Isaac Franklin | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Washington Bogart Cooper, c. 1844 | |
| Born | May 26, 1789 Sumner County, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | April 27, 1846 (aged 56) Bellevue Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Resting place | Fairvue, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Co-founder of Franklin & Armfield |
| Spouse | Adelicia Hayes |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | James F. Purvis (nephew) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service | Tennessee militia |
| Years of service | 1813–1814 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen |
| Conflict | |
Isaac Franklin (May 26, 1789 – April 27, 1846) was an American slave trader and plantation owner. Born to wealthy planters in what would become Sumner County, Tennessee, he assisted his brothers in trading slaves and agricultural surplus along the Mississippi River in his youth, before briefly serving in the Tennessee militia during the War of 1812. He returned to slave trading soon after the war, buying enslaved people in Virginia and Maryland, before marching them in coffles to sale at Natchez, Mississippi. He introduced John Armfield to the slave trade, and with him founded the Franklin & Armfield partnership in 1828, which would go on to become one of the largest slave trading firms in the United States. With a base of operations in Alexandria, D.C., the company shipped massive numbers of the enslaved by land and sea to markets at Natchez and New Orleans.
During his time with the partnership, Franklin mainly managed slave sales in the Lower Mississippi. Innovations such as coastwise shipping and easy extensions of long credit to slaveholders brought him great wealth, with the partnership likely becoming the largest slave trading firm during its peak of operations. Many rival slave traders were either pushed out of the market or hired as purchasing partners for the company, further expanding its corporate reach. Although temporarily able to circumvent the imposition of slave trade restrictions in Louisiana, he began to mainly focus on sales at his Natchez property, working alongside his nephew James Franklin Purvis. Public outrage forced him out of Natchez in 1833, after he was discovered to have buried the bodies of slaves who had died of cholera in shallow ditches and gullies. He relocated operations to the Forks of the Road market outside city limits, where he continued to work until his retirement from slave trading in 1835. Amassing a great fortune from his slave trading, he was able to purchase a large property in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, in addition to his main Fairvue Plantation in Tennessee. He married Adelicia Hayes in 1839, and with her had four children. By the time of his death from a stomach illness in April 1846, he owned 646 enslaved people.