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Authors: Sally Jenkins
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largest cotton producer of all, shipping 535.1 million pounds of it to market. It seemed as though entire portions of the state, especially the soil-rich delta, were covered by harrowed rows worked by hoe gangs, hunching over the green, foot-high plants that blossomed with bolls, the dauby, gauzy stuff that was the fiber of the South. A visitor to the state saw “nothing but fields of mimic snow.”
Thanks to King Cotton, the slave population had exploded. Of the 4 million slaves in America on the eve of the war, 1 million had been sold south into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas between 1820 and 1860, to the tune of half a billion dollars. The slave trade constituted a larger piece of the American economy than even the railroads or manufacturing. In Natchez the mansions were the size of villas, their walls lined with art by French masters. There were 436,631 human chattels toiling in Mississippi, and their prices rose with cotton. A single field hand in the 1850s was worth anywhere from $1,100 to $1,800—roughly $75,000 to $135,000 in today’s value. “My grandfather had one he gave $10 a pound for,” recalled Ben Graves. “Bought him by weight.”
In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted journeyed through Mississippi as part of an extended tour of the South and filed a series of roving reports for the
New York Times.
In one exchange, he asked a Woodville, Mississippi, innkeeper what sort of country it was.
“Big plantations, sir. Nothing else. Aristocrats.”
Olmsted asked how rich were the people he spoke of.
“Why, sir, from a hundred thousand to ten million.”
“Do you mean that between here and Natchez there are none worth less than a hundred thousand dollars?”
“No sir, not beyond the ferry. Why, any sort of plantation is worth a hundred thousand dollars. The niggers would sell for that.”
Jackie’s fortune had come in part through some light slave trading. In 1840, he was still just a pioneer homesteader with land valued at a few hundred dollars, but he rapidly amassed wealth over the next twenty years, until by 1860 his personal estate was worth more than $25,000 ($1.9 million in today’s currency). According to Knight family slave Martha Wheeler, Jackie “never was a big slave owner but he made much money trafficking in slaves.” His holdings were so considerable that when his children married, his traditional wedding gift to each of them was a
pair
of slaves. Chattels were the ultimate measure of a man’s status in Mississippi. A common way of inquiring as to someone’s worth and social standing was to ask, “Have they any Negroes?”
Jackie was status conscious: his home was sophisticated for the area, made of good timbers with plastered indoor walls, and had two large front parlors, the sign of someone interested in showing his gracious accommodations to the public. He kept his cash and valuable papers in an iron trunk that was apparently a family heirloom from England, and he also had linens, tablecloths of velvet and silk, tableware, china, and silverware, as well as a fine buggy. Most rare, he had two cases of books. He was a man of some education, and his children could read and write.
But Newton Knight grew up in a home much plainer than that of his grandfather, with his cutlery, books, and house slaves. His father Albert expressly chose to belong to the yeoman rather than planter class, supporting his family as a tanner and a single-handed farmer. Born in 1799 in Georgia, Albert was a grown man when his family arrived in the Piney Woods, and by 1822, he had established enough of a stake to sign his own name to the petition that led to the formation of Jones County. But he remained a modest dirt farmer whose acreage was worth just $900 by 1860. In contrast, his socially aspiring younger brother Jesse Davis Knight by the age of just thirty-nine had amassed acreage worth $3,000 and a personal estate worth $8,900.
While his siblings received gifts and deeds of chattel from
Thanks to King Cotton, the slave population had exploded. Of the 4 million slaves in America on the eve of the war, 1 million had been sold south into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas between 1820 and 1860, to the tune of half a billion dollars. The slave trade constituted a larger piece of the American economy than even the railroads or manufacturing. In Natchez the mansions were the size of villas, their walls lined with art by French masters. There were 436,631 human chattels toiling in Mississippi, and their prices rose with cotton. A single field hand in the 1850s was worth anywhere from $1,100 to $1,800—roughly $75,000 to $135,000 in today’s value. “My grandfather had one he gave $10 a pound for,” recalled Ben Graves. “Bought him by weight.”
In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted journeyed through Mississippi as part of an extended tour of the South and filed a series of roving reports for the
New York Times.
In one exchange, he asked a Woodville, Mississippi, innkeeper what sort of country it was.
“Big plantations, sir. Nothing else. Aristocrats.”
Olmsted asked how rich were the people he spoke of.
“Why, sir, from a hundred thousand to ten million.”
“Do you mean that between here and Natchez there are none worth less than a hundred thousand dollars?”
“No sir, not beyond the ferry. Why, any sort of plantation is worth a hundred thousand dollars. The niggers would sell for that.”
Jackie’s fortune had come in part through some light slave trading. In 1840, he was still just a pioneer homesteader with land valued at a few hundred dollars, but he rapidly amassed wealth over the next twenty years, until by 1860 his personal estate was worth more than $25,000 ($1.9 million in today’s currency). According to Knight family slave Martha Wheeler, Jackie “never was a big slave owner but he made much money trafficking in slaves.” His holdings were so considerable that when his children married, his traditional wedding gift to each of them was a
pair
of slaves. Chattels were the ultimate measure of a man’s status in Mississippi. A common way of inquiring as to someone’s worth and social standing was to ask, “Have they any Negroes?”
Jackie was status conscious: his home was sophisticated for the area, made of good timbers with plastered indoor walls, and had two large front parlors, the sign of someone interested in showing his gracious accommodations to the public. He kept his cash and valuable papers in an iron trunk that was apparently a family heirloom from England, and he also had linens, tablecloths of velvet and silk, tableware, china, and silverware, as well as a fine buggy. Most rare, he had two cases of books. He was a man of some education, and his children could read and write.
But Newton Knight grew up in a home much plainer than that of his grandfather, with his cutlery, books, and house slaves. His father Albert expressly chose to belong to the yeoman rather than planter class, supporting his family as a tanner and a single-handed farmer. Born in 1799 in Georgia, Albert was a grown man when his family arrived in the Piney Woods, and by 1822, he had established enough of a stake to sign his own name to the petition that led to the formation of Jones County. But he remained a modest dirt farmer whose acreage was worth just $900 by 1860. In contrast, his socially aspiring younger brother Jesse Davis Knight by the age of just thirty-nine had amassed acreage worth $3,000 and a personal estate worth $8,900.
While his siblings received gifts and deeds of chattel from
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