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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Commodification, Slavery UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Commodification, Slavery, Credit and the Law in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1780-1830 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In History By Elbra Lilli David Dissertation Committee: Professor Steven C. Topik, Chair Professor Alice Fahs Professor Kenneth Pomeranz 2018 © 2018 Elbra L. David Table of Contents Page List of Tables iv List of Maps v List of Illustrations vi List of Graphs vii Acknowledgements viii Curriculum Vitae ix Abstract x Introduction: Cotton’s Development, the Second Wave of Slavery and the Transnational Context of Credit and Debt in the Lower Mississippi Valley’s Plantation Enclaves 1 The Lower Mississippi Valley’s Emerging Enclaves 13 Natchez, Mississippi 16 New Orleans, Louisiana 19 Planters-as-Merchants and the Commercial World of the United States 23 The Act for the More Easy Recovery of Debts in His Majesty’s Plantations--The Debt Recovery Act of 1732 27 Cotton’s Timeline 34 The Evolution of Banking 44 An Expanding Definition of Wealth, the South as Concept, and the Role of both in the Invisibility of Slavery 48 Historiographic Review 53 Organization of the Dissertation 66 Chapter 1: Atlantic Merchants, Asset Seizures and Legal Disputes in the Integration of the Lower Mississippi, 1790-1820 70 Lex Mercatoria and ‘Preference’ Laws: Preferring ‘Friends’ and Hiding Assets 81 The Law of Nations and Lex Mercatoria 90 Part II 100 Newcombe v. Skipwith, 1810 100 Debora v. Coffin & Wife, 1809 105 Assets and “Forum Shopping:” Aston v. Morgan, 1812 111 The Imposition of Interest Rates in the Lower Mississippi Valley 114 Talcott v. McKibben, 1812 117 Wiltberger v. Edward Randolph, 1818 118 A ‘Tableau of Distribution’ or a Grab for Assets? 120 ii Ramsey v. Stevenson, 1817 120 Conclusion 126 Chapter 2: Entangled Worlds, Entangled Laws: The Fear of Spanish “Despotism” in a Planters Market (after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803) 128 Americanization and the Subtle and Not So Subtle changes to the Credit System 132 Judge James Workman and Liberty in Louisiana (1804) 137 Edward Livingston, Civil Law, and the Americanization of Louisiana 140 Conclusion 145 Chapter 3: Natchez Merchant-Planters, Distant Creditors, and the Micro-Borders of Capital Making Property Productive: Merchant-Planters and the Role Of property Transactions 150 The Natchez District and Patterns of Merchant Investment 155 A Note About the Inter-Relationship between Plantation Size, Debt, and Decision-Making 158 Land, Titles, Location 162 Slaves, Land and Cotton 173 The Deed Registry and Merchant-Planters Transactions 179 Plantations 185 Riverine Properties 196 Natchez Town Lots 207 Conclusion 212 Chapter 4: Credit Instruments and Changing Mercantile Practice in the Natchez District 215 Regional Banking and Private Credit: A Economic Historian’s View 217 Assumpsit Debt in a Transitional Cotton Economy 219 Local Instruments, Merchant-Creditors: A view from the Natchez Court 222 Jonathan Thompson’s Local Sources of Credit 232 Jonathan Thompson and Petty Lending 239 Merchant Practice: Seizures of Property Moved West, and then Trickled-Downward 242 Conclusion 247 Conclusion: 249 Appendix A: Illustrations and Figures 254 Appendix B: Natchez, Mississippi Deed Registry 257 Bibliography 270 iii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 0.1. European and North American Raw Cotton Consumption 42 Table 1.1. Percentage of Louisiana Court Cases Involving Slaves, 1809 – 1820 98 Table 3.1 Dollar Value of Slave and Land Sales, Natchez, Mississippi 174 Table 4.1. Types of Debt Claims filed in 1809, 1820, and 1826. 224 Table 4.2. The Estate of Jonathan Thompson, Deceased: Account with Major James L. Trask, June Term 1824 238 iv List of Maps Page Map 1 Arthur Preston Whitaker’s Map of the Settled Areas and Boundaries between the United States, Spain, and the Native American Tribes, 1795 -1803 x Map 2 Henry Edward Chamber’s Map of West Florida and its Relation to the Historical Cartography of the United States, 1898 101 Map 3 Richard H. Faust’s The Old Natchez Region, 1780-1824 194 Map 4 Bayou Sara and Mississippi River Confluence, Google Maps, 2018 199 v List of Illustrations Page Illustration 1 Map of Fort Rosalie in French Natchez, 1729, 1750 15 Illustration 2 Vue du fort des Natchez sur le Mississippi, engraving, 1826 16 Illustration 3 Plan de la Ville et des faubourgs incorpores de la Nouvelle Orleans, 1870 20 Illustration 4 Plan of the City and Suburbs of New Orleans, engraving, 1815 21 Illustration 5 City of New Orleans and the Mississippi River, 1885 23 Illustration 6 Fulwar Skipwith, 1765-1830 104 vi LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 3.1. Number of Buyers of Property or Mortgagees Natchez, Mississippi. 179 Graph 3.2 Number of Sellers of Property and Mortgagors Natchez, Mississippi 179 Graph 3.3. Location of Buyer and Seller at the time of the Transaction Natchez, Mississippi 182 Graph 3.4. Distribution of River Purchases and Mortgages, 1800 -1801 195 Graph 3.5 St. Catherine’s Creek Prices and Acreage, 1800 – 1801 196 Graph 3.6 Homochitto River Prices and Acreage, 1800 – 1801 197 Graph 3.7 Bayou Sara Prices and Acreage, 1800 -1801 200 Graph 3.8 Types of Property Sold, Auctioned, and Mortgaged, 1815-1817 201 Graph 3.9 Prices Paid for Lands on St. Catherine’s Creek, 1815 -1817 203 Graph 3.10 Prices Paid for Lands on Homochitto River, 1815 – 1817 204 Graph 3.11 Prices for Natchez Town Lots from 1800 and 1801, and 1815 to 1817 208 Graph 4.1 Monetary Values of Debt Cases, 1809 227 Graph 4.2 Monetary Values of Debt Cases, 1820 227 Graph 4.3 Monetary Values of Debt Cases, 1826 228 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I offer my sincere thanks to Steve C. Topik, Alice Fahs and Kenneth Pomeranz, an inspiring cohort of advisors. Steve provided ample doses of reality and encouragement. I thank him for his mentorship and for expecting much of me. It was a pleasure to know that I was writing for mentors I deeply admired. Alice Fahs set the bar high and our meetings were always constructive learning experiences. Learning from Kenneth Pomeranz empowered a reassessment of many of the definitions and notions that had been taken for granted or grew all too familiar. For their assistance in the conceptualization of this study, I offer my thanks to Lauren Benton and Barbara Welke as well as the attendees of the “Law in the History of Capitalism” conference of 2016 of the American Bar Foundation. I offer thanks to the institutions that supported my research: the Institute of New Economic Thinking at Harvard and Tulane University for the study of the Global South. To the faculty at California State University, Northridge, especially Jeffrey Auerbach whose seminars and meetings cultivated a critical historical eye and a strong foundation that aided me throughout my time at UC, Irvine. To Ronald L.F. Davis: the study of “my” merchants began with his adventures in the Delta and this set me on a life-long path of curiosity and the completion of the dissertation. This, however, pales in comparison with his particular brand of support and one that only comes once in a lifetime; I do my best every day to emulate the model of ‘historian’ he has set. He will never know how much he has meant to me. To my husband Steve Salar: Any attempt at comprehensive citation is hopeless. Among his innumerable contributions to this project is his intimate knowledge of corporate America during turbulent times and our conversations about it; they have been greatly outweighed by his patience, love, and generosity of spirit; To my parents: Alex and Vera David, for their unceasing support of me as a professional. viii Curriculum Vitae Elbra L. David 2003 BA in History, California State University, Northridge 2007 MA in Area Studies (U.S. South), California State University, Northridge Thesis Title: “The Role of Credit and Debt Relations in 1820s Natchez, Mississippi” 2018 PhD in History, University of California, Irvine Field of Study Legal Pluralism and Credit Relations in the Lower Mississippi Valley: 1800-1820 Publications “In Pursuit of Their Livelihood: Credit and debt Relations Among Natchez Planters in the 1820s,” eds., Susanna Delfino, Michele Gillespie, and Louis M. Kyriakoudes in Southern Society and Its Transformations, 1790-1860. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2011. Conferences “Atlantic Merchants and Legal Pluralism in the Creation of the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1790- 1820,” Law in the History of Capitalism, American Bar Foundation and the University of Chicago, June, 2016 “The Lower Mississippi Valley as a Nineteenth-Century Anomalous Legal Zone,” Agents, Networks, Institutions and Empires, Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction (FEEGI), Leiden, Netherlands, June, 2015. “Cotton Commodity Chains and Western Development,” encounters, Circulations, and Conflicts, Fourth European Congress on World and Global History (ENIUGH), Paris, France, September, 2014. Oxford Journal Doctoral Colloquium in Business History, Columbus, Ohio, March, 2013. ix ABSTRACT Commodification, Slavery, Credit and the Law in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1780-1830 By Elbra L. David Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Irvine, 2018 Professor Steve C. Topik, Chair This dissertation argues multiple processes in the Delta during the early to mid-nineteenth- century were significantly influenced by the local, national, and international community of merchants and contributed to its early integration into European markets. My central argument is that between the 1790s and 1820s the increased flow of Anglo-American credit and capital created legal issues centered on liability that in turn, made the Delta more open to foreign influence and capital, primarily metropolitan centers in Great Britain and the eastern coasts of the United States. Commercial and legal interests merged throughout the courtrooms of the early republic, and sparked a need to rid the Delta of older Spanish laws and customs.
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