Originally published in The Sylva Herald in Apr. 25 edition.
The Raleigh News and Observer would call it “the most awful thing that has happened in any of the public works of this state.”
On Dec. 30, 1882, 19 convicts drowned, shackled together, a cold Saturday morning in Dillsboro.
Assembled on the eastern bank of the Tuckaseigee River, that morning 30 African-American convicts awaited transportation across the stream to the Cowee Tunnel. The boat, capable of holding 50 passengers, contained a heavy amount of ice and rainwater, causing it to capsize when passengers moved to the front of the boat. Nineteen of them would drown thrashing in the freezing water.
Highway marker
A highway marker will be placed at the intersection of U.S. 23/441 and Haywood Road to bring historic remembrance to what led to the deaths of the men.
“It is only the second marker in North Carolina to mention the Jim Crow era,” Mountain Heritage Center Director Amber Albert said.
“Its focus is not on the Cowee 19, but our upcoming exhibition focuses on those 19 men. The marker itself is more about the incarcerated labor and the state’s complicity. It is the first marker in the state to reference incarcerated labor.”
One similar example that has already been commemorated with a highway marker unveiling ceremony is the Swannanoa Tunnel, a 1,832-foot-long railway tunnel near Asheville.
“Saturday, May 4, there will be a small group of dignitaries who will go along the roadside for a very traditional unveiling,” Albert said. “We’ll have some pictures taken and limited remarks.”
This event will not be open to the general public due to safety concerns.
“The public program begins at 3 p.m. at Innovation Station in Dillsboro,” Albert said. “There will be welcome remarks, Danielle Duffy, our guest curator, will speak and the Liberty Baptist Church Choir will perform.”
The Jackson County chapter of the NAACP started the conversation with the state to receive the highway marker, facilitating the application process and editing the language on the final version of the marker itself. The chapter approached the Mountain Heritage Center, with a reputation of preservation and heritage education in Western North Carolina, to assist in finishing the process.
“It is really an opportunity to talk about how we acknowledge our historic landscape,” Albert said.
History
The reconstruction after the Civil War led to the conversation and eventual building of a railroad in Western North Carolina. The construction became a large financial burden, leading to the railroad’s purchase of convict labor.
“The state was faced with figuring out what to do with populations of freed black people who were being convicted of crimes,” Albert said.
A group of men brought from one of many local prison camps was tasked with the building of the railroad and a tunnel for it to pass through. The construction required crossing the Tuckaseigee River.
That December morning several prisoners were credited with saving other men in the boat, including prison guard William J. “Fleet” Foster.
Thee 19 men who died are listed below:
Moses Brown, Warren County, 25; Oren Brooks, Orange County, 22; Charles Eason, Martin County, 15; Sampson Ward, Onslow County, 55; Allen Tillman, Anson County, 18; Robert Robinson, New Hanover County, 27; Thomas Miller, Chesterfield, County, S.C., 30; James Fisher, Polk County, 18; Nelson Bowser, Hertford County, 30; John Newsom, Hertford County, 20; George Tice, Iredell County, 21; Jerry Smith, Wilson County, 33; George Rush, Richmond County, 44; David Dozier, Edgecomb County, 52; Jim McCallum, Gaston County, 18; Albert Cowan, Rowan County, 22; Louis Davis, Vance County, 29; Alex Adams, Washington County, 25; and John Whitfield, Wayne County, 20.
The men were buried in unmarked graves near the scene of their deaths. Some believe they are buried in a mass grave on the hill above the tunnel and others are convinced they were buried in three separate graves on the nearby hill.
The remaining men completed the tunnel after the incident had occurred, being transferred to other labor camps when the task was complete.
Exhibition
The exhibition Shadows of Incarceration: The Cowee 19 Story will open May 6 at the Mountain Heritage Center in Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library.
This student-led exhibition happens to coincide with the unveiling of the highway marker, with a larger focus on the lives and subsequent circumstances of death that the Cowee 19 faced when crossing the Tuckaseigee River.
For more information regarding the upcoming exhibition, visit www.wcu.edu/engage/mountain-heritage-center/index.aspx.
The NC Highway Marker Program: www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/23/incarcerated-laborers-q-61
The Cowee Tunnel Marker: www.dncr.nc.gov/about-us/history/division-historical-resources/nc-highway-historical-marker-program.
