Wealth Created by Enslaved Hands
Andrew Jackson built a cotton gin and press at The Hermitage in 1807, both of which stood in the field in front of you. It was a shrewd decision on Jackson's part, not only making his plantation more self-sufficient, but also generating additional income from ginning and baling other planters's cotton. The gin and press, which cleaned the cotton and compressed loose cotton into 300- to 500-pound bales, were expensive machinery operated by skilled and trusted slaves. At The Hermitage, these vital jobs fell to Ben, the ginner, and Squire, the press operator. If the cotton was ginned badly, the bales not packed properly, or if the operator carelessly or wantonly damaged the equipment, it could mean financial ruin for the Jacksons. The gin house, a large barn-like building, housed the gin on the second floor and provided shelter on the first floor for the animals driving the gears. The rest of the building stored cotton ready to be ginned and finished bales waiting to be shipped. The Hermitage gin house was abandoned in the late nineteenth century, when local farmers ceased growing cotton, and was demolished in the 1890s.HM Number | HM1LUP |
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Tags | |
Placed By | The Hermitage Foundation |
Marker Condition | No reports yet |
Date Added | Wednesday, July 15th, 2015 at 10:03am PDT -07:00 |
UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 16S E 534979 N 4008146 |
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Decimal Degrees | 36.21753333, -86.61081667 |
Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 36° 13.052', W 86° 36.649' |
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 36° 13' 3.12" N, 86° 36' 38.94" W |
Driving Directions | Google Maps |
Area Code(s) | 615 |
Closest Postal Address | At or near 4580 Rachels Ln, Nashville TN 37076, US |
Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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