Edmond Kelley is Tennessee’s first ordained African American Baptist minister. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1817, he escaped to Massachusetts, where in 1851 he published his life’s story to date. Having secretly taught himself to read during his youth, in 1843 Kelley was ordained by the white First Baptist Church of Nashville. Three years…
Sam Richards, an Atlanta businessman and Southern Baptist who fled the city for New York following Sherman’s capture of the city, today arrives back in Atlanta. Like many other middle class white Southerners (of whom there are relatively few, actually) who did not serve during the war, whether having temporarily lived in the North or…
Zirconia, North Carolina native Daniel W. Revis (1835-1914) was a farmer in Henderson County prior to the war. In 1862 he enlisted for a three year term of service with North Carolina’s 64th Regiment, Company B. His service took place largely in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, prior to his discharge in early 1865.…