Free Hill, Tennessee
Free Hill is an unincorporated community in Clay County, Tennessee, United States. It is an African American community established in 1816, before the Civil War.
History
The original inhabitants were the freed slaves of Virginia Hill, the daughter of a wealthy North Carolina planter. After purchasing of isolated hilly land, Hill freed her slaves and turned the property over to them. Folklore suggests that the original residents included Virginia Hill's own mulatto children.In the aftermath of the Civil War, with a logging boom pushing them economically, the residents of the nearby mainly white town of Celina began terrorizing the townspeople of Freehill, and burned down their school and church; in 1878 just before elections they drove all Black residents from the town violently. Once the Democratic party swept most of the seats in Congress, the whites holding the land were permitted by the new government to keep the stolen land and farms--one example is that of Cordell Hull, FDR's Secretary of State, whose family gained a large farm and land.
At its peak, the community had about 300 residents and included two grocery stores, three clubs, two eating establishments, two churches, and a school. Today, Free Hill's population is approximately 70.