Today’s #SlaveRolls thread looks at Nathan Bedford Forrest. While indexing @Patriot_Pat1 found roll 2476 listing laborers employed by that Forrest's Cavalry in October 1863. (Patrick collaborated on the research but most of the interpretation below is my own so don't blame him) 
Both enslaved persons and free persons (probably whites) are listed. This roll is for a unit which are pretty rare in the #slaveroll. General Forrest owned all six of the slaves listed on the roll who were working as teamsters. So his unit was paying Forrest for their labor.
As always, we like to list the names of the enslaved persons found on the roll: Ike, Antony, Henry, Ben, and Dan. But let's talk a bit about Forrest's ties to slavery before the war (as Forrest and his monuments have been in the news lately. Let us see who these monuments honor)
Forrest’s connections to slavery originate in his occupation as a slave trader prior to the war. He performed many of his trading activities in Memphis, where Forrest and his associates kept a "mart" (a slave jail) for traders to keep enslaved people before sale.
His slave jail not only rented out space but was also meant to hold enslaved people he bought to transfer to various slave markets. He might buy them in Tenn and ship them to New Orleans or buy people back east and ship them to the west to make a profit by separating families.
Forrest traded all over the South as he moved enslaved people around. Advertising in Charleston, he transported slaves from Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, & Georgia to his TN mart for sale. He was happy to buy children, specifically requesting to purchase young people.
This advertisement shows this was not a trade in willing individuals--& traders knew it. Kent, was separated from his family and brought to Memphis. He ran away. His new enslaver knew he was unhappy about the separation leading him to suspect he would try and get home.
The #SlaveRolls project doesn't only study those who enslaved people but also the lives of the enslaved. The way that enslaved people resisted and were traumatized by slavery are apparent in these sources too. Albert was separated by his family due to Forrest & he ran away.
Forret's slave mart building was three stories and appears to have been of poor manufacturer collapsing in 1860 killing at least two enslaved men. We don't know their names, but we know their owners and how the dead were valued, a testament to how dehumanizing slavery was.
Note, also the evidence that enslaved people were kept chained together. This is the reality of slavery. This event made national news. Newspapers covered it in Boston, Vermont, Baltimore, and New Orleans.
In his research @Patriot_Pat1 found that in the late 1850’s, Forrest acquired plantations in Mississippi and Arkansas. The enslaved people found on Roll 2476 may have lived at his plantation in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The 1860 slave schedule lists thirty-six enslaved people.
Most of the money that Forrest made on slavery was clearly not from enslaved people's labor but from their sale--specifically the interstate sale of enslaved people. Forrest rose through the ranks quickly to become a General (that is a thread for another day).
After the war, he acquired further notoriety as the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan. There is ample evidence he was a member of the Klan although some folks deny it.
Ironically the SCV used to like to claim that Forrest had stopped the Klan when it got out of hand. But now he wasn't even a member
At the time he was widely recognized as a leader of the Klan though as Brad Proctor pointed out the order to disband is suspect in the first place.
As @Jalane_Schmidt and others have pointed out the UDC and SCV endorsed a book that included a chapter on Forrest. I discuss the fond remembrance of the Klan in my book #TheFalseCause for anyone wanting to know more about how the SCV remembered Forrest
In the early 20th century he was widely recognized as a Klan leader if not the leader of the entire Klan.
Former members of the Klan said Forrest was the leader. This is from March 6, 1908 Nashville Banner. Here a founding member wrote "Among the many old rebels who were connected with the K.K.K;s I will mention Gens. N B Forrest." &"Forrest was the Grand Wizard of the Empire"
So unless your standard is a confession of Forrest himself next to a photograph of him in Klan garb then there is really no way to deny Forrest was Klan leader (although if he was the leader of the entire Klan is perhaps up in the air.)
As Brad Proctor has also pointed out that the commemoration was because of his statues as a Klan leader. Here is the Knoxville Sentinel explaining why he gets a monument.
His grandson was a grand dragon and said so publically. His ties to his famous namesake helped him become a leading member of the Klan and the SCV.
And before anyone says that the bust in the Tennessee state capital is only controversial now because of people becoming PC let me remind you: people have objected to it since it went up and white supremacists have used threats to protect it every since.
When the bust was put up, no one was denying Forrest was a klan leader. Interestingly, this was also at the same time that Roots came out. (@KevinLevin's book talks about how the lost cause evolved after Roots, but perhaps there is more to say about the mini-series's impact)
But let's pretend for a moment that Forrest hadn't been a KKK leader. He was still the leader at Fort Pillow massacre and a massive slave trader. Even when Forrest denied allegations of murder (likely to avoid retaliation against his men) he argued black soldiers were not POWs.
Thanks @Patriot_Pat1 for collaborating with me on this post and bringing this new source about Forrest to light. If you want to read more about the Klan see the work of @ProfEFP and @kelly_j_baker as they have written amazing work on it.
@Patriot_Pat1 @ProfEFP @kelly_j_baker For those wanting to learn more about the #SlaveRolls check out our earlier tweets via the hashtag about this amazing set of sources that @USNatArchives digitized and that we are now indexing.
And if you want to learn more about why Forrest is remembered fondly, and about the SCV and their forerunners whitewashing of history you can order my book #TheFalseCause from Amazon or your favorite book seller. amazon.com/False-Cause-Fa…
