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James
Bowie was born on April 10, 1796 either in Logan County, Kentucky,
Georgia, Tennessee or South Carolina. It is known that the Jim Bowies
parents, Rezin and Elve, moved frequently, first living in Georgia,
then in Kentucky. In 1800, they moved to Missouri. In 1802, they moved
to Bushley Bayou in Rapides Parish of Spanish Louisiana. In 1809,
they moved to Bayou Teche in Louisiana. Finally, they found themselves
a permanent home in Opelousas, Louisiana in 1812
All the Bowie children learned
to read and write in English, though James and his brother Rezin
took the education one step farther by learning to read, write and
speak Spanish and French in addition to English. The frontier life
led to James Bowies proficiency with firearms and knifes.
In 1814 James and his brother,
Rezin enlisted in the Louisiana militia to fight the British in
the War of 1812. However, the war ended before they saw any action.
James then settled in Rapides Parish, Louisiana where he worked
cutting planks and selling them downstream.
In 1819, James joined the Long
Expedition, which was an effort to liberate Texas from the Spanish.
At about 1821, Rezin Bowie, James
father, died, leaving his sons ten slaves each with horses and cattle.
The brothers started developing several large estates in Lafourche
Parish and Opelousas. Not having the capital to buy large tracts
of land, they reached an agreement with pirate Jean Lafitte in 1818.
Since 1808, it had been illegal to import slaves into the US, however,
Jean Lafitte was already a pirate and a criminal who dealt frequently
in slaving.
Most southern states dealt with
slave smugglers by impounding the slaves and selling them to the
public. Any informant who came forward with information leading
the authorities to a smuggler received half the slaves value at
auction. So, James made several trips to Lafittes hideout
on Galveston Island to take possession of slaves. He would then
take the slaves to a customhouse and turn himself in! He would buy
them back at auction and whatever he paid for the slaves, he received
½ the price back in his pocket. After that, he received legal
paperwork showing the slaves to be his property and he put them
up for sale! The Bowie brothers amassed quite a large sum of money
through this scheme and land speculation.
Near Alexandria, Louisiana in 1825,
James, Rezin and Stephen Bowie bought a plantation called Acadia.
It was there that the first steam powered mill in Louisiana was
built. They sold it in 1831. With their shares of the profits, James
and Rezin bought a plantation in Arkansas.
In the late 1820s, the Bowies were
involved in a legal case involving their land dealings. Since the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Louisiana belonged to the US and the
government had promised to honor all the land grants of the previous
government, France. However, there were over one hundred twenty
claims made involving persons that had purchased land from the Bowies
and had never received deeds. It was discovered that the Bowies
never did own the real estate they were selling!
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