The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 340
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Louisiana law gave any informer on smuggled slaves half of what
they brought at public auction. The Bowies would inform on
themselves and then at the sale by customs officers buy the blacks
they had delivered, in effect paying only half price. Subsequently
their title was legal and they were free to sell the slaves anywhere.
The average price on the Mississippi was $1,ooo per slave.6
If-a very iffy if-Jim Bowie excelled in knife throwing and
juggling as well as in knife-wielding, he must have reached his
climax at this period of operations. Knife-juggling was mainly a
tent-show stunt. J. O. Dyer, who habitually made slight distinction
between romance and history, said that "Big Jim" Bowie in con-
veying smuggled slaves armed himself with three or four knives
so that he could transfix any captive who tried to break away.
Jerking a knife out was quicker than reloading a horse pistol at
the muzzle. Both Jim and Rezin P., Dyer said, could keep several
knives moving in the air at the same time without allowing one
to touch the ground. "At twenty paces either could send a knife
clean through a small wooden target."7
According to John J. Bowie, he and his brothers cleared
$65,000 on slave-smuggling-"and soon spent all our earnings."
The losses were not immediate. James and Rezin P., markedly
devoted to each other, invested in Louisiana lands and developed,
among other enterprises, a fine plantation named Arcadia" on
Bayou Lafourche, installing the first steam plant for grinding
sugar cane in that part of the country. Rezin P., later elected
three times to the Louisiana legislature, managed the business.
Jim never settled down anywhere, but for several years spent
much of his time in New Orleans, where he got high enough in
society to capture the imagination of Edwin Forrest, then rising
on the American stage, and to have his portrait painted-not, as
descendants of the Bowie family claimed, by Benjamin West, who
died in London in 182o without having been in America for
many years.
6The best authority on slave-smuggling by the Bowie brothers is John J. Bowie,
as cited. Homer S. Thrall says in his Pictorial History of Texas (St. Louis, 1878),
129, that the Bowies lost ninety blacks. See Eugene C. Barker, "The African Slave
Trade in Texas," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, VI, 145-158.
7J. O. Dyer, "A Truer Story of the Bowie Knife," Galveston News, March 21, 192o.
SKilpatrick, "Early Life in the Southwest-The Bowies," De Bow's Review, Octo-
ber, 1852, PP. 378-382; Walter Worthington Bowie, The Bowies and Their Kindred;
W. W. Fontaine Papers (MS., Archives, University of Texas Library).340
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/369/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.