Meredith Calhoun

Meredith Calhoun
Born	1805 South Carolina, USA
Died	ca. 1866 or 1867 (aged ca. 62)
Residence	Colfax, Grant Parish Louisiana
Nationality	American
Occupation	Planter Newspaper editor
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Mary Smith Calhoun
Children	William Smith Calhoun Marie Marguerite Ada[1]

Meredith Calhoun (1805 – ca. 1866) was a plantation owner and a newspaper editor in Grant Parish, Louisiana, known for his editorial activism on behalf of the Democratic Party.

Calhoun was born in South Carolina but moved to Rapides Parish, Louisiana about 1830. He married Mary Smith, daughter of William Smith, a member of the Louisiana State Senate.^[2] Their children were William Smith "Willie" Calhoun (born ca. 1835) and Marie Marguerite Ada (born ca. 1845). The couple purchased 14,000 acres from Senator Smith, who had acquired the land in 1836. They divided the property fronting the Red River into four plantations on which they grew primarily cotton and sugar cane. The Calhouns established one of the largest sugar mills in Louisiana and their estate was valued in excess of $1 million in the 1860 census,^[3] a considerable holding at that time.

"Calhoun's Landing," as the principal plantation was called, became an important shipping point on the Red River and the beginning of Colfax, the seat of government of Grant Parish, some 25 miles north of Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in Central Louisiana. Calhoun purchased the Red River Democrat newspaper and renamed it the National Democrat. The publication was strongly supportive of the 1860 Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.^[3] Douglas, however, was soundly trounced nationally by the Republican choice, Abraham Lincoln, also of Illinois. Louisiana voted for the outgoing Vice President of the United States John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, running as the breakway "Southern Democratic" candidate.^[4]

Calhoun died after the American Civil War had ended, probably in 1866 or 1867. Mrs. Calhoun died on June 11, 1871. Their son, Willie Calhoun, became like his maternal grandfather, a state senator^[5] and worked to establish Grant Parish separate from the more populous Rapides Parish to the south.^[3][6]

Was Calhoun the model for Simon Legree?

Reports surfaced long after Calhoun's demise that he had been the model of the cruel taskmaster of slaves, Simon Legree, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1896, William Hugh Robarts claimed that Stowe, by then deceased, had told him in Boston, Massachusetts, that the Legree character was based on Calhoun. According to Robarts, Stowe never met Calhoun, but she was told of his plantation on the Red River by a Mississippi River pilot originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[7]

The evidence, however, is contradictory. J.E. Dunn, a Louisiana correspondent for the former New Orleans Times-Democrat, quickly repudiated Robarts' claim that Calhoun was the plantation owner that Stowe had in mind in her caricature. Calhoun was cultured, educated, and a gentleman, with looks that never seemed to age. Legree was uncouth, brutal, and ignorant, characteristics perhaps of one or more of Calhoun's overseers. Calhoun was originally from South Carolina, county not known, but Simon Legree in the novel is a northerner. Robarts claimed that Calhoun had been a bachelor for many years and that there was a considerable age difference between Calhoun and his wife. Yet, Calhoun was only thirty years of age when their son was born.^[8]

References

1. ^ It is unclear if "Ada" is a husband's name or a second middle name.
2. ^ The Louisiana State Senate listing from the office of the Secretary of State begins in 1880, well before prior to Senator William Smith: Membership in the Louisiana Senate, 1880–2012
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Calhoun, Meredith". Louisiana Historical Association, A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.com). http://www.lahistory.org/site20.php. Retrieved December 22, 2010. 
4. ^ "The Election of 1860: Results by States". learnnc.org. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5440. Retrieved December 23, 2010. 
5. ^ The Louisiana State Senate listing from the office of the Secretary of State begins in 1880, just before prior to Senator William Calhoun: Membership in the Louisiana Senate, 1880–2012
6. ^ A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, in its article on Calhoun, uses as sources the Red River Republican, Red River Democrat, and Shreveport Times; Rapides and Grant parish courthouse records; United States Census, and Mary Fletcher Harrison and Lavina McGuire McNeely, Grant Parish, Louisiana, A History (1969).
7. ^ "Model for Mrs. Stowe: Meredith Calhoun Was the Original Cruel Simon Legree, His Red River Plantation". iath.virginia.edu. http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/articles/n2ar19dtt.html. Retrieved December 24, 2010. 
8. ^ "J.E. Dunn, "About Uncle Tom's Cabin: A Louisianian Says Meredith Calhoun Was Not a Model for Legree, August 31, 1896". utc.iath.virginia.edu. http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/articles/n2ar19dvt.html. Retrieved December 23, 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Calhoun, Meredith
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1805
Place of birth	South Carolina
Date of death	ca. 1866 or 1867
Place of death	Unknown