James H. Ladson

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James Henry Ladson (born June 11, 1795 in Charleston , South Carolina , †  April 3, 1868 ibid) was a wealthy American plantation owner and businessman from Charleston, South Carolina.

family

His sister Sarah Ladson; "She was visually referring to the tastes of the slaves she grew up with."

Ladson belonged to one of the most prominent families of the plantation owner and trading elite in Charleston. This had played an important role in the British colonization of North America and in the slave trade since the 17th century . He was the son of South Carolina Lieutenant Governor James Ladson and the grandson of banker and slave trader Benjamin Smith ; his great grandfather, Joseph Wragg, was the largest slave trader in what is now the United States for decades. His ancestors also included Governors Robert Gibbes, Thomas Smith and Joseph Blake, as well as the first European settler of Carolina Henry Woodward. The Gibbes Museum of Art is named after his grandmother's family. Among his descendants is Ursula von der Leyen , who lived in 1978 under the pseudonym Rose Ladson; she is also the descendant of his two sisters, Elizabeth (biological) and Sarah (by adoption). Ladson parish is named after his family.

Act

James H. Ladsons town house in Charleston, now Ladson House

James Ladson owned James H. Ladson & Co., a large company in the rice and cotton business; he owned over 200 slaves . He was also Consul of the Kingdom of Denmark in South Carolina, Director of the State Bank, and held numerous other business, church, and civic offices.

He and other members of the Charleston plantation and trading elite played a key role in the outbreak of the American Civil War . He was vice president of the Great Southern Rights and Southern Co-Operation Meeting in Charleston in 1851 .

He spent "part of the year" on his plantation in North Santee, but otherwise lived with 12 house slaves in a town house in Charleston. The house still exists today and was named after him as Ladson House .

The Charleston Daily News described him as “an excellent specimen of the old Carolina gentleman, of pure character and of a high standard in his business. (...) he came first in Christian virtues and active charity. "

He was a pioneer of slavery and wrote about his views on the subject in 1845. Ladson firmly believed in religious instruction to maintain the discipline of the slaves:

"The religious and moral instruction of negroes has been a topic of great interest to me for several years, and I am firmly convinced that our efforts in their interest (although much, very much remains to be done) are not only misunderstood abroad. but also not be appreciated. Improving the Negro is a far more arduous task than many who have no experience teaching the Negro realize. Simple by nature and of feeble mind, they are generally fond memories, and those who have studied this work of charity must, after much toil, complain that the lessons they have tried to give despite them have been remembered, perverted and misdirected. "

- James H. Ladson : The Religious Instruction of the Negroes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maurie D. McInnis, The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston , p. 14, UNC Press Books, 2015, ISBN 9781469625997
  2. ^ Register of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina , p. 35, The Society, 1945
  3. ↑ German Gender Book , Vol. 187, p. 43
  4. ^ "Lived more than studied" , Die Welt, June 20, 2016
  5. ^ George C. Rogers, The history of Georgetown County, South Carolina , pp. 297 and 525, University of South Carolina Press, 1970
  6. ^ Southern rights documents: co-operation meeting held in Charleston, SC, July 29th, 1851 , p. 10
  7. ^ A b c Proceedings of the Meeting in Charleston, SC, May 13-15, 1845, on the Religious Instruction of the Negroes: Together with the Report of the Committee, and the Address to the Public. Pub. by Order of the Meeting , pp. 52-55, B. Jenkins, 1845
  8. ^ The Charleston Daily News (Charleston, SC), April 4, 1868
  9. ↑ Sigmund Dialmon, "Some Early Uses of the Questionnaire: Views on Education and Immigration," The Public Opinion Quarterly .., Vol 27, No. 4 (Winter, 1963), pp 528-542
  10. ↑ Dena J. Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War , p. 204, University of Illinois Press, 2003, ISBN 9780252071508
personal data
SURNAME Ladson, James H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ladson, James Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American plantation owner and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1868
Place of death Charleston , South Carolina