Sally Thomas

Born into slavery on a Virginia tobacco plantation, Sally Thomas and her two sons were brought to Nashville, along a 500-mile land route across the Blue Ridge Mountains between 1814 and 1818. Sally Thomas quickly discovered that Nashville, a rapidly-growing commercial center on the Cumberland River, offered many opportunities for a few privileged blacks who could take paying jobs and even establish businesses in exceptional cases. Sally Thomas was exceptional indeed. She not only was able to open a profitable laundry and keep most of her earnings—her dream was to buy her sons out of slavery, so she saved her money. In 1827, she gave birth to a third son, James Thomas, whose father was future Supreme Court Justice John P. Catron. Judge Catron never recognized his son.

Sally secured her oldest son a position in Alabama working for a barge captain. Sometime around 1834, her second son Henry Thomas disappeared. He had escaped to freedom in Canada. When she learned that her third son, six-year-old James, was to be sold, Sally persuaded attorney Ephraim Foster to loan her money to buy his freedom and later purchased her own freedom. Sally Thomas died in in the 1850 cholera epidemic at the age of sixty-three and was buried in the Nashville City Cemetery. Her life remains a testament—resilience, resolve, resourcefulness, and a mother’s extraordinary determination. For more on the life of Sally Thomas, take our Early Black Life and Culture tour.

Cross Union Street to be on the same side as your next stop, Satsuma Tea Room, now 417 Union.