Tannehill slave cabins

The Tannehill slave cabins were a group of about 15-16 cabins housing slaves at the Tannehill Ironworks before the end of the Civil War.

Slaves were used in the construction of three blast furnaces and associated works at the site, begun in 1858, and it is those early arrivals, perhaps 50 or 60 in number, that are believed to have occupied the cabins across Roupes Creek from the ironworks. It has been estimated that as many as 500 slaves may have eventually worked on site. Most of those who arrived later were leased from plantations in the area and probably sheltered in stockades, tents or roughly-built shacks. All the male slaves left the area following an attack by the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, a part of of General John Croxton's First Brigade, First Division, detailed from Wilson's Raiders, that badly damaged the furnaces on March 31, 1865. A group of women stayed behind and thanked the federal soldiers for attacking the furnaces where a number of slaves had been injured or died in industrial accidents. Some members of the workforce who died were buried at the Oglesby farm cemetery nearby.

Excavations have revealed evidence of family life at the cabins and it is supposed the slave families were housed as part of the initial labor force used to construct the furnaces and other buildings. The cabins were constructed in two parallel rows. During the raid they were burned and, by the time the Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park opened in the early 1970s, were evident only as piles of stone from chimneys hidden in overgrowth.

Excavations of the area where the cabins were located began in 2006 under the direction of industrial archaeologist Jack Bergstresser.

References

• Bennett, James R. (2005) Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabama Iron Industry. Alabama Historic Ironworks Commission, 2nd Edition.
• Toner, MIke (July 9, 2007) "Cabins prove slaves were Alabama's early iron workers." Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• Nance, Rahkia (July 6, 2009) "Birmingham, Alabama's Tannehill State Park may host memorial to unheralded labor, lives of slaves." Birmingham News