African-American Invisiblity in Appalachia

Printed in the Asheville Citizen-Times Feb. 26, 2006 as "African-American Contributions Vital to WNC's Growth."


Asheville, Buncombe County and Western North Carolina owe much to the contributions of the African-American community, before and after the Civil War. This region is largely portrayed as a homogeneous culture, meaning white and Scots-Irish, while overlooking the contributions by African-Americans to the region. The reasons for this generalization are numerous, including the fact that the large scale plantation economies in the deep south dominate the scholarship concerning slavery while ignoring the diverse and economy and culture the existed in the mountains.

Asheville's varied economy thrived on no small part due to the unpaid labor of those in bondage. Asheville was and still is a major tourist destination. The Eagle and Buck Hotels, Alexander's Inn, Sherrill's Inn, Vance Inn, Barnard's Inn, Forster's Inn, Fletcher Tavern, Mcdowell Hotel, and Tabor's Place entertained many guests on their way through the Buncombe Turnpike. Serving many of these guests were slaves who performed domestic services for tourists as well as other tasks such as farming, blacksmithing, tanning, manufacturing, carpentry, brick making and laying, construction, and roadwork. Further, many slaves were also skill artisans such as silversmiths prior to the Civil War.

Prior to the Civil War, Asheville was an important center or hub in the Southern market economy. Goods and services were produced and sold in the Asheville to many travelers passing through on the Buncombe Turnpike. Serving tourists and producing those goods, African-Americans were not only essential to Asheville becoming and important market center, but also were important to the prominent members of the community in accumulating wealth. Driving in and around Asheville, the names of streets and communities honor those names of prominent citizens credited with the creation of Asheville. Many of the prominent citizens owed much of their good fortunes to the unpaid labor of African-Americans.

Following emancipation, these ex-slaves organized their own communities to create a thriving environment environment vital to the economy and culture of Western North Carolina. Segregated to a few communities within Asheville, such as the Eagle Street area, Shiloh and Stumptown in Montford, African-Americans built churches, schools and businesses to oblige Jim Crow laws. Instead of being victims to this perverse system of segregation and unequal treatment, these newly freed people built numerous churches including Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Hopkins Chapel, and other small churches constructed by African-American James Vester Miller's construction company of Miller and Sons. Segregated schools were constructed to educate African-American children and adults such as the Allen School and Stephens-Lee. Numerous African-American owned businesses thrived and accommodated these segregated communities. Unfortunately, one of the unintended consequences of desegregation was the precipitous decline in business ownership for African-Americans.

In 1978, a group of retired African-American educators led by Lucy S. Herring donated archival materials to the UNC-Asheville Ramsey Library Special Collections. The valuable materials can be viewed online at the Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection.
This site provides both written and photographic accounts of the African-American community in Asheville. This site is not only valuable for the preservation of African-American history in Asheville, but also for researching and informing the public about a culture vital to the creation of the this city.
These significant online accounts of African-Americans in Asheville tell a story of what is often an invisible history. This is not only an invisible economic history but also an invisible cultural history. What these people contributed to the cultural environment cannot be be measured, but seen, felt heard and tasted. These contributions can be seen int the superb architecture in and around Asheville, often constructed with free and then underpaid labor. Many of these buildings can be seen online at Asheville's Built Environment.
Also seen are the contributions of Ernest B. Mckissick, who opened the way for many future African-American soldiers and was a vital participant and spokesperson for the YMI Center on Eagle Street.

These contributions can be heard in the gospel music, felt in the moving sermons and the food so often attributed to a white-only culture. Far from being invisible in the Southern Appalachian Highlands, African-Americans contributed greatly to the economic and cultural environment of Asheville, Buncombe County and Western North Carolina.