Lewis Adams (1842 - 1905)

Born 27 Oct 1842 in Alabama

Husband of Sallie (Green) Adams — married 15 Sep 1865 in Macon, Alabama, United States

Died 30 Apr 1905 at age 62 in Tuskegee, Macon, Alabama, United States

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Biography

Lewis Adams is Notable.

Lewis Adams was an African-American former slave in Macon County, Alabama, who is best remembered for his work in helping found the school in 1881 in Tuskegee, Alabama which grew to become the normal school that with its first principal, Booker T Washington, grew to become Tuskegee University.

Born in slavery in Tuskegee (Macon County) Alabama, on October 27, 1842, Lewis Adams spent the early years of his life in his father’s plantation service shops, where he mastered the trades of tinsmithing, harnessmaking and shoemaking. He also taught himself to read and write by going over some of the lessons the other Adams children received from a hired tutor. He married the former Sarah (“Sallie”) Green, the mulatto daughter of the owner of the adjoining Green Plantation, before slavery ended. Two of their children, Mary Ann and a baby who did not survive, were born before emancipation.

When the Civil War results abolished slavery in 1865, Lewis Adams left his father’s plantation and opened his own shop in downtown Tuskegee, near the site of the current public square. Because he rendered a much needed and desired service to the entire community, his reputation improved race relations in the complicated Reconstruction Era, influencing a number of young men to apprentice themselves to him and learn his valuation trades. At the family residence, his wife, “Sallie,” mother of his sixteen children, taught cooking and sewing to interested young women. As both places attracted many more students than they could accommodate, Lewis Adams wished for a vocational school to provide this training. Another effort by the officers and members of the A.M.E. Zion Church (Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church), where he was a deacon and superintendent of the Sunday School, had failed to provide adequate rudimentary education for Negroes because the neophyte teachers lacked proper training. Thus, Lewis Adams horizon of critical needs expanded to include a normal school for the training of teachers.

Meanwhile, the upcoming election year of 1880 attracted the primary attention of the citizens of Macon County, where some residents called on the people to unseat Colonel Wilbur F. Foster and Mr. Arthur L. Brooks, who represented them in the Alabama House of Representatives. Articles appeared in the Tuskegee Weekly News that proposed strong candidates who might be nominated to oppose the incumbents, and one of them was chairman of the Macon County Democratic Committee. With the outcome in doubt, it was Colonel Foster who then appealed to Lewis Adams to get the Negro vote for him and Mr. Brooks. If re-elected, he promised, the two men would do all they could to establish the normal school that Lewis Adams requested. The Negro voters rallied behind Mr. Adams and the incumbents retained their seats in the State Legislature. Subsequently, Mr. Brooks, as the one holding membership on the Education Committee, introduced House Bill 165 that Governor Rufus W. Cobb signed on February 12, 1881, to establish the Tuskegee State Normal School, known later as Tuskegee Institute and now, as Tuskegee University.

Lewis Adams was named one of the three original commissioners to supervise the operation of the school, and remained on the board until his death in 1905, when he left a remarkable record of cooperation in the cause of Tuskegee Institute. He worked closely with Mr. George W. Campbell in securing Booker T. Washington from Hampton Institute as the first principal, joining the faculty himself in 1890 as the teacher of his three trades. In fact, Lewis Adams had hosted the young Booker T. Washington at his residence from the time he arrived in Tuskegee until Mr. Washington found a place to live, while arranging for the new school to begin operating in the adjacent shed which belonged to the A.M.E. Zion Church. The elder daughter of Lewis Adams, Mary Ann, prepared his first meal upon his arrival in Tuskegee.

As he was the vital harbinger to Booker T. Washington, the career of Lewis Adams is sine qua non in the Tuskegee Institute Story. The epitaph on his grave aptly records that he was “Faithful in all the relations of life.” He died in Sunday School on April 30, 1905, felled by a stroke while singing, “Whosoever Will Let Him Come.”

Note

Jessie Adams was a slave master who owned a livery stable in the town of Tuskegee (Macon County), Alabama. Jessie acknowledged Lewis as his son, although Lewis’ mother is unknown. Sallie Green was a house girl at the plantation that adjoined the Adams plantation.

Mary Ann Adams, oldest daughter of Lewis Adams, prepared Booker T. Washington’s first meal upon his arrival in Tuskegee.

Sources

• Lewis Adams family Bible. Other information obtained from descendants.

• Booker T. Washington’s Appraisals of Lewis Adams

(Excerpted from Booker T Washington, The Story of My Life and Work)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Adams

• The Family Directory 2007
• The Lewis Adams Family of Tuskegee Site Home
• Pat Wallace, Web Editor

• “Portrait in Historical Perspective”, Program prepared by the Department of Archives, Tuskegee University, for the Unveiling of Lewis Adams’ portrait at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama, April 27, 1978.

• Alabama Department of Archives and History; Montgomery, AL; Alabama Surname Files; Box or Film Number: M84.0037 Source Information Ancestry.com. Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

• "Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG17-Q315 : Fri Oct 20 05:18:09 UTC 2023), Entry for Lewis Adams and Sallie Green, 18 Sep 1865.

• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #38612505 (accessed 11 February 2024)
  Memorial page for Lewis Adams (27 Oct 1842-30 Apr 1905), citing Ashdale Cemetery, Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, USA; Maintained by GLA3 (contributor 46553392).

• The Tuskegee News; Publication Date: 21/ Dec/ 1911; Publication Place: Tuskegee, Alabama, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/308584463/?article=2a102b93-1491-4436-910c-5f3454410099&xid=5501&terms=Medora_Adams