Isaac Franklin - Legacy

Legacy

After the death of his widow, Adelicia Cheatham leased and later sold the plantations in Louisiana to Samuel James who leased prisoners from the state to run them. The state acquired the merged plantations under the name Angola in 1901 and they form the core of the Angola Prison.

The African Americans who were held by Isaac Franklin viewed him poorly. Some families were spared separation because Isaac Franklin developed a reputation for "selling" people with serious health problems. It is believed that he ordered the mass burial of African Americans who he suspected of having Yellow Fever. Buyers avoided him after that. At other times, it appears he may have required the sale of entire families in order to avoid having an inventory of infants that he otherwise could not sell. Despite this reputation, it is likely that he separated more families than any other North American slaveholder. In his early trading, he purchased fathers in the Mid-Atlantic states, transported them on river boats, and re-sold them in the Deep South at higher prices. Ironically, he attempted to leave his slave holdings as property to endow a seminary in Louisiana. His wish was overturned on a technicality, because he added a condition that the African Americans and their offspring would be held in perpetuity.