Appleton Oaksmith papers, 1840-1949

Using These Materials Teaser

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
More about accessing and using these materials...

Summary

Creator:
Oaksmith, Appleton, 1827 or 1828-1887
Abstract:
Appleton Oaksmith (1827 or 1828-1887) was a ship owner and captain, merchant, writer, and state representative for North Carolina. He was convicted in 1862 for allegedly outfitting ships to traffic in enslaved people but was later pardoned in 1872. Collection consists of correspondence, legal and financial documents, clippings, and bound volumes (mainly ledgers, logbooks, and scrapbooks) that document the personal life, interests, business ventures, naval voyages, and political and diplomatic career of Appleton Oaksmith. To a lesser extent the collection documents the lives and business of the Oaksmith and Mason families. The bulk of collection material dates from the mid- to late-1850s and the mid- to late-1870s. Notably absent from the collection is material related to Oaksmith's alleged trafficking in enslaved people and his indictment, conviction, and imprisonment for it.
Extent:
10 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English and Spanish.
Collection ID:
RL.13088

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of personal papers (chiefly correspondence, legal and financial documents, and clippings) and bound volumes (chiefly ledgers, logbooks, and scrapbooks) that document the personal life, business ventures, naval voyages, and political and diplomatic career of Appleton Oaksmith. To a lesser extent the collection documents the lives and finances of members of the Oaksmith and Mason families, including Isotta Oaksmith, Augusta Oaksmith, Eleanor Preston Mason, and Corinne Oaksmith. The bulk of collection material dates from the mid- to late-1850s and the mid- to late-1870s. In particular, much of the collection material details the shipping and mercantile interests of Oaksmith, his involvement in 1850s filibustering expeditions (including supplying arms and ammunition), and the development of Carteret County and Hollywood, N.C., in the 1870s. Scattered throughout the collection is poetry and other writing by Oaksmith. Notably absent from the collection is material related to Oaksmith's alleged trafficking in enslaved people and his indictment, conviction, and imprisonment for it. A few newspapers clippings address the case, as well as a manuscript copy of a letter from Isotta Oaksmith to President Johnson in 1867 requesting a pardon for Appleton.

Biographical / historical:

Appleton Oaksmith (1827 or 1828-1887) was born in Portland, Maine, to writers Seba Smith and Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Elizabeth Oakes Smith was also an activist for women's rights. Appleton Oaksmith entered the shipping and mercantile industry, and in the early 1850s he owned partial interest in several ships. Oaksmith travelled between ports in the United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Africa, picking up and depositing cargoes such as coal, copper, lumber, and other goods. In 1852 Oaksmith sailed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Shark's Point at the mouth of the River Congo in Africa, with the intention of sailing further inland to deliver and receive cargo. It is unclear what cargo he was picking up.

Upon his return to the United States, Oaksmith continued to engage in the shipping and mercantile industry, where his cargoes tended to be arms, ammunition, and other military supplies. In 1855 the U.S. government seized three ships that Oaksmith owned in part or in full: barques Amelia and Magnolia , and the steamer Massachusetts . All three ships were loaded with arms and ammunition—the Amelia and Magnolia were believed to be connected with Henry Kinney's Nicaragua filibuster, while the steamer Massachusetts was connected to Domingo de Goicouria and the first Cuban Junta, destined for a filibuster in Cuba. The following year (1856), Oaksmith was again involved in another Nicaraguan filibuster.

The Nicaraguan Filibuster War (1855-1860) was an unauthorized military seizure led by American William Walker (1824-1860). Walker invaded Nicaragua in May 1855 and declared himself president, with the goal of creating a slaveholding territory sympathetic to U.S. interests. Walker appointed Appleton Oaksmith as the Minister Plenipotentiary of Nicaragua to the United States in 1856. Some of Oaksmith's duties were securing loans for the Walker's government, sourcing supplies (including arms and munitions), and setting up an emigration office to send American citizens to Nicaragua. An army of central American countries, led by Costa Rica and supported by the U.S. Navy, defeated Walker in May 1857. After Walker's defeat, Oaksmith remained in New York, where he had been carrying out the majority of his work. He remained active in the shipping and mercantile industry while also working to settle a suit against Domingo de Goicouria (and then the U.S. government) for losses incurred from the seizure of the steamer Massachusetts .

Outside of his mercantile and military-adjacent pursuits in the 1850s, Oaksmith wrote poetry, prose, and lyrics to accompany music, including the popular poem "Maggie Bell" (1856), which Oaksmith first published anonymously. In September 1855, Oaksmith married Isotta Rebecchini in Portland, Maine, and from 1857 to 1862 Isotta bore Oaksmith four children: Buchanan (1857, died in infancy), Elizabeth "Bessie" (1858-1879), Corinne (1860-1879), and Peyton Randolph (1862-1948). Historian Jonathan White notes that Appleton and Isotta's marriage was not a happy one, however, and they would divorce in 1864.

With civil war imminent in early 1861, Oaksmith was a vocal supporter of maintaining the union and resolving issues peacefully. As a supporter of the Crittenden Resolution, Oaksmith likely sought the preservation of the union without interfering with slavery in the South. He was a member of the Union League of New York and promoted the group's meetings, including a mass meeting held on January 28, 1861, at the Cooper Institute. Oaksmith gave a speech at this meeting, and he was appointed to be one of the city's three commissioners who would meet with Southern representatives and peacefully resolve differences. However, they could not meet with the representatives before the outbreak of war. In November 1861, U.S. government officials arrested and indicted Oaksmith for outfitting two sailing vessels as slave ships. The evidence against Oaksmith was questionable, but he was convicted and imprisoned in 1862. Oaksmith escaped from prison and lived in exile in Cuba, where he engaged in blockade-running for the Confederacy.

After the Civil War, Oaksmith married his cousin Augusta Mason (1843-1912), having divorced Isotta in 1864, and moved to England to continue living in exile with Augusta and her mother, Eleanor Preston Mason. While in England, Oaksmith re-engaged with the arms and ammunitions supply business as a member of Frear & Co., even supplying the French government during the Franco-Prussian War. Augusta gave birth to several children during this time, including Eleanor (1868-1869), Mildred (1870-1879), and Pauline (1872-1879). On October 7, 1872, President Grant pardoned Oaksmith, and in 1873 Appleton and his family returned to the United States, settling in Hollywood, N.C., near Beaufort in Carteret County.

Oaksmith invested in railroad development in North Carolina, but his plans did not come to fruition, and he instead turned to politics. From 1874 to 1875 he served as a state representative in North Carolina, and he was "ardently anti-Klan" (White, Shipwrecked , 233) and in favor of rights for formerly enslaved people. In the 1870s Oaksmith maintained interest in the development of Carteret County's business and agriculture and the settling of the county's debt, and the family ran a general store in Hollywood called Mason & Co. His family also continued to grow: Augusta gave birth to two more children: Stanley (1873-1938) and Katharine (1877, died in infancy). However, on July 4, 1879, all four of Oaksmith's surviving daughters, Bessie, Corinne, Mildred, and Pauline, drowned in a boating accident. Just a few months later, Augusta gave birth to another daughter, Theodora (1879-1960).

Appleton and Augusta had two more children in the 1880s: Vincent (1882-1951) and Geraldine (1884-1965). However, the drowning of his four daughters, as well as persistent financial struggles (he declared bankruptcy several times throughout his life), troubled Oaksmith, and he largely withdrew from civic and social life. He also developed chronic medical issues, and he relocated to New York in hopes of treatment. Oaksmith passed away in New York on October 26, 1887.

Sources: Jonathan White, Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023); Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com (accessed July 1-2, 2023).

Acquisition information:
The Appleton Oaksmith Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library from 1933-1999; and as a gift from Patricia Ann Goo in 2020.
Processing information:

Processed by Library Staff.

Reprocessed by Leah Tams in June 2024 to rehouse materials, integrate accessions from 1999 and 2020, and review collection for materials providing evidence of trafficking in enslaved peoples. Evidence not found in this collection.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 1999-0068, 2020-0033, and unknown accession numbers from 1933-1979.

Arrangement:

Arranged into two series: Personal Papers and Bound Volumes. Within series, material is arranged chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

Before you visit:
Please consult our up-to-date information for visitors page, as our services and guidelines periodically change.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Appleton Oaksmith Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1j745