Ellen “Nelly” VanVactor Free Black Female Landowner

Front: Ellen "Nelly" VanVactor was one of the first free women of color to own real estate in Greeneville. Throughout Tennessee, there were few landowners of her race and gender prior to 1830. Born a slave in Virginia in 1780, Nelly arrived here in 1818 with Benjamin VanVactor as well as her children. Benjamin's housekeeper, Nelly inherited his estate in 1822, by which time she had been freed. She bought her first real estate the following year. By 1837 she owned six town lots. Back: Nelly and her family lived on the northwest corner of Summer and Irish streets. Her daughter, Erie, and Erie’s two sons were emancipated in 1822. Nelly’s son, Alfred VanVactor Thompson, was born free in 1818. Well educated, he was trained as a tailor by Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), who later became the seventeenth president of the United States. Alfred emigrated to Liberia in 1842, subsequently returning to the U.S. and becoming a successful Ohio tailor. Nelly lived in Greenville until 1856.