Shadows of Incarceration: The Cowee 19 Story

The Cowee 19 were nineteen men who drowned near Dillsboro NC in 1882. They were building the Cowee train tunnel on the Murphy Branch of the Western North Carolina Railroad. The state considered their death an accident, but their placement in the convict lease system was intentional.

Shadows of Incarceration: The Cowee 19 Story is an exhibit curated by a Masters student in WCU’s History Department along with the MHC staff.  It examines the lives of these individuals from across North Carolina who were trapped by the early Jim Crow judicial system and forced to work and sacrifice for the creation of the New South.