Catharine (born ?) was an
enslaved woman of Tennessee in the United States who may have been associated with
slave trader
The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions o ...
and
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
cavalry commander
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was an List of slave traders of the United States, American slave trader, active in the lower Mississippi River valley, who served as a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Con ...
. Her life is poorly documented, and she could be a
propagandistic
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
device. She is known primarily from one unsigned anti-Forrest newspaper article that appeared in the wake of the
Battle of Fort Pillow
The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, was fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle ended with Confederate soldiers command ...
,
but there are two,
possibly three,
other sources that may at least confirm her existence.
Historical records
Per an unsigned item about
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was an List of slave traders of the United States, American slave trader, active in the lower Mississippi River valley, who served as a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Con ...
and his brothers that was credited only to a "
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
,
E.T." correspondent of the ''
New-York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...
'' and published in a number of U.S.-aligned newspapers in 1864:"
During this era of United States history, "political enemies often accused one another of
miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is marriage or admixture between people who are members of different races or ethnicities. It has occurred many times throughout history, in many places. It has occasionally been controversial or illegal. Adjectives describin ...
."
Forrest's most recent major biographer, Jack Hurst, described the Knoxville–''Tribune'' report of 1864 as, overall, "inflammatory but in some ways accurate," and specifically in the case of Catharine: "The partisan invective of the brief article might make it dismissable were it not intriguingly stressful of the name 'Catharine' (while
Mary Ann's goes unmentioned) and supported by several other Forrest family names and business activities whose accuracy is verifiable."
Hurst also surfaced a record from the
Shelby County register, book 16, page 125:
The price for mother and son on November 10, 1853, was .
There is also a Cath Forrest (Cath with a C, and Forrest with two Rs),
mulatto
( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...
, age 36, listed in the
1870 U.S. census in Memphis, Tennessee, living and/or working in what is likely a
boarding house
A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...
.
Also resident is a 13-year-old mulatto girl (born ) whose name appears to be Narcissa Forrest.
A Catherine Forrest also appears twice in the Memphis
city directory
A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. It may be arranged alphabetically or geographically or in other ways.
Information
Antedating telephone directories ...
in the 1870s:
* "Forrest, Catherine, col, r 199 Monroe" in the 1874 Boyle-Chapman directory
* "Forrest, Catherine, col'd, domestic, r 239 Madison" in the 1877 Sholes directory
Gallery
See also
*
Shadow family
*
List of white American slave traders who had mixed-race children with enslaved black women
Notes
References
{{Reflist
19th-century African-American women
19th-century American slaves
African-American history of Tennessee
American women slaves
19th-century American women
History of women in Tennessee
American people whose existence is disputed
Nathan Bedford Forrest
People enslaved in Tennessee
Propaganda in the United States
Year of death missing
Enslaved concubines in the United States