James Jackson (Alabama politician)
James Jackson was an Irish-American immigrant merchant, land speculator, plantation owner, racehorse owner, and Alabama politician.
Biography
He had a business relationship with Andrew Jackson, future U.S. president, in the first decades of the 19th century. To the best knowledge of historians, there is no family tie between James and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson and James Jackson engaged in land speculations.When he lived in Nashville, James together with his brother Washington Jackson had a "large dry-goods store on the square." In a list of expenses accrued by Aaron Burr in account with Andrew Jackson at the time of the Burr expedition, one of the line items was $44 paid to "W. & J. Jackson bill do."
According to The Papers of Andrew Jackson, James Jackson served as a "private banker for Andrew, extending large sums of money on promissory notes. They were later partners in numerous land ventures, including the Chickasaw Purchase speculation."
File:Nashville to the Tennessee River from Indian land cessions in the United States by Charles C. Royce.jpg|thumb|left|Nashville to the Tennessee River from Indian land cessions in the United States showing location of Florence; according to one source the land between Cypress Creek and Elk River was "Doublehead's land"
James Jackson left Nashville for Florence, Alabama where he "bought a stock-farm. According to the American Guide for Alabama published by the New Deal Federal Writers' Project, the farm was located off of Alabama State Highway 34. Construction on Forks of Cypress began in 1820, and the main house was "encircled by a peristyle of 20 large Ionic columns of brick covered with plaster made from sand and molasses. This unorthodox treatment was apparently effective, for the columns are well-preserved. The house is a solidly built frame structure with a rear cross-hall intersecting the wide, full-length central hall...Thoroughbred horses were raised on the 3,000-acre estate. Of the several horses which were sent into competition for rich stakes in the East, Glencoe and Peyton, were the best known."
In 1822, Andrew Jackson's nephew Stockley D. Hays was living in James Jackson's old Tennessee house, Greenvale, that stood on the road between Nashville and Haysborough.
In 1822 Jackson was elected to the Alabama legislature for the first time. He represented Lauderdale County in the Alabama House of Representatives in 1822, 1823, 1833, and 1834, and he represented Lauderdale County in the Alabama Senate in 1825, 1826, 1830, and 1831.
In 1824, Jesse Benton alleged that Andrew Jackson, John Eaton, and James Jackson had been investors in a criminal land speculation in 1818, buying up lots in Pensacola just before General Jackson invaded, which is called the First Seminole War, and which pushed the Spanish to sell Florida to the United States under the terms of the Adams–Onís Treaty. In 1828, William Berkeley Lewis wrote John Coffee to ask if he thought "Jimmy" Jackson had been involved in reports to the newspapers about possibly corrupt actions on the part of Andrew Jackson in the Colbert Reservations of the 1818 Chickasaw treaty.
Jackson served as president of the Alabama State Senate in 1831–1832. Jackson was famous as a racehorse breeder in later life. Along with Andrew Jackson, George Elliott, the Barrys, Eli Odom, the Kirkmans, the Polks, Dr. John Shelby, Dr. Sappington, Mr. Robert Smith, General Desha, Newton Cannon, the McGavocks, William G. Harding, and Balie Peyton, James Jackson was an associate of legendary turfman "Uncle" Green Berry Williams.
In November 1847 the trustees of Jackson's estate listed for sale almost 1400 acres of land included "fresh cleared" plantation land, town lots, and a forested island. In January 1848 the trustees of Jackson's estate listed for sale 75 slaves, which were "the portion of the Negroes, which, on division are reserved in trust for the benefit of his daughters. Mrs. Martha Andrews, Mrs. Ellen Hunt and Mrs. Sarah Polk, on a credit of One and Two years, for drafts on New Orleans." In 1850 his widow Sarah Jackson owned 65 slaves. In 1860 his widow Sarah Jackson owned 80 slaves.
Ancestors of Alex Haley, author of Roots and Queen, were enslaved by the Jacksons at the Forks of Cypress.
Siblings
Jackson was business partners with his brothers John Jackson, and Washington Jackson. Their sister married a Tennessee man named Thomas Kirkman. They were said to have relatives remaining in Pennsylvania.When the brothers lived in Nashville, James and Washington had a "large dry-goods store on the square." G. M. Deaderick, W. M. Tait, Washington Jackson, John P. Smith, George Poyzer, William Eastin, Alexander Porter, Senator Jos. Park, and William Wright met in 1808 at Talbot's Tavern to organize the Bank of Nashville, of which they were to be the directors. The bank sold shares of stock in 1814 at the office of Hynes & Fletcher, and James Jackson was agent, and Luke Lea cashier.
Washington Jackson moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and in 1809 had a store in Natchez, where he had an extensive inventory, including a "first rate new keel boat, 25 tons burden, with poles and oars" advertised for sale in September, and where he sold a slave woman prone to "fits" to a "free French" woman of color on behalf of Andrew Jackson in December. In 1809, Washington Jackson had a store in Natchez, where he had an extensive inventory, including a "first rate new keel boat, 25 tons burden, with poles and oars" advertised for sale in September, and where he sold a slave woman prone to "fits" to a "free French" woman of color on behalf of Andrew Jackson in December. Once settled in Mississippi he became a cotton factor and developed business relationships with planter-barons including Stephen Duncan and Dr. William Mercer. As of 1811, Washington Jackson had a partner named Riddle in Philadelphia.
In the 1820s he ran "major" trading firm in New Orleans called Washington Jackson & Co. The firm shipped sugar and other products out of the Attakapas district of Louisiana. By 1821 he was "in the commission business with a Philadelphia partner".
W. Jackson then moved to Philadelphia, and from there he moved to England. Nonetheless, he returned to the lower Mississippi River valley annually through the 1830s and 1840s to renew his relationships. His firm name in Philadelphia was Jackson, Riddle & Co. and then Jackson, Todd & Co. Thomas Todd ran the Liverpool office.
Jackson, Todd & Co. of Philadelphia closed in 1841. Washington Jackson remained active based on loans extended on the basis of relationships with planters including "Duncan, Surget, Chotard, Marshall, and others".
As of 1855 one of his clients was Alabama and Louisiana cotton and sugar plantation owner Meredith Calhoun.
New Orleans millionaire William Mercer left "his favorite watch" to Jackson in his will.
His sons "carried on a successful mercantile business" in England into the 1880s.