Brentwood Historic Commission Uncovers Enslaved Woman’s Lost Story
Published on April 01, 2025
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Toward the end of her life, Kittie Sneed sat in a chair, resting her tired legs, and told a local lawyer her life story. It was the fall of 1892, and the ailing Sneed, blind in one eye, hoped to receive her late son’s military pension to help pay her living expenses. That son, Thomas Sneed, a Civil War veteran, died of tuberculosis shortly after the war. As a former slave, Kittie didn’t have savings or an inheritance, and her weary, 87-year-old body kept her from working.
“I am always sick, I have one eye, and have such pains in my right thigh that the side of my lower limb is almost useless, unfitting to do washing or such labor as I might do,” she told the lawyer.
Kittie needed this new income to survive, but not long after she submitted the pension application, she received word that it was denied. The 82 pages of that rejected application were filed away and forgotten; but more than a century later, they’re finally giving voice to Kittie’s experiences while also providing a rare glimpse into the hard, tragic life of an enslaved person living and working in this community.
Several books and articles have been published highlighting Brentwood’s beautiful historic homes, but as City Commissioner Anne Dunn recently pointed out, “We don’t have much information at all about those who worked the land. In the 1850s, the population of Williamson County was 54% African American. The records are practically nonexistent.”
Rediscovering Kittie
“When I was 15 years old, the traders brought me from North Carolina to near Brentwood, Williamson County, Tennessee, where I was sold to Constantine Sneed,” Kittie said that day 131 years ago. “I have lived within one mile of Brentwood, Tennessee, ever since I have lived in Tennessee.”
Kittie spent more than 80 years in this community, dying in 1905. After her death, she was buried in the Sneed Family Cemetery, with a headstone that read “Black Mammy” and “A true servant of God and man.”
The Sneeds were one of Brentwood’s first families, with James Sneed arriving from Virginia in the 1790s after purchasing land off Old Smyrna Road. He later parceled off this property to his sons, with Constantine Sneed building the Windy Hill home on his land. That property will soon be the site of Brentwood’s newest park, but in the 1800s, it represented Kittie Sneed’s entire world.
“Constantine Sneed was the only master I had after I came to Tennessee,” she said. “He died there (Brentwood) weeks before the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. After my old master died, I stayed with his children until after the close of the war.”
Earlier this year, the Sneed descendants invited Kathie Greaves, a member of the Brentwood Historic Commission, to their cemetery association board meeting. Greaves and Jenny Calvin, a Sneed descendant, were fascinated by Kittie’s tombstone. Who was this woman who ended up being the only African American buried in that cemetery?
“We started looking for information about Kittie Sneed,” Greaves said. “One of the things I found out in our initial looking is that Kittie Sneed is the picture we have on the historic timeline on the Brentwood website. She had not been identified. She had been a nameless individual representing the Hardscuffle Community on the timeline, so it’s time we learned about Kittie.”
Greaves and Calvin began an exhaustive search, combing through military records, census records, probate records and wills. They also reached out to Tina Jones, with the Slaves to Soldiers project in Franklin, who helped them find and secure old military records. The research eventually led them to Kittie’s pension deposition.
Kittie Speaks
On Oct. 9, Greaves and fellow Historic Commission Member Inetta Gaines presented Kittie’s story to the Brentwood City Commission. Gaines, her voice occasionally quivering, spoke Kittie’s words aloud, possibly for the first time in over 100 years.
“I wanted to give voice to Mrs. Kittie Sneed, not because I’m black but because she was a human being,” Gaines said. “Just to give voice to those who were voiceless at the time. She could not read or write, so someone else was taking her deposition. This is a treasure for us to have.”
In 1892, Kittie shared her story with an attorney, and the echo of her once-lost words traveled through the Brentwood City Commission chambers that night. Kittie said, “When I was about 19 years of age, I married Zachary Sneed and I married him at my master’s house. I was married by an old colored preacher named Bird Hightower who is now dead…. Zachary Sneed, my husband, was owned by James Sneed, my master’s father.”
The couple had 14 children, but they didn’t get to see them all grow up. Some died as infants while others were taken from the home off Old Smyrna Road.
“The white folks took Seth off to Texas during the War and I have not seen him since,” she said. “I lived with Zachary Sneed as his wife from the time that I married him until he died. I cannot give the dates of his death and do not know the year that he died. I know that he died the first year that peace was declared. I know that he died before my son Thomas died and there was just a year’s difference between the dates of their deaths. Zachary died right there near Brentwood. He died very suddenly and was found dead in the woods.”
After giving this deposition, Kittie would live another 13 years, but the struggles of her life were already taking their toll on her that day with the lawyer.
“I am 87 years of age, no occupation at present as am not physically able to work,” she said. “I am the mother of Thomas Sneed who served in Comp C 15th Regiment USC Infantry and who died after the war. I claim a pension as his dependent mother.”
Later, she said, “I do not know what the age of my son Thomas was when he enlisted but I know that he was quite young. He was tall and slim…. he was born right on the Sneed place near Brentwood, Tennessee.”
Kittie never received Thomas’ pension, and she died on Sept. 12, 1905, near Brentwood. Her deposition will soon be available on the Historic Commission’s website. In the meantime, Greaves and the rest of the Historic Commission continue to look for more lost stories like Kittie’s.