The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (100 page)

58
.
Groves v. Slaughter
, 40 U.S. Pet. 449 (1841), CATTERALL, 3:533–535, January 1841;
Green v. Robinson
, ibid., 3:289, December 1840; David Lightner,
Slavery and the Commerce Power: How the Struggle Against the Interstate Slave Trade Led to the Civil War
(New Haven, CT, 2006), 72–84.

59
.
Brien v. Williamson
(MS), 3:294;
Green v. Robinson
(MS), 3:289; cf.
Carson v. Dwight
(LA), 3:554, all CATTERALL; Bacon Tait to RB, January 1, 3, 1840, Fol. 31, RCB; H. Donaldson Jordan, “A Politician of Expansion: Robert J. Walker,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
19, no. 3 (1932): 362–381; Robert Gudmestad,
A Troublesome Commerce: The Transformation of the Interstate Slave Trade
(Baton Rouge, LA, 2003), 193–200.

60
. Edwin Miles,
Jacksonian Democracy in Mississippi
(Chapel Hill, NC, 1960), 150–151; Rich. Faulkner to Wm. Powell, June 16, 1839, Wm. Powell Papers, Duke; John J. Wallis, Richard Sylla, and Arthur Grinath, “Sovereign Debt and Repudiation: The Emerging-Market Debt Crisis in the U.S. States, 1839–1843,” NBER Working Paper no. 10753, 2004, National Bureau of Economic Research,
www.nber.org/papers/w10753
; Baptist,
Creating an Old South
, 154–190;
Columbus Democrat
, February 20, 1841; McGrane,
Foreign Bondholders
, 201.

61
. US Congress, “Condition of Banks”;
Mississippi Free-Trader
, October 28, 1843, November 1, 1843.

62
.
Albany Argus
, November 26, 1841. In 1852, Mississippi’s legislature also defaulted on the $2 million principal of the Planters’ Bank bonds of 1831. Florida and Arkansas repudiated in 1843. Only Alabama levied taxes and continued payments in the antebellum era, though after the Civil War both Alabama and Tennessee repudiated their prewar debts. McGrane,
Foreign Bondholders
, 178–192, 241–257, 282–291, 357–364.

63
. John Knight to Wife, July 14, 1839, John Knight Papers, Duke;
Circular to Bankers
, December 10, 1841, McGrane,
Foreign Bondholders
, 203, 265–281, 382–391.

64
. McGrane,
Foreign Bondholders
, 201–205.

65
. J. B. Hawkins to W. J. Hawkins, June 5, 1847, Fol. 76, Hawkins Papers, SHC.

66
. Miles,
Jacksonian Democracy
, 139; G. Rust and A. McNutt, [1835], E. Mason to Wm. Rust, June 2, 1845, E. Mason to G. Rust, April 5, 1844, June 2, 1845, McNutt Papers, MDAH; Malone,
Sweet Chariot.

67
. Jim Allen, AS, 7.2 (MS), 1; Tempie Lummins, AS, 4.1 (TX), 264; Charles L. Perdue Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips, eds.,
Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves
(Charlottesville, VA, 1976), 211, 318; Anonymous, AS, 18 (TN), 298–299; Mollie Barber, AS, S1, 12 (OK), 29–30; C. G. Lynch to JD, August 16, 1840, JSD; Felix Street, AS, 10.5, (AR), 250; Carrie Pollard, AS, 6.1 (AL), 318–319; Clayton Holbert, AS, 16.1 (KS), 1. Gutman,
Black Family
, represents the classic “strong patriarchal family” position, while Wilma A. Dunaway,
The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation
(Cambridge, UK, 2003), argues that kinship ties were tenuous. Brenda Stevenson,
Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South
(New York, 1996), and White,
Ar’n’t I a Woman
, describe women-centered networks.

68
.
Erwin v. Lowry
, Louisiana cases 1849;
Comstock v. Rayford
, 1 S. and M. 423, 1843, [424];
Hardeman v. Sims
, 3 Ala. [747], 1840;
Blanchard v. Castille
, 19 La. 362, September 1841 [363], 595, 297, 147, 539, all CATTERALL 3; Milly Forward, AS, 4.2 (TX), 45; Mary Anderson, AS, 4.1 (TX), 26–27; Tom Harris, AS, 9.4 (MS), 1579; Annie Penland, AS, S1, 12 (OK), 257; William Holland, AS, 4.2 (TX), 145; AS, 18 (TN), 98–99.

69
. Betty Simmons, AS, 5.4 (TX), 20; Henri Necaise, AS (MS); Ellaine Wright, AS, 11.2 (MO), 378; cf. AS, 10.5 (AR), 203; Iran Nelson, AS, 7.2 (MS), 199.

70
. Robert Laird, AS, 8.3 (MS), 1292; Wash Hayes, AS, 8.3 (MS), 963–964; John McCoy, AS, 5.3 (TX), 32; Pierre Aucuin, MW, 21–23.

71
. Gutman,
Black Family
, 88–93, mentions incest tales but does not discuss their symbolic aspects. See also Perdue et al.,
Weevils in the Wheat
, 89, 105; Henry Brown, AS, 2.1 (SC), 124–125; Cora Horton, AS, 9.3 (AR), 321–324; Lizzie Johnson, AS, 9.3 (AR), 102–103; Liza Suggs,
Shadow and Sunshine
(Omaha, 1906), 75, retells the same story, though born in 1875.

72
. Dale W. Tomich,
Through the Prism of Slavery: Labor, Capital, and World Economy
(Lanham, MD, 2004); Rafael de Bivar Marquese,
Feitores do Corpo, Missionários da Mente: Senhores, Letrados e o Controle dos Escravos nas Américas, 1660–1860
(São Paulo, 2004).

73
. Steven Heath Mitton, “The Free World Confronted: Slavery and Progress in American Foreign Relations, 1833–1844” (PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2005); Maxwell, Wright, & Co.,
Commercial Formalities of Rio De Janeiro
(Baltimore, 1841).

74
. David Brion Davis,
Slavery and Human Progress
(New York, 1984), 236–237; Walter R. Cassels,
Cotton: An Account of Its Culture in the Bombay Presidency
(Bombay, 1862); K. L. Tuteja, “American Planters and the Cotton Improvement Programme in Bombay Presidency During the Nineteenth Century,”
Indian Journal of American Studies
(1998); Lelia M. Roeckell, “Bonds over Bondage: British Opposition to the Annexation of Texas,”
Journal of the Early Republic
19 (1999): 269n29; Madeline Stern,
The Pantarch: A Biography of Stephen Pearl Andrews
(Austin, TX, 1968); Benjamin Lundy,
Life, Travels, and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy
(Philadelphia, 1847).

75
. Mitton, “Free World Confronted”; William W. Freehling,
The Road to Disunion
(New York, 1990), 1:390–391.

76
. Virgil Maxcy to Calhoun, December 3, 10, 1844, in JCC, 17:586, 599–603; Wilentz,
Rise of American Democracy
, 565.

77
. Harriet Martineau,
Retrospect of Western Travel
(London, 1838), 1:147–148; Irving H. Bartlett,
John C. Calhoun: A Biography
(New York, 1994), 379; William W. Freehling, “Spoilsmen and Interests in the Thought and Career of John C. Calhoun,”
Journal of American History
52 (1965): 25–42; Richard R. John, “Like Father, Like Son: The Not-So-Strange Career of John C. Calhoun,”
Reviews in American History
23, no. 3 (1995): 438–443.

78
. Edward Crapol, “John Tyler and the Pursuit of National Destiny,”
Journal of the Early Republic
17 (1997): 467–491.

79
. Calhoun to Richard Pakenham, April 18, 1844; Documents relative to Texas, Serial Set vol. 435, session vol. 5, 28th Cong., 1st sess., S.Doc. 341; Charles Wiltse,
John C. Calhoun: Sectionalist
(Indianapolis, 1951), 168.

80
. Silbey,
Storm over Texas
, 62–68. Van Buren’s letter responded to William Hammet, former University of Virginia chaplain, now Mississippi congressman and unpledged Democratic convention delegate.

81
. Joel Silbey, “‘There Are Other Questions Besides That of Slavery Merely’: The Democratic Party and Anti-Slavery Politics,” in Alan Kraut, ed.,
Crusaders and
Compromisers: Essays of the Relationship of the Antislavery Struggle to the Antebellum Party System
(Westport, CT, 1983), 143–175.

82
. Robert J. Walker,
Letter of Mr. Walker, of Mississippi: Relative to the Reannexation of Texas. In Reply to the Call of the People of Carroll County, Kentucky, to Communicate His Views on that Subject
(Washington, DC, 1844); Robert J. Walker,
The South in Danger: Being a Document Published by the Democratic Association of Washington, D.C., for Circulation at the South, and Showing the Design of the Annexation of Texas to Be the Security and Perpetuation of Slavery
(Washington, DC, 1844); Frederick Merk,
Fruits of Propaganda in the Tyler Administration
(Cambridge, MA, 1971).

83
. Silbey,
Storm over Texas
, 77; Holt,
Whig Party
, 196–206.

84
. Nell Mick Pugh, “Contemporary Comments on Texas, 1844–1847,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
62 (1959): 267–270; Frederick Merk,
Slavery and the Annexation of Texas
(New York, 1972), 152–166; Holman Hamilton, “Texas Bonds and Northern Profits: A Study in Compromise, Investment, and Lobby Influence,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
43 (1957): 579–594. When the bonds were paid off (1856–1857, at 0.75 on the dollar), 60 percent went to northern holders.

85
. Silbey,
Storm over Texas
, 111–112.

86
. Following paragraphs: John Devereux Diary, 1833–1846, January 1 to March 23, 1846, JSD. The 1845 Texas state constitution enabled homestead exemptions that protected slaves from debt seizure. Mark Nackman, “Anglo-American Migrants to the West: Men of Broken Fortunes? The Case of Texas, 1821–1846,”
Western Historical Quarterly
5 (1974): 441–455. Attempts to pursue debtors into Texas postannexation apparently failed.
Endicott v. Penney
, 1850, 325;
McIntyre v. Whitfield
, 1849, 322, all CATTERALL, vol. 3.

87
. Harriet Jones, AS, S2, 6.5 (TX), 2095; Frank Adams, AS, S2, 2.1 (TX), 2–10; Sean Kelley,
Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society on the Texas Borderlands
(Baton Rouge, LA, 2010), 99–102.

CHAPTER 9. BACKS: 1839–1850

1
. Hannah Palfrey Ayer,
A Legacy of New England: Letters of the Palfrey Family
(Milton, MA, 1950), 1:145.

2
. Frank Otto Gatell,
John Gorham Palfrey and the New England Conscience
(Cambridge, MA, 1963), 76–87; Frank Otto Gatell, “Doctor Palfrey Frees His Slaves,”
New England Quarterly
34 (1961): 74–86.

3
.
Baltimore Patriot
, November 8, 1824; Rev. Wm. Trotter, “Observations on State Debts,”
North American Review
51 (1840): 316–337; J. G. Palfrey (JGP) to Wm. Palfrey, March 11, 1836, PALF.

4
. Henry Palfrey to JGP, January 8, 1838, September 3, 1838, January 9, 1839, December 4, 1838, all in PALF; Gatell, “Doctor Palfrey,” 75–76.

5
. Kinley J. Brauer,
Cotton Versus Conscience: Massachusetts Whig Politics and Southwestern Expansion, 1843–1848
(Lexington, KY, 1967); Thomas O’Connor,
Lords of the Loom: The Cotton Whigs and the Coming of the Civil War
(New York, 1968).

6
. Gatell, “Doctor Palfrey,” 80;
Washington Daily Intelligencer
, March 3, 1842; Melvin Urofsky and Paul Finkelman,
March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the
United States
(New York, 2002), 1:352–353; Brauer,
Cotton Versus Conscience;
Gatell,
John Gorham Palfrey
, 111–114; H. W. Palfrey to JGP, March 12, 1844, PALF.