The Life and Wars of Gideon J. Pillow

8. Palace of Fire

8 Pillow involved himself more and more in the life and politics of Arkansas. As a conduit to the Pierce administration, he was appealed to by Democrats across the state for endorsements. He appeared at Democratic rallies in eastern Arkansas, often on the platform in Helena with Jacob Thompson and Gov. Joseph Mathews of Mississippi, J. R. McClanahan, editor of the Memphis Daily Appeal, Sen. William K. Sebastian of Arkansas, and two younger political aspirants, Thomas C. Hindman and Patrick R. Cleburne. Indeed, Cleburne credited Pillow with having intervened at his request in a threatened duel between Hindman and a Whig lawyer. Pillow left his 8 Palace of Fire Pillow involved himself more and more in the life and politics of Arkansas. As a conduit to the Pierce administration, he was appealed to by Democrats across the state for endorsements. He appeared at Democratic rallies in eastern Arkansas, often on the platform in Helena with Jacob Thompson and Gov. Joseph Mathews of Mississippi, J. R. McClanahan, editor of the Memphis Daily Appeal, Sen. William K. Sebastian of Arkansas, and two younger political aspirants, Thomas C. Hindman and Patrick R. Cleburne. Indeed, Cleburne credited Pillow with having intervened at his request in a threatened duel between Hindman and a Whig lawyer. Pillow left his Mound Plantation, came into Helena and managed to "have the duel called off without damage to the honor of either lawyer." 1 Pillow owned a small empire in eastern Arkansas, primarily five plantations in Phillips County, with smaller holdings to the southwest in Drew County. In St. Francis County he had "three unimproved tracts," mostly swamp land that yielded great quantities of choice, marketable cypress. He had begun purchasing Arkansas land about 1840, and following his return from Mexico, he and his brother Jerome continued to invest heavily there. Pillow himself liked Arkansas and believed in its future. During the 1850S he spent three or four months a year in the state. All the while he continued to buy more land and slaves. He wrote George Cadwalader in 1855, "My plantations in Arkansas . . . at fair market prices, would be estimated at about $500,000."2 As in Maury, intervention by state government greatly aided Pillow 's efforts. Beginning in 1849, federal enactments gave Arkansas over eight million acres of swamp and overflow land near the Mississippi to assist the state in the development of its resources. The sale of this land supplied Arkansas with money which it used to issue scrip for the construction of levees. Pillow benefited from these laws, as did railroad companies, using these inducements to acquire land. He himself spent thousands of dollars building miles of levees which, of course, enhanced the value of Mound Plantation on the St. Francis River and his other holdings acquired under the Swamp Lands Acts.3 By 1855 Pillow owned 3,825 acres and 120 slaves in Phillips County alone. Most of his land was in cotton, although he had fields of corn and orchards and perhaps had planted some rice. Boom times continued as cotton prices surged in the late 1850s. Phillips had become the leading slave county in Arkansas; more slaves lived in the county than whites. Slave owners prospered enormously as their slaves and land rapidly increased in value. Four years later, in 1859, the year of the bumper cotton crop, Pillow owned 6,788 acres in Phillips, with 160 slaves assessed for tax purposes at $750 each. By 1860 the number of slaves had grown to 221. It has been estimated that Pillow spent $18,900 during this period to purchase new slaves for Mound Plantation-a sizable outlay for the time. By late 1860 Pillow was buying slaves in great numbers. In December of that year he purchased eighty-five slaves from John A. Pointer in Tennessee for $lO9,200. They were to be taken to his plantations in Arkansas.4 Even before purchasing these slaves from Pointer, however, Pillow was becoming 142 : Palace ofFire Mound Plantation, came into Helena and managed to "have the duel called off without damage to the honor of either lawyer." 1 Pillow owned a small empire in eastern Arkansas, primarily five plantations in Phillips County, with smaller holdings to the southwest in Drew County. In St. Francis County he had "three unimproved tracts," mostly swamp land that yielded great quantities of choice, marketable cypress. He had begun purchasing Arkansas land about 1840, and following his return from Mexico, he and his brother Jerome continued to invest...