Briceville, Tennessee

Briceville is an unincorporated community in Anderson County, Tennessee. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is named for rail tycoon and one-term Democratic U.S. Senator Calvin S. Brice of Ohio, who was instrumental in bringing railroad service to the town.

Briceville's economy was historically based on coal mining. The town was originally called "Nantglo" by the Welsh miners that founded the town.

Briceville was the site of three famous incidents, the Coal Creek War in 1891, the Fraterville Mine Disaster of 1902, and the Cross Mountain Mine Disaster of 1911.

Coal Creek War

The Coal Creek War grew out of worker opposition to the system of leasing prisoners to businesses, thus reducing the value of conventional labor. [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=C138 Convict Lease Wars] , Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture] On July 14, 1891, about 300 miners surrounded the prison stockade at Briceville, where convicts had been working in the coal mines. The miners took control of the prisoners housed there, marched them and their guards five miles to Coal Creek (now Lake City), loaded them onto railroad boxcars, and shipped them to Knoxville. The miners asked Governor John P. Buchanan to intervene to protect the rights of labor. Buchanan met with the miners, but first ordered the state militia to restore order in Briceville and return the convicts to work in the mines. He urged the miners to seek justice through the court system.

The miners conducted another guerrilla action on July 20, and Buchanan called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to consider the issue of convict leasing. The legislature's only actions in the August special session were a measure to expand the power of the governor to act against insurrectionists and a resolution to abolish convict leasing after the current contracts expired.

On October 31, miners again surrounded the stockade at Briceville, released the prisoners, and burned the buildings and stockade. On November 2 they raided the Cumberland Mine in Oliver Springs. By the end of December the rebellion was quashed and convict laborers returned to the mines, guarded by state militia. In 1893 the General Assembly voted to abolish convict leasing in 1896, when the leasing contract expired. Additionally, the legislators voted to build a new state prison, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.

References

Further reading

"Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom", Chris Cawood, ISBN 0-9642231-0-4

External links

* [http://www.coalcreekaml.com/ Coal Creek Watershed Foundation] has extensive historical articles the Coal Creek War and Fraterville Mine Disaster, and current environmental and educational initiatives in Briceville
*dmoz|Regional/North_America/United_States/Tennessee/Localities/B/Briceville/|Briceville