Of Times and Race: Essays Inspired by John F. Marszalek

1. Slavery, Plantation Life, and Debt in Tennessee and Mississippi: The Example of Andrew Jackson Donelson

3 1. SLAVERY, PLANTATION LIFE, AND DEBT IN TENNESSEE AND MISSISSIPPI The Example of Andrew Jackson Donelson mark r. cheathem as andrew jackson donelson walked along the hushpuckena River bordering his plantation in Bolivar County, Mississippi, he contemplated suicide. It would be so easy to slide into the water, he thought to himself; Elizabeth and the children would undoubtedly be better off.As he later recounted these thoughts to his wife, he assured her that he had been able to shake off his depression by reminding himself that he could still prove“useful to you & the dear children.”Donelson was not able, however, to avoid reminding both himself and Elizabeth that their future depended upon remedying poor decisions that he had made.“Think of nothing but economy and making something,” he wrote his wife.“We are too poor to think of anything but making enough to pay for past follies.”1 Donelson’s admonition to his wife was based on a lifetime of debt and unfulfilled economic success, both linked to his attempts at maintaining a profitable plantation.With his uncle,Andrew Jackson, as his role model, Donelson learned what was expected of him as a member of the southern gentry and a prominent Tennessee family: an honorable reputation; ownership of a plantation and slaves; a public career in the military, law, or politics; and a large family. To some degree, he would obtain all of these expectations, but they were accompanied by significant adversity. His first wife, Emily, would die at age twenty-nine, and several of his children died before reaching adulthood or shortly thereafter. His military and law careers ended before they really began, while his political career, though marked by significant achievements, never reached its full potential. mark r. cheathem 4 Donelson’s attempts to live the life of a southern planter produced some of his deepest disappointments. As successful as his uncle was at being a plantation owner (at least, until Jackson’s adopted son, Andrew Jackson Jr., mucked things up), Donelson was unsuccessful, never mastering his finances. Scholars have previously neglected this particular portion of Donelson’s life, focusing much of their attention on his political career. It seems important, however, to understand how the influence of a mentor and a region spurred a southerner to continue embracing, even defending, slavery and plantation life despite a consistent record of personal failure. For Donelson, slavery was, in many ways, the institution that both allowed him to pursue his political aspirations and distracted him from giving them his full attention. Born in 1799, Donelson grew up in Andrew Jackson’s household after his father, Samuel, who was Rachel Jackson’s brother, died in 1804. As Donelson was growing up, Uncle, as Jackson’s wards called him, provided his nephew with a home and private tutors. When Donelson was old enough,Jackson secured him a spot at the United States Military Academy, and when the cadet graduated second in his class in 1820, Donelson found himself appointed as his uncle’s aide-de-camp. Both uncle and nephew saw little future in the military for the aspiring young man, so they decided that Donelson should attend law school at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Donelson remained there for a short time, but as the 1824 presidential election neared, the two men again made a joint decision ; this time, it was that the nephew should serve the uncle as Jackson positioned himself for the presidency.2 During these years of tutelage, Donelson learned from Jackson many of the principles to which he would hold throughout his life. Jackson was not shy in giving his nephew advice on numerous topics. He periodically encouraged Donelson to improve his writing, attend assiduously to his studies, avoid “the society of the viper or base character” and immoral women, and preserve his honor. Jackson also passed along his political ideology, particularly his support for a republican government, based on the will of the majority of the people, that preserved liberty.3 Donelson also learned from Jackson the importance of slavery in the life of the southern gentry.As a young man on the rise in North Carolina, Jackson had understood the necessity of slave ownership and had acquired his first laborer, a young woman named Nancy, in 1788. By 1794, he owned fifteen, a number that increased to forty-four by 1820. Jackson’s treatment Slavery, Plantation...