Freedom Center Journal Freedom Center Journal
Volume 2015 Issue 1 Article 3
2015
The John W. Anderson Slave Pen The John W. Anderson Slave Pen
Carl B. Westmoreland
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj
Part of the Law and Race Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Legal History Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Westmoreland, Carl B. (2015) "The John W. Anderson Slave Pen,"
Freedom Center Journal
: Vol. 2015: Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj/vol2015/iss1/3
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and
Publications. It has been accepted for inclusion in Freedom Center Journal by an authorized editor of University of
Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications. For more information, please contact
THE
JOHN
W.
ANDERSON SLAVE
PEN
Carl
B.
Westmoreland
At the end
of
18th
century America, a series
of
events occurred that
forever changed the economic and political status
of
white Americans.
These changes were heavily influenced by the transportation
of
blacks to
this country, the circumstances surrounding their enslavement, and the
increasing demand for cotton. America's founders prohibited the
importation
of
enslaved Africans into the United States at the
1787
Constitutional Convention. This prohibition, however, occurred at a time
when America was expanding and additional labor was necessary. The
invention
of
the cotton gin in
1793
increased the amount
of
market ready
cotton. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the
size
of
the United States,
which meant more fertile soil for cotton production via slave labor. These
major changes in the American economy meant
that white Americans had
to continue slave operations in a way
that complied with the prohibition
against importing slaves.
Slaves were needed to
fulfill
the labor needs
of
the
new
land and
King Cotton.
1
Due to the aforementioned prohibition, a lucrative business
of
moving slaves from the Old South to Louisiana Territory began.
2
Slave
dealers from
New
York City,
New
York, Perth Amboy,
New
Jersey,
Baltimore, Maryland, Alexandria, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, and
Charleston, South Carolina initiated the process
of
relocating more
than 1
million slaves, a process now known as the Internal Slave Trade. Lines
of
enslaved men, women, and children were marched down Pennsylvania
t Senior Advisor at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
1
King Cotton
is
a term people used to describe the economic and political
power cotton production had on the national and international economy prior to
the Civil War. Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates
is
one
of
many scholars
who remind us that by 1830, cotton was America's leading export
(See Gates Jr.,
Henry Louis,
"Why
was Cotton
'King'?",
The Root,
http://www.theroot.com/articles/historv/2013/02/why was cotton king.htm I);
"King Cotton," Encyclopedia Britannica Online, available
at,
http://www.britannica.com/event/King-Cotton; See also, "History
of
Lehman
Brothers: Laying the Foundation," Harvard Business School, Baker Library
Historical Collections, http://www. I ibrary .hbs.edu/hc/lehman/history .htm
I.
2
Whitney Plantation, http://www.whitneyplantation.com/the-domestic-slave-
trade.html.
9
1
Westmoreland: The John W. Anderson Slave Pen
Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications, 2015
10
The
Freedom Center Journal [Issues 1&2
Avenue
in
Washington,
D.C.
to
the boats that moved
them
to
the
Port
of
New Orleans
and
sometimes
to
Texas via
the
Atlantic
Ocean.
Many
slaves
were
also
relocated
by
the
Mississippi River
from
New
Orleans,
nortl1
to
the
Red River
to
Texas
to
plow,
plant, and harvest Virginia
was
the largest
contributor
to
the
trafficking
of
Black people
for
the
purposes
of
slave
labor
and
property
interests.
3
A continuous chained ribbon
of
Black
people
were
marched west
to
Wheeling,
Virginia (now
West
Virginia),
where
they
joined
the
slaves
being transported
by
river
fleet
from
Maryland.
From
there,
they
were
taken down the
Ohio
River
to
Kentucky,
Tennessee, and
Missouri.
One
man particularly involved in the
Internal
Slave
Trade
was
John
W.
Anderson.
He
was a Virginian who
had
moved
from
Amelia
County, Virginia
to
Maysville, Kentucky.
In
the
1800
Kentucky
Census
he
and seven
of
his
siblings
appear on
tax records
in
Mason
County,
Kentucky.
4
In
1812,
Anderson was
listed
as
a member
of
the
Mason
County
Militia.
5
Listed
along him
was
his
neighbor, Thomas
Marshall,
who
would become Anderson's business associate and
who
was
also
first
cousin
to
U.
S.
Supreme Court
Justice,
John
Marshall.
In
1825,
the
court records
of
Adams County,
Mississippi
(November term) list Anderson
as
a witness
in
a
slave
trial
that involved
physical conflict with Edward
Stone,
a publicly known
slave
dealer,
and
a
male
slave while
in
route
to
Natchez.,
Mississippi. Anderson
had
moved
from
transporting tobacco
from
Mississippi
to
serving
as
an
tmderstudy
to
the
area's most successful slave dealer, Edward
Stone.
6
Stone
was
from
nearby
Paris,
Kentucky.
John
W.
Anderson, following
in
the
steps
of
Edward
Stone,
seemed
to
prosper
in
similar substance and
style.
In
1825
he
purchased
.a
3
Id.
4
A significant amount
of
the material that I used
in
this essay was secured from
an 800-page do,cument that the Museum developed with the assistance
of
the
Natural
& Ethical Environmental Solutions. We worked specifically with Jeanne
Kreinbrink, M.A.,
R.P.k,
in her capacity as their principal investigator. This
. document was developed
in
order to comp1y with the requirements
of
the U.S.
Department
of
the Interior's research standards. Among
Your Friends And Acquaintances
"The
Anderson Slave Pen And The Business
of
Slavery Cultural Resources Mitigation, at 15MSI 12/MS549 Mason County,
Kentucky (page
31
and 48).
5
Id.
6
httn:/iwww .findanrave.com/cui-bin/fi!.c,,i?1wse' vr&G Rid'.> l
840546_._;
See also
.........
l.~----··-·····----·-····-····-··--·b·-·········-········--········-t'<·-··-··············.O--.Z:l.
...... ····-b·-···-··'°···········-···--··································-····-····
J.
WINSTON
COLEMAN,
JR.,
SLAVERY
TIMES
IN
KENTUCKY ( 1940).
2
Freedom Center Journal, Vol. 2015 [2015], Iss. 1, Art. 3
https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj/vol2015/iss1/3
11
2015] THE
JOHN
W.
ANDERSON
SLAVE
PEN
100-acre tract ofland at
the
intersection
of
the
Dover Road (now known as
Walton Pike) and Highway
9.
7
In an
1829
newspaper
ad,
Anderson was
listed as owner
of
several imported thoroughbred horses, including one
named Paragon. The 100-acre property Anderson purchased
in
1825
was
the
site
of
the
John
W.
Anderson Slave Pen, now
on
permanent display at
the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The Slave Pen was a
human warehouse, a holding place
for
enslaved people. The pen held
slaves, chained to the floors and ceiling,
until
enough human bodies were
purchased
to
make the journey
to
Natchez, Mississippi worth
it.
Anderson
purchased people
at
auctions, county courthouse
sales,
and from private
owners within a 50-mile radius
of
his home.
According
to
Adams County, Mississippi court records and
Mason County, Kentucky probate records, Anderson would obtain
30
or
more enslaved people over a period
of
weeks, sometimes months, and
then take them
to
Mississippi
by
flatboat or
by
foot.
In a November
I
5,
1830
court case regarding "a slave
deal
gone
bad," James Kempe, a
Mason County farmer described seeing Anderson taking many enslaved
people
to
Dover, Kentucky. Dover
is
a
small
Ohio River port. The next
day,
The
Maysville Eagle posted
an
advertisement on behalf
of
John
Anderson
in
an
effort
to
recover 2 slaves
John,
20,
and
Jim,
24,
who had
escaped during
the
journey. This advertisement
is
one source that clearly
indicates Anderson's profession as a
slave
dealer.
Anderson was able
to
secure financing
for
his endeavors from
some
of
the leading citizens
of
Maysville and the surrounding community.
On
July
20,
1831
he
borrowed $10,000
from
John Marshall. The probate
records
of
Mason County note the amount
was
in
fact
repaid.
On
July
30,
1832,
Anderson borrowed $12,000; and again the debt was
paid.
8
Marshall's involvement indicates that much
of
white America approved
of
the
Internal Slave
Trade
and profited greatly
from
investing
in
it
· John Anderson's Slave Pen was a place
of
fear that reinforced
hopelessness and ripped apart
families.
In a letter sent
to
Thomas Marshall
on November
24,
1832,
Anderson bragged, "A
girl
I bought
in
Cynthiana
of
Weathers cost
$350.
I sold her to a young cotton planter for $1,100."
9
7
Mason Co.,
KY
Deed Book pg. 30 & 65-66 (on site with the author).
8
Among Your Friends And Acquaintances "The Anderson Slave Pen And
The Business
of
Slavery Cultural Resources Mitigation, at 15MS 112/MS549
Mason County, Kentucky (pages 56-57).
9
Letter to Thomas Marshall, Nov. 24, 1832 Pg. 56, a Xerox copy
of
the original
letter
is
mounted behind glass on a kiosk outside the Slave Pen; the letter
3
Westmoreland: The John W. Anderson Slave Pen
Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications, 2015
12
The Freedom Center Journal [Issues
1&2
This letter was included as evidence in a court case filed against Anderson
by Thomas Marshall who did not receive the profit he expected on his
investment. Mississippi
tax records from 1832 and 1833 indicate that
Anderson grossed $38,000 from selling slaves.
10
This was equivalent to
$800,000 in 2000 and over $1millionin2016.
11
On
October
14,
1826,
The
Louisville
Gazette
reported that slaves
had killed Edward Stone, midstream on the Ohio River.
12
Anderson again
succeeded in Edward Stone's footsteps. On July 22, 1834
John
W.
Anderson died from trauma incurred while he was chasing two men who
had managed to escape from the Slave Pen.
It
is
said that the slaves present
at the Slave Pen at that time could hear the chase and the consequences
thereof Anderson himself did not leave behind many written documents.
However he did leave a public trail in
The
Maysville
Eagle
newspaper and
the probate and civil court records. These documents have aided in
tmderstanding how whites moved a million blacks from enslavement east
of
the Appalachians to the snake-infested cotton fields
of
Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. This forced migration enabled
America to become the world's leading economic power by the
20tl
1
century through slave labor.
The slaves that remained chained in the Pen after Anderson died
waited
in
fear for their fate. Jolm Anderson's daughter, Susan, made the
decision that the 32 people should not be sent to Mississippi. Instead, she
sold them to residents
of
Mason Cmmty who agreed to keep them in
Kentucky. This choice is reflected in the Mason County courthouse
is
on
file at
the
State Archives
in
Frankfort Ky.
In
the probate records
that originated
in
Mason Co., Maysville KY, after
the death
of
John W.
Anderson
the
owner
of
the
Slave Pen;
Among
Your
Friends
And
Acquaintances
"The
Anderson Slave Pen And The Business
of
Slavery
Cultural Resources Mitigation,
at
15MSI 12/MS549 Mason County,
Kentucky
(page
56).
10
Among
Your
Friends
And
Acquaintances
"The
Anderson Slave Pen And
The Business
of
Slavery Cultural Resources Mitigation, at 15MSI
l2/MS549
Mason
County,
Kentucky
(pages
58).
11
Among
Your
Friends
And
Acquaintances
"The
Anderson Slave Pen And
The
Business
of
Slavery Cultural Resources Mitigation, at ISMS! 12/MS549
Mason
County,
Kentucky
(page
59).
12
COLEMAN,
supra note 6
at
173-176.
4
Freedom Center Journal, Vol. 2015 [2015], Iss. 1, Art. 3
https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj/vol2015/iss1/3
13
2015] THE
JOHN
W.
ANDERSON
SLAVE
PEN
records, which chronicled
the
1857
auction,
where
32
Black people
were
sold.
13
13
Among Your Friends And Acquaintances "The Anderson Slave Pen And
The Business
of
Slavery Cultural Resources Mitigation, at I 5MS 112/MS549
Mason County, Kentucky (page 67).
5
Westmoreland: The John W. Anderson Slave Pen
Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications, 2015
14
The
Freedom Center Journal [lssues 1 &2
6
Freedom Center Journal, Vol. 2015 [2015], Iss. 1, Art. 3
https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj/vol2015/iss1/3
