banks and slavery--11/4/24

• 0 COMMENTS

Today's selection-- from Banking on Slavery by Sharon Ann Murphy. Evidence of the use of slaves as loan collateral in 1810 by the country’s national bank, its de facto central bank, the Bank of the United States:

"Due to the limited extant documents from these earliest commercial banks, the most ample evidence of banks securing loans with enslaved individuals comes from the closure papers of the first Bank of the United States. When Congress voted not to renew the federal charter for the institution in elder brother of his father, had become the first (and only) Savannah branch bank president when it opened its doors in 1802, and became administrator of his nephew's estate upon John's death. In both April and May 1810, the entire Dean Forest plantation — including one thousand acres of land and several buildings, but only twelve enslaved individuals — was auctioned on behalf of the first Bank. The newspaper advertisements described the estate as an active rice plantation, with about 120 acres suitable for cotton or corn cultivation. Lacking the federal census records for Georgia, it is impossible to know how many enslaved people had once resided on the plantation, yet it certainly was substantially more than the twelve included in the sale. In all likelihood, the family chose to liquidate the land to pay off the debts while dispersing most of the enslaved lives to the surrounding family plantations of Silk Hope and Beverly. The twelve remaining enslaved individuals were either of the estimated value to satisfy the remaining debt, and/or the least desirable of the slaves. 

"Dean Forest with its twelve enslaved individuals presumably found a buyer in that May 1, 1810, auction. It was no longer advertised for sale after that date; there was no entry for John Habersham in the record of branch debts at the bank's closing; and the bank did not include this plantation as part of its final real estate holdings.Two years later, however, the Dean Forest plantation —still 'levied on as the property of john Habersham, dee[ eased]' —was again listed for sale in favor of the bank. Perhaps the original transaction (likely also a credit sale) had fallen through and the bank reclaimed the property once the buyer defaulted. One of the largest bank debtors during this period was branch president (and John's uncle and estate administrator) Joseph Habersham, who owed $26,310 in February 1811; perhaps he had been the purchaser. Regardless of the circumstances, the land alone was now advertised for sale at auction in April, May, and June 1812. The thirteen enslaved people (probably the original twelve along with the child of Belinda), were not again advertised until May, separate from the second sale of the plantation. Of these thirteen, at least ten were female and at least two were children. Only two were clearly male, although their ages are unknown. This severe gender imbalance implies that these enslaved people were selected for sale because they were less valuable to the Habersham family on the neighboring plantations. It also implies that the sale broke up several enslaved families at Dean Forest. 

"While the Dean Forest sale involved the liquidation of an estate, the bank also foreclosed on the property of delinquent living debtors. Lewis Johnston of Savannah discounted several notes with the national branch of that city, endorsed by Samuel Howard and James Johnston Jr. The latter two men had both been elected members of the bank's board of directors in 1803; James Johnston remained a director in 1810. By January 1810, Lewis Johnston owed the branch $12,514—40 including accrued interest, 'the payment of which note is secured by a bond & mortgage by Lewis Johnston & Wife on Twenty three Negroes to said Cashier.' Additionally, Howard and James Johnston put up 'the residue of Fifty one Negroes after certain payments made as expressed in such conveyance to the Cashier.' Six months later, the bank began trying to sell this property to pay off the debt, starting with the 'old coffee-house wharf.' Not finding a suitable buyer, the bank purchased the wharf property itself, valuing it on its books at $4,000.83 But the bank waited another year to foreclose on any more of Johnston's property, deciding instead 'to indulge him' until the bank's liquidation forced the sale. Howard, as an aggrieved endorser, later complained that 'in the mean time' Johnston's property 'depreciated much.'

"During the summer of 1811, bank president David Lenox finally advertised Nanny, Elsey, Jimmy and Dora for sale at the courthouse in Savannah. That same day, another sale took place about sixty miles to the south 'at the Market-house in Darien'' of Johnston's plantation in McIntosh county, consisting of 498 acres and nineteen enslaved lives. The Darien sheriff also auctioned off separately another 'Twenty-seven NEGROES, now in the possession of Mr. Lewis Johnston, conveyed to the late Bank of the United States by James Johnston and Samuel Howard—terms of sale, cash.' The records do not indicate who purchased these three lots of enslaved people, or if they were further separated, but Howard later claimed that 'much of it was bought by the Bank.' In addition to being an endorser on Johnston's notes, Samuel Howard was also separately indebted to the bank for approximately $34,770.71, which also remained outstanding as the War of 1812 broke out."

author:	Sharon Ann Murphy
title:	Banking on Slavery: Financing Southern Expansion in the Antebellum United States (American Beginnings, 1500-1900)
publisher:	University of Chicago Press
pages:	30-35