This year, we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence. Little has been written about the role of Black Americans in the Tombigbee River Valley in the settlement and early struggles to form our nation. Their role was extensive and more significant than most people realize.

As I have dug into the early history of our region leading up to the establishment of the town of Columbus in 1819 and its earliest development, I have come across footprints of those early Black pioneers. However, few are named and there are usually gaps in those footprints that must be explored to understand their true significance.

When Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto’s expedition passed through this area in 1540-1541, seven or eight free Blacks served with him. The French military forces operating along the Tombigbee out of Mobile in 1736 included a company of Black soldiers. They were under the command of Simon, a free Black French officer.

In an ill-fated attack by French soldiers with allied Choctaw warriors against the Chickasaw village of Ackia (at present-day Tupelo), the French were soundly defeated. Though the fighting took place in May 1736, news did not reach London until September, when it was reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine as “Indians Beat the French.”

An account tells how after the disastrous battle had ended, several French officers questioned the bravery of Simon and his company of Black soldiers. To show his bravery, Simon ran back through the concentrated fire of the Chickasaws to their village. There he threw a rope over the head of a Chickasaw horse and rode it back to the French lines through a shower of bullets and arrows. He was greeted with cheers, and his bravery and that of his company were never again questioned.

During the American Revolution, free Blacks served in American and Spanish forces fighting the British in the Mobile area. The first man wounded in the successful 1780 Spanish assault on English Fort Charlotte in Mobile was a free Black man. Lorenzo Montero, another free Black, commanded a cannon in a Spanish battery during the assault against the British. Unfortunately, the names of most of the Blacks who played an important role in our earliest history have been lost.

After American independence, the role of Blacks continued to expand. By 1791, William Cooper, a free Black contractor, was working and trading over the entire region, from Baton Rouge to Mobile and up the Tombigbee. In 1808, a free Black woman named Betsey Lewis and four members of her family were living in the lower Tombigbee area.

George Gaines, in March 1814, moved government supplies by flatboat from John Pitchlynn’s at Plymouth Bluff to St. Stephens. He had a crew of five, including Dick, a Black man. Earlier in Jan. 1814, Gaines had sent a Choctaw factory (trading post) boat upriver from St. Stephens to Pitchlynn’s. Two unnamed Black men were hired to row the boat. Between 1806 and 1816, at least 22 Black workers were employed at various times by the U.S. Choctaw factory (trading post) on the lower Tombigbee River. The first keelboat for the Tombigbee River trade built at the site of present-day Columbus was said to have been built by two Black men in 1817 or 1818, but their names were never recorded.

Information can still be discovered when you dig behind an early footprint. One of the earliest settlers in Columbus was Dr. B.C. Barry, who had arrived in 1819. Before his death in 1825, Barry was building a house at the southwest corner of what is now College and Fifth streets in downtown Columbus.

In writing our history of Columbus, “By the Flow of the Inland River,” the late Sam Kaye, an architect, Carolyn Kaye and I came across B.C. Barry’s 1825 estate file. Claims filed in his estate for the building materials of the house allowed Sam to reconstruct its appearance, which was a 16-by-40-foot frame dwelling with a 10-foot ceiling and eight windows with shutters. Much of the lumber for the house had been purchased from James Scott.

And who was James Scott? He was an early resident of Columbus and appears to have been a free Black man who was in Columbus from 1822 to 1825. That is based on poll tax records for those years. In the 1820s, the poll tax was a county and state tax on both real and personal property. Everyone had to pay the tax, but only white males were allowed to vote. Between 1822 and 1825, Scott paid a poll tax in Monroe County (Columbus was in Monroe County until Lowndes County was established in 1830) but the records reflect no “white polls,” or voters, in his household. The best explanation is that he was a free Black man who was not allowed to vote but still had to pay a poll tax on his property. We found no mention of James Scott other than the 1822-1825 tax records and the 1825 probate records of Dr. B.C. Barry.

During the early 1800s, many free Blacks in the South were involved in construction or transportation. However, most of their names were not recorded and were thus lost to history. It is interesting that where Leadership Plaza now sits downtown is the site where in 1825 a house was being constructed for one of Columbus’ earliest community leaders with lumber provided by a free Black man who was in the lumber business.

Thanks to Carolyn Kaye for helping with research.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].