time to time, perhaps every ten years or so, a story will appear in the Commercial Appeal on the history of the island. In most cases, however, such stories suggest that the slave colony was created by the Freedmen's Bureau after the war. While the Freedmen's Bureau did not in fact come into existence until March of 1865, the contraband camp on the island "officially" opened in early 1863. This once-well known fact has been for maybe political reasons mostly lost to history. The correct dating of black residence on the island is important to the process of recovering the physical character of this community. If black residence on the island is perceived, for instance, as short-lived or temporary, this perception provides little ground for arguing that the site should receive preservation attention. Records reveal that blacks in fact lived on the island for as many as one hundred years, from Memphis' frontier era through the middle of the 20th century.

According to Rob Roberson, a long-time black resident interviewed in the '30s, there was once a store, and there was also a graveyard, located at the end of the island. A picture of the church was published with the Roberson interview. Another spokesperson, a white landowner by the name of Joe Sailors, considered to be president of the island, said that on his land, "high and dry in the middle of the plantation [was] a big stretch of sand, the former 'baptising' place for the island."** Between this sacred space and the graveyard, there are ghosts on President's Island waiting for acknowledgment.

*Referred to as President's Island by river voyagers as early as 1811. See Commercial Appeal, 1/19/1947.

**Press Scimitar, 11/2/1937.

Levi Coffin, abolitionist and "president" of the Underground Railroad, visits President's Island*

In May of 1863, well-known abolitionist Levi Coffin visited President's Island, as well as several other camps in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. At President's Island, he met John Eaton, then a colonel and superintendent over contraband in the West.

According to Coffin, the camp had been recently formed, and the freedmen (as they were now called since the Emancipation Proclamation) were living in army tents. He also observed that some blacks were cultivating the land and others were guarding the camp. As a result of this visit (and an earlier one to Cairo, Illinois, also a camp site), Coffin founded the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission. Through Coffin's fundraising, the Commission was able to send supplies including farming implements to this and other camps.

One may safely conclude from this activism that Coffin was a supporter of black farming although little known (or at least discussed before now) is this role that he played in its development. While Coffin seems not to have met Eaton until his visit to President's Island, the two men--fighting for the same cause--corresponded it seems even before their first meeting. In a letter to Coffin, commenting on a perhaps anticipated failure of the government to strongly support the creation of black landowners, Eaton wrote,

We need not faulter at their fault. If the federal government would not lead the way, the field was nonetheless open to 'friends of the cause'. We shall look for implements and seeds at once.**

We know from Coffin's writing that he did in fact send implements to the camp. And Coffin himself began to refer to Eaton and other supporters of the freedmen as "friends." As for Eaton, he seems in this letter to be suggesting that the Quakers will assist in the development of black landowners. The language of this letter is characterized by a degree of secrecy. Perhaps we might even say that Eaton uses code language. Certainly, such obscurity was not foreign to Coffin, who was so central a part of the culture of secrecy that was the Underground Railroad.

Commenting on another camp official, one John Rogers stationed at Cairo, Coffin wrote,

We believed friend Rogers to be the right man in the right
place, and felt much sympathy with him in his arduous task. He evinced a deep interest in the welfare of the contrabands...

Interestingly, much the same had been said of Eaton by Grant, that is, that Eaton was the right man to be placed at Memphis. One gets the feeling that few if any of the choices for camp leadership were made arbitrarily or haphazardly. One wonders just how closely knit however this network of men and women committed to black freedom and black success were.

*Based on Work Among the Freedmen--Visit to Cairo and other Points--Scenes and Incidents among the Contrabands--Condition and Sufferings of the Colored People--Efforts in their Behalf by Levi Coffin, http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/coffin/coffin.html

**Eaton to Coffin, March 27, 1863, BRFAL-GSC, Letters sent., Vol. 74; cited in From Contraband to Freedman, Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865, Louis S. Gerteis, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1973, 121-22.

New Hope (Negro) Baptist Church

This photo of the New Hope Baptist Church appeared in the Press-Scimitar, November 2, 1937. (From the files of the Memphis Public Library, Central Branch)

An excerpt from the article reads:

"The negroes on 'Mr. Joe's' place are happy and carefree. There is a negro Baptist church on the island and one old negro said when services are held' members come out of the bushes like bees out of a honeysuckle vine'."

This is one of few articles that tell the story of black inhabitance of the island. Unfortunately, it is spiced with stereotypical description. Still, I was pleased to find the photograph of the church. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind its founding. The article also mentions the existence of a cemetery near the end of the island. My ancestors lived on the island for twenty years--roughly between 1863 and 1885--and another blogger, A. Walton, has written that he also had an ancestor who lived on the island. Key to resurrecting the history of black residence on the island is (1) finding others whose ancestors made it home, (2) absorbing the idea that the history of the island points determination, self-reliance, resiliency, and ingenuity on the part of our ancestors, and (3) seeing the relevance of this and other aspects of our history. Contrary to the stereotypical description of "happy and carefree" Negroes, African Americans who settled on the island moved quickly toward building institutions such as this one and building a financial base through farming.

Today of course this awesome and inspiring history has been covered over in the name of progress and forgetting. The island is dominated by industry. President's Island is essentially an industrial park. While Memphis' leaders have yet to discover and publicize the role that contraband camps played in the creation of black communities in Memphis, it is high time that someone begin this campaign of recognition.

Can I count you in?

Be sure to check out: http://blackfarmers.blogspot.com/

Alisea