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A controversial philanthropist at Baltimore and New Orleans

GRAILHE, Alexandre.
Mémoire à plaider devant la cour suprème de Louisiane, pour les villes de la Nouvelle-Orléans et de Baltimore, dans le procès sur le testament de M. McDonogh.





New Orleans, 1852. 8vo. Half brown hard-grained morocco, spine gilt. (2), 323, (1) pp.

First edition of this important work on the will of John McDonogh (1779-1850), a somewhat controversial philanthropist and merchant. McDonogh had moved from Baltimore to New Orleans in 1800, where he rapidly accumulated wealth in the commission and shipping business. He set up a plantation and soon owned many slaves. In 1818 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States senate, and about this time he founded the town of McDonoghville.
He had various philanthropic ideas and ideals, for which he is still famous today, the best known being the one concerning slavery. In 1822, he conceived of a plan that would enable his slaves to buy their way to freedom. Being, as so many Calvinist Scots, a strict sabbatharian, he would give them Saturday afternoons off to enable them to work for themselves. But if they would work for him in their spare time, they could put aside the money they earned during these hours, and save for a set release price, which was for men of $600, and for women $450 (about the market price for slaves in that time). Once they had paid off one-sixth of this agreed-upon price, they would get one free day of their own. They could then use their earnings on this free day to speed up repayment. When they 'owned' Saturday, the time they spend working for him on Saturday enabled them to buy Friday. When they had bought Friday, they could start buying Thursday. When they bought Monday, they were granted their freedom.
It took fifteen years for a slave to buy his way out of slavery in this manner. McDonogh understood that by allowing a slave to gradually buy his way to freedom, the very effort would prepare him for his independence. Meanwhile, the efforts of these independence-seeking slaves made him a rich man: they were hard and faithful workers, and had a goal in mind. McDonogh enabled the free slaves to return to Liberia, on the ships which went to Liberia to get hundreds of new slaves, but only a handful made use of this opportunity. The others stayed in McDonoghville, which as a result became one of the first Afro-American settlements in Louisiana.
That McDonogh didn't just feel sorry for his slaves, and used his method for his own good as well, becomes clear of the fact that he in 1830 became vice-president of the American colonization society, and largely contributed to its support. McDonogh also became very known for his high estimation of children's education. At his death, in 1850, he left the bulk of his fortune, which was estimated at more than $2.000.000, to the cities of New Orleans and Baltimore, for the purpose of establishing public schools for white as well as for free black children. Even this day, many schools in Louisiana are named after John McDonogh, and at John McDonogh Day, children bring flowers to one of his statues. He also left money to the poor and orphans of New Orleans and Baltimore, but because his heirs contested the will, it wasn't executed until 1858.

Good copy.- (Some browning throughout).
Sabin 28247; Jumonville 2139; cf. Dict. of American Biogr. XII, 10.

Related Subjects: America, North  Cartography  Voyages 

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