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Race in the Atlantic World, 1700–1900
Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson
In 1834 Virgil Stewart rode from western Tennessee to a territory known as the ";Arkansas morass"; in pursuit of John Murrell, a thief accused of stealing two slaves. Stewart’s adventure led to a sensational trial and a wildly popular published account that would ultimately help trigger widespread violence during the summer of 1835, when five men accused of being professional gamblers were hanged in Vicksburg, nearly a score of others implicated with a gang of supposed slave thieves were executed in plantation districts, and even those who tried to stop the bloodshed found themselves targeted as dangerous and subversive. Using Stewart’s story as his point of entry, Joshua D. Rothman details why these events, which engulfed much of central and western Mississippi, came to pass. He also explains how the events revealed the fears, insecurities, and anxieties underpinning the cotton boom that made Mississippi the most seductive and exciting frontier in the Age of Jack
391 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2012
About the author
Joshua D. Rothman
8 books28 followersJoshua D. Rothman is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 28, 2019
I came at this book from looking into my family history. Bear with me for a moment...
I was filling in some dates for siblings of ancestors when I stumbled across a site mentioning my 6th-great grandfather's sister, Zlipah Andrews Murrell. The site was very defensive about her honor, saying that she was not the wanton thief that she was made out to be in Virgil Stewart's pamphlet about her son, John, the Great Western Land Pirate.
Wha?!?!?!?!
So I went down a rabbit hole trying to find out about John Murrell my first cousin, 7 times removed. There's all kinds of strange stuff out there, including the fact that his thumb supposedly lives in a little tiny coffin in a museum in Nashville. Novels and movies were made about him, and apparently he was quite the most infamous character in the south in the 1830s. And most of this was due to a pamphlet written by the man who arrested him for stealing enslaved people.
Virgil A. Stewart, the pamphlet's author, was a bit of a rogue himself, and it appears he invented much of the legend of Murrell, who was admittedly a horse-thief, slave stealer and all-around scoundrel, but not really a criminal mastermind. However, this pamphlet caused great social upheaval in the south, particularly in the summer of 1835. Stewart claimed that Murrell was the leader of a widespread "mystic clan" of thieves who were in league to create a slave uprising that would take place on the same day throughout the south, creating havoc and an opportunity for widespread looting during the ensuing mayhem.
Rothman's book is an academic look at the lives of Stewart and Murrell, how Stewart tried to use this case and his role in it to further his own fame, and how the tensions he stirred up about slave insurrections led to panic and vigilantism in the summer of 1835, particularly in western and central Mississippi. The book discusses the recent influx of white settlers into the state and the wild boom that the cotton economy created, and how the heady mixture of boom times, a population in which the majority was enslaved by the minority, and paranoia about maintaining one's wealth and status all mixed to create an inferno of suspicion and violence.
The book focuses on local safety committees that did an end run around what little law enforcement existed, dragging in unliked neighbors or traveling businessmen for sham trials and hangings. As an adjunct to this, gamblers were captured and lynched in Vicksburg. Rothman goes into great detail about the feelings and actions of these communities based on the documentary evidence. It can make for slow reading from time to time, but he does a good job of conveying just how dangerous and horrifying these times were.
I might not have read about this book if there hadn't been distant familial connections to the events described, but I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about an era I didn't really know much about.
I was filling in some dates for siblings of ancestors when I stumbled across a site mentioning my 6th-great grandfather's sister, Zlipah Andrews Murrell. The site was very defensive about her honor, saying that she was not the wanton thief that she was made out to be in Virgil Stewart's pamphlet about her son, John, the Great Western Land Pirate.
Wha?!?!?!?!
So I went down a rabbit hole trying to find out about John Murrell my first cousin, 7 times removed. There's all kinds of strange stuff out there, including the fact that his thumb supposedly lives in a little tiny coffin in a museum in Nashville. Novels and movies were made about him, and apparently he was quite the most infamous character in the south in the 1830s. And most of this was due to a pamphlet written by the man who arrested him for stealing enslaved people.
Virgil A. Stewart, the pamphlet's author, was a bit of a rogue himself, and it appears he invented much of the legend of Murrell, who was admittedly a horse-thief, slave stealer and all-around scoundrel, but not really a criminal mastermind. However, this pamphlet caused great social upheaval in the south, particularly in the summer of 1835. Stewart claimed that Murrell was the leader of a widespread "mystic clan" of thieves who were in league to create a slave uprising that would take place on the same day throughout the south, creating havoc and an opportunity for widespread looting during the ensuing mayhem.
Rothman's book is an academic look at the lives of Stewart and Murrell, how Stewart tried to use this case and his role in it to further his own fame, and how the tensions he stirred up about slave insurrections led to panic and vigilantism in the summer of 1835, particularly in western and central Mississippi. The book discusses the recent influx of white settlers into the state and the wild boom that the cotton economy created, and how the heady mixture of boom times, a population in which the majority was enslaved by the minority, and paranoia about maintaining one's wealth and status all mixed to create an inferno of suspicion and violence.
The book focuses on local safety committees that did an end run around what little law enforcement existed, dragging in unliked neighbors or traveling businessmen for sham trials and hangings. As an adjunct to this, gamblers were captured and lynched in Vicksburg. Rothman goes into great detail about the feelings and actions of these communities based on the documentary evidence. It can make for slow reading from time to time, but he does a good job of conveying just how dangerous and horrifying these times were.
I might not have read about this book if there hadn't been distant familial connections to the events described, but I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about an era I didn't really know much about.
February 20, 2021
Though I am a history major, this event in Mississippi is something of which I had never before heard. It was a rewarding read, even if the historical events themselves were horrid and painful to read about.
August 19, 2015
3.5 stars. Interesting book focusing on the lawlessness and converging witch trial-like extrajudicial proceedings against "professional gamblers" and criminals, including those suspected of fomenting a slave rebellion in 1830s Mississippi. At the time, the federal government was selling off land formerly occupied by the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, the price of cotton was skyrocketing, and banks were issuing more and more loans for the purchase of land and slaves. With society composed of recent transplants to the area, very little government infrastructure, and an overwhelming paranoia of slave revolt on the Mississippe frontier, things got pretty ugly.
While the book sometimes gets too far into the weeds, it provides an interesting view on the 1830s southwestern frontier cotton belt. A grim part of history but one that I knew almost nothing about.
While the book sometimes gets too far into the weeds, it provides an interesting view on the 1830s southwestern frontier cotton belt. A grim part of history but one that I knew almost nothing about.
February 26, 2013
If you are going into this book as a historian, you may be confused as to the vagueness of the argument. Frontier economic speculation coupled with racial tension caused an environment of uncertainty and fear. The narrative is engaging, although the two chapters on gambling that intersect the story of Stewart are somewhat confusing as to why they are there, except in hindsight. The question of identity as a personal or social construct is interesting, especially since Stewart tries to redefine his character again and again.
April 20, 2015
While I enjoyed the book wholeheartedly, Rothman's argument (and real reason for writing the novel) was vague and could easily be sussed out by reading the prologue and epilogue. While I enjoyed how Rothman took the story of Virgil Stewart and (as he would argue) the panic that resulted from his own writings, the overall connection of those panicked feelings in the 'flush times' of 1830s Mississippi and the rest of the country could have been better established. Overall, a very enjoyable read. I will be looking into more books from this area and possibly from Rothman himself.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews