Overview

Location

Old Hickory Boulevard exit off I-40 east of downtown Nashville, Davidson County, TN

Date Constructed/ Founded

1804

Associated Surnames

Hays, Jackson

Historical notes

In the first half of the nineteenth century The Hermitage was home to more than 130 slaves and was one of the largest plantations in Tennessee’s fertile central basin.

Associated Slave Workplaces

Hunters Hill (Davidson Co., TN)

Associated Free Persons

• Nathaniel Hays - plantation owner; established farm that would later be called "The Hermitage" by Jackson
• Elizabeth Hays - wife of Nathaniel Hays

• Andrew Jackson (b.1767-d.1845) - owner of Hunters Hill and The Hermitage; 7th President of the United States; purchased farm from Hays in 1804; sold Hunter's Hill
• Rachel Donelson Jackson (b.1767-d.1828) - wife of Andrew Jackson
• Andrew Jackson (b.1808-d.1865) - adopted son of Andrew and Rachel D. Jackson

Associated Enslaved Persons

The Slave Population at The Hermitage

From "The Hermitage"

• Betty - cook; "the Kitchen was a dual-purpose building that also served as slave quarters for Betty the cook and her family."
• "Initially Jackson operated this cotton farm with nine African-American slaves, but this number gradually grew to forty-four slaves by 1820."
• "In the 1820s, brick and log cabins for housing 95 African-American slaves, dotted the Hermitage landscape."
• "At the time of his death (1845), 161 African-American slaves operated the cotton plantation and resided in dozens of slave cabins scattered about the 1,050-acre plantation."
• "In 1858, the Jackson family vacated the property and relocated to a cotton plantation in Mississippi, taking nearly all the slaves with them. At least five slaves remained at The Hermitage serving as caretakers and tenants."

Research Leads and Plantation Records

• none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

• Slave Houses: most enslaved families lived in single room brick dwellings measuring about 400 square feet. These buildings, many built as duplexes, were clustered in three different areas – one set directly behind the mansion, one about 300 yards behind it, and one, labeled the field quarter, another 350 yards beyond. These cabins, located at the back of the property, were home to the Jacksons from 1804-1821. When the Hermitage mansion was constructed in 1821, the cabins became slave dwellings.

References

• Earth Discoveries - The Hermitage. http://www.thehermitage.com/archlm.htm
• The Hermitage. http://thehermitage.com/
• Rootsweb World Connect - LAWL2056

Users Researching This Workplace

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