1. Old Byler Road
“OUR MEMORY OF YESTERDAY WILL LAST A LIFE TIME.”
The Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society includes the Prewitt Slave
Cemetery on their list of historic places in Tuscaloosa. The cemetery is located
just off Byler Road, the oldest public road in Alabama. To get there, take U.S.
Highway 43 to the northwestern edge of Lake Tuscaloosa and turn at the
historic marker for Alabama’s first public road.
Then follow what’s left of Old Byler Road until it reaches the lake. Once a
toll road that crossed land that was swallowed by Lake Tuscaloosa, Old Byler
Road connected the Warrior and Tennessee rivers and ran through the Prewitt
plantation.
About the Author:
A Descendant of Tuscaloosa’s First African-American Pioneer Mr. Ned Prewitt
born April 19, 1824. Ned was a slave of Tuscaloosa’s Richest Plantation & Slave
Owner John Welch PrewItt published Tuscaloosa News February 24, 2002. On
that date of my birth April 19, 1960 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama a child’s life for
over the next 50 years would be stolen and hidden on the Westcoast in Los
Angeles, California. Navigating my way back to where it all starts and the
secrets ends.
My life would be taken just as my ancestors were ,
but mine would be taken from my maternal side of
the family. Striped of my identity, my heritage, my
father, and even my mother for over 50 years. The
secrets of a Family & Fraternal Twin Sister of
Tuscaloosa County.