Prior to the Civil War, enslaved people were regularly bought and sold in
Downtown Clarksville at both the Montgomery County Courthouse and the
Market House on Public Square. Prior to being sold, people were kept in a pen
located at the corner of 2nd & Franklin Street by slave trader, Duncan Marr.
Almost half of the people living in Montgomery County were enslaved prior to the
Civil War and were the foundation of the city’s economy. Their labor was
responsible for the vast wealth generated by the cultivation and processing of
tobacco in Montgomery County.