The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 37, July 1933 - April, 1934 Page: 92
330 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
the seven or eight years of this partnership these brothers owned
and developed several valuable estates in the La Fourche, the
Rapides, and the Opelousas districts. On their "Arcadia" plan-
tation they introduced the first steam mill for grinding sugar
cane ever used in Louisiana. They finally sold "Arcadia" for
$90,000. To their plantation interests, the Bowie brothers, John
J. (who lived in Arkansas), Rezin P., and James, added a side
line. They fitted out small boats at the mouths of the Calca-
sieu and the Sabine Rivers, and from 1818 to 1821, they engaged
in the slave trade. Jean Lafitte and his privateers were, at this
time, harrying all commerce on the' Gulf. They would capture
slave ships--mostly under the Spanish flag-and would carry
their prizes to Galveston island where Lafitte had established
a regular pirate colony. From this station many slaves were
sold into the United States, sometimes directly to planters, but
more often through agents such as the Bowies. John J. Bowie7
said that they paid Lafitte a dollar a pound for negroes, or an
average of $140 per head, and then shipped their purchase, by
means of their small boats, to the mouth of either the Calcasieu,
or of the Sabine, and thence on foot, through the swamps of
East Texas and Louisiana, to a custom house official. The law
of the day concerning the slave trade was rather irregular.
Slave-trading was illegal, but smuggling was common, and the
question what to do with the negroes after they had been smug-
gled into the United States was puzzling. Most of the southern
states had laws that permitted such slaves to be sold by a United
States marshal to the highest bidder; half of such sale price was
given to the person or persons who informed the government
of the fact of such smuggling. Thus, the Bowie brothers would
carry their slaves, bought from Lafitte, to a custom house officer
and become informers. The marshal would then sell the negroes
at auction, the Bowies becoming a second time the purchasers,
but receiving back, as informers, half the price they paid. After
this double dealing had been consummated, their title to the
negroes was legalized and they were then free to sell them at a
profit, anywhere in the South.8 But there was considerable risk
7DeBow's Review, XIII, 378.
"Ibid.; E. C. Barker, "The African Slave Trade in Texas," Texas His-
torical Quarterly, VI, 149.
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Texas State Historical Association & Barker, Eugene C. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 37, July 1933 - April, 1934, periodical, 1934; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101094/m1/106/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.