Isaac Franklin Plantation

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Fairvue
Fairvue, U.S. Highway 31-E, Gallatin vicinity Sumner County, Tennessee.jpg
Fairvue in 1971
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Fairvue
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Fairvue
Nearest city Gallatin, Tennessee
Coordinates 36°20′41″N86°29′36″W / 36.34484°N 86.49322°W / 36.34484; -86.49322
Area560 acres (230 ha)
Built1832
NRHP reference No. 75002162 [1]
Removed from NRHPApril 04, 2005

Isaac Franklin Plantation, also known as Fairvue, was begun as an antebellum cotton plantation near Gallatin, Tennessee.

Contents

Antebellum History

The 2,000 acre Fairvue Plantation was created in 1832 by Isaac Franklin (1789–1846). [2] The cash crop was cotton. [3] In 1836 after a career as a partner in the largest slave-trading firm in the South - Franklin and Armfield - prior to the Civil War, Franklin transitioned to a career as a wealthy planter. [2] Franklin and his family divided their time between Fairvue Plantation near Gallatin, Tennessee in the summer and his West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana Plantations - Angola, Bellevue, Loango, and Panola - in the winter, which were adjoining and covered 8,000 acres. [2] [4] When they were in Louisiana, they stayed in a large residence on Angola Plantation. [4] After his death, Franklin's estate was inherited by his widow, Adelicia. [2] This made her the wealthiest woman in Tennessee. [5]

Adelicia remarried to Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen, who increased the fortune. [4] In Louisiana the couple eventually had 659 enslaved Africans working on 4,000 improved acres (over 10,000 acres counting their unimproved land) which produced 3,149 bales of cotton in 1859. [4] The couple created Belmont Mansion and estate near Nashville, Tennessee to replace Fairvue Plantation as their new summer residence. [5] [6] Adelicia's second husband Joseph Acklen died of pneumonia at Angola Plantation in 1863. [4]

Civil War and Postbellum History

In 1867 Adelicia married for a final time. [4] In 1880 she sold the Louisiana plantations and moved to Washington D.C. where she later died. [4]

Fairvue was named a National Historic Landmark in 1977. [2]

The Fairvue Plantation site was redeveloped into The Club at Fairvue Plantation - a luxury housing development which opened in 2004. [3] Thus, in 2005 the historic site's landmark status was withdrawn due to development that had damaged its historic integrity. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Government. "Withdrawal of National Historic Landmark Designation, Isaac Franklin Plantation (Fairvue) Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Sevice. Retrieved June 29, 2025.
  3. 1 2 Ball, Edward (November 2015). "Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ryan and Perrault (2007). Angola: Plantation to Penitentiary (PDF). Baton Rouge, Louisiana: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District. pp. 1–7. Retrieved June 30, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Hoobler, James A.; Marks, Sarah Hunter (2000). Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers. Arcadia Publishing. p. 36.
  6. ↑ "Belmont Mansion". Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture .

See Also

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Isaac Franklin Plantation at Wikimedia Commons


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