A Secondary Source Narrative from Union Soldiers of the Thirty-Third Mass. Infantry Regiment:

In November 1864, Atlanta was smoldering, with most of the buildings burnt to piles of rubbish. The air was filled with floating embers, and the smell of smoke filled the soldiers’ lungs. They picked up what little belongings they had and began to head east. Excited that they defeated the Confederate Army, the roaring flames were a sobering reminder that it was at a painful cost. The occasional explosions of the burning buildings still startled some of the walking soldiers while others had grown accustomed to the loud bangs and explosions that their bodies barely flinched at the loud noises. The death and destruction that the marching soldiers saw with their eyes stayed in their minds forever.

About 26,000 marching soldiers headed East from Atlanta. A band in the distance began to play during the march, and many men joined in to sing the chorus, “Glory, Glory, hallelujah.” The regiment followed under the guide of General Cogswell along the mangled and burning steel that was once a bustling railroad track. The track ran in a line for miles and appeared as a burning stream of fire. They marched directly through Flat Rock as they crossed Snow Finger Creek and continued through Lithonia and Conyers.

The countryside was peppered with newly freed people that ventured out of their cabins, farms, and plantations to meet the singing soldiers and what seemed to the former slaves as the day of Jubilee. One newly freed man said he had been waiting for this ‘Angel of the Lord since he was knee high’ when he referred to Sherman. An Old Auntie exclaimed, “I’m so blessed that there are so many of God’s critters in the world.” At every crossroad and plantation, more freed people joined the crowds singing with the bands playing their instruments. It looked as if some of the people running to celebrate freedom were carrying everything they owned with the help of mules and old horses pulling rickety old carts trying to join the wagon train.    

When the owners of Emmaline’s family learned that the enslaved people were free, they offered Emmaline’s father and mother a house, mule, hog, and cow if they would stay and work on the plantation. Emmaline’s parents thought they would have a better living situation somewhere else, so they decided to work at a different plantation in a neighboring county.

When Emmaline was old enough to take care of herself some years after freedom, she moved to Atlanta. She lived in Atlanta ever since and was an older woman at the time of her Federal Writers’ Project interview in 1937. At that time, she was being cared for by her granddaughter and son.

Harriett Hill lived at the Lyon’s farm until Jim George sold her to Sam Broadnax. When freedom came after the Civil War, Harriett stayed on the Broadnax farm. She remembered that freedom came in the springtime. Mr. Broadnax convinced some of the formerly enslaved people to stay and help finish harvesting the crops. They got paid a tenth of the money that the crop sold for at Christmastime.

After they were paid at Christmas, the landowner said he was going to keep Harriett and sell her for a bounty. After Harriett learned this, she ran far away from the farm with a girl named Kitty. Harriett and Kitty ran through a field to Conyers, Georgia. Kitty left Harriett at a railroad track. Harriett followed the tracks all the way to Lithonia, Georgia. She remembered walking all night.

Not long after Kitty left, Harriett’s brother came riding up in a wagon. Although she did not know it was her brother, he recognized her immediately. He took Harriett to Mr. Jake Chupp’s place in Lithonia, where she was able to eat a good meal.

After she ate, her brother took her to see her mother. She had not seen her since she was three years old, but her mother remembered her.

Archie George grew up after the Civil War. When he was young, he was a sharecropper in Lithonia, Georgia. The landowner furnished the seeds to plant, mules to plow, tools, and anything else they needed. At harvest time, they got half of the money earned.

Archie’s family always had plenty of food to eat. He always wanted a bicycle but never got one. He rode a mule instead. Archie only went to school for about two years. He never learned to write, but he could read a little. His sisters went to school a lot more than Archie. He mostly worked in the fields as a young man.

The Flat Rock African American community members began to buy land from former enslaving families in the area. It was difficult to find landowners that would sell the property to African Americans. In 1896, the land was purchased where the church, pictured above, was located. A few years later, the community purchased land for the schoolhouse. Eventually, community members were able to buy land to build houses and farm crops.