1800s forced convict labor left behind a 'mass grave' of potentially hundreds in North Carolina

OLD FORT, N.C. – As the two locomotives tug dozens of rail cars up the mountain through the town's famous section of track called "the Loops," there is no indication the train is passing through a graveyard.

But it most certainly is.

When the state of North Carolina and the Norfolk Southern railroad company were constructing the line up and over Old Fort Mountain in the late 1870s, they used thousands of African American convict laborers. Between pounding rail spikes, wrestling with ties and digging tunnels out by hand, the work was grueling and treacherous, with frequent cave-ins of tunnels. Accidents and illness took a profound human toll – at least 139 died, though the actual count might be closer to 300, some historians estimate.

To be blunt, the workers were treated as a commodity – really no better than slaves.

“I maintain that what they were doing was worse than slavery,” said Steve Little, the mayor of Marion, North Carolina, and the author of books about the building of the railroad through the area.

“When you’re a slave, your owner at least makes sure you don’t starve or freeze, because he’s protecting his investment," Little continued. "When you’re a convict of the state working on the state project, you’re replaceable; you’re expendable. There’s almost an endless supply of convicts.”

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Little stood near a fountain built to honor Col. Alexander Boyd Andrews, the man who salvaged the financially troubled railroad project. A plaque near the fountain, dubbed Andrews Geyser, states it was built in 1912 "in appreciation for the great public service he rendered in the development and upbuilding of Western North Carolina."

Little once regarded Andrews as a hero, but he can't anymore, knowing what he knows now.

Little co-founded a group called The Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer Memorial Project (RAIL), whose members set out to find the final resting places of these workers.

Formed in 2020, the group comprises an eclectic brain trust of historians, local lore experts, a New York Times best-selling author, a ground-penetrating radar expert and others.

The group was the brainchild of Little and University of North Carolina Asheville history professor Dan Pierce, an author and the "Resident Hillbilly," as he's described on RAIL's website.

Last fall, RAIL dedicated a memorial at Andrews Geyser recognizing the 3,000-plus African American men and several hundred African American women, nearly all of them prisoners and former slaves, who built the railroad. The railroad construction, which included seven mountain tunnels, spanned 1875-1879.

"At least 139 of these prisoners – perhaps closer to 300 – died while working on this project," the granite memorial framed in local stones reads. "This entire section of track became a graveyard."

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To pinpoint those burial sites, RAIL called in archaeologist Paul Martin and his specially trained 3-year-old chocolate Lab, Abby, who can detect human remains that are decades and even centuries old.

After three days of work, Pierce said Abby "alerted to the presence of the chemicals emitted by the decomposition of human remains" at all three sites they searched.

"We were elated that we had been able to possibly identify burial sites so that we can eventually honor the memory of those interred there," Pierce wrote. "We were also saddened to confirm that the railroad line between Henry Station (near Andrews Geyser) and Ridgecrest is, indeed, a mass grave."

Pierce said they have no intention of digging up or removing any remains. They just want to recognize what happened in the area, gather further evidence that the new memorial is right on target – and plan for more markers to honor the dead.

"Our goal is to locate and identify grave sites as best we can using noninvasive techniques," the RAIL co-founder said in a report to members..

'What we don't correct, we repeat'

The RAIL memorial explains that some workers thrust into the convict labor system had been convicted on "false or flimsy evidence or sentenced to terms much longer than their crimes merited."

"They arrived at nearby Henry Station in crude boxcars, having been shipped like produce from the NC State Penitentiary in Raleigh," the memorial reads.

A May 9, 1878, Asheville Citizen article reported the supply of convicts working on the railroad was "not sufficient."

"Word will be sent out to the prosecuting officers to bring before the courts a larger number of offenders,” the article read.

Stephanie Swepson-Twitty, an Old Fort resident on the RAIL board, says the ongoing project to identify these resting sites is critically important to telling the story of this region, and the country. Her husband, Paul Twitty, was the stone mason on the memorial.

"The overarching thought for me is that what we don’t correct, we repeat,” said Swepson-Twitty. “So, if we are not conscious of atrocities that happened in our society, we’re apt to repeat them, and possibly in more horrendous or tragic ways than initially.”

While she called the "mass grave" assessment "heart-wrenching," Swepson-Twitty said it's also important to recognize the area as "hallowed grounds," akin to Arlington National Cemetery.

"People in Arlington gave their lives so that others may benefit," Swepson-Twitty explained. "It’s the same kind of context here."

These men in women toiled in condition "just a cut above slavery," Swepson-Twitty said. While they died over 140 years ago, she said their deaths remain relevant in the discussion of modern America and its debt to people of color.

"I think it’s important to understand, when you hear people of color talking about reparations and about repairing harm, these are the kinds of things that you can point to, to say, 'Here’s a real live example or real testimony as to why you don’t want to make this mistake a second time,'” Swepson-Twitty said.

While the convicts were not technically enslaved, they were legally forced to work with no rights. As Pierce says, "It's the whole 13th Amendment thing."

While that Civil War-era amendment ended slavery, it included an enormous loophole.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction," the amendment reads.

Those convictions, often on trumped-up charges, led to involuntary servitude – and to the construction of the Loops.

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Locals back then knew the convicts were working on the railroad. Such "hard labor" work gangs were a common site throughout the country then, and for many decades after.

But records of where those convicts were laid to rest are virtually non-existent, said local lore expert Joe Denny.

Martin says just considering human nature, it’s been common over the centuries to disregard human remains that have little perceived value, or can't be easily retrieved. He cited skeletons that would emerge from the soil 30 years after the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee during the Civil War.

“They left them where they died," he said.

'The least we can do'

Using human remains detection dogs and ground penetrating radar, RAIL "can establish a reasonable conclusion" about areas that contain burial sites associated with incarcerated railroad laborers, Pierce said.

"Once we have located as many sites as we can, we want to put up appropriate memorials," Pierce said in a report to RAIL members..

A donation of $5,000 from the Norfolk-Southern Foundation helped cover expenses for the searches and the fee for the human remains detection dog. RAIL member Cat Warren submitted a grant request with the National Park Service to help fund more in-depth searching of these areas.

RAIL wants to come back and search more with human remains detection dogs, ground penetrating radar and the crew of historians and other searchers.

The project started in July 2020, and RAIL erected a memorial to deceased workers last fall.

"I think most of us believed that once the memorial was built our work would be over," Pierce wrote. "Obviously, such has not been the case and we now have a great deal more work ahead of us."

They want to do more because the workers who died under inhumane, brutal conditions deserve it, Pierce said. 

"We should also keep in mind the inhumanity, cruelty, and racism that made these workers’ lives a living hell," Pierce wrote. "My 96-year-old mother recently commented to me, 'You know we can’t bring justice to these people, but we owe it to them to preserve and honor their memory.' That’s the least we can do."

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