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The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace
Outlaws who preyed on traffic along the Natchez Trace from Natchez to New Orleans from about 1880 until 1885, among other violent and lawless acts, planned to build an empire using the labor of stolen slaves.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionCrime
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2019
Living many years in the South I have developed a taste for Southern novelists and Southern history. I have driven across the Natchez trace, starting in Huntsville, Alabama all the way through to Grenada Mississippi. I have also spent a weekend in Natchez the small town on the border of Mississippi on the river of the same name, across from Vidalia, Louisiana, which has the best barbecue restaurant I have ever before eaten at. If I'm not mistaken, it's called "The Butt Hut". Just FYI, if any of you pass through there.
I am reading through an encyclopedia of Tennessee places, people and history (yes, I read encyclopedias; I'm that sort of nerd). Outlaws came up as well as mention of some books that record their dastardly deeds. This book is one of them.
If nothing else, this book makes the reader appreciate the value of an effective police force. Police forces were non-existent back when our country was just born. And many a psychopathic maniac took advantage of that fact.
As people started traveling out west to stake their claims and try their fortunes in unknown parts, many traveled through the vast forest land that came to be known as the Natchez Trace. There is now a paved highway through the forest, if one would like to drive through. I can say from personal experience that it is worth it.
We like to think of ourselves as civilized, but there was a time when some European settlers could prove themselves as savage as any barbarous murderers of any brutal times past.
These gangs killed to rob, to ravish, and murder, many times just for the sheer pleasure of it. The first known serial killers in America are the Harpe brothers and they kept people from Tennessee to New Orleans in constant terror from 1797 to past the turn of the next century.
Of course, people reach a point where they've had enough and after years of searching and chasing, one Harpe brother's career came to an end when his head was nailed to a tree as a deterrent to other would-be criminals.
His brother ran off and joined another gang and did not meet his just desserts until years later.
Other Outlaws were Samuel Mason, a cowardly ex-soldier, who nevertheless, enjoyed hiding in the woods and surprising isolated travelers, stealing all their possessions and killing them.
The worst, and also the last, was a man named Murrel who was a respected plantation owner in town. He had a wide network that involved the seediest criminals as well as professional bankers and lawyers.
He would "rescue" slaves i.e. steal slaves, promising them freedom and a passage to the north, only to turn around and sell them farther south and west. If he couldn't sell them, he shot the poor deceived slave dead, leaving their weighted bodies in the Mississippi river. I am not going to describe how his gang weighed the bodies.
He and his clan planned a huge uprising where the slaves were to murder their masters and their families and then travel to freedom with Murrel and his clan. Of course Murrel's real purpose was to sell them. Luckily the wife of one
One man, Staunton, on his own by becoming perhaps the first undercover detective, joined Murrel's clan, got a list of the members and turned it over to the authorities.
But Murrel knew the law and he had good lawyers. They set out to destroy Staunton's good name and character so he would be thrown out as a witness. It worked in that Staunton's reputation was destroyed, but eventually Murrel was convicted.
As I said, he was the last outlaw gang leader. It was by now the 1850s and things began to change. Townspeople began to understand the need for law enforcement, but also the trace and the surrounding forest became more populated, settled and less isolated. Criminals did not have the invisibility and places to hide as before. No doubt they moved farther west to more desolate areas. Which reminds me that I read a very good history of the Texas Rangers, but that's another book review.
As horrible as their deeds were, these Outlaws were a part of American history and I think it is important to read all aspects of our past: the good, the bad, and the dastardly.
I wonder why Clint Eastwood never made a movie about the outlaws of Natchez Trace? Someone needs to.
I am reading through an encyclopedia of Tennessee places, people and history (yes, I read encyclopedias; I'm that sort of nerd). Outlaws came up as well as mention of some books that record their dastardly deeds. This book is one of them.
If nothing else, this book makes the reader appreciate the value of an effective police force. Police forces were non-existent back when our country was just born. And many a psychopathic maniac took advantage of that fact.
As people started traveling out west to stake their claims and try their fortunes in unknown parts, many traveled through the vast forest land that came to be known as the Natchez Trace. There is now a paved highway through the forest, if one would like to drive through. I can say from personal experience that it is worth it.
We like to think of ourselves as civilized, but there was a time when some European settlers could prove themselves as savage as any barbarous murderers of any brutal times past.
These gangs killed to rob, to ravish, and murder, many times just for the sheer pleasure of it. The first known serial killers in America are the Harpe brothers and they kept people from Tennessee to New Orleans in constant terror from 1797 to past the turn of the next century.
Of course, people reach a point where they've had enough and after years of searching and chasing, one Harpe brother's career came to an end when his head was nailed to a tree as a deterrent to other would-be criminals.
His brother ran off and joined another gang and did not meet his just desserts until years later.
Other Outlaws were Samuel Mason, a cowardly ex-soldier, who nevertheless, enjoyed hiding in the woods and surprising isolated travelers, stealing all their possessions and killing them.
The worst, and also the last, was a man named Murrel who was a respected plantation owner in town. He had a wide network that involved the seediest criminals as well as professional bankers and lawyers.
He would "rescue" slaves i.e. steal slaves, promising them freedom and a passage to the north, only to turn around and sell them farther south and west. If he couldn't sell them, he shot the poor deceived slave dead, leaving their weighted bodies in the Mississippi river. I am not going to describe how his gang weighed the bodies.
He and his clan planned a huge uprising where the slaves were to murder their masters and their families and then travel to freedom with Murrel and his clan. Of course Murrel's real purpose was to sell them. Luckily the wife of one
One man, Staunton, on his own by becoming perhaps the first undercover detective, joined Murrel's clan, got a list of the members and turned it over to the authorities.
But Murrel knew the law and he had good lawyers. They set out to destroy Staunton's good name and character so he would be thrown out as a witness. It worked in that Staunton's reputation was destroyed, but eventually Murrel was convicted.
As I said, he was the last outlaw gang leader. It was by now the 1850s and things began to change. Townspeople began to understand the need for law enforcement, but also the trace and the surrounding forest became more populated, settled and less isolated. Criminals did not have the invisibility and places to hide as before. No doubt they moved farther west to more desolate areas. Which reminds me that I read a very good history of the Texas Rangers, but that's another book review.
As horrible as their deeds were, these Outlaws were a part of American history and I think it is important to read all aspects of our past: the good, the bad, and the dastardly.
I wonder why Clint Eastwood never made a movie about the outlaws of Natchez Trace? Someone needs to.
April 27, 2015
There are many books available on the topic of the highwaymen and robbers along the colonial waterways and overland gaps. Even modern books on the subject regurgitate the same stories and information. Rarely are facts checked, referenced, or conflicting accounts analyzed. Coates, writing in about 1930, made an impressive study on the famous highwaymen and robbers of the 1780s-1810s.
The era was a time of rapid expansion westwards towards the Mississippi River and Louisiana, Franco-Spanish territory for most of the book. Coates provides some census data to show the explosive population growth early on in the book before he begins discussing the road warriors of the era. Migrants had two options for travel: down the Ohio or overland through the Natchez and Cumberland Traces. Oftentimes, according to Coates, people traveled down the Ohio and back over land. The namesake land pirates focused on the overland routes; but Coates spends plenty of page space covering the river pirates as well. In many cases, they were one and the same.
Coates focuses on the major desperadoes: The Harpe Brothers, Samuel Mason, and John Murrell. A mythology follows these bandits. Coates tries to penetrate the mysteries surrounding them. In the section on sources, he bemoans how difficult it was to make a story on the Harpes because there were so many conflicting accounts. Coates is one of the few authors who tries to pinpoint dates and events to their crimes. He claims he uses newspaper accounts; though newspapers would be scarce covering the overland routes ca. 1790. He hints that the mystique surrounding the Harpes was due to their bloodlust and unparalleled violence. The fear of the era might have been magnified if they were mixed race (Black and White) siblings.
Mason and Murrell have a mythology as well. Mason epitomizes the fallen hero. His story is like a Greek tragedy. He was a Revolutionary war hero turned bandit king. Coates makes a strong argument that Mason was not so different from many bandits of the ear except in his war credentials that gave him an added ego. His activities were scandalous in that he may have been a Justice of the Peace for the frontier he plundered. His fall from grace may have been his brutal punishment for some of his crimes. The whipping, beating, pillorying, and branding possibly made him insane. Afterwards his crimes increased exponentially.
In Murrell, Coates shows the evolution of the bandit leader. From the random mayhem of the Harpes, to the corruption of Mason, Murrell is the final form. Murrell is a southern gentleman who made a fortune stealing and selling slaves over and over again, usually murdering the slave after selling him or her multiple times. Murrell concealed himself behind a veneer of refinement. He also had connections to sell his stolen slaves, connections that expanded into highway robbery, piracy, fencing, murder, etc.
The mythology of Murrell is the vague story of leading a massive criminal conspiracy that was formenting a massive slave revolt to cause chaos while the brotherhood of bandits looted and robbed with impunity. Other authors have questioned the story. The only evidence supporting the story was from a single source, a man who traveled with Murrell between Kentucky and Arkansas over a period of four or five days. Although Coates supports the Murrell Myth, he also allows for some skepticism. What criminal mastermind would describe his plans in detail, including all major supporters, to someone he just met? Murrell himself appears to have been convicted of either horse theft or slave theft. Coates is uncertain; but most recent authors agree he was convicted on horse theft and died in prison. Like Mason, he suffered an early form of brutal frontier justice, and possibly developed an insane appetite for bloodlust. Coates tries to prove the mythology with a subsequent chapter describing vigilantes who tortured and murdered suspects. Coates accepts some of the tortured confessions, while dismissing others. The entire story rests on the word of Virgil Stewart whose own background is largely unknown.
Overall, this is one of the best detailed accounts of the early American outlaws and bandits. Readers can see how the bandits transformed from raw predators like the Harpes into something resembling organized crime. Along the way, America changes. Between 1790 and 1810, the roadways become civilized. There were fewer places to hide. The Harpes and Mason blended in with the wilderness. Murrell hid from town to town. This book is both a lesson in crime and American history.
The era was a time of rapid expansion westwards towards the Mississippi River and Louisiana, Franco-Spanish territory for most of the book. Coates provides some census data to show the explosive population growth early on in the book before he begins discussing the road warriors of the era. Migrants had two options for travel: down the Ohio or overland through the Natchez and Cumberland Traces. Oftentimes, according to Coates, people traveled down the Ohio and back over land. The namesake land pirates focused on the overland routes; but Coates spends plenty of page space covering the river pirates as well. In many cases, they were one and the same.
Coates focuses on the major desperadoes: The Harpe Brothers, Samuel Mason, and John Murrell. A mythology follows these bandits. Coates tries to penetrate the mysteries surrounding them. In the section on sources, he bemoans how difficult it was to make a story on the Harpes because there were so many conflicting accounts. Coates is one of the few authors who tries to pinpoint dates and events to their crimes. He claims he uses newspaper accounts; though newspapers would be scarce covering the overland routes ca. 1790. He hints that the mystique surrounding the Harpes was due to their bloodlust and unparalleled violence. The fear of the era might have been magnified if they were mixed race (Black and White) siblings.
Mason and Murrell have a mythology as well. Mason epitomizes the fallen hero. His story is like a Greek tragedy. He was a Revolutionary war hero turned bandit king. Coates makes a strong argument that Mason was not so different from many bandits of the ear except in his war credentials that gave him an added ego. His activities were scandalous in that he may have been a Justice of the Peace for the frontier he plundered. His fall from grace may have been his brutal punishment for some of his crimes. The whipping, beating, pillorying, and branding possibly made him insane. Afterwards his crimes increased exponentially.
In Murrell, Coates shows the evolution of the bandit leader. From the random mayhem of the Harpes, to the corruption of Mason, Murrell is the final form. Murrell is a southern gentleman who made a fortune stealing and selling slaves over and over again, usually murdering the slave after selling him or her multiple times. Murrell concealed himself behind a veneer of refinement. He also had connections to sell his stolen slaves, connections that expanded into highway robbery, piracy, fencing, murder, etc.
The mythology of Murrell is the vague story of leading a massive criminal conspiracy that was formenting a massive slave revolt to cause chaos while the brotherhood of bandits looted and robbed with impunity. Other authors have questioned the story. The only evidence supporting the story was from a single source, a man who traveled with Murrell between Kentucky and Arkansas over a period of four or five days. Although Coates supports the Murrell Myth, he also allows for some skepticism. What criminal mastermind would describe his plans in detail, including all major supporters, to someone he just met? Murrell himself appears to have been convicted of either horse theft or slave theft. Coates is uncertain; but most recent authors agree he was convicted on horse theft and died in prison. Like Mason, he suffered an early form of brutal frontier justice, and possibly developed an insane appetite for bloodlust. Coates tries to prove the mythology with a subsequent chapter describing vigilantes who tortured and murdered suspects. Coates accepts some of the tortured confessions, while dismissing others. The entire story rests on the word of Virgil Stewart whose own background is largely unknown.
Overall, this is one of the best detailed accounts of the early American outlaws and bandits. Readers can see how the bandits transformed from raw predators like the Harpes into something resembling organized crime. Along the way, America changes. Between 1790 and 1810, the roadways become civilized. There were fewer places to hide. The Harpes and Mason blended in with the wilderness. Murrell hid from town to town. This book is both a lesson in crime and American history.
February 5, 2011
The terrible Harpes, and others. Stone cold killers on the early frontier. These guys would of freaked out Manson.
February 1, 2022
Dan’l Boone and friends notwithstanding, the American frontier of the late 18th century was not a friendly place. Hewing a homestead out of the wilderness was a hard scrabble job not only from the sheer physical labor of clearing land but also from the threat of predators and Indians.
There was also another threat: other settlers, but not the idyllic ones of your history class. These were scoundrels, conmen, thieves and murderers. A number of certifiable psychopaths were in their number. They hid along trails like the Natchez Trace and along the rivers and streams carrying homesteaders westward. The frontier was not a safe place.
Coates first published this book in 1930 The 1953 Pennant edition was subtitled “The Killers Who Ruled the Natchez Trace.” The book details the exploits of the murderous brothers Big Harpe and Little Harpe, the dapper thief John A. Murrell, and Joseph Hare, and Samuel Mason. They were among the most notable of the “land pirates.”
Their lives and exploits are told in fascinating detail. If there is a flaw in the book, it is the lack of a detailed map of the wilderness. The frontispiece is two-page map but of such poor quality that only the state outlines are clearly recognizable.
Occasionally the reader wants a few more details or citations for certain incidents. In defense of his approach, the author wrote: “I was moved by no other purpose than the one of general convenience. This book was designed for the general reader, and it seemed to me therefore that the elaborate accuracy of the student would here be out of place.” So be it. There is an extensive bibliography for those who want more.
There was also another threat: other settlers, but not the idyllic ones of your history class. These were scoundrels, conmen, thieves and murderers. A number of certifiable psychopaths were in their number. They hid along trails like the Natchez Trace and along the rivers and streams carrying homesteaders westward. The frontier was not a safe place.
Coates first published this book in 1930 The 1953 Pennant edition was subtitled “The Killers Who Ruled the Natchez Trace.” The book details the exploits of the murderous brothers Big Harpe and Little Harpe, the dapper thief John A. Murrell, and Joseph Hare, and Samuel Mason. They were among the most notable of the “land pirates.”
Their lives and exploits are told in fascinating detail. If there is a flaw in the book, it is the lack of a detailed map of the wilderness. The frontispiece is two-page map but of such poor quality that only the state outlines are clearly recognizable.
Occasionally the reader wants a few more details or citations for certain incidents. In defense of his approach, the author wrote: “I was moved by no other purpose than the one of general convenience. This book was designed for the general reader, and it seemed to me therefore that the elaborate accuracy of the student would here be out of place.” So be it. There is an extensive bibliography for those who want more.
July 2, 2020
An excellent research tool though not entirely factual.
February 19, 2025
Full of racism. It was great.
January 8, 2024
Interesting little read about the early days of the Natchez Trace and its infamous outlaws. A topic of interest to me because my home county is the place where Meriwether Lewis died (or committed suicide) along the Trace. The brutality of early America is quite shocking and the narrative kept me engaged even while written in an older style.
October 21, 2010
This is one I could not get into
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews