Fort Nashborough

James Robertson and a small group of men built Fort Nashborough on a bluff near the southeast corner of what is now Public Square Park and Church Street in early 1779. This replica of the fort was built in the 1930s, then rebuilt in the 1960s, and again in 2017. Among this group of men was an African American named Robert. Although much remains unknown about Robert’s life before his entry into Tennessee, he holds the distinction of being the first African American man to arrive in the area. The ensuing years brought enslaved men and women—who arrived as chattel to the new settlement. Some bore common names such as Adam, George, and Patsy—while other names were more unconventional, such as Fib, Febbie, and Cumbo.

By 1800, 154 African Americans called Fort Nashborough home. The overwhelming majority of this group were enslaved laborers and not free persons. Consequently, the area outside the fort must have been an intimidating sight. For them, their new environment was not one of opportunity. It was an unwelcoming place with their survival dependent on their labor, accompanied by the constant threat of violence from both whites and Native Americans.

At Fort Nashborough, a Black settler gazing west would have observed a forest of giant cedars bordered by a grove of brush. In the east, towering stalks of cane—some ranging from ten to twenty feet high—blanketed much of the shore of the Cumberland River. To the north, a variety of tall trees, including large hickory, elms, and maples covered the rolling hills.

This small group of people would be the first of more than three generations of African Americans that arrived here in chains under the threat of the lash, club, and gun. The settlement grew into a town, after Tennessee was admitted as a state in 1796. As Nashville expanded, so did the slave population. In the mid-1800s, white settlers moved to other areas in Middle Tennessee where they carved out homesteads, planted crops, and raised horses. This forced many Black settlers to move with the white men and women who claimed them as property. One such example was Andrew Jackson, who established the Hermitage plantation in 1804, and moved nine enslaved African Americans to this farm in an area northeast of the city.

For more information about the architecture of Fort Nashborough, check out the Broadway Architecture Tour. To learn more about the fort’s role in Nashville’s founding, see the Early History Tour. The next stop is also here at Fort Nashborough, so walk to the east side of the fort overlooking the river and go to the tour narrative for the Cumberland River and Woodland Street Bridge.