Most have heard the sagas of settlers on the frontier, battling a siege from inside a primitive fort and patriots marching over the mountain to victory during the Revolution.

But behind those more well-known stories lies another history, one that is seldom talked about.

“One of the things that aggravates me is the lack of black history in Carter County,” Carter County Historian Scott Bowers said. “It’s here. The records are here.”

“They were here,” he added. “They lived in this county; they worked in this county. But where are their stories? The history is here; it is just not being told.”

According to Bowers, authors and historians have freely shared other parts of the county’s long history, but have failed to tell about the lives of the black families who have lived here for generations.

One of the reasons behind this lack of reported history, Bowers believes, is that people were uncomfortable with the idea of discussing slavery.

“Slavery has been an issue in this world for thousands of years,” he said. “It is still going on in parts of the world. But it’s time to get out of that bubble and get uncomfortable.”

While the Overmountain Victory March has a prominent place in local history, it wasn’t just white frontiersmen and settlers who fought in that battle, Bowers says.

After reading an account of the Battle of Kings Mountain that said no less than a dozen black men fought there in the battle, Bowers’ interest was “piqued”, and he decided to do some research.

A chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in South Carolina has been studying the account, Bowers said, and so far has been able to identify five of the black soldiers who fought on the side of the patriots through military pension records.

“Out of the five, three were already free men,” Bowers said. “One earned his freedom fighting on behalf of his master in the battle. The fifth later earned his freedom for his patriotic service in fighting in the American Revolution.”

While none of those soldiers have been identified as being from this area, Bowers said it is likely they may have been from here or at least passed through here on the way to the battle.

“I feel like, out of a dozen – and this is just a theory – that some of them were from here,” he said. “It was always a popular belief, and I felt that maybe it was somewhat romanticized, that these were free men who fought, but now there is proof.”

Hearing that account and the proof of the black soldiers fighting in the revolution inspired Bowers to look through county records to see what he could uncover.

Census records from 1850, a decade before the start of the Civil War, show a unique picture of who lived in Carter County.

“We have in our census records evidence of free blacks already living here at that time,” Bowers said. “If I remember correctly, there was even a record of a free black woman who owned property.”

Records of slaves being granted emancipation go back even further than those records, Bowers said.

Tucked away in court records, Bowers found a document filed with the county in 1835 which emancipated a black man named Henry and his wife Elender.

The story told by this document shows that in 1822, a man named Isaac Anderson purchased Henry and Elender as slaves from William Peoples.

“It was agreed that if they served faithfully, they were to be emancipated at a later date,” Bowers said.

As part of the contract, Henry and Elender had to work for Anderson until their debt was paid off, Bowers said, adding the debt amounted to 1,400 pounds of iron to be paid to Peoples and 2,900 pounds of iron to be paid to Anderson. It took them 13 years to work off their indentures, Bowers said.

At the completion of the contract, Anderson filed papers with the Carter County Court showing that Henry and Elender had been emancipated and were freed from servitude. The document also showed testimony as to their faithful service and character.

Carter County is also the final resting place for black soldiers from both sides of the Civil War.

“A lot of people don’t know this but we have a black union soldier buried in Carter County,” Bowers said. “He is buried in the Nathaniel Taylor cemetery. His is the first grave you come to.”

The man’s name was Edward Taylor and he served in Company M of the 1st U.S. Colored Artillery.

“I didn’t know this guy was here until recently,” Bowers added.

Robert “Bob” Stover, who worked as a teamster for the Confederate Army is also buried in Carter County. Stover was captured and held as a Prisoner of War by Union Forces while on a mission for the army.

“He was one of the few black people in Tennessee who was granted a pension for his service,” Bowers said, adding that Major H.M. Folsom served as a character witness for Stover and personally signed for Stover’s pension.

After the end of the Civil War and laws were passed to abolish slavery, many of those who had once been slaves in Carter County remained here, Bowers said.

Carter County’s last living slave, Josephine Taylor – commonly called “Aunt Jo,” –  died in 1957 at the age of 107, according to Bowers. Taylor was born into slavery in 1850, and was a slave of Nathaniel Taylor, father of former Tennessee Governors Alf and Bob Taylor.

In letters and interviews, Josephine Taylor described life at the end of the Civil War and earning her freedom.

“When ‘Freedom Day’ came, and that’s what she called it, they were offered a place to stay with the Taylor Family and wages for their work,” Bowers said.

That was the circumstance in almost every case in Carter County, Bowers said. Former slaves were offered a place to live and wages from the families that had previously owned them. In most cases, the former slaves accepted the offer, he added.

Emancipation presented some unique challenges to many families including those in Carter County: Some families’ slaves were children who no longer had parents or who had been sold away from their parents.

“What were they to do with them?” Bowers asked. “Were they supposed to turn them out in the streets?”

In almost every case, those families raised those children as their own, Bower said. “They educated them and took them to church,” he added. “That really speaks to the character of the people.”

Bowers’ research has also revealed, that within a few short years of emancipation, a black man was appointed to a public position of authority and responsibility.

A court docket book from 1868 bears the record, stating that in March of 1868 it was “Ordered by the court that Charles Woodby, a man of color, be appointed overseer of the roads.”

“That is the earliest appointment I know of,” Bowers said. “There might be one earlier but that is the earliest I’ve been able to confirm in the records.”

Of course, Bowers said, the records also show evidence of slavery and slave trading.

In many of the old wills, Bowers said those who owned slaves would sometimes free them upon their death, but more often they bequeathed them to other family members. In the wills, Bowers said, slaves were usually listed first because they were considered valuable property.

As an example, Bowers pointed to the will of Elizabethton’s namesake, Elizabeth Carter.

“Elizabeth Carter took a unique approach, I believe, by naming her slaves and their children in her will and which person they went to,” Bowers said, adding that slaves were often listed but not always with their names or their relationships to another another.

Carter emancipated one of her slaves in her will, but she divided the rest among her children and grandchildren.

Her will also contains the following sentence: “It is my will that the before mentioned negroes and their increase may be equally divided between my three grandchildren.”

To Bowers, that sentence stood out amidst everything else in her will. The phrase “and their increase” is taken to mean the children yet to be born to those slaves.

“This child that is not even in the womb yet, a soul that has not descended from Heaven yet, was being willed to someone as property,” Bowers said. “That is an incredibly powerful statement to me.”

But even though slaves were treated as property under the law, Bowers said there was evidence in the records that many of those in the community viewed them as far more.

“These records and some of these wills prove to me that they were not just viewed as property, period,” Bowers said. “The wills show that great care was taken not to split up families and care was taken to list and name children.”

It is Bowers hope that one day soon, more can be done to document and share the history and stories of the black families in Carter County’s history.

“A dialog has to be created. Right now people feel uncomfortable about it,” Bowers said. “The reason we get uncomfortable is we try to apply today’s beliefs and opinions to the lifestyles back then. It was their way of life then. They knew no better.”