# John Armfield

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Armfield
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Armfield.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Armfield
> Source revision: 1357195885
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

American slave trader (1797–1871)

John Armfield Born 1797 North Carolina, U.S. Died September 20, 1871(1871-09-20) (aged 73–74) Beersheba Springs, Tennessee, U.S. Occupation Slave trader Spouse Martha Franklin ​ (m. 1831)​

**John Armfield** (1797 – September 20, 1871) was an American [slave trader](/source/Slave_trader). He was the co-founder of [Franklin & Armfield](/source/Franklin_%26_Armfield), "the largest slave trading firm" in the United States.[1] He was also the developer of [Beersheba Springs](/source/Beersheba_Springs), [Tennessee](/source/Tennessee), and a co-founder of [Sewanee: The University of the South](/source/Sewanee%3A_The_University_of_the_South).

## Early life

John Armfield was born in 1797 in North Carolina to Quaker parents.[2] He was of English descent.[2]

The [Franklin and Armfield Office](/source/Franklin_and_Armfield_Office) in Alexandria, Virginia.

## Career

Main article: [Franklin and Armfield Office](/source/Franklin_and_Armfield_Office)

Armfield took up slave trading in the 1820s, more than a decade after the Atlantic slave trade had been prohibited by the United States. The domestic slave trade had been growing rapidly. Armfield sold a slave in [Natchez, Mississippi](/source/Natchez%2C_Mississippi), in 1827.[2]

In 1828, Armfield and his uncle by marriage, [Isaac Franklin](/source/Isaac_Franklin), formed the partnership of Franklin & Armfield to buy slaves in the Upper South: the mid-Atlantic states (Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia), where agriculture was changing and many planters had surplus slaves, and sell them in the newly opened territories of the [Deep South](/source/Deep_South).[1]

In this period, many whites were moving into the Southeast and the federal government began [Indian Removal](/source/Indian_Removal). The cotton gin had made short-staple cotton profitable and there was strong demand for enslaved African Americans in the domestic slave trade as workers for clearing and development of new plantations throughout this territory.

They were enormously successful and became two of the wealthiest men in the country. Franklin and Armfield were abusive to enslaved African Americans, joking with each other in letters in coded language about the young enslaved women they were raping.[3] Having gained enormous wealth, the two men dissolved the partnership in 1835 and sold the business to one of their agents, [George Kephart](/source/George_Kephart).

Armfield retired to [Middle Tennessee](/source/Middle_Tennessee) in 1835.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Franklin had also bought plantations in that area, establishing [Fairvue Plantation](/source/Isaac_Franklin_Plantation) in [Gallatin, Tennessee](/source/Gallatin%2C_Tennessee), and additional lands in Louisiana and Texas.

Armfield settled [Gruetli](/source/Gruetli-Laager%2C_Tennessee), a Swiss settlement in [Grundy County, Tennessee](/source/Grundy_County%2C_Tennessee).[4] In 1855, he developed the resort of [Beersheba Springs](/source/Beersheba_Springs) in [Grundy County, Tennessee](/source/Grundy_County%2C_Tennessee), which attracted wealthy patrons. It still is operating.[4] Additionally, he was the biggest single donor involved in the founding of [Sewanee: The University of the South](/source/Sewanee%3A_The_University_of_the_South).[2][4]

## Personal life and death

In 1831 Armfield married Martha Franklin, Isaac Franklin's niece.[2] Armfield joined the Episcopal Church, and his wife converted from the Presbyterian faith and became an Episcopalian for him.[2] The family attended [Christ Church Cathedral](/source/Christ_Church_Cathedral_(Nashville%2C_Tennessee)) in [Nashville, Tennessee](/source/Nashville%2C_Tennessee), as did Bishop [Leonidas Polk](/source/Leonidas_Polk), with whom Armfield was a close friend.[2] Another of Armfield's close friends was [John M. Bass](/source/John_M._Bass), mayor of Nashville.[2]

Armfield died of old age on September 20, 1871, in Beersheba Springs.[4]

Armfield and his wife had no children. He is known to have fathered at least one child with an enslaved Black woman; he sold both her and the child. Rodney G. Williams, who is African American, has established his descent from Armfield by [DNA testing](/source/DNA_testing).[5]

## See also

- [Slave trade in the United States](/source/Slave_trade_in_the_United_States)

- [List of American slave traders](/source/List_of_American_slave_traders)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-thetroubledlegacy_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-thetroubledlegacy_1-1) Gudmestad, Robert H. (Fall 2003). "The Troubled Legacy of Isaac Franklin: The Enterprise of Slave Trading". *Tennessee Historical Quarterly*. **62** (3): 193–217. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [42627764](https://www.jstor.org/stable/42627764).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-howelljohnarmfield_2-7) Howell, Isabel (March 1943). "John Armfield, Slave-trader". *Tennessee Historical Quarterly*. **2** (1): 3–29. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [42620772](https://www.jstor.org/stable/42620772).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-wapo_3-0)** Natanson, Hannah (September 14, 2019). ["They were once America's cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?"](https://beta.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/14/they-were-once-americas-cruelest-richest-slave-traders-why-does-no-one-know-their-names/). *[Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)*. Retrieved January 26, 2022.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-tennesseanthelatecolonel_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-tennesseanthelatecolonel_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-tennesseanthelatecolonel_4-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-tennesseanthelatecolonel_4-3) ["The Late Colonel John Armfield"](https://www.newspapers.com/image/121802509/?terms=%22John%2BArmfield%22). *The Tennessean*. October 13, 1871. p. 3. Retrieved November 3, 2017 – via [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Williams, Rodney G. (2019). "Seed of the fancy maid". In Strauss, Jill (ed.). *Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation*. [New Brunswick, New Jersey](/source/New_Brunswick%2C_New_Jersey): [Rutgers University Press](/source/Rutgers_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1978800762](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1978800762).

## Further reading

- Gower, Herschel (October 8, 2017). ["John Armfield"](https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/john-armfield/). *[Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture](/source/Tennessee_Encyclopedia_of_History_and_Culture)*. Tennessee Historical Society.

- Ball, Edward (November 2015). ["Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears"](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/). *[Smithsonian](/source/Smithsonian_(magazine))*.

- Natanson, Hannah (September 14, 2019). ["They were once America's cruelest, richest slave traders. Why does no one know their names?"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/14/they-were-once-americas-cruelest-richest-slave-traders-why-does-no-one-know-their-names/). *[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)*.

v t e History of slavery in Virginia Slavery in the colonial history of the United States History of Virginia Enslaved people Angela (fl. 1619–1625) Henry Box Brown (c. 1815–1897) Anthony Burns (1834–1862) John Casor (living 1655) Margaret Cornish (fl. 1610s–1670) Emanuel Driggus (c. 1620s–d. 1685) Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797) Isabella Gibbons (c. 1836–1890) William D. Gibbons (1825–1886) John Graweere (living 1641) Elizabeth Key Grinstead (Greenstead) (1630–1665) Left, husband of Jane Webb (fl. 1704–1727) Mary and Anthony Johnson (1600–1670) Philip Lee (c. 1785–?) Dangerfield Newby (c. 1820–1859) John Punch (fl. 1630s, living 1640) Gabriel Prosser (1776–1800) William Tucker (born 1624) Nat Turner (1800–1831) Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) Slave owners Presidents of the United States Washington Jefferson Madison Monroe Tyler John Armfield (1797–1871) Carter Braxton (1736–1797) Landon Carter (1710–1778) Robert "King" Carter (1663–1732) Robert Carter III (1728–1804) Thomas Roderick Dew (1802–1846) Andrew Hunter (1804–1888) Robert M. T. Hunter (1809–1887) Eppa Hunton (1822–1908) Richard Bland Lee (1761–1827) William Mahone (1826–1895) George Mason (1725–1792) James M. Mason (1798–1871) John Page (1628–1692) Thomas Prosser (died 1798) Randolph family of Virginia William Barton Rogers (1804–1882) George Henry Thomas (1816–1870) William Tucker (died 1642) John Wayles (1715–1773) Henry A. Wise (1806–1876) Seth Woodroof (1805–1875) Plantations Beall-Air Berry Hill Brookfield Kenmore Monticello Montpelier Mount Airy Mount Vernon (enslaved people) Oatlands Poplar Forest Shirley Stratford Hall Tuckahoe Westover Woodlawn List of plantations in Virginia Slave pens Bruin's Slave Jail The Cage Franklin and Armfield Office Lumpkin's Jail Other sites African American Burial Ground Bremo Slave Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Laborers White House of the Confederacy Legal history Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 Virginia v. John Brown Revolts Gabriel's Rebellion Nat Turner's Rebellion John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Related articles The 1619 Project Atlantic Creole Coastwise slave trade First Africans in Virginia Indentured servitude in Virginia District of Columbia retrocession Great Dismal Swamp maroons Human trafficking in Virginia Liberation and Freedom Day Richmond slave market Virginia in the American Civil War Winchester Medical College

Authority control databases International VIAF National United States Israel Other Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Armfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Armfield) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Armfield?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.