Andrew Jackson is known to fame as a statesman and as a military leader
who triumphed over the savage Indians and the trained British troops of
Pakenham; but primarily Andrew Jackson was a farmer, a man whose
livelihood depended on the outcome of his crops and whose prosperity
waxed and waned with the fluctuations of the New Orleans cotton market.
After all, it should be remembered, Jackson's active military career was
concentrated in the eight years between 1813 and 1821, and his service
as President extended only from 1829 to 1837; but he was a farmer and
stock-breeder from the time he bought the Poplar Flat plantation in 1792
until he died at the Hermitage in 1845. Nothing ever gave him such
pleasure as to walk about his farm with some visitor and show his
growing crops, his stables and barns. The last day he was on his feet
before his death he insisted, despite his enfeebled condition, on
walking several hundred yards with a visiting friend to show him how
well his cotton was doing.
During the eight years he was serving as a soldier he was away from home
a large part of the time; but his wife was living then, and all
authorities agree that she was thoroughly capable of managing the
plantation and doing it well. Mrs. Jackson was not only a good housewife
and a genial host, she was really a capable executive--and managing a
big plantation in those days required genuine executive ability, for an
establishment like the Hermitage was in reality an almost entirely
self-contained little principality, capable of sustaining its owners and
the slaves who supplied the labor. Not only did the plantation provide
all the foodstuffs consumed, with the exception of sugar and coffee; but
the slaves made practically everything used on the place. Wool gathered
from the flock of 100 sheep was woven by the old slave women into bolts
of cloth fifty yards in length, the weavers averaging about five yards a
day. A tannery supplied leather for the shoes, there was a grist mill
for grinding the wheat and corn into flour and meal, there was a
blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a syrup mill, etc. The family, of course,
bought clothing in Nashville, or in Philadelphia or Washington; but
clothing and shoes for the slaves were made on the place by the slave
seamstresses and cobblers and about the only article of wearing apparel
that had to be bought for them was hats.
Managing an institution of this kind was no child's play; but Mrs.
Jackson had come to the Cumberland country with the original settlers
and she possessed the indomitable, self-reliant spirit of the pioneer.
She, to be sure, had the assistance of an overseer; but overseers were
for the most part a shifty and unreliable lot, and in those days while
Jackson was away fighting the Indians and the redcoats the real
managerial ability had to rest on her. It is not recorded anywhere that
Mrs. Jackson felt it at all out of the ordinary that she should take
charge of the plantation in the General's absence; and in none of her
letters to him did she complain of the responsibilities resting on her
shoulders. The General had written her quite candidly while at Fort
Strother in January, 1814, in the midst of the campaign against the
Creeks: "On the subject of my private and domestic concerns, you and
Col. Hays and Mr. John Hutchings must regulate it. I have not time to
spend many thoughts upon worldly pelf or gear. My station is arduous and
my duty severe."
In spite of this frank admonition, however, even as he rested before New
Orleans on the eve of the battle there that was to make him a figure of
world-wide fame, General Jackson had obtruded on him there some of the
vexing problems of plantation management--not, it should be noted, by
the self-contained Rachel but by her sister's husband, Colonel Robert
Hays, mentioned in Jackson's letter. Colonel Hays, probably with good
intentions but certainly with an atrocious lack of good sense, sat down
and wrote him a tediously detailed letter to tell him about all the
trouble being experienced in getting a good overseer and the
demoralization of the slaves growing out of the inefficient overseer's
lack of capacity. "They did not tread out thirty bushels of oats in
three days," wrote Mr. Hayes of the trifling slaves; and then went on to
relate the harrowing experience of one of them who was sent to Nashville
on an errand, was waylaid on his return and came home with "a large load
of small shot in his back which is still in him."
Was there ever in the history of the world another General commanding
his nation's troops on the eve of a decisive battle who had to drop his
studies of tactical problems in order to consider the case of an
overseer back home who "is a good honest man, but drinks too hard"?
Most of the time, however, General Jackson was at home to manage things
for himself, and everybody agreed that when it came to running a farm
and raising blooded stock he know what he was about. In 1824 the
Hermitage was visited by Willie Blount, former governor of Tennessee,
and in a letter written concerning this visit Governor Blount said:
"Although I have ever considered him to be among the most industrious
men of my acquaintance, both in public and private life, I was really
surprised to find his farm in such excellent order and so very
productive, under all the circumstances relating to his great absence
from home attending the public relations during the late war and since.
His farming land is, as you know, very fertile, very beautiful, and
eligibly situated for comfort. It is largely improved, handsomely
arranged with gratifying appearance to the visitors at his most
hospitable house, open to all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance
and who travel through his neighborhood, none of whom pass that way
without calling on him for social intercourse, viewing him to be the
polite gentleman at home and abroad and the friend of man everywhere.
His very arrangement for farming on an extensive scale delights the man
of observation; his fields are extensive and nicely cultivated as a
garden; his meadows and pastures are extensive and neatly kept; his
stock of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs are of the best kind and all in
excellent order; his domestics and hirelings are all contented and
comfortably provided for, and their daily labor is a pleasure to them."
When Lafayette visited the Hermitage his secretary, though frankly
disappointed at the simplicity of the house itself, commented favorably
on the appearance of the garden and farm. "We everywhere remarked the
greatest order and most perfect neatness," he wrote in his journal, "and
we might have believed ourselves on the property of one of the richest
and most skilful of the German farmers if, at every step, our eyes had
not been afflicted by the sad spectacle of slavery." To ameliorate his
reference to the "peculiar institution," however, the visiting Frenchman
was careful to add that "Everybody told us that General Jackson's slaves
were treated with the greatest humanity."
* * * *
One of the greatest problems encountered by Jackson in the management of
the Hermitage plantation, and one that he never solved to his entire
satisfaction, was that of obtaining the services of a thoroughly
competent and industrious overseer. His correspondence is studded with
letters complaining of their manifold shortcomings; and there was a
steadily changing stream of men occupying this important and trying
post.
When the General returned from his brief residence in Florida, he took
hold of things at once, and one of the first things he did was to look
for a new overseer. Alex Barksdale was hired at the beginning of the
year 1823, and some idea of the limited agricultural equipment of even a
big farm in the early days may be had from the following memorandum
receipt for tools, stock, etc., which Barksdale gave Jackson under date
of January 8, 1823:
"1 dagon plough, 5 single ploughs, 2 double ploughs, 1 colter plough, 3
pair of stretchers, 1 half-inch augur, 1 two-inch augur, 1 five-quarter
augur, 1 chissel, 1 crosscut saw, 3 scythe and cradle, 1 stone augur, 1
augur and wheel, 1 rammer, 3 clevises, 1 two-foot rule, 1 foot adze, 7
singletrees, 6 pair of hames, 10 axes, 2 mattocks, 9 hoes, 1 plough hoe,
5 pair of traces, 1 handsaw, 1 crow-bar, 1 sledge hammer, 1 hand hammer,
1 pair of wedges, 1 mortising axe, 1 drawing knife, 2 pair lock chains.
Horned cattle: 39 head grown and four oxen, 23 calves; 63 head grown
sheep; 115 head of hogs. Received January 8th from Andrew Jackson as his
overseer, to be carefully kept and superintended as such, the within
farming utensils and above stock and plantation tools. (signed) Alex
Barksdale."
Barksdale came well recommended, but did not finish out the year, being
succeeded by Benjamin B. Person. Person filled the job until the end of
1824, then he too passed on to make way for another new one.
All this constant change in overseers was bad enough as long as the
General and Mrs. Jackson were able to give their personal supervision to
what was going on; but when Jackson left the Hermitage early in 1829 to
be inaugurated President, closely following Mrs. Jackson's death in
December, 1828, it was necessary to engage a thoroughly reliable man in
whose charge to place the whole establishment. Andrew Jackson Donelson,
who owned the adjoining plantation, was going along with Jackson as his
private secretary; and so the two of them entered into a formal, written
contract with one Graves W. Steele. This is an interesting document, as
showing the conditions under which such arrangements were made at that
time:
This memorandum of agreement between Andrew Jackson and Andrew J.
Donelson of the one part and Graves Steele of the other part, both of
the county of Davidson and State of Tennessee, Witnesseth, that the
said Andrew Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson have employed the said
Steele to oversee their negroes and manage the affairs of their
plantations during the year 1829, and as such have placed him in
possession of the working tools, the horses and stock of every
description, and whatsoever else appertains to the land as necessary
to its cultivation and protection, with obligations to bestow upon
them the attention and care usually expected from the most faithful,
diligent and industrious overseers. And further the said Steele is
left in charge of their dwelling houses and the buildings attached to
them, and is obligated to devote to them the care necessary to their
preservation, and the furniture within them; and to do whatever else
the said Andrew Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson may point out relating
to the correct disposition and management of their interests on their
plantations. And in consideration of these services the said Andrew
Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson are obligated to pay to the said Graves
Steele at the end of the year the just and lawful sum of six hundred
dollars.
[Illustration: The old kitchen, with original utensils, etc.]
[Illustration: Some of the original flatware from the Hermitage
silver supply.]
Within six months Jackson was writing to his adopted son expressing
apprehension lest Steele was not giving the negroes proper attention;
and before the year was out was again writing to the son at Nashville to
investigate the cause for "the great loss of horses and oxen." Evidently
conditions did not improve, for in November the General wrote a sharp
letter to Steele in which he took him severely to task for "the great
losses in stock and negroes I have lost since I left my plantation under
your charge and management." In blunt terms he said: "I have been truly
astonished to hear my bacon was nearly gone. This to me was
unaccountable, because I stood by and saw a large supply as usual for my
white and black family salted in my smoke house. In your statement I
have asked you to forward I shall expect you to furnish me with an
explanation of how this happened. I have been advised by some not to
continue you, by others to try you another year. The latter I have
concluded to do so, as I am aware the injury it would be to you to leave
the business under present rumors. But when I say I have concluded to
retain you another year, it is with the express condition that you treat
my negroes with humanity and attention when sick and not work them too
hard when well, that you feed and clothe them well, and that you
carefully attend to my stock of all kinds. This I have a right to expect
of you for the wages I give you. I have been offered here a first-rate
overseer for $350 a year. I have been offered in Tennessee a well
experienced and well recommended overseer for $400. I give you $500,
which is equal to $1000 when cotton was at 14 cents a pound."
Steele evidently did not accept this rebuke in very good spirit, for in
January Colonel Love wrote Jackson that "Steele said he wrote you as he
could not please you you had better look out for some other person."
Colonel Love volunteered the view, however, that "He in my opinion has
not the least intention of going away. I am confident your last letter
will make him the more particular and attentive to your orders." Colonel
Love proved to be a good prophet, for Steele held on to his job through
1832; but at the beginning of 1833 he was succeeded by Burnard W.
Holtzclaw. Holtzclaw was only a fairly satisfactory overseer, and gave
frequent cause for complaint from his absentee employer; but the Jackson
letter files reveal some communications from him which stamp him as one
of the earliest converts to the cause of simplified spelling. On March
6, 1833, he wrote the General:
D'r Sir, I Recived you letter March 2d. I now inform you that your
famley ar well at presenes and we ar doing well but Samson is ded,
your mares and colts all looks well but the colte wich Andrew bought
of Mr. Robson is ded. The caze I can not Tel. he live 9 days after he
came Home. I Cut hym open and on his side I fond a not or a lompe and
by looking I found Two of his Ribes Broke but wase well and on this
not was a corde, went from his Harte to this corde as bige as his win
pipe colte was solde to save his life. I Git alongue with you Negrows
Verer will indeede. I hav not woold to giv all a sute. March 2d we had
a snow and verry cold. I hav a bout one 100 and 50 acres of land plowg
for corn and cotton. last year you made 36 Bales of Cotton but ship 41
Bales.
His brief and unadorned announcement of the death of Samson, one of the
slaves, and his careful recital of all the gory details of his
post-mortem dissection of the colt afford a very good index of Mr.
Holtzclaw's character and capacity for the position he held. Another
example of his Chaucerian English is found in his letter of October 21,
when he wrote to the General as follows:
I recived your Letter on the 20 of October. I am glade to Say we are
all well at Presant. your Family are all in good Halth at this time
and are gitting alongue as well as I can. you wish to know abought
your crope of Cotton how moch I have Out. I will Tell you. I have One
Hundred Thoson and I Think we have out in the field yet 60 or 70
Thosan or 90. I was plaged a gratele abought Our gin, I jist beginning
to gin. dont be unesy I will do the best I Can.
Deare Sir your Mares and Colts and work Horses and Mules and cows and
Ox and Hogs and Sheeps and Caffs and Stud all are well and fate. I
have 86 hogs to kill only. I have 7 Beffes to kill. we have now wete
and cold wether. This day we Hale and Snow cole. I have all of my
Shoes and Socks and Stockings made and Nit and making up the Winter
Close. Andrew has not rich the Hermitage yet but I have all Things
Redy to Recive him and are Looking for him daly and also will be glade
to see him at Home.
Sur I have cut a new Rode on the Line betwin you and Warde and want to
Turn the Rode arown on the Line and fence in all the woods. Next to
woods I will feed my Hogs In hole and think I git water in this woods
late. water Stands after a Rain for 2 weeks. by feding all winter on
the Place can git water to Stand 6 or 8 month in the yeare. cut out
all the under groth.
Mr. Holtzclaw's performance as an overseer may have left something to be
desired; but there must have been a spark of genius in one who could
stumble upon "gratele" as the right way to spell "great deal."
Holtzclaw was also shrewd enough to meet the complaints against the
quality of his services with the suggestion of increased remuneration
when his contract expired at the end of 1833; but General Jackson
sternly wrote Andrew (his adopted son), then married and residing at the
Hermitage, that he had written the ambitious overseer that he could not
expect to receive more money--"that no farm in Davidson will justify it;
that better to abandon farming than to keep it up for the benefit of an
overseer, bringing me in debt, as it has for two years past." Jackson,
however, in line with his policy of encouraging Andrew to assume a man's
responsibility, told him that he could use his own judgment about
reëngaging Holtzclaw.
The upshot of this matter was that Holtzclaw passed on and a new
overseer, Williams, was engaged; but he lasted only one year. The
General, writing to Andrew in November, 1834, said: "I knew, the moment
I saw the cultivation of the farm, that Mr. Williams was of no account;
that you would have been better off without him; that he was only a
screen to the negroes; know nothing about cultivation and was beholden
to the negroes for instruction what to do. I am happy you will soon be
clear of him." Further in his letter he grumbled about "the
worthlessness of our overseers for the last three years" and urged that
in engaging a successor to Mr. Williams there be set down in writing an
understanding of what the overseer should do. "Let him fully understand
what he is to do, viz, to attend not only to the farm but to the
spinning and weaving, to the feeding of the hands, to weighing out the
meat, and to having them clothed in due season and the clothing well
made by our own seamstresses; to attend to all the stock, and
particularly to see that our blooded stock is taken good care of when
you are absent. These things should all be enumerated in your agreement,
or he may saye hereafter that nothing but what was enumerated was he
bound to take the superintendence of. Remember the old adage: 'Deal with
all men as though they were rogues'; if honest you are safe, but if not
then your written agreement speaks for itself."
The next man to take up the overseer's duties was Edward Hobbs,
recommended by Colonel Love as "a first-rate man." Jackson, however, was
not entirely reassured by his recommendation for in April, 1935, he
wrote his son: "I fear from the weather we experience here that Mr.
Hobbs has run a great risque by planting his cotton so early, as he
writes me he has planted the church field in cotton and on the 13th
would begin to plant the balance." But it was not long before the
General was writing: "The progress Mr. Hobbs has made shows him to be a
man of judgment; that he has reduced the hands to good subordination and
in doing this he has gained their confidence and attachment. Say to him
that I am thus far delighted with his course and proceedings."
Overseer Hobbs seemed to have a very good grasp of conditions on the
plantation, as evidenced by an intelligent, straight-forward letter he
wrote to Andrew, junior, in August while the latter was spending the
summer vacation with the General at the Rip Raps. This letter,
reflecting the manifold and variegated duties of an overseer of that
time, reads:
Yours and your father's of the 6th and 7th was duly received last
Sunday and your directions concerning the purchase of some mares shall
be attended to. I will of course get them on as good terms as
possible, and I will not purchase at all without I can get suitable
ones. I will also use my best exertions in selling your riding horses.
I could of sold your grey horse long since had it not of been for his
eye, as also the bay colt.
As respects the tap for the screw (of the gin), I have written you on
the subject long since. I had the pattern made at home by Ned, with
the assistance of Sharp 3 or 4 days to instruct him, and it is now at
the furnace. Col. Armstrong and Col. Love were both here last Saturday
and they informed me the casting would be ready in a few days. I have
the timbers all ready, and so soon as I can get the casting I will put
the press up again. I have the shingles nearly ready for the covering
of the gin house. I shall put them on the side next the cotton
scaffold this week, and should be detained by other jobs with the
other side of the covering it will not interfere with the sunning of
the cotton. We have a great many jobs to do, I fear more than we can
possibly get through with, such as fixing our corn houses so they can
be locked up, repairing lot fences, and one or two of the negro houses
wants new shingles. Ned lost two or three weeks piddling at the
pattern, which put us back at our jobs very much.
We have all our winter cloth for the negroes done but two pieces to
weave. We will soon be done with that job. Our shoes I have not yet
began. I have been trying my best to get the leather for three weeks
and have not yet got it; however, I suppose it will be ready this week
and I will then soon have them made.
I shall finish gathering of fodder this week and I think when I come
to stack I shall have a fine chance. I hope you will not have to buy
fodder, corn and oats next year.
Our neighbors are becoming a little alarmed about our cotton crops on
account of the very cold rainy weather. All of our neighbors planted
their cotton 3 foot and 3½ foot distance and it is now very thick,
locked up very close. If this weather holds it is impossible it can
make a crop. Most of our cotton is planted 4½ foot, and that is also
locked but not so much. I do not think I have ever seen as cool
weather in August as the past week. Two blankets was hardly sufficient
to sleep under. However, I am glad to see it turning warm again.
I was at Mr. Pool's a few days since and saw the colts gallop. They
appear to be doing finely. Pool makes some considerable calculations
on the black colt and Major Donelson's horse Mombrino. He feels very
confident of taking the four-mile day with him this fall. He has made
a little brush with him and a horse of Squire Robertson's that was
trained with Anville last season and his heels is nothing to Mombrino.
Robertson's horse was faster a little ways than Anville's.
As respects health, the people generally are sickly. Some sickness
amongst us, but nothing serious I believe. Aaron the blacksmith and
Tom Franklin was both taken sick yesterday; very hot fever all night.
I gave them a large dose of calomel and jalap this morning and they
are much better to-night.
I have nothing pleasing to write you about the house. Nothing much
adoing. Two hands at work. I believe the brickwork to the wings not
quite finished. The principal building is covered, and that is all I
can say. Col. Armstrong and Col. Love is both doing their best with
the firm I believe. I think Rieff needs an overseer.
Hobbs's gloomy forebodings about the cotton crop were discounted by
Colonel Armstrong in a letter to Jackson in which he said: "I expect
that you have not had so large and so good a crop for several years";
but within a few weeks an unseasonably early frost had destroyed these
sanguine expectations and in November Colonel Armstrong was writing
sadly: "Some plantations will make half a crop, some a third. I am sorry
to say that yours is very near a loss."
This crop failure, coming right in the midst of the heavy expense
occasioned by the burning of the Hermitage and most of its furniture,
filled Jackson with misgivings, and he promptly wrote to Andrew urging
him to exercise economy in the management of the farm and suggesting
that one or two of the three-year-old stud colts might be bartered for
work mares in order to avoid the necessity for a cash outlay for the
mares.
At the end of the year Mr. Hobbs was reëngaged to serve during 1836, but
it was not long before the reports received from the farm convinced the
General that proper attention was not being given the livestock. His
keen insight into what was going on a thousand miles away from him is
strikingly shown in a letter he wrote Andrew in March:
My son: I inclose you a letter received to-day from Mr. Hobbs from
which I infer he pays but little attention to the stock.
When I was at home, when I was engaged both in building, clearing and
farming, I always kept my oxen in good order although I had them in
their yokes daily; but this was done by always attending and seeing
them regularly fed and watered. When I found the driver had neglected
feeding regularly, I ordered him upon small allowance as well as
chastising him for it, and thus with attention Mr. Parsons kept his 12
oxen as fat as his horses; but when I see Mr. Hobbs say in his letters
that the young colts look badly notwithstanding that they have enough
of corn, oats and fodder and a dry stable to go into, I want no better
proof of the want of regularity in feeding. They are overfed one day
and starved the next. The hand that attends to them filled their
troughs one morning and perhaps does not see them again in two. It is
the overseer's business to see all the stock daily in the winter
season, sometimes in the morning and again sometimes in the evening;
and when he finds the stock neglected at once punish the hand charged
with their keeping. We lost a great many last year, and when I hear of
their bad condition this, and a plenty to give them, why there must be
sheer neglect of them. For this neglect the overseer is answerable,
and I wish to enquire and tell him frankly that he will be held
responsible. That oxen, where there is plenty of food, at this season
of the year are poor and broke down shows that carelessness in an
overseer for which he ought to be dismissed. We have lost more in
stock than two such crops would pay for--this is truly pulling out the
bung and driving in the spigot. If I live to get home I will shew you
and all overseers how easy it is to keep oxen fat and doing more
business than when neglected and broken down. We must make better
crops and preserve our stock better or we will be soon in a state of
want and poverty.
If there was any unforgivable sin with General Jackson it was neglecting
his live stock. Mr. Hobb's doom was sealed. A Mr. Holliday was engaged
for the year 1837--and that was the year when Andrew Jackson stepped
down from the President's chair and came back to the Hermitage to live
the rest of his days. Early in January, looking forward to his return
home, he wrote Mr. Holliday instructing him to be sure and plant a good
vegetable garden; and, he added, "I want to have my stock so that I can
do something with them when I reach home." And immediately following the
inauguration of President Van Buren he set out for home and on March
25th he was back at the Hermitage he loved so well.
[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR PLAN
This plan illustrates the spacious simplicity characteristic of
Southern plantation house plans. The later additions of wings seem
so simple and naturally disposed that one would suspect that they
were preconceived by a trained architect rather than having been
worked out by the owner and itinerant carpenters.]
During the latter months of his administration at Washington his health
had been particularly bad, so bad in fact that when he started back to
Nashville in March, President Van Buren insisted on sending his own
personal physician, Dr. Lawson, to accompany him on the trip home. Back
at the Hermitage he wrote his political protege and successor to thank
him for this attention, and in the course of his letter he said: "I hope
rest in due time may restore my health so as to be able to ride over my
farm, and to visit my good neighbors. This will be a source of amusement
and much pleasure to me."
Gradually his health improved sufficiently for him to assume active
charge of the operation of the farm; and this was a time when the ablest
management was needed to make any enterprise successful. The country was
in the throes of a financial panic, prices of farm products were
depressed, and, as Jackson wrote in one of his letters early in 1837,
negroes that had cost from $1,000 to $1,800 were being sold at sheriff's
sales for $300 for women and $500 for men.
"The rest of my life is retirement and ease" he wrote to a friend when
he laid down his Presidential cares and went back to the Hermitage; but,
unfortunately for his peace of mind, things did not work out that way.
There was but little ease for the old General during his remaining eight
years at home. The very first year he was there an unseasonably late
spring delayed the germination of the cotton seed, and during the
ensuing summer he was consumed with apprehension concerning the outcome
of the crop.
* * * *
It is interesting to observe that in Jackson's time the principal "money
crop" of the Hermitage, as well as of the neighboring plantations, was
cotton. Nashville at that time was a cotton market of major importance,
and the number of gins in the county then shows that there was a large
quantity of cotton grown every year in this vicinity. Today there is not
a stalk of cotton grown in the county; and the nearest gin to Nashville
is a small one located fifteen miles south of the city in an adjoining
county where some of the agricultural die-hards still cultivate the old
crop. The growing season between frosts is really too short in Davidson
County to encourage cotton planting; but the first settlers got started
to growing it, and since farmers are traditionally opposed to change in
their habits they continued to plant it even after experience
demonstrated that it was not a profitable year-after-year crop. As early
as 1838 Jackson sensed this fact and wrote to one of his friends: "I
will soon have to quit making cotton here"--but he never did quit.
In spite of the difficulty of raising cotton in a climate not entirely
suited to it, it is noticeable that the Hermitage plantation had the
reputation of making good crops of high-grade staple. In 1832 there was
an article in _Niles' Register_ commenting on the fact that fifty-four
bales of the Hermitage cotton had sold in New Orleans at 11½ cents a
pound, which was called "an extraordinary price;" and the article stated
further that it was the best cotton that had come to New Orleans from
Tennessee. In 1826 Jackson's New Orleans factor, Maunsel White, wrote to
him that he had sold the Hermitage cotton at "the very top of the
market," the net proceeds for the crop that year being $3,477.51.
Checking over the references to the sales of the cotton crops in the
Jackson papers it is to be seen that there was a great fluctuation in
the price obtained. The 1844 crop, for instance, brought only 4½ cents a
pound, the price ranging from that low mark up to 15 cents for the crop
of 1825 and even higher than that during the boom in cotton following
the end of the War of 1812.
In Maunsel White, General Jackson had at New Orleans a factor who stood
high in the cotton trade and who could be depended on to protect the
Tennessee planter in marketing his crops to the best advantage. Captain
White was not only Jackson's factor but his friend and a former comrade
at arms in the New Orleans campaign, and he took great pride in getting
the highest possible price for the Hermitage crops.
In January, 1831, White wrote to Jackson, then in the White House, that
the flatboats had arrived from the Hermitage with their cargo of
fifty-nine bales and that the overseer was to be congratulated on its
quality and condition as it was "without blemish." The best offer he had
got at that time, he wrote, was 9 cents; but he expressed a
determination to hold for 10 cents "which it is fully worth" he added,
"unless we receive worse news from the unsettled state of politics." He
mentioned the popular belief that a general war in Europe was perhaps
impending, and slyly added: "On this subject, however, you must be
better advised than anyone else in these states; and if it were not
asking too much, or what were improper for me to ask, I would ask your
opinion on that subject." An inside tip from the President on an
impending war would be worth a fortune to a New Orleans cotton broker;
but there is no evidence that Jackson gave Captain White any information
on the subject. This was before the day of White House "leaks."
The following year White wrote Jackson that he had sold part of his crop
for 11½ cents in New Orleans and shipped part of it to Liverpool where
it commanded 8½d sterling, stating that "your cotton this year has
brought the highest price both at home and abroad."
It was the custom of the Hermitage household, when shipping the cotton
crop to Captain White each year, to send along a list of groceries
needed for the year. When sending this year's supply of groceries back
to the Hermitage it was Captain White's custom to send along some kind
of a present to General Jackson--a barrel of oranges, or sugar or
molasses. It was Captain White's custom to say jokingly that the present
was sent to sweeten General Jackson's tooth; so in 1842 when the General
had his sole remaining molar extracted he notified his New Orleans
friend that it would no longer be necessary to sweeten his tooth as his
last tooth was gone.
The passing of the Jacksonian teeth, by the way, had an amusing
aftermath. Learning of his toothless condition, a celebrated dentist
asked the privilege of making him a set of false teeth, seeing in it an
opportunity to gain some publicity for himself. The General consented
and the teeth were produced after careful measurements had been made.
False teeth of that day were still of rather crude design, the upper and
lower plates being hinged together at the back and the opening and
closing facilitated by means of a spring. General Jackson gave his new
teeth their first try-out on the occasion of a public dinner in
Nashville; but while partaking of the first course he had the misfortune
to have the spring get stuck in such a way that he could not close his
mouth. He managed to remove the offending apparatus behind the cover of
his napkin, but he was much embarrassed by the episode and returned the
teeth to the dentist who made them with the suggestion that they might
be generously presented to some "poor widow woman in need of the like."
Andrew Jackson was a progressive farmer and was prompt to adopt new
methods and devices. The cotton gin was first introduced into Tennessee
in 1803; and the state of Tennessee purchased from the inventor, Eli
Whitney, the patent rights for the state, enacting legislation which
placed a tax on all gins. There being some dispute about the legal title
to the machine, the arrangement was not perfected until late in 1806, at
which time a model gin was set up in Knoxville and one in Nashville,
these models to serve as patterns for the citizens who wanted to build
gins. Jackson was among the first to install a gin in his part of the
state, and the minutes of the Davidson County court show that he made
bond of $5,000 and subscribed to the following oath: "I, Andrew Jackson,
do solemnly swear that I will well and truly inspect or cause to be
inspected all bales of cotton that shall pass through my press, marking
the bales according to the goodness thereof, agreeable to the directions
of the act of the Assembly in such cases made and provided; so help me
God."
General Jackson had recurring bad luck with his cotton crop from time to
time up to the very year of his death. On February 10th, 1845, just four
months before he died, in a letter to A. J. Donelson, then United States
Minister to the Republic of Texas, he mentioned that his current crop of
cotton, amounting to 37,000 pounds, had been "forced into the market"
(for what reason is not revealed) and that it netted only $1,312. This,
he said, after paying the overseer and drafts on the cotton "left us
only $36 to pay our debts here." To add to his discomfiture at this
time, his overseer in Mississippi misappropriated the proceeds of that
plantation's crop and left the General in a temporary financial
stringency. But Jackson immediately put hands to work cutting wood on
the Mississippi plantation (wood was the fuel for the Mississippi River
steamboats then), and stated that if this did not relieve him from debt
he was determined to sell the lower plantation and enough of its slaves
to put him square with the world again.
* * * *
Although cotton was looked upon as the principal and most important crop
of the Hermitage farm, the General really derived the greatest personal
pleasure (and a substantial part of his income) from the horses that
were raised on the farm.
When he resigned from the Superior Court of Tennessee in 1804 and
concentrated all his ability and energy on the rehabilitation of his
private affairs, he wisely decided to go into stock-breeding on an
ambitious scale. He was admirably suited to the business of breeding
fine horses. In the first place, he admired and loved a fine piece of
horseflesh. From his earliest youth he had been interested in racing,
gaining his first taste of "the sport of kings" at the Charleston meets
in his youthful days when he was living with the Crawfords. When he came
to Tennessee he came riding one blooded horse and leading another, and
he was always to be found among the foremost spectators or participants
if there were a horse-race anywhere in his neighborhood. He loved horses
and, in the words of one of his biographers, "he knew all about the
noble animal from pedigree to pathology." That is no idle use of words,
either, for Andrew Jackson studied horses, their records and their
breeding; and, in an emergency, he showed that he was skilled in the art
of the veterinary surgeon. A goodly share of the books in his library
are on the subject of horses and the turf.
It was characteristic of Jackson's vision and good business sense that
when he decided to go into the breeding of horses as a money-making
venture he purchased to head his establishment the horse that was then
recognized as the very finest in the whole country. This horse, Truxton
by name, was owned by a Virginia horseman, Major John Verrell. At just
about the time that Jackson was casting about looking for a stallion
worthy to head the thoroughbred nursery he was planning, Truxton was
matched for a race at Hartsville, near Nashville, with a Tennessee horse
called Greyhound, belonging to Lazarus Colton. Greyhound won the race,
but Major Verrell, insisted that such an outcome of the contest could
have been possible only because of Truxton's being out of proper
condition or improperly handled; and, to show the sincerity of his
belief, he came to Nashville from Virginia for the purpose of arranging
a return match between Greyhound and Truxton when the latter could have
been given the personal attention of his proud owner.
Major Verrell must have had an eloquent and persuasive tongue, or else
Truxton must have possessed the qualities of a top-notch thoroughbred
that shone undimmed through defeat. At any rate, General Jackson became
convinced that Truxton was really a better horse than Greyhound; and the
General, who was the major domo of sport in Tennessee in those days,
made arrangements for another race at Hartsville between Truxton and
Greyhound for a purse of $5,000.
This race was a Titanic affair in turf history, and attracted tremendous
interest. Mr. Douglas Anderson, in his _Making the American
Thoroughbred_, says: "No contest on the soil of Tennessee has ever been
so exciting or caused so much betting, considering the means of the
people, as this race. Hundreds of horses and numerous 640-acre tracts of
land were staked on the result. The old pioneers bet on Greyhound with
the utmost confidence." Imagine the consternation of the old pioneers,
therefore, when Major Verrell's stallion very handily defeated the
Tennessee horse in straight heats. Many a Tennessee farmer walked home
from that race carrying his saddle. General Jackson, in addition to his
share of the purse in cash, stated that he won "$1,500 in wearing
apparel," although unfortunately he left behind him no details of this
interesting side bet. Foremost among the backers of Truxton was General
Jackson's racing crony, Patton Anderson, who was not content with
betting his own horse and all his money but also with reckless daring
wagered 15 other horses that did not actually belong to him. It must
have been a relief to the super-confident Mr. Anderson when the race was
over; and it is easy to understand the enthusiasm that led him, after
the race, to "set 'em up" to a barrel of cider and a basketful of ginger
snaps.
As a result of the showing Truxton made in this race, General Jackson
bought the horse from Major Verrell; and the publicity given this great
turf upset placed the racing spotlight on the Hermitage stud and made it
an immediate success.
Writing about his famous horse in the _American Farmer_, as quoted in
the Turf Register of December, 1833, General Jackson said: "Truxton is a
beautiful bay, full of bone and muscle; was got by the imported old
Diomed and came out of the thoroughbred mare, Nancy Coleman. His
performances on the turf have surpassed those of any horse of his age
that has ever been run in the western country; and indeed it might be
said with confidence that he is equal if not superior to Mr. Ball's
Florizel who now stands unrivaled in Virginia as a race horse. Truxton
by old sportsmen and judges is admitted to be amongst the best distance
horses they ever run or ever had to train." And the General concludes,
with a touch of sardonic humor: "His speed is certainly known to all of
those who have run against him."
A historian of the turf records that while Truxton was alive and
serviceable he "made more money for Andrew Jackson than any other single
piece of property he ever owned." This has the earmarks of exaggeration,
but Truxton was really a remarkable animal. Not only did he hold the
unusual record of never having been beaten in a two-mile heat while he
was in his prime; but he was the sire of more than 400 colts whose
victorious records on every track made turf history. During the
relatively few years that Truxton lived his colts literally overshadowed
all other horses on the tracks of the then Southwest, and Tennessee
became the recognized headquarters of horse-breeding. Other breeders
came to the Hermitage farm for young brood mares and stallions of the
Truxton stock; and there is little doubt that the publicity that came to
Andrew Jackson through these activities contributed very largely to the
widespread friendships which were so valuable to him politically in the
years ahead.
[Illustration: General Jackson's liquor chest.]
[Illustration: Advertisement of _Truxton_ in the _Nashville Whig_ in
1807.]
Jackson truly loved all his horses, and was especially fond of Truxton;
and, so tradition goes, Truxton returned his affection. Not a night went
by that the General did not go himself to the stables before retiring
for the night to see that Truxton was all right; and when Truxton grew
old and unruly, there was never a time when Jackson could not control
him, no matter how ugly his mood.
And, tragically enough, it was Truxton who was the indirect cause of
placing the General in one of the most unfortunate crises of his life;
for it was the race between Truxton and Ploughboy in 1805 which was the
ostensible cause of the fatal duel in which Jackson killed young Charles
Dickinson.
* * * *
In the Presidential campaign of 1828 General Jackson was referred to by
the friendly press as "The Farmer of Tennessee;" but this phrase was not
used in a spirit of praise by all the newspapers of the day. For
instance, a typically partisan editorial in the _New York American_
said:
Let us see what is the Farmer of Tennessee? Possessing a fine and
extensive domain with a vast mansion, not a farm-house but The
Hermitage, surrounded by a host of slaves--this farmer of Tennessee
eats the bread of idleness and luxury. The whip of the overseer
quickens the servile labors whereby he--one of those priviliged beings
born to consume the fruits of the earth--is sustained; and men,
immortal as himself, are daily "driven a-field" like oxen and their
strength taxed to the uttermost, perhaps, that he, their master, may
add another race-horse to his stud or stake an additional bet upon a
favorite game-cock. Of personal labor the hands of this "farmer" are
innocent; for, where slavery exists, labor is held to degrade the
white man.
Andrew Jackson had his faults, and he was open to criticism from many
angles; but to hold him up as an example of the cruel and heartless type
of Southern slaveholder was to confess an utter ignorance of his
attitude towards his slaves. The records tell of a slave named Sam at
the Hermitage whom Jackson freed in 1816 but who refused to leave the
place.
Nowhere in his public writings or in his private correspondence does
Jackson give any evidence of ever questioning the legitimacy of the
institution of slavery; but throughout all his letters there are
innumerable indications of his inflexible determination to see that his
slaves were treated humanely and fairly. Upon learning of the death of
one of them in 1829, for instance, he immediately wrote to Andrew
instructing him "to examine minutely into this matter, and if the death
was produced by the cruelty of Mr. Steel have him forthwith discharged."
Going on, he says: "When I employed Mr. Steel I charged him upon this
subject and had expressed in our agreement that he was to treat them
with great humanity, feed and clothe them well and work them in
moderation. If he has deviated from this rule he must be discharged."
Later, following Andrew's report of his investigation, the General wrote
expressing great gratification that the death had not resulted from the
overseer's cruelty.
In 1833, while he was still in Washington, two more slaves died, and
William Donelson wrote the General expressing the opinion that the
deaths had grown out of lack of proper medical attention. Immediately
Jackson was on the warpath again. He wrote Andrew strongly urging him to
investigate the charges of neglect; and, to make doubly sure of getting
the facts, he wrote to his old and trusted friend Major William B.
Lewis, asking him to look into the matter and let him know what was
going on. Major Lewis made a typically thorough and painstaking
investigation and his letter, reporting conditions as he found them,
gives such a clear and interesting detailed account of life on a
Tennessee plantation of a century ago that it is worth preserving in its
entirety:
I have this moment returned from a visit to the Hermitage. I left home
after an early breakfast and got up there between ten and eleven
o'clock, where I remained until after breakfast this morning.
It is with pleasure I inform you that I found every individual, big
and little, well, except Hannah, Sally's eldest child, and she, I was
told by the overseer and her mother, was getting better. I had her
brought to the house so that I might see her myself and ascertain, if
I could, the nature of her complaint. I was apprehensive from what Mr.
Holtzclaw told me that she was afflicted with the hip complaint, such
as Major Barry's son had; but on interrogating her and her mother as
to the origin of the disease I am inclined to think it is something
else. Mr. Holtzclaw and some of the black people think it is the white
swelling. Her mother told me when she first complained of a pain in
the hip she examined her and found a large lump in her groin having
the appearance of what is called a waxen kernel. She also told me she
complained not only of pain in the hip but also in the thick or
muscular part of the thigh, and particularly the knee. As I do not
know how those who have the hip complaint are affected, I can not say
whether these are synptoms of that disease or not. When she was first
taken, Sally tells me, she could not walk at all and suffered much
pain. She can now walk a little, and her pains are not so distressing.
Indeed she told me she suffered little or no pain except of nights. I
thought this was owing probably to her taking too much exercise in the
day, and I told her she must walk very little on her leg until it got
better. I also charged her mother to keep her from exercising too
much. She is a very pretty little girl, and as she will no doubt make
a valuable servant if she lives and gets well I have some thought of
getting Dr. Hogg to ride up and see her, for I am apprehensive Dr.
McCorkle does not understand the nature of her complaint. If she
should require any personal attention afterwards she might be brought
down (to Nashville) and left with her grandmother who lives on
Parson's lot, College Hill, and would take good care of her. The old
woman (old Aunt Nanny, you know) was up to see her not long since, the
overseer informed me, and was very anxious to take her down with her,
but that he did not feel authorized to let her go. When next you write
to me let me know your wishes with regard to this matter and Hannah
will be treated in all respects as you may direct.
The farm is in pretty good order. The fences all look strong and good,
and particularly the outer ones. I was told by the negroes that nearly
all the fencing on the Donelson lands had been repaired--most of it,
also, round the caney field. I did not see them but I have no doubt it
is so. Some of the fences around the lots and stables have also been
repaired, as well as the outer fence north of your brick negro houses.
I think there is no fault to be found with any portion of the
fencing--some few of the fences about the lots which need it have not
yet been repaired; but the overseer says he intends giving his
attention to them the first wet spell. He has made you some ten or
twelve new gates and hung them. They are well made and well hung.
The house looks, I presume, pretty much as it did when you were here
last summer. I thought that perhaps it had not been sufficiently
aired, and I directed Hannah, who seems to have charge of it, to open
the doors and windows whenever the weather is dry and pleasant. The
yard and garden look badly--neither is attended to as they should be.
This, however, is more Dick's fault than the overseer's, as he has
necessarily been much and constantly engaged in getting in his crop
and withal I suspect he has very little taste for gardening. I told
Dick he must put the garden in order forthwith and keep it so; that
the walks, borders and squares must all be cleaned and kept so. The
overseer promised me that in future he would pay more attention to
Dick and the garden and yard.
Finding the yard pretty much grown up with weeds, indeed the back part
of it entirely taken with the green plantain, I directed the overseer
to take his hoes into it the first rain that fell and scrape the whole
of it over, not leaving a weed or spear of grass inside of the paling
in front or rear of the house, and to keep it so until the last of
September when he must chop it over lightly and sow it down thickly
with good blue grass seed unmixed with any other. These orders were
given because I did not calculate on your visiting the Hermitage this
summer; and by the next, if the blue grass seed comes up well, it will
look much better than it now does or ever has done.
As you requested, I looked also at the monument in the garden. Its
appearance is very good, but I do not think it is finished entirely as
it should be. The circular stones which rest upon the columns should
also be plastered in the interior as is the case with the dome above.
This is necessary in order to hide the joints and rough appearance of
the stonework. There are also many rough places and little holes in
the columns themselves, owing to defects in the stones, which should
be filled up and nicely painted over. In addition to this, I would
suggest that neat little iron railing be thrown around it at the
distance of four feet from the base of the monument and paved all
around with nicely dressed flagstones similar to those which cover the
tombs. This would not cost very much and would give a handsome finish
to the monument, which I think quite tasty and appropriate.
I sent for old Aunt Hannah, who has charge of the poultry, and told
her that you had been very mortified at finding on your return to the
Hermitage no fowls or poultry of any kind for the use of the table,
and that you wished me to say to her that you hoped it would never be
the case again. She assured me that she would do her best to raise a
plentiful supply, but said that her chickens and turkeys died very
much with the gapes which, with everything she could do, she could not
prevent. The overseer, she said, had built her a good house and she
expected now she would be able to take better care of them. She has a
very good stock of turkeys to raise from. I counted twelve hens and
four gobblers; and, as I understood from her, she has a pretty good
supply of chickens, etc.
I inquired of the overseer with regard to your horses, cattle, hogs
and sheep. He told me his work horses were in very good order and were
sufficient to tend his crop. He runs at this time 17 plows, but says
that if necessary he can run 19. I sent also for Ben who, I was told,
had charge of the plow horses, and inquired of him as to their
condition. He said they all were in pretty good order and were
thriving. He informed me that they had lost a young mule but did not
seem to think that blame should attach to anyone. I saw some of the
plow horses myself and if the balance are in as good order they will
do very well. The overseer informed me that he had 60 grown cows and
yearlings and 22 young calves, making altogether of all descriptions
82. The cattle look as well as is usual for this season of the year.
He has about 300 head of hogs; of this number there will be, he
thinks, about 80 or 90 large enough to kill next fall, which he hopes
will be sufficient or nearly so for the use of the farm. He further
informed me that of the 300 head, 100 of them were pigs not more than
a month old. Your flock of sheep look very well. I inquired of Mr.
Holtzclaw the number. He told me there were 92 old sheep and 59 lambs.
I paid Dunn a visit at his stables and looked at all his horses and
colts, and I assure you that I was much pleased and gratified at their
appearance. The horse Citizen is in fine order and condition; he is
really a beautiful animal. The two three-year old fillies are also in
fine condition. I think the one by Stockholder much the finest of the
two, but the other is also a fine animal. His colts too (three in
number) are in good order and very playful. Indeed, all of his horses
are quite fat, as much so as there is any use for. One of your mares,
the overseer informed me, was in Williamson (County) and as he would
have soon to send for her he wishes me to say to you that he would
want some money--$40 I think he said--to pay for her season and
keeping.
Upon the whole, if Mr. Holtzclaw will hold out as he has begun I think
he will make you a good crop, if he has a good stand of cotton and the
season suits, and take very good care of your stock. He feels,
however, considerable uneasiness with regard to his cotton crop--he is
afraid his stand will not be a good one. His seed, he says, were not
good, nor could he get those that were good anywhere. He finished
planting yesterday, the 20th of April, while I was at the Hermitage.
He says he could have planted a week earlier, but not having
confidence in the soundness of his seed he did not like to risk them
sooner. He will finish planting his corn tomorrow. He tells me he has
200 acres in cotton, considerably upwards of 300 acres in corn, and
something like 120 or 130 acres in oats. He has his sweet potatoes
planted, and in the piece of fresh land on the left hand of the gate
as you approach the house. I enquired of him particularly about your
meadows and timothy. He says no hay, he is afraid, can be made off
them. Indeed, he says one piece (adjoining the lot Dunn's stables are
in) was so taken with weeds that he found it necessary to plow it up
and put it in corn. He thinks that by tending it well this summer the
weeds may be killed; and then, by sowing it down again in timothy, it
might bring good grass. I looked at the ground, and by its appearance
I have no doubt he done right in ploughing it up--it must have been
very much taken by weeds. He has not ploughed up the other, but he is
afraid it will not make hay. He say it was badly rooted up by the pigs
and hogs last fall, and has now more weeds than grass in it. Your two
fields of clover look very well, and a good deal of hay can be made
off one of them (the one opposite the cotton gin) as Mr. Holtzclaw
intends mowing it. The other, he says, he is obliged to pasture.
I enquired of Mr. Holtzclaw about the sickness on the place in the
early part of the spring and the cause of so many negroes dying. He
told me that he thought the cholera had visited that neighborhood, and
that some of your negroes had died of that disease, particularly
Titus, whose death he seemed very much to regret as he was a fine hand
and a most valuable servant. He did not seem, however, to be satisfied
in his own mind that either the girl or the two Samsons died of that
disease. He says Dr. McCorkle saw Titus on the Sunday evening before
his death and said he was well again and would be able to go to work
on Monday morning. At 11 o'clock Sunday night he was a corpse. Now, my
dear sir. I doubt very much whether the cholera has ever been at the
Hermitage or its neighborhood. I heard of its being nowhere else,
except a reported case on Major Donelson's farm. Mr. Donelson's negro,
who was supposed to be attacked with the cholera, recovered and is now
well. I think Titus must have died of some other disease.
I had heard at Nashville that Mr. Holtzclaw was very severe with the
negroes, but from my own observation and what the negroes themselves
told me while there I think probably he is not more so than is
necessary. Where there are so many negroes there must be a pretty
rigid police. I told him that I had heard of his severity, but I hoped
he had given no foundation for such reports about him. I added that
you knew the necessity of keeping order on the place and among the
negroes, but that I was sure that you did not wish nor would you
permit your negroes knowingly to be treated with cruelty. I hoped
therefore that he would not use towards them an unnecessary severity.
He assured me that he had not and would not. I told him if an overseer
would be constantly himself with his hands very little whipping would
be required. The best way of managing negroes, according to my
experience, was to treat them kindly when they done well, and to
punish them reasonably when they misbehaved; but that he might be
assured that no negroes would conduct themselves well who were left
too much to themselves--that someone for whom they had either respect
or fear should always be near at hand. He concurred with me in this
opinion and said that he scarcely ever was off the place unless
obliged by business.
Your negroes evidently are better clad than they were under Mr.
Steele's administration. They informed me that they all got their
quantum of winter clothing, and most of them have already been
furnished with their summer clothing. I did not see a single child
even on the place that was not well clad, and Mr. Holtzclaw informed
me that there were 58 of them. He keeps his wheel constantly going,
and he informed me that it spins six or seven yards every day--besides
the spinning ginney that he says he keeps constantly going.
I believe, my dear General, I have given you all the information I
have with regard to the Hermitage, its culture and management. If
there should be anything else you wish me to attend to, let me know
and it shall be done.
The old General was mollified by Major Lewis's painstaking report of
conditions at the Hermitage, and wrote him thanking him for relieving
him of the "great anxiety and pain" under which he had been laboring as
a result of the reports he had been receiving of the overseer's
excessive severity. Regarding Hannah, the little girl with the sore hip,
he wrote:
[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR PLAN
Allowing for the use of the then customary armoirs in place of the
present-day closets and the fact that bathrooms were non-existent at
the time, the most confirmed modernist could find no fault with this
arrangement for living.]
I will thank you to get Dr. Hogg to see Hannah. I would be sorry she
would become a cripple. You may say to Dr. Hogg that her lameness was
occasioned by a stroke from Betty, or jumping over a rope in which her
feet became entangled and she fell and hurt her hip. I will thank you
to say to the overseer to prevent Betty from beating or cruelly using
the little negroes that are under her about the kitchen. A small
switch only ought to be used, but sometimes she uses any weapon she
can get, and chokes and abuses them and brings on disease. Give such
directions about the negro girl as though she was your own.
This was not the first time he had had cause to complain to the conduct
of Betty, the cook. Back in 1821, while he was in Florida at grips with
the Spanish officials, word reached him from the Hermitage that this
same Betty, then Mrs. Jackson's maid, had been misbehaving; and he set
aside his dispute with Señor Calava long enough to write to A. J.
Donelson:
Mrs. Jackson informs me that her maid Betty has been putting on some
airs and has been guilty of a great deal of impudence. On this subject
I have wrote Dr. Brunaugh and Mr. Blair. I have said to Mr. Blair that
I hold him responsible for the control of the servants, and I have
directed that the first impertinence she uses or the first
disobedience of orders that she is to be publicly whipped. It is
humiliating to me to have to resort to this, but I have to request of
you to observe her conduct and the first disobedience or impudence
order Mr. Blair to give her fifty lashes. If he does not perform it,
dismiss him, and as soon as I get possession I will order a corporal
to give it to her publicly. I am determined to cure her.
This evidence of firmness on General Jackson's part in the discipline of
the slaves was very unusual, and indicates that the offending Betty must
have worn out his patience with her incorrigibility. Seldom indeed was
whipping resorted to on the Hermitage plantation. In fact, the principal
criticism of Jackson around Nashville, regarding his treatment of his
slaves, was that he was too lenient with them; and out of this leniency
grew a tragedy in 1827 that became one of the minor controversial issues
of the 1828 Presidential campaign.
One of Jackson's slaves, a man named Gilbert, was a chronic and
incurable runaway; but upon every such offense he was always forgiven by
the General upon his promise of better behavior. This went on until at
length Jackson's patience was exhausted and when Gilbert was recaptured
after running away in 1827 the General ordered him taken to Nashville
and sold, with the stipulation that he must be sold as a runaway so that
any purchaser would know of that defect. The overseer, Ira Walton,
however, gave it as his opinion that this would not do, inasmuch as it
was the prevailing idea that the Hermitage negroes had been
detrimentally affected by their master's indulgence and that one of them
would be correspondingly hard to sell. Walton further said that if some
example were not made of an habitual offender like Gilbert he could not
promise to keep the slaves under control, and that Gilbert was a fit
subject for punishment inasmuch as he was the most insolent slave on the
place.
Jackson, over-persuaded, reluctantly instructed Walton to take Gilbert
away from the house to a near-by woods lot that adjoined a cotton field
where other negroes were working and there to "whip him moderately with
switches." Arriving at the woods lot, Gilbert who was described as "a
very stout, strong man, possessed of a most violent and ungovernable
temper," suddenly turned on the overseer and knocked him to the ground.
Walton hastily drew a knife from his pocket, but it was only after a
long and bloody struggle that he succeeded in stabbing the negro
sufficiently to free himself. Jackson was quickly summoned from the
house, and he ordered the wounded slave carried back there where he was
given attention by the family doctor. In spite of this attention,
however, he died the next day.
Jackson was very much upset by the tragic episode and, for some reason,
did not believe the overseer's story of the affray. He not only
discharged the overseer summarily the next morning, but went to
Nashville and swore out a warrant for his arrest on a charge of murder.
The grand jury, however, after hearing all the evidence including the
testimony of a negro eye-witness, discharged Walton on the grounds of
self-defense.
It is characteristic of the nature of the Presidential campaign of 1828
that this incident was taken up by Jackson's political enemies and
tortured into the charge that he had deliberately and heartlessly
encouraged and condoned the murder of one of his defenseless slaves; but
this charge was quickly exploded when Walton, who certainly had no
reason to distort the facts in Jackson's favor, made a sworn public
statement telling just what took place.
Jackson's benevolent attitude toward his slaves was strikingly
illustrated early in 1839 when four of them, including his personal
servant, George, were prosecuted for the alleged murder of another
negro, a slave named Frank belonging to Stockley Donelson. Donelson had
Jackson's four negroes indicted for the murder, but the General rushed
to their defense and successfully engineered their case. The best legal
talent was employed and the General attended court in person every day
while the trial lasted. The affair cost him $1,500 in money, in addition
to his loss of time and injury to his then feeble health, but his
negroes were acquitted and he felt amply repaid.
During Jackson's lifetime, and long afterwards, in Tennessee his
kindness and indulgence in his relations with his slaves were
proverbial. It was a standing joke with the overseers during the days
when he was active in politics and spending much of his time away from
home that whenever he returned and spent much time at the Hermitage he
spoiled the slaves by his leniency to such an extent that it took a good
while to get them back into working shape after he had left. He would
brook no imposition on any of them, and it is recorded that he one day
made a special trip to Lebanon to seek out and thrash a man named
Grayson who had had the temerity to strike with a whip Truxton's black
groom, Ephriam. No wonder the slaves all crowded around him and
literally wept with joy when he returned to the Hermitage in the summer
of 1830, his first visit home after his election to the Presidency.