The Andrew Jackson Foundation, which owns and operates Andrew Jackson’s historic home The Hermitage, is announcing the relaunch of the In Their Footsteps: Slavery at The Hermitage Tour. The 60-minute guided walking tour, which is roughly one mile long, explores the personal lives, labor, resistance, and triumphs of the enslaved community whose work shaped every aspect of The Hermitage. Click for More Events
“We are committed to telling the full story of The Hermitage, and that story would be incomplete if we didn’t share what we know about the hundreds of people who were enslaved here,” said Jason Zajac, president and CEO of the Andrew Jackson Foundation. “Though this tour was established from a large body of research conducted by our on-staff historians, we hope that future discoveries and input will help the tour evolve further.”
Andrew Jackson enslaved around 150 people at the time of his death. Over the course of nearly eight decades, the former president and his family enslaved more than 300 men, women, and children. The In Their Footsteps tour provides insight into the stories of those who were forced to live and work on the property.
Participants of the tour will walk the land they labored on, view artifacts that share insight about their lives, see photos of some, and visit the gravesite of the enslaved people who were buried on the property. The tour also examines how plantation architecture, landscape design, legal structures, and Jackson’s own decisions shaped their daily lives, often in harmful and coercive ways, but also in ways that reveal how enslaved people built community and exercised agency within severe limits.
The tour shares the stories of people like Hannah, who was the first cook at The Hermitage; Dunwoody, a skilled horse trainer; Gracy Bradley, an exceptional seamstress and manager of a team of textile producers; and Alfred, who lived on the property longer than any other person, including after his emancipation. The tour starts in the cabin that Alfred, among others, used to live in.
The tour concludes with a visit to the enslaved cemetery. The cemetery was discovered in 2024 using non-invasive archaeological testing and holds the remains of an estimated 40 to 50 people. The tour ends with a wreath-laying ceremony that includes a brief tribute, a moment of silence, and the sharing of stories of enslaved people believed to be buried in the cemetery.
The development of In Their Footsteps: Slavery at The Hermitage is rooted in decades of research at The Hermitage, including architectural study, archival research, genealogy, and archaeology. As The Hermitage continues to develop relationships with descendants of those who were enslaved on the property, it will seek input and improvements using their perspectives and recommendations.
Tickets for the In Their Footsteps: Slavery at The Hermitage tour are $49.95 per person, which also includes access to the mansion and the grounds. It will be available on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. Each tour will begin in Alfred’s Cabin, and therefore guests are encouraged to arrive to The Hermitage at least 30 minutes prior to the tour’s start time to allow time to find the cabin and get situated.
Tickets can be purchased on The Hermitage’s website.
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