Andrew Jackson, Southerner

VI: “Ten Dollars Extra, for Every Hundred Lashes”

49 VI “Ten Dollars Extra, for Every Hundred Lashes” While violence and controversy marked Jackson’s public career during the late 1790s and early 1800s, his private life was less volatile, although not always free from conflict. He spent a great deal of his time trying his hand at the mercantile business. He also pursued the life of a gentleman-planter, which required increasing the number of slaves he owned. This growing slave community posed its own problems, as the enslaved challenged Jackson ’s patriarchal authority. Concomitant with these financial interests, he extended his kinship network, giving himself the opportunity to identify potential heirs to whatever success he might attain. In 1796 the Jacksons moved to Hunter’s Hill, a tract of 640 acres on the Cumberland River originally owned by Lewis Robards. Eight years later Jackson sold the land to Virginian Edward Ward for ten thousand dollars and purchased from Nathaniel Hays 425 acres to the south that formed the basis of his future home and plantation, the Hermitage. Unlike the modern mansion that one associates with the Hermitage, the original house on the land was a simple two-story log building, with other smaller cabins nearby for visitors and slaves.1 Jackson sold Hunter’s Hill in part to pay off creditors in Philadelphia for the lingering debts from the Allison fiasco, as well as the dissolved partnership with John Hutchings and Thomas Watson the previous year. A new partnership with Hutchings and John Coffee, formed in April 1804, was more financially successful. Stores at Clover Bottom, Gallatin, and Lebanon, as well as Muscle Shoals, Alabama, offered dry goods, foodstuffs , gunpowder, and boats in exchange for cash crops (especially cotton ), meat, and furs.2 While mercantile activity took up some of Jackson’s time, farming remained central to his financial existence. He continued to buy and sell slaves, purchasing at least fifteen and selling at least seven. Some of these slaves left a more substantial record than others, although their escape 50 | Andrew Jackson, Southerner from historical anonymity depended solely upon their importance in either benefiting or exasperating Jackson.3 Dinwiddie (sometimes spelled Dunwoody) was one such example. He was in his early thirties when his owner, John Verrell, sold him to Jackson for eight hundred dollars. Dinwiddie was a noted horse trainer and caretaker to whom Jackson entrusted his stables for the next four decades. In 1810 Dr. William Purnell, one of the original white settlers of the Cumberland region, accused Dinwiddie of poisoning one of his horses. Jackson wanted to know in exact detail how the horse had acted before it died, what it ate, and the conclusions of the doctor who examined its corpse. “If the horse was poisoned,” he wrote, “the villain that did it ought to & must be punished.” If Dinwiddie had been falsely blamed, however, the accuser “deserves punishment.” Purnell denied accusing Dinwiddie of the act, even enclosing an affidavit from an alleged witness to his statements that supported his claim. Jackson let the matter drop. His defense of Dinwiddie was notable for its plea for “innocence[,] that even on [of] a slave.”4 While Jackson valued Dinwiddie because of his experience with horses, other slaves gave him nothing but headaches, such as Tom Gid, who ran away in June 1804. In a September newspaper advertisement announcing a fifty-dollar reward for returning him, Jackson described Tom as a “mulatto . . . about thirty years old.” Just over six feet tall, “stout made and active,” he had a stooped walk and “a remarkable large foot.” Jackson also noted that he “talks sensible” and probably portrayed himself as a free man, as he had procured papers showing himself as such. He believed that Tom was headed for Detroit. In addition to the reward, Jackson offered “ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred” if Tom was caught outside of Tennessee. A resident of the Indiana Territory believed that he had found Tom the following winter, but whether it actually was him is unclear.5 George and Osten, two other runaway slaves, also cost Jackson time and effort. George and his wife, Moll, had been bequeathed to Rachel in her father’s estate. George had previously run away and had been able to pass as a free black. In 1804 the thirty-five-year-old man “enticed away” Osten, who was “a little darker” than his fellow fugitive. They passed through Hartford, Kentucky, before...