Sarah Gudger Honored
Sarah Gudger (1816-1937) was a formerly enslaved woman born on a plantation near Old Fort, NC.
The Remembrance Project honors the many contributions of Veterans and African Americans in Western North Carolina by identifying, preserving, and protecting more than 35 historic cemeteries.
In 2025 the project honored the life of Sarah Gudger, and her legacy of hard work, longevity, and love, with a heartfelt ceremony at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Swannanoa.
A memorial bench in honor of Sarah Gudger was dedicated on Sunday, September 14, 2025 at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, 438 New Salem Road, Swannanoa, NC 28778.
Born on September 15, 1816, Sarah Gudger was enslaved by the Hemphill family in the eastern part of Buncombe County until after the Civil War. Sarah’s mother, Lucy McDaniel (c1800-1862), evidently lived with Sarah for a portion of her childhood. But eventually Lucy was separated from Sarah and sent to work on another Hemphill plantation on the other side of the mountains. Her father, Smart Gudger, took his family name from his owner, Joe Gudger, who owned property on the Swannanoa River near Oteen.
Sarah spent the first years of her life working for Andy Hemphill. When Andy died, she was willed to his son, William, who would remain her master until she gained her freedom after the end of the Civil War.
Sarah was not fond of William and his wife. “Old Boss he sent us out in any kind of weather, rain or snow, it never mattered. … They didn’t care how old or how young you were, you never too big to get the lash.”
At the end of the war, when she gained her freedom, Sarah spent another year with the Hemphills and then left to go live with her father and stayed with him for the rest of his life.
In 1937, Sarah was living with distant cousins in South Asheville when she was interviewed by workers with the Federal Writer’s Project. She died a little over a year later. She is buried in Swannanoa.
To learn more, visit the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/sarah-gudger. An interactive exhibit honoring the memory of Sarah Gudger can be found at www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal.
Sarah Gudger Audio Reenactment
Becky Stone brings the voice of former slave Sarah Gudger to life from the Federal Writers Project Slave Narratives of 1937. Listen as she describes her personal experiences with her family, owners, slave speculators, the Civil War, thoughts on emancipation, and what life was like as a slave in Buncombe County.
