Pierce Mease Butler (1810-1867)
of Philadelphia; Slaveholder & Owner of the Butler Island Plantation, Georgia
He changed his surname to 'Butler' on turning 21-years old, when in accordance with the will of his maternal grandfather, Pierce Butler, he and his brother (John) were each entitled to a half-share of the biggest estate on the Altamaha River in Georgia (worth $700,000) that in 1839 had 715-slaves working a sea-island cotton plantation on St. Simon's Island as well as the rice plantation on Butler's Island.
Resident in Philadelphia and "enormously rich," he married the famous British actress Fanny Kemble in 1834, but they were very soon at odds over their differing opinions on slavery: Fanny was horrified on discovering the conditions in which her husband's slaves lived. Wishing to improve their lot and publicize slave life to a mainly ignorant public in Philadelphia, her husband forbade her from saying anything, threatening to separate her from their two daughters if she did so. When they eventually divorced in 1849, he won custody of their daughters, but when they reached adulthood Fanny took her revenge and in 1863 she published Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839.
Despite having inherited property worth $700,000, Butler was unable to turn it into a profit-making business and he only managed to stave off bankruptcy by, first, selling his townhouse - built by his grandfather circa 1794 on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia - for $30,000 in 1856, and then in 1859 selling 436-slaves for $300,000 at the Ten Broeck Racetrack, outside Savannah, Georgia - the largest single slave auction in U.S. history. Following his divorce in 1849 he had already had to sell "Butler Place" - his grandfather's country home in Germantown - so when he died in 1867 he was still worth $1-million.
Resident in Philadelphia and "enormously rich," he married the famous British actress Fanny Kemble in 1834, but they were very soon at odds over their differing opinions on slavery: Fanny was horrified on discovering the conditions in which her husband's slaves lived. Wishing to improve their lot and publicize slave life to a mainly ignorant public in Philadelphia, her husband forbade her from saying anything, threatening to separate her from their two daughters if she did so. When they eventually divorced in 1849, he won custody of their daughters, but when they reached adulthood Fanny took her revenge and in 1863 she published Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839.
Despite having inherited property worth $700,000, Butler was unable to turn it into a profit-making business and he only managed to stave off bankruptcy by, first, selling his townhouse - built by his grandfather circa 1794 on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia - for $30,000 in 1856, and then in 1859 selling 436-slaves for $300,000 at the Ten Broeck Racetrack, outside Savannah, Georgia - the largest single slave auction in U.S. history. Following his divorce in 1849 he had already had to sell "Butler Place" - his grandfather's country home in Germantown - so when he died in 1867 he was still worth $1-million.
