Recounted in the Black Indian Slave Narratives (ISBN: 0-89587-298-6) by Patrick Minges (see pages 6-10), former slave George Fortman was interviewed by a W.P.A. field worker for the W.P.A. Slave Narrative Project.  He was the descendent of a Blackhawk brave and a Choctaw maiden and African slaves.  His owner was Patent George.

Patent George married a Hester who upon his death married a Mr. Lam.  Hester George Lam is said to have been buried on the plantation sometime prior to the Civil War.

Patent George worked his full-blooded Indian slaves in the iron-ore mills of western Kentucky (Hillman, Dixon, Boyer, Kelley, and Lyons Furnaces, owned by a Mr. Trigg(?) and collectively called the “Chimneys”) .

If you have any knowledge of this plantation, please send it to us either by email or regular mail.  Because of his busy schedule, Dr. Wesler has asked the JPHS to act as a gathering point.  There is no time limit for sending us your information.  We will check out each submission, do further research, and present what facts we uncover to Dr. Wesler.

This is another part of our dialogue with Dr. Wesler.

Nashville, Kentucky that is!  Dr. Wesler is wanting to locate the site of  this Nashville for a possible future field research dig.   And we, the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, have offered to help!

An 1825 map of the Kentucky portion of the Jackson Purchase shows a town called Nashville sitting on the western bank of the Clarks River almost due east from Fort Jefferson on the banks of the Mississippi.  Its approximate location appears to be at 36.55 degrees latitude, 88.20 degrees longitude.  This map can be viewed by going to www.davidrumsey.com (click on directory, click on the “K” on the upper left side of the site, then scroll down to the Kentucky and Tennessee map by Henry S. Tanner, 1825).  Once on the map, you can enlarge it and get a close up of Nashville.

If you have any knowledge of this Nashville, please send it to us either by email or regular mail.  Because of his busy schedule, Dr. Wesler has asked the JPHS to act as a gathering point.  There is no time limit for sending us your information.  We will check out each submission, do further research, and present what facts we uncover to Dr. Wesler.

“An even more fundamental problem, one that occurs in all areas of the country and not just Kentucky, is that historians, geographers, and archaeologists, have not talked among themselves enough to direct fruitful studies.” Dr. Wesler, JOURNAL 1982 article, pg. 62

We have begun such a dialogue with Dr. Wesler.