An extensive new look at the lives of African Americans who worked at Rock Hill/Connemara and the White families who owned and employed them. Prepared for the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site by the National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/historyculture/upload/508_CARL-HRS.pdf
James Fisher worked at Connemara as a valet and chauffeur for the Smyth family in the early 1900’s. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/black-history.htm
Mud Creek Missionary Baptist Association A fourteen-acre assembly ground with eleven buildings in East Flat Rock provided a training and social venue for members of African-American Missionary Baptist churches from Henderson, Buncombe and Transylvania counties. From A Brief History of the Black Presence in …
Spartanburg Highway to West Blue Ridge at light turn right, cross RR tracks. On the left is Jody Street, B Street, Ferndale Street then left onto Roper Road. Turn left onto Valentine Street. Mine gap Road is right off Roper Road. Down Mine Gap Road, …
From a small acorn a mighty oak can grow.” With these words, Mrs. Gertrude B. Forney sums up the place in Henderson County history that the Mud Creek Missionary Baptist Association has played in the religious life of many Black Baptist Churches for over 130 …
There is such a close connection between the early black settlers of Flat Rock and the Mud Creek Missionary Baptist Church that the history of one is almost the history of the other. However, there is one significant difference in the history of the church. According to …
Enslaved people built much of the original Carl Sandburg Home before the Civil War. https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2021/02/26/highlighting-forgotten-slaves-built-present-day-sandburg-home-staff-uncover-their-stories/6804747002/
Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, donated funds to build 5,000 schools for African Americans in the 1920’s. One of them was in East Flat Rock. https://www.boldlife.com/learning-from-the-past/
Many of the slaves owned by wealthy Charleston planters chose to remain in Flat Rock after the Civil War. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41446547?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
St. John in the Wilderness Church has about 100 graves of slaves, freed men and women, and African American servants. https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/874/