Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab
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“receiver of Publick money” Jackson to Coffee, February 2, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 7.
“We have succeeded … establishment for your old age” Arthur Peronneau Hayne to Jackson, August 5, 1817, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, pp. 130–31.
shallows known as Muscle Shoals, forty miles that were perilous Today submerged beneath a reservoir, the nineteenth-century shoals are so described in Dupre, “Ambivalent Capitalists on the Cotton Frontier.”
“The water being high made a terrible roaring … . in danger of striking” From Donelson’s journal, reprinted “entire” in Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee to the Eighteenth Century, p. 200.
“ever kind of rapine & murder on our women & children” Jackson to John Coffee, February 13, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 11.
Tennessee militiamen moved south and burned the village Haywood, Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, pp. 231–33.
Local lore held that Melton was a river pirate This story is related in Royall, Letters from Alabama, p. 59.
In 1783 a North Carolina land company Moore, History of Alabama, p. 103; Chappell, “Some Patterns of Land Speculation in the Old Southwest,” p. 463.
A second effort to capture land around Muscle Shoals A map of the Tennessee Company’s target real estate can be found in Treat, National Land System, 1785–1820, p. 348.
From 1789 onward Jackson traveled this road to and from Natchez The important Spanish-controlled city on the Mississippi River above New Orleans. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, p. 55.
“three thousand dollars in valuable merchandise” Charles J. Kappler, ed., “Treaty with the Cherokee, October 25, 1805,” in Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. 2, Treaties, 1778–1883, pp. 82–83.
Doublehead … was renting that land to farmers Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, pp. 35–36.
murdered him in 1807 Ibid., pp. 36–38.
Jackson was involved in a deal for eighty-five thousand acres that fell apart Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, vol. 1, pp. 129–30.
“Do you progress with the line” Jackson to Coffee, February 13, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 11.
“25 mounted gunmen as a guard … in the Creek country” Jackson to Coffee, February 13, 1816, ibid. Also Coffee, journal entry, February 16, 1816, Dyas Collection—John Coffee Papers.
“immediate punishment” Jackson to George Colbert, February 13, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 11.
“I would be glad to be informed” Coffee to Jackson, December 27, 1815, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775–1874, reel 20.
Chapter Nine: Men of Cultivated Understandings
“the Burnt Buildings … red morocko pocket Book” William Riley of Washington County, MD, scrawled language for an ad in the National Intelligencer on December 23, 1814. Gales and Seaton Papers.
signed his name instead of making a mark One such letter is that of the Cherokee delegation to George Graham of the War Department on March 4, 1816; Ross signed his name, while the document shows the Cherokee leaders George Lowrey, John Walker, the Ridge, and Cheucunsenee made a mark. Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 24–25.
“These Indians are men of cultivated understandings” From National Intelligencer, reprinted in Niles’ Weekly Register, March 2, 1816, vol. 10, p. 16.
“Brother … we hope you will no longer delay” Ross to William H. Crawford, March 12, 1816, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 27.
“During the late war” Ibid.
“Beginning at a point where Vann’s old Store” Cherokee delegation to George Graham, ibid., p. 24.
Crawford and President James Madison approved a treaty Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, pp. 91–92.
home with silver-plated rifles Apparently of the three rifles, one was intended for the Whale, who first swam the Tallapoosa, but the rifle never reached him. He was awarded a replica, decades later, that included “a plate-likeness of General Jackson.” “Restoration of a Rifle to a Cherokee Warrior,” Harrisburg Democratic Union, September 6, 1843, p. 1.
“The idea of resisting the authority of the government” Crawford to Jackson, July 1, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, pp. 48–49.
“Tennesseeans … are recorded as the worst sort of robbers”Jackson to Crawford, June 16, 1816, ibid., p. 45.
“the risk of being murdered at every wigwam … value of the land” “Remonstrance Against the Treaty,” undated among papers from 1816, American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 1815–1827, pp. 89–91.
“extra service of the most unpleasant nature” Jackson to Crawford, November 12, 1816, ibid., p. 117.
a warning that their nation might be destroyed Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, pp. 93–94.
“some small presents to the fifteen chiefs that attended here ” Jackson to Coffee, September 19, 1816, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 63.
90 George Guess or Sequoyah: His signature is on “Treaty with the Cherokee, September 14, 1816,” Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, p. 133.
The Cherokees succeeded in retaining Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 94.
Chapter Ten: Let Me See You as I Pass
“I know of no situation combining so many advantages” Jackson to Crawford, November 12, 1816, American State Papers, Indian Affairs, 1815–1927, p. 117.
“I am so deeply impressed” Jackson to Monroe, November 12, 1816. Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, pp. 73–74.
Coffee would be an excellent choice Ibid.
“I wrote to Genl Parker” Jackson to Coffee, December 26, 1816, ibid., p. 77.
“white with cotton and alive with negroes” Royall, Letters from Alabama.
southern planters generally needed to sell cotton for 10–15 cents a pound Glaeser, “A Nation of Gamblers,” NBER Working Paper 18825, p. 13.
Cotton reached 32 cents … 35 cents All price figures from Cole, Wholesale Commodity Prices in the United States, 1700–1861, chart, republished by Centers for International Price Research.
Tennessee Valley soil could produce far more pounds of cotton per acre From 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre, compared with 300 pounds in the North Carolina uplands. Glaeser, “Nation of Gamblers,” p. 13.
sixty field hands could probably have picked six hundred acres Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode note a variety of estimates that had been made over generations for how many acres an enslaved field hand could pick in a season—such as 12 acres, 14 acres, 42.5 acres, or even more—but cast doubt on them, and observe that ratios above 10 acres per person were considered exceptional on plantations in the early nineteenth century. My calculation of Jackson’s operations therefore aims low, assuming 10 acres per field hand and no more. Olmstead and Rhode, “Slave Productivity in Cotton Production,” pp. 4–20.
exceeded $35,000, which in 1817 was an income for a prince This estimate makes the following assumptions:
300 acres under cotton cultivation
600 pounds of cotton per acre
30 cents, gross sale price per pound of cotton
10 cents, cost per pound of cotton production
20 cents, profit per pound of cotton
300 acres x 600 pounds x 20 cents = $36,000
The calculation conservative estimates for all the numbers. There may have been up to 600 acres under cultivation; Glaeser in “Nation of Gamblers” notes that Alabama soil was said to produce 800 pounds per acre; and prices that year reached 35 cents per pound.
“If I have not that sum in the Bank” Andrew Jackson to James Jackson, August 28, 1814, Moser et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson: A Microfilm Supplement, reel 4.
in 1819 … Andrew and Rachel Jackson gave up living in their two-story log house So says the Hermitage staff; also Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1, p. 307.
The old log house was cut down to a single floor and converte
d into slave quarters Parton, author of Life of Andrew Jackson, apparently saw it in the 1850s, and it can still be seen there.
“Let me see you as I pass” Jackson to Coffee, September 28, 1817, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 138.
dividing the property into city blocks for a new town Jackson to James Monroe, November 15, 1818, ibid., p. 246. Lots for Marathon had been auctioned in October, according to Rohrbough, Land Office Business, p. 123.
“will become one of the largest towns” Jackson to Coffee, August 12, 1817, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 132.
“I am yet confined at this loathsome place” John Coffee to his wife, Mary, January 3, 1814, transcribed in Sioussat, “Letters of General John Coffee to His Wife,” p. 279.
Food was so scarce that prices soared Rohrbough, Land Office Business, p. 121.
“many gentlemen from the Eastern States” Ibid.
a log cabin in Huntsville Ibid., pp. 122–23.
close to a million acres In 1817 the office sold 5,610 acres; in 1818 it would be 973,361.54 acres. Ibid., p. 123.
Buyers formed coalitions … their efforts collapsed An account of this pattern can be found in Chappell, “Some Patterns of Land Speculation in the Old Southwest,” pp. 471–72.
And then $78 Coffee to Jackson, February 12, 1818, notes prices of $50, $70, and $78. Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775–1874, reel 24. Also Chappell, “Some Patterns of Land Speculation in the Old Southwest,” p. 472.
“The prices have surpassed any ever known in the U.S. heretofore” Coffee to Jackson, February 12, 1818, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775–1874, reel 24.
he had failed to forward some $80,000 Numerous documents, including the receiver’s admission that he had come up short and a chart of his purchases, are in American State Papers, House of Representatives, 17th Cong., 1st Sess., Public Lands, vol. 3, pp. 485–93.
federal patents for more than fifteen thousand acres According to author’s review of the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records database.
James Jackson’s name would eventually appear Ibid.
“to purchase or enter lands in the Alabama Territory” Article of Agreement, March 2, 1818, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1.
John Donelson, Andrew Jackson’s brother-in-law … Philadelphia investors The investors are listed in ibid.
6,700 acres was bought for the partnership, and possibly much more An examination of federal land records for this book found two or more of the partners’ names to be together on land purchases amounting to 6,700 acres. It is possible that other purchases, bearing only a single partner’s name, were for the partnership.
“This section I bought at two dollars” Jackson to Isaac Shelby, November 24, 1818, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 250.
sometimes lived there for a month at a time Jackson to Richard Keith Call, November 27, 1822, ibid., vol. 5, p. 225.
“I am determined to push that farm for a livelihood” Jackson to John Coffee, ibid., pp. 157–58.
he advertised a $50 rewardNashville Whig, April 24, 1822. James, Andrew Jackson, p. 29, quotes a May 1 advertisement from the Nashville Whig, and assumes the slave must have been from Melton’s Bluff; but Jackson had long since surrendered the bluff for the creation of the town of Marathon. The April 24 advertisement calls it the plantation “near the Big Spring, in Franklin County.”
In 1823 he personally led the effort Ibid., p. 31.
At least one of those tracts became Jackson’s third plantation Jackson’s papers include a bill for “sundries” for “the farm of A. J. Hutchings,” January 27, 1823, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 5, pp. 245–56.
twenty-two hundred acres were purchased under the name of William Donelson According to author’s review of the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records database.
it paid $85,000 for the land Garrett, History of Florence, Alabama, p. 4.
quickly resold it (in half-acre town lots) for $229,000 History of Florence has a list of buyers whose purchases total this amount, pp. 4–7. A March 1818 document, “List of Purchasers of Lots in the Town of Florence,” reflects a similar tally as reconstructed by company officials after the 1827 fire that destroyed Cypress Land Company documents. The List of Purchasers, from the record of an 1840s lawsuit, was copied by Florence historian Milly Wright, who graciously supplied it to the author.
taking the title of a Florence man’s home“Fulton to Jackson & others,” in Lauderdale County Deed Records, February 21, 1829, book 4, pp. 304–5, states that William Fulton owed Jackson and others $400 for his purchase of “Florence Stock” as well as other debts, and so would surrender the 7½ acres “whereon the said William Fulton now lives.” Signatories included “Andrew Jackson, by his attorney in fact John Coffee.”
he advanced $20,000 to buy a strip of land … . “doceur” The transaction is described in the journal kept by federal negotiators, in the entry for October 17, 1818. Jackson, Shelby, et al. “Secret” Journal on Negotiations of the Chickasaw Treaty, 1818.
repaid James Jackson’s $20,000 Farrell, “James Jackson, Thomas Kirkman and the Chickasaw Treaty of 1818,” p. 2.
“correct” his reports James Monroe to Jackson, July 19, 1818, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 227.
their official report included a veiled reference to it: The Senate report, February 24, 1819, reprinted in the National Intelligencer, says that Jackson’s motive “seems to have been to involve the nation in a war without her consent, and for reasons of his own, unconnected with his military functions.”
“hypocritical lying puppy” Jackson to Coffee, April 3, 1819, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, pp. 279–80.
John Donelson … carrying a letter of introduction from Andrew Jackson According to an affidavit by Thomas Childress, January 12, 1820, ibid., p. 351.
“Pensacola speculation” John McCrea to Jackson, April 15, 1819, ibid., p. 285.
“friendly motives” Affidavit by Thomas Childress, January 12, 1820, ibid., p. 351.
A pamphlet during the 1828 campaign This was a special edition of the Kentucky Reporter, a newspaper linked to Henry Clay. A barely readable copy of the pamphlet is in Dyas Collection—John Coffee Papers.
On December 14, 1827 … fire consumed the building Garrett, History of Florence, p. 4.
Part Four: Young Prince, 1820–1828
Chapter Eleven: This Unexpected Weapon of Defence
The house said alot about Ross Ross may have built it after 1816, though local tradition dates it earlier. DeWeese et al., “Dating of the Chief John Ross House,” Southeastern Archaeology, Winter 2012, p. 221.
“I have been induced to accept of the command of the Cherokee Light horse” All text of this letter comes from Ross to Andrew Jackson, June 19, 1820, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 40–41.
“I have no troops within three hundred miles of the cherokee nation” Jackson to Return J. Meigs, February 28, 1820, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 358.
“talk big” Ibid.
intruders had ignored a January first deadline to depart Correspondence to and from the office of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun shows an Indian agent being told on October 11, 1819, that he must order white intruders to “remove by the 1st January next, and that, after that time, no indulgence will be given them.” On January 29, 1820, the deadline past, the agent is merely told to urge the intruders to leave, although “force must be used” at some undetermined time if they have not. Meriwether et al., Papers of John C. Calhoun, vol. 4, pp. 369–70, 616.
“shrubing” work was “indispensible” Jackson to John C. Calhoun, May 17, 1820, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 369.
“will give us the whole country in less than two years” Jackson to John Coffee, July 13, 1817, ibid., p. 126.
“except those prepared for agricultural persuits, civil life, & a government of laws” Ibid.
, pp. 126–27.
imposed over the protest of dozens Sixty-seven leaders, according to Moulton, John Ross, Cherokee Chief, p. 19.
“the interposition of your Fatherly hand” Ross to James Monroe, March 5, 1819, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 34–35.
“the conduct of the malitious and lawless class” Ross to William H. Crawford, March 12, 1816, ibid., p. 27.
a little army of about seventy Richard Keith call to Jackson, July 8, 1820, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 4, p. 373.
Jackson believed it was a mistake He expressed this view to George Graham, July 22, 1817, ibid., p. 128.
Chapter Twelve: Ominous of Other Events
“in direct lines to the South seas” Colonial charter quoted in Harden, Life of George M. Troup, p. 1.
“These parts are little known” Gabriel, Elias Boudinot, Cherokee, and His America, 1799 map reproduced on unnumbered page.
A map made by a Virginian The story of the map is told in Cohen, Mapping the West, pp. 58–59.
“The government is determined to exert all its energy” Jefferson’s letter was reprinted in Niles’ Weekly Register, January 23, 1830, p. 357.
“extinguish the Indian title … peaceably obtained, on reasonable terms” Articles of Agreement and Cession, April 24, 1802, American State Papers, 7th Cong-, 1st Sess., Doc. 69, pp. 113–14.
“The same treaty ought to have extinguished” Harden, Life of George M. Troup, p. 198.
“insisting” on an “immediate fulfillment” Letter reprinted in ibid., p. 218.
“insult” … “defiance” Adams diary entry, February 12, 1824, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 6, p. 255.
“His Excellency, Governor and Commander” For example, in a document reprinted in Troup, Governor’s Message, p. 73.
“The President spoke of the compact” Adams diary entry, March 29, 1824, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 6, p. 272.
“manners and deportment … like ourselves,” “purfled scarf” Ibid., p. 373.
“They are now … about fifteen thousand” Ibid., p. 272.