Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 25

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 25

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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He was the candidate of his party for speaker of the house in January, 1833, but withdrew after nine ballots. Nevertheless, he was the prominent figure of a memorable session. As chairman of the committee on the memorials of other States, relating to the conflict between Jackson and Calhoun, he reported resolutions in opposition to the doctrine of nullification and in conformity with the principles of the Whig party.

He was elected speaker of the house in December, 1833, and held that office also in the next session, 1835. He was elected, in 1832, one of the directors of the Planters' bank.

In 1837 he was the only representative of the river counties who voted to admit the new counties to representation. Declaring that he so voted because it was a question of vast and enduring impor- tance, he resigned and went before the people and was defeated. But he was elected to the senate and was president of that body, 1838-39, the office second to that of governor. In 1839 he was the Whig candidate for congress and came near election. After the Whig triumphs of 1837-38, he was proposed as the Whig candidate for United States senator. Bingaman was a famous horse man, and the magnate of the famous St. Catherine race course. In 1843 he advocated payment of the State bonds. He died about 1867.

Binnsville, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern part of Kemper county, 8 miles east of Wahalak the nearest railroad sta- tion on the M. & O. R. R., and about 20 miles northeast of DeKalb the county seat. It lies in a good farming region, has a money order postoffice, several stores, a cotton gin, a church, and a school. Population in 1900, 250.

Birdie, a post-station in the northern part of Quitman county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 10 miles north of Belen, the county seat.

Bishop, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Calhoun county, 8 miles north of Pittsboro, the county seat. Population in 1900, 16.

Bismarck, a post-hamlet in the extreme southern part of Law- rence county, 15 miles south of Monticello, the county seat. It is surrounded by pine forests. Population in 1900, 45.

Blackburn, a station on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., in the southern part of Jones county, 6 miles southwest of Ellisville, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 118.

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Black Code of 1865. A committee of the constitutional conven- tion of August, 1865, (q. v.) reported to the legislature of October, 1865, recommendations of a series of laws that in their opinion seemed expedient in view of the late amendments to the constitu- tion. These amendments abolished slavery and required the legis- lature to pass laws to protect the freedmen in his rights of person and property, and protect society against any evils arising from the change of condition. The work of this committee was the first of the kind in the South-without precedent or guide, except "their own observation and knowledge of the nature, disposition, habits, capacity, condition, weaknesses and necessities of the two races as they now exist in the South." They repudiated the recom- mendations of "those who are grossly ignorant in practical life and minute general observation of what they speak and write and would have us to legislate." They said, "while some of the proposed legislation may seem rigid and stringent to the sickly modern hu- manitarians, they can never disturb, retard or embarrass the good and true, useful and faithful of either race," and if the criminal and penal laws were too stringent for any of either race, "they can flee and take sweet refuge in the more inviting bosom of that State or community who may cherish a more lovely and congenial fellow feeling and agrarian sympathy for that class, and who are better able to spread them feasts and communing sacraments." They denied any feeling of bitterness, but desired no guidance by "the spirit of dictation and distempered intermeddling of those who have no place among us." They believed that "highly penal and firm legislation," executed by fearless, prudent and just officers, would correct the evils, and permit the laws soon to be modified. Their object was to protect the persons and propetry of the freed- men more effectually than ever before, and secure them against imposition, "with a view to their future comfort and indepen- dence."

The governor also made recommendations (see Humphrey's Adm.)

One of the acts passed by the legislature required the probate courts to bind out minor negroes, who were orphans or without means of support, as apprentices, authorized chastisement by mas- ters, and made it a penal offense to persuade apprentices to run away.

An act to confer civil rights on freedmen gave them the right to sue and be sued, conferred the privilege of legal marriage, and legalized the marriages of those who had lived in that relation ;. They were admitted to testify in court, only when they were par-

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ties; they were required to have a lawful home or employment; in towns were required to obtain license to do irregular job work; their contracts for employment were to be enforced against them by civil officers, at their cost. Another law prohibited freedmen from carrying firearms, or any ammunition, or dirk or bowie knife, and heavy fines were provided for riots, cruel treatment to animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, exercising the function of a minister of the gospel without a license from some regularly or- ganized church, etc. It was also enacted that all the laws then in force, constituting the old slave code, "are hereby re-enacted and declared to be in full force and effect, against freedmen, free ne- groes and mulattoes, except in so far as the mode and manner of trial and punishment had been changed or altered by law." In case of failure for five days to pay a fine under this act, for the misdemeanors named, the convict should be hired out at public outcry by the sheriff, to "any white person."

These laws must be taken as representing the views of the ma- jority at that time regarding the necessities of the situation. All felt the necessity of tutelage of the colored race in its transition from slavery to freedom, especially at a time when even white society was more or less disorganized by the habits of war; but there was a wide difference of opinion, not only as to the policy, but the justice and constitutionality of some of these laws. Gover- nor Humphreys had told the legislature, that a denial of the most common privilege of freedom, the right to testify in court in all cases, would make freedmen "an ensnaring delusion-the merest mockery." William L. Sharkey held that emancipation, followed by the action of the Mississippi constitutional convention of 1865, conferred upon the freedmen the rights of litigants and witnesses in court.

The Jackson Clarion pronounced the action of the legislature "unfortunate," and hoped there was sufficient patriotism and wis- dom to correct the mistake. Judge Campbell, who was one of the first circuit judges to admit negro testimony said some of the acts of the legislature were foolish; Judge Watson declared the law- makers went "entirely too far;" the Columbus Sentinel spoke of a "shallow-headed majority" in the legislature anxious to make cap- ital at home, a set of political Goths," who had injured the for- tunes of the whole South "by their folly."

In the North, these laws aroused a storm of disapproval. Even such a devoted friend of the South as S. S. Cox was surprised that "the intelligent men of Mississippi could have persuaded them-

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selves, after the terrible experience through which they had passed, that the triumphant North, now thoroughly imbued with the anti- slavery sentiment, would for a moment tolerate this new slave code." In the United States congress these laws and similar ones in other States were cited as showing the necessity for immediate enfranchisement of the colored people. (See Garner's "Recon- struction," 112-19).

A discussion of these laws, in support of the conclusion that they did not seek to perpetuate slavery and were not prompted by hatred of the negro, nor by fear of insurrection, is contained in the article "Legal Status of Freedmen," by A. H. Stone, (Miss. Hist. Publ. IV, 143-226), also extracts from the exposition of the code by General George, in 1875 (Weekly Clarion, Sept. 15), in which he compared the laws to those of the Northern States, the legislation of the United States preparatory to emancipation, and the example of Great Britain when she abolished slavery in the West Indies, and contended that, as a whole, the code was more moderate in its character, securing greater and more substantial rights to the freedmen, and within a shorter period, than the legislation attend- ing emancipation in the previous century in many of the Northern States.

The legislature of 1866 repealed the poll tax on negroes, and the remainder of the laws were repealed by the legislature of 1870, after reconstruction.

Blackhawk, an incorporated post-town, in the south central part of Carroll county, on Abiaca creek, 18 miles southeast of Green- wood, and 20 miles west of Vaiden. It was named for a Choctaw Indian chief. It has an academy, two churches, a flouring mill, a carriage shop, etc. A branch of the Merchant's and Farmer's Bank of Lexington, Miss., is located here. Its population in 1900 was 127.

Black, John, was born and reared in Virginia, received a liberal education and taught school for a few years; studied law and be- gan the practice in Louisiana whence he moved to Mississippi. On January 12, 1826, he was elected judge of the Fourth circuit and supreme court, to succeed Powhatan Ellis, gaining this election by a majority of one on the fourth ballot, over Isaac Caldwell whom Governor Leake had appointed ad interim, and Walter M. Denny. Upon the resignation of Powhatan Ellis from the United States senate, in 1832, the governor appointed him to fill that vacancy, and this was unanimously confirmed by the legislature in January following. He was also a candidate for the full term

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following, against James C. Wilkins and P. R. R. Pray, and the contest resulted in a deadlock. Finally being elected, he served until the expression of dissatisfaction of his course of opposition to Jackson's administration, in which course he was in accord with Poindexter and Cage.

In January, 1835, the House adopted resolutions that Black had been elected on a pledge that he would support Andrew Jackson, in opposition to the Bank of the United States, "prodigal expendi- tures" for internal improvement, and a protective tariff. But Black had voted for the resolution of censure; therefore, it was the opinion of the House that he had "unfaithfully represented" the people, and that it was his obligation to resign, which he was in- vited to do. This passed, 38 to 13.

He resigned in 1838, resumed the practice of law, and died at Winchester, Va., August 29, 1854.

Blackland, a post-hamlet in the western part of Prentiss county, 6 miles west of Booneville, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 25.

Black Legs. This word, now used in a general sense, once had a special signification, associated peculiarly with the history of "Natchez-Under-the-Hill." In the travels of Tyrone Power (re- printed in the Jackson Freetrader, 1836) it is said: "The impunity with which professed gamblers carry on their trade, and the course of crime consequent upon it, throughout these southern countries, is one of the most crying evils existing in this society. The Legs are associated in gangs, have a system perfectly organized, and possess a large capital invested in this pursuit. They are seldom alone, always armed to the teeth, bound to sustain each other, and hold life at a pin's fee. Upon the banks of these great waters they most commonly rendezvous, and not a steamboat stirs from any quarter, but one of the gang proceeds on board, in some guise or other. . Thus every passenger's business and means be- come known-no difficult matter among people whose nature is singularly simple and frank." Planters reaching New Orleans or other ports to settle for their exports, were very often led into some sort of trap for gambling or robbery. Murder was resorted to without scruple when necessary. Partly through custom, partly through fear, and partly through a mistaken sense of honor among the victims, the organization thrived unchecked for many years. See John A. Murel.

Blackmonton, a post-hamlet in the southern part, of Carroll county, 14 miles south of Carrollton, the county seat. Vaiden is

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the nearest railroad and banking town. It has a money order post- office. Population in 1900, 54.

Blackwater, a post-hamlet in the extreme northern part of Lafayette county, situated on Blackwater creek, an affluent of the Tallahatchie river, 15 miles northwest of Oxford, the county seat. Abbeville station on the I. C. R. R. is the nearest railroad town.

Blaine, a postoffice of Sunflower county.

Blands, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Lafayette county, on Otcopotee creek, distant about 18 miles from Oxford. Population in 1900, 52.

Blanton, a post-station in the southwestern part of Sharkey county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 12 miles south of Rolling Fork, the county seat. Population in 1906, 40.

Bledsoe, Albert Taylor, was born in Kentucky in 1808; became professor of mathematics in Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1833 ; filled the same position at Miami University for some years ; began the practice of law at Springfield, Ill., 1840; was elected to the chair of mathematics and astronomy of the University of Mis- sissippi in 1848, and in 1854, to the chair of mathematics in the University of Virginia.

During the war he was for a while assistant secretary of war in the Confederate government, and after the war he became editor of the Southern Review at Baltimore. He died in 1877. He is the author of "Theodicy, or Vindication of the Divine Glory," and oth- er works. "He was not a mathematician merely, but a philosopher also, and was deeply learned in both political and theological science. Lamar acknowledged a debt to him of great service in mental training." (Mayes' Lamar, 57).

Blennerhassett, Harmon. See Burr Expedition. After the trea- son trials at Richmond Harmon Blennerhassett and his wife Mar- garet returned to Natchez, and on February 10, 1810, bought a plantation of one thousand acres on a branch of Bayou Pierre, seven miles southeast of Port Gibson, for $4,000, of Drury W. Brezeale. The title was based on a Spanish grant of 1795. Blen- nerhassett built a house here, not as extensive as his famous island home in the Ohio, and to this new residence he gave the significant title of "La Caché." His financial ruin, growing out of the Burr experience, compelled him to mortgage the place to Lyman Har- ding four years later, and four years after that, there was a forced sale of the plantation and eighteen slaves for $25,000. Ira M. Bos- well, writing in 1903, gives reasons for believing that the house

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then standing was built by Blennerhassett. (M. H. S., VII, 316). Blannerhassett was a man of prominence during the war of 1813, superintending the erection of stockade forts. He seemed to be involved in trouble with his neighbors frequently, and the second case decided by the supreme court of the State was his appeal from a fine of $800 against himself and $200 against his son Dominic for a deadly assault upon John Hays. On this charge he was in jail at Port Gibson four days, and was tried at Greenville. He ap- pealed to the legislature for relief from the fine in 1819, but without success, although there was evidence that he had serious provoca- tion. He and his wife were highly educated, of good families, and quite independent of local customs in their manner of life. "He loved his books and brought them into the wilderness with him." Some time in 1819 the family left Mississippi. He died on the isle of Guernsey in 1831; his wife, (an Emmet), died at New York in 1842; the eldest son, Dominic, disappeared; the second. son, Harmon, died at New York in 1854; the third son, Joseph Lewis, died in Lincoln county, Mo., in 1862. (Miss. Archives).

Blind, Institute for. The Blind institute originated in the ef- forts of James Champlin, a blind philanthropist of Sharon, Miss., who visited the legislature in 1846, with a young woman he had instructed, and made an appeal for State aid. He was advised to make a test of what could be done through private support first, and a school was begun in March, 1847; P. Lane, a graduate of the New York institution, being employed by Champlin as instructor. A frame building on North street, Jackson, was the home of the institution. In commenting upon the report of the superintendent in 1870, Mrs. Sarah B. Merrill, Governor Alcorn said that the system upon which the asylum had been conducted omitted all training in handicraft, turned the pupils out without a means of livelihood, and made the institution a burden to the State, when it might yield a profit over expenses.

In 1881, a new large brick structure was commenced on North State street and this has provided quarters for the school up to the present time. The children are given industrial training besides literary and musical instruction. All grades are taught beginning with the kindergarten. Broom-making, mattress-making, cane- seating of chairs, etc. are taught to the boys, and the girls learn sewing, knitting, crocheting and bead work, besides other house- hold arts. The library contains nearly 1,000 volumes, the music rooms are well equipped and every method known to modern science is employed to broaden the blind child's field of usefulness. The'

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number of students varies. The report of the institution for 1900 gives 48 pupils. No expenditure of public funds can add more to the happiness of the people than the provision for the deaf and blind, to whom education is just as much of a boon, as to those more favored children who can procure it with less effort.

Blount Conspiracy. "The so-called Blount conspiracy must be considered in relation to the designs of France upon Louisiana; the attitude of the Tory settlers at Natchez and the retention of the Spanish posts upon the Mississippi; England's war with Spain and her attitude toward the Mississippi valley from 1795 to 1798; Pitt's negotiations with Miranda, and the latter's overtures to Adams, Hamilton, etc .; and the critical relations of the United States with France during Adams' administration."-[Prof. F. J. Turner, introduction to Documents on the Blount conspiracy, in Amer. Hist. Review, Apr. 1905]. This comment serves to sug- gest the intricate nature of the western intrigues from 1783 to 1798, among which the Blount conspiracy is famous for being ex- ploited in politics. It is to be considered also that Natchez, the most remote and most important outpost of Americans in the west, shared this complexity of interests. The inhabitants were partly "Tories," using that word in its historical sense, partly "Patriots," partly devoted to the Spanish interest, some working for Georgia government, some hopeful of the United States, some desiring separation from the United States, all under Spanish government and bound by oath of allegiance to His Catholic Majesty, and de- pending for a market upon British and French merchants.

Great Britain, as well as Spain, had maintained military posts since 1783 within the limits assigned to the United States, and as- serted the right to treat with the Indians as independent nations, free to pledge their allegiance to European kings. Happily for the United States the foreign powers were jealous of each other re- garding the disposition of the West. In 1788 there was a curious clash of British and Spanish agents in Kentucky. Colonel Con- nelly, a Tory frontiersman during the Revolution, came down from Detroit by trail and canoe through the Indian country to promise the restless and discontented that, if they wished to aban- don the weak American government, and do something effectual to open the Mississippi to free trade, the governor of Canada would furnish military supplies and equipments for 10,000 men, and de- liver the goods from Detroit on the Ohio river. When the Ken- tucky army was ready to move, a fleet from Jamaica would sail against New Orleans. Connelly confided this to James Wilkinson,

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a Revolutionary officer who lived then at Lexington, holding the office of judge and doing business as a river trader and speculator. Very soon afterward Connelly was frightened by the menaces of an old frontiersman who remembered him as the instigator of In- dian massacres, whereupon Judge Wilkinson kindly put the Brit- ish envoy under the protection of the sheriff, and, to save his life, gave him an escort across the Ohio river and godspeed back to Detroit. After which the judge wrote a report of the affair to Governor Miro, at New Orleans, from whom he drew a salary as secret agent of Spain for the promotion of the secession of Ken- tucky. The judge had hired the backwoodsman to make the at- tack. Spain, also, disposed of William Augustus Bowles, a re- markable character who worked among the Creek Indians, claim- ing to have a British commission. Twice he was arrested, once shipped to Spain on the vessel that carried Governor Miro, and the last time lodged in Moro castle at Havana. Before the British influence was eliminated by the Jay treaty and the treaty of Green- ville, French agents were agitating the frontier to make war on the Spanish, in the hope of an alliance between France and the United States against Spain and England, and the redemption of French Louisiana. But, under the guidance of George Washing- ton, the United States held to the policy of the treaty makers of 1783, an independent friendship with England. France became un- friendly toward the United States and made an alliance with Spain; the French filibustering schemes subsided, and the British plans for invading Louisiana from Canada were revived. Gen. Jean Victor Collot, (q. v.) a French emissary who had started out before the situation of 1796-97 had developed, was at Natchez in October, 1796, when, he says in his Journal, he told Gayoso of a British and American plot he had discovered. It was not known, of course, that a year before, in October, 1795, the British govern- ment had instructed General Simcoe, of Canada, to make a secret investigation, without giving any suspicion to Spain or commit- ting Great Britain to the United States government, as to whether the Kentucky and other border people were yet so jealous of Span- ish control of the river "as would be likely to animate them to an immediate co-operation with this country" in case of war with Spain. It may be supposed that confidential knowledge of this policy induced Mr. Liston, the British minister at Philadelphia, to consider seriously, in November, 1796, the proposition of John D. Chisolm, a sturdy adventurer who came to the United States with the British army, took refuge with the Indians when Florida

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was ceded to Spain, became a trader in the Holston settlement, and served William Blount when the latter was territorial gover- nor. Chisolm had escorted a party of Indian chiefs to Philadelphia and also brought a petition signed by about twenty-five British subjects among the Indians, asking naturalization and favors. Be- ing received coldly, he thought, for a man of his service under Blount, he sought Minister Liston and unfolded a plan of attack on the Spanish possessions. Liston wrote to London that Chisolm told him "there are settled among these tribes from a thousand to fifteen hundred white inhabitants, principally British subjects, at- tached to their country and sovereign, and ready to enter into a plan for a recovery of the Floridas to Great Britain." Chisolm, also, (in his own words), "communicated the plan to Col. William Blount, [then U. S. senator from Tennessee,] who immediately agreed to give all his aid and influence." Two months later Chisolm was sent to London by Liston. But Collot appeared on the scene and informed the Spanish minister, Yrujo, of a projected invasion from Canada, against the posts upon which he (Collot) had been spying in view of a French attack. He also volunteered a plan of defense of the Mississippi river, that is of interest for comparison with the plans of 1861-63. He would reinforce the military strength of St. Louis with the garrisons of L'anse a la Graisse (New Madrid) and Ecores á Margot, Chickasaw Bluffs), and even those of New Gales (Nogales) and the Post of Arkansas, leaving the defense of the lower region to the Indians. By this plan, he said, the Louisiana government could "reinforce the posts of New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Silenque-Mines, and others, with the militia of the Natchez (the greater part of the inhabitants of the Natchez is composed of old Tysdesers-unis, devoted to the English) and of Pointe Coupée and the Carolinas." [What is meant by Tysdesers- unis and Silenque-Mines is problematical. The translation is from a copy.] Collot also furnished the deposition of Mitchell, of Ten- nessee, (the same man who informed the governor at Natchez of the French plot in 1793), that Chisolm had enrolled a thousand Tennesseans to attack the posts of Baton Rouge, Nogales and Chickasaw Bluffs; had secured the assistance of the Creeks and Cherokees ; had "obtained a list of fifteen hundred Tories or Eng- lish loyalists of the Natchez, who had agreed to take up arms in favor of the English, whenever they appear to attack lower Louis- iana and march on Santa Fe"; that six cannon formerly intended for use by Genet's expedition were ready on the Tennessee river ; that the Americans would rendezvous at Knoxville, July 1; that

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 25

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1030

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030