The RAIL Project: Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer Memorial Committee Project

One of the most important, creative, and daunting infrastructure projects in American history brought the railroad up the Swannanoa Grade from Old Fort into Buncombe County in 1879. This project has been duly celebrated and the leaders of the project honored over the years. However, there is little remembrance and no monument or memorial to the over 3000 incarcerated laborers who did the actual physical labor to bring the railroad up the mountain. More than 90% of these laborers were African American men, most former slaves, who worked under horrific conditions-ill-clothed, ill-fed, crowded together at night in boxcars which were incubators for infectious disease, and forced to work six days a week in all weather and in extremely dangerous conditions. At least 139 workers died in laying only 9 miles of track and countless others suffered severe injuries or debilitating illnesses that significantly shortened their life and negatively affected their quality of life.
The RAIL Memorial Project (which involves UNC Asheville staff and faculty Eric Boyce, Darin Waters, Ashley Whittle, and Dan Pierce) seeks to construct a memorial to these workers who sacrificed so much and received so little in return at Andrews Geyser along the railroad. The Project has received permission from the Old Fort Board of Aldermen to build the monument and is in the process of publicizing the project and raising the necessary funds.
Ashley Whittle and Dan Pierce will discuss the history of the railroad and the Swannanoa Grade, the need for a memorial, and the story of how RAIL came to be.

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