With more than 400 miles of explored caves, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the longest known cave system in the world and one of the first tourist destinations in North America. Home to thousands of years of human history and a wide variety of plant and animal species, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. Mammoth Cave is home to 130 different kinds of fauna and every sort of cave formation, including icicle-like stalactites and perplexing white gypsum blooms. Guides from the National Park Service take 500,000 tourists through narrow corridors, inclining shafts, and enormous chambers that were carved out by flowing water millions of years ago. African Americans were a crucial part of Mammoth Cave's rich history from the moment modern civilization first rediscovered it. It is uncertain how much of the cave we would know about without Stephen Bishop's slave labor and talents shaping the cave into what it is today.

Beginning in the 18th century, enslaved African Americans labored in the cave to make saltpeter. Saltpeter was a key element in the manufacture of black gunpowder, which was crucial during the War of 1812. The mining operation featured poor working conditions. Long hours were spent working in the cave, with workers often arriving before dawn and departing after dusk. The cave was filled with smoke from oil lights and fires, making it almost impossible to see and breathe. Furthermore, they continuously had darkness and cold around them while they worked. These soldiers sacrificed their own freedom in order to preserve the independence and freedom of the United States.

Photo Credit: National Park Services

After the war, Mammoth Cave transformed from a saltpeter production facility to a world-renowned tourist site, which African Americans contributed in major ways to developing. Enslaved men and women cleaned rooms, changed linens, and prepared meals at the Historic Mammoth Cave Hotel. Stephen Bishop, who was 17 years old at the time, was brought to the cave by his owner Franklin Gorin, a lawyer who sought to develop the area as a tourist destination, in 1838. Bishop navigated the mysterious caves with the aid of ropes and a flickering torch, finding passages, fording dark pits, and sailing on Mammoth's underground rivers. It was a risky job. Bishop encountered a complicated honeycomb of sinkholes, fractures, fissures, rocks, domes, and underwater springs, whereas now much of the cave is lighted by electrical lights and cleansed of debris. A faulty lamp meant seclusion in total blackness and quiet. The possibility of being completely blind without any sensory input seemed quite serious. But it's difficult to overestimate Bishop's impact because some of the branches he studied weren't discovered again until the advent of modern technology. The previous mine superintendent trained Bishop as a cave guide, and Bishop in turn trained Mattison (Mat) and Nick Bransford, who are unrelated to one another and who Gorin rented from their owner for $100 per year. Their signatures, which they created using candle smoke, appear throughout the cave. Jerry Bransford, a current Mammoth Cave guide and Mat Bransford's great-great grandson continuing the family’s legacy, claims that " We can find [their names] in places that kind of frighten me to go today, and we have modern lighting... I’m thinking that if you were in slavery and you were charged to explore the cave, you were free in the cave to make a life however you wanted. I think they knew that if they did this well enough, life would be much better than in the hay field or the barn lot. "

Photo Credit: James St. John

Although each slave guide eventually attained freedom, their lives were difficult during a time when the country was divided over their place in society. They might not have understood the significance of their presence in their lifetime. Today, however, they are remembered as legends rather than as enslaved people. The passageways of Mammoth Cave and the words you hear during today’s modern cave excursions are still filled with their tales and discoveries.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress 

Photo Credit: Ed Reinke, AP