Mabry-Hazen House celebrates Juneteenth with special tours
June 11, 2022

KNOXVILLE -- Join Mabry-Hazen House on Saturday, June 18, 2022 for special tours to commemorate Juneteenth. Mabry-Hazen House will share stories, objects, and research related to the historic house museum, local enslaved communities, and their stories of emancipation. Visitors will learn about the lives of African-Americans connected to Mabry-Hazen House, their achievements and struggles, and the various ways they gained their freedom. From self-liberation to the 13th Amendment, “..And Then I Became Free: Stories of Emancipation at Mabry-Hazen House” will explore the different methods enslaved people broke down the oppressive institution of American chattel slavery and fought to gain their personal liberty.

And Then I Became Free: Stories of Emancipation at Mabry-Hazen House

The museum will open from 10am – 3pm and tours will offer three (10:30, 12:00, 1:30). Admission is free, but tours are limited to twenty-four (24) visitors per tour. Reservations are encouraged and donations are appreciated. These tours will also be conducted on Monday, August 8th, 2022 in commemoration of Eighth of August. To reserve a tour, please visit www.mabryhazen.com/events/emancipationday or facebook.com/mabryhazen.

Juneteenth is the oldest known national celebration commemorating the abolition of slavery. It was on that day in 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that word of slavery’s end reached an enslaved community in Galveston, Texas, the westernmost state of the Confederacy. Throughout the South, formerly enslaved African Americans had already sought emancipation by a variety of means, yet in places like Texas and East Tennessee, slavery remained legal even after Lincoln issued his famous executive order.

The Mabry-Hazen House Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located atop Mabry’s Hill in Knoxville, Tennessee. Built in 1858, three generations of the same family resided in the Italianate-style home overlooking downtown Knoxville, Tennessee River, and Great Smoky Mountains. The museum showcases one of the largest original family collection in America with over 2,000 original artifacts on display. Furnished and decorated in the style of several decades, Mabry-Hazen gives a rare view into 130 years of Knoxville history. Learn about the origins of Knoxville’s iconic Market Square, the bitter divisions of the Civil War, the infamous 1882 Gunfight on Gay Street, a mountain city in the New South, the scandalous 1934 breach of promise and seduction trial, and much more through the rich, colorful lives of the Mabry and Hazen families.