The little told but very important role of Black people in the exploration and settlement of the Tombigbee River Valley from Mobile into northeast Mississippi is a story that needs repeating.
That impact began with the earliest European exploration and continued through colonial times through the earliest days of the town of Columbus and into the present.
When Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto’s expedition passed through this area in 1540-41, 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 1780 Spanish assault on the English Fort Charlotte in Mobile was a free Black man. And Lorenzo Montero, another free Black, commanded a cannon in a Spanish battery during the assault against the British. Unfortunately, the names of many of the Black people who played an important role in our earliest history have been lost.
After American independence, the role of Black people 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, transported 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.
An interesting figure from the time of Columbus’ founding was James Scott. During the mid-1820s, he sold lumber in Columbus and the 1822 through 1825 tax records indicate that no whites resided in his house thereby indicating that Scott was a free Black man. Dr. B.C. Barry began construction of a frame house in Columbus on the southwest corner of what is now Market Street and College Street, probably in 1824. He purchased his lumber from James Scott.
In 1842, Horace King, though enslaved, was an engineer and bridge builder. He built several bridges in Lowndes County including the first bridge over the Tombigbee. That bridge came off the top of the bluff at Fourth Avenue South. The footing for the bridge is still visible as a flat earthen platform on the side of the bluff. It was a wooden covered bridge 420-feet long and 65-feet high.
Isaac and Thomas Williams appeared in Columbus not long after 1840. They were “free men of color” who were from South Carolina. Isaac was a carpenter/laborer and Thomas was a blacksmith. Their business prospered and, about 1843, they built the Haven (Williams-Glass House), which is located across the corner from the present day Trotter Convention Center. From the city’s earliest days, Black carpenters and contractors played a significant role in the building of Columbus. Their history and contributions show an important, if little recognized, part of local history.
Andrew Jackson’s army in the Battle of New Orleans was as diverse as the American South. At his celebrated victory over the British his soldiers included U.S. regular Army, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Orleans militia, Free Men of Color, Jean Lafitte’s Baratarian pirates and Choctaw Indians. On Dec. 18, 1815, Jackson reviewed his troops. He prepared addresses, which were delivered to each unit by his aide de camp.
To his two battalions of Free Men of Color he said:
“To The Men of Color”
“Soldiers – From the shores of Mobile I collected you to arms I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the glory of your white countrymen. I expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity, and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most dear to man — But you surpass my hopes. I have found in you, united to these qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds.
“Soldiers — The President of the United States shall be informed of your conduct on the present occasion, and the voice of the Representatives of the American nation shall applaud your valor, as your General now praises your ardor. The enemy is near; his sails cover the lakes, but the brave are united; and if he finds us contending among ourselves, it will be for the prize of valor, and fame its noblest reward.”
Both enslaved and free Blacks played a major role in the steamboat trade along the Tombigbee. Space does not allow that story to be fully covered but a sampling follows.
The first keelboat for the Tombigbee River trade built at the site of Columbus was said to have been built by two Black men in 1817 or 1818. An enslaved Black crewman was a hero during the burning of the steamer Eliza Battle in 1858, knowingly giving up his life to save a mother and child. In 1887 the Steamer W.H. Gardner on her way from Columbus to Mobile caught fire. The steamer Tally was nearby and came to her aid. Beebee McCaw, a Black crewman of the Tally dove in the river, swam to the Gardner and rescued five people. His heroic efforts made national news and was even reported in that famed Arizona paper of the old West, the Tombstone Epitaph.
“There is still plenty of the stuff of which heroes are made among the American people, black as well as white, and it only needs the emergency to develop it. It is worthy of mention that at the burning of the steamer Gardner last week down in Alabama, a colored boy, Beebee McCaw, saved five lives by swimming ashore with those who precipitated themselves into the water from the burning vessel.”
We have a lot of forgotten heroes and pioneers whose stories need to be told whenever the history of Columbus is mentioned.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion