John Armfield
John Armfield (1797–1871) was an American slave trader. He was the co-founder of Franklin & Armfield, "the largest slave trading firm" in the United States.[1] He was also the developer of Beersheba Springs, and a co-founder of Sewanee: The University of the South.
John Armfield | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1797 North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | September 20, 1871 (aged 73–74) |
| Occupation | Slave trader |
| Spouse |
Martha Franklin (m. 1831) |
Early life
John Armfield was born in 1797 in North Carolina to Quaker parents.[2] He was of English descent.[2]
Career
Armfield took up slave trading in the 1820s. For example, he sold a slave in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1827.[2] In 1828, Armfield and his uncle by marriage, Isaac Franklin, formed the partnership of Franklin & Armfield to buy slaves in the mid-Atlantic states (Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia) and re-sell them in the newly opened territories of the Deep South.[1] They were enormously successful and became two of the wealthiest men in the country. Franklin and Armfield joked with each other in letters about the enslaved women they were raping.[3] They dissolved the partnership in 1835 and sold the business to one of their agents, George Kephart. Armfield retired to Central Tennessee in 1835.
Armfield settled Gruetli, a Swiss settlement in Grundy County, Tennessee.[4] In 1855, he also developed the resort for the wealthy of Beersheba Springs in Grundy County, Tennessee, which still exists.[4] Additionally, he was the biggest single donor in the founding of Sewanee: The University of the South.[2][4]
Personal life and death
Armfield married Martha Franklin, Isaac Franklin's niece, in 1831.[2] Armfield joined the Episcopal Church, and his wife converted from the Presbyterian faith to Episcopalianism for him.[2] The family attended Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville, Tennessee, as did Bishop Leonidas Polk, with whom Armfield was a close friend.[2] Another one of Armfield's close friends was John M. Bass, the mayor of Nashville.[2]
Armfield died of old age on September 20, 1871, in Beersheba Springs.[4]
Armfield and his wife had no children. He fathered at least one child with an enslaved Black woman; he sold both her and the child. Rodney G. Williams has established his descent by DNA testing.[5]
References
- Gudmestad, Robert H. (Fall 2003). "The Troubled Legacy of Isaac Franklin: The Enterprise of Slave Trading". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 62 (3): 193–217. JSTOR 42627764.
- Howell, Isabel (March 1943). "John Armfield, Slave-trader". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 2 (1): 3–29. JSTOR 42620772.
- Natanson, Hannah (September 14, 2019). "They were once America's cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?". Washington Post. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
- "The Late Colonel John Armfield". The Tennessean. October 13, 1871. p. 3. Retrieved November 3, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- Williams, Rodney G. (2019). "Seed of the fancy maid". In Strauss, Jill (ed.). Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1978800762.
Further reading
- Gower, Herschel (October 8, 2017). "John Armfield". Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society.
- Ball, Edward (November 2015). "Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears". Smithsonian.
- Natanson, Hannah (September 14, 2019). "They were once America's cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?". The Washington Post.