I got really tired finally today, so Dak took the kids and went to the Johnny Cash museum while I slept this morning. I needed that more than anything. They came back to get me for lunch and I was recharged and ready.

We went to eat at a southern barbecue joint – Anders was really excited to do that – and it was good. I like barbecue but it wasn’t as big a deal to me as it was to the boys. The best part was that they had Moon Pies like a Chinese restaurant has fortune cookies, and while we were all excited for that, Annika was particularly pleased.

Afterwards, we looked through all the different websites with things to do in Nashville, and most of the websites said that Belle Meade Mansion and plantation was a must see. So we headed there for the afternoon tour.

I have to admit, I was really uncomfortable. The tour guide was pretty straight forward about its history with slavery, and that the original owners of the mansion had slaves and backed the confederate cause. They did credit the slaves with the work – one in particular, Robert Green, became one of the best horse trainers in the world; he became a free man after emancipation, but continued working with the horses at this ranch (while living elsewhere). When he died, his passing was noted in newspapers across the country.

Belle Meade was not a crop plantation; they were a thoroughbred horse farm that bred super-successful race horses. I’m sure someone who loves horse racing would have loved this tour because they seemed super important, but I just felt weird about it because everything was built on the backs of slaves; all the wealth and success of this family depended on unpaid labor: horse trainers and blacksmiths and cooks and maids. Here is the mansion: If you zoom in, you can see bullet marks on the columns; apparently there had been a skirmish there during the Battle of Nashville, and the man who owned it was actually taken prisoner and sent to Mackinaw Island as a prisoner of the Union. He was only there six months though, when he “pledged allegiance” to the Union, paid $20,000 to the government, and was sent back to live out the rest of the war basically on house arrest in this mansion. He didn’t lose his wealth, he barely lost anything.

Meanwhile, the slaves lived here: It’s hot and small in there, obviously. They gained their freedom during the war and many did leave, but a lot of them stayed and continued working there. I noticed some of the “happy slave” narrative in a bit of the writing in the cabins, but not so much in the tour. There was also some CSA memorabilia in the gift shop that felt tacky at best.

The horse barns and carriages were maybe most interesting. Annika liked the restored sleighs and carriages, especially the little kid one.

Finally we went for a drive to Franklin, a little local town. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but we did go into a local tap house to get some souvenirs (beer) to bring home and ran into this:

Of course we had to get a bottle, even though it’s a sour ale and I’m pretty sure Dak and I won’t really like it. Neither of our kids find anything with their names on it anywhere, so this was a pretty big deal. They also had some of the best beer I have tasted: a ginger and strawberry-infused kolsch that was only on tap – no cans, bottles, or growlers. It was a great end of the day.