Josiah Maples
Josiah Maples | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1819 Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | September 22, 1876 (aged 57) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Cotton planter, banking executive, slave trader |
| Years active | 1850s–1876 |
| Known for | Partnership with Nathan Bedford Forrest in slave trading; prominent cotton planter in Arkansas |
Josiah Maples (circa 1819 – September 22, 1876) was a prominent 19th-century cotton planter, banking executive, and slave trader who conducted business across Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. He is particularly recognized for his collaboration with the slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Biography
Maples was born in Alabama around 1818 to 1820 and became active in DeSoto County, Mississippi, where he resisted the Wilmot Proviso and northern political influence. By 1851, he held the position of treasurer at the DeSoto County Masonic Lodge. Documentation from 1852 lists him as a slave owner in Mississippi. He married Mary A. Marshall in 1853 and secured a land patent in Cherokee County, Alabama, the following year.
As one of the three principal partners in Nathan Bedford Forrest’s slave trading firm, Forrest & Maples, Maples was involved from July 1854 until December 1855. Their slave sales typically ranged in value from $600 to $1,000 per individual. This business partnership ended at the close of 1855.
By 1860, Maples had established himself as a planter in Redfork Township, Desha County, Arkansas, possessing personal assets valued at $10,000 and owning 70 enslaved individuals on his estate. In March 1861, he took on the role of director at the Bank of West Tennessee. During the Civil War period, he sold cotton that was subsequently damaged by Union forces; this led to the lawsuit Butler v. Maples, which confirmed the legality of buying cotton from insurrectionist regions under licenses issued by the Treasury Department.
The 1870 census records show Maples living in Desha County alongside his wife and three children. By 1875, he was acknowledged as one of the largest cotton growers within the Arkansas River Valley region. His main home was located in Red Fork, Arkansas—a notable area for cotton cultivation with high per-acre yields. Maples earned a reputation as a pioneering figure and prominent citizen within Desha County’s fertile bottomlands.
He passed away after an extended illness on September 22, 1876, in Memphis’s Raleigh neighborhood and was interred in Rossville, Tennessee.