- Joined
- Dec 21, 2015
I found this article interesting for as much as it told about the Slave Trade in general, as it did about the Forrest family involvement in the business. Since I am not much familiarized with the biography of Nathan B Forrest, I cannot speak to the accuracy of the text. I will leave that to the forum experts.
At the corner of Adams and B.B. King in Downtown Memphis, a sign marks the site of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s antebellum home. "Following marriage in 1845," the marker states, "he came to Memphis, where his business enterprises made him wealthy." What the sign neglects to mention is that his home stood adjacent to his business enterprise -- Forrest’s slave yard.
During the years before the Civil War, cotton and slavery became the lynchpins of the southern economy. During the 1840's and 1850's, the profitability of cotton cultivation drew increasing numbers of white settlers to the states of the Old Southwest -- Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.
Because Congress had banned the importation of African slaves in 1808, thus cutting off the external supply of labor, white landowners in these newly settled areas sought to purchase enslaved people from other parts of the South. An abundance of slaves in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky thus met planters’ increasing demand for labor, as traders bought the enslaved for low prices before transporting and selling them farther south at a profit.
More Here: http://www.commercialappeal.com/sto...-true-history-forrest-slave-trader/926292001/
At the corner of Adams and B.B. King in Downtown Memphis, a sign marks the site of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s antebellum home. "Following marriage in 1845," the marker states, "he came to Memphis, where his business enterprises made him wealthy." What the sign neglects to mention is that his home stood adjacent to his business enterprise -- Forrest’s slave yard.
During the years before the Civil War, cotton and slavery became the lynchpins of the southern economy. During the 1840's and 1850's, the profitability of cotton cultivation drew increasing numbers of white settlers to the states of the Old Southwest -- Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.
Because Congress had banned the importation of African slaves in 1808, thus cutting off the external supply of labor, white landowners in these newly settled areas sought to purchase enslaved people from other parts of the South. An abundance of slaves in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky thus met planters’ increasing demand for labor, as traders bought the enslaved for low prices before transporting and selling them farther south at a profit.
More Here: http://www.commercialappeal.com/sto...-true-history-forrest-slave-trader/926292001/