Little is known about Poindexter's family of origin, but he reported that he was born about 1804 in Virginia. He was possibly born in
Halifax, Virginia on June 17, 1804. He
may be related to the Virginia Poindexter family that produced
George Poindexter, an early Mississippi governor, and
James Preston Poindexter, an abolitionist minister of Ohio.
Slave trading In 1827, Thomas B. Poindexter of Huntsville, Alabama trafficked a 16-year-old black girl named Frances from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans on the ship
Columbia. Poindexter is listed as the "shipper" of slaves from
Charleston, South Carolina, on the ship
John David Mongin bound for
Savannah, Georgia, in 1829. In 1834, Thomas B. Poindexter of Columbia, South Carolina, shipped nine people from Charleston to New Orleans on the ship
Crawford: Paul, Harry, Frank, Bacchus, Jordan, Jupiter, Reuben, Hinney, Selina, all of whom were in the age range of 16 to 36 that slave traders marketed as "
prime". In 1844 traders
William H. Williams and Thomas B. Poindexter both used the
Victorine to ship enslaved people from
Baltimore to New Orleans. Poindexter shipped Thomas Williams, a 19-year-old black man, and the Hall family, consisting of Sylvester and Kitty Hall, ages 45 and 48; Milly, Sally, and Charity Hall, who were 19, 16, and 11 years old; and four-month-old John Hall, who was most likely Milly's son and Sylvester and Kitty's grandson. In 1847, Poindexter shipped five twentysomethings—Alfred, John Bennet, Amos, John, and Mary Ann—from Charleston to New Orleans on the
Adelaide. In 1848 Poindexter and
the Campbells used the ship
Delaware to send slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans; Poindexter's name is associated with three people on the manifest: Willis Alexander, Charles Williams, and Clarissa Gross.
Cotton plantation According to the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management tract books, Thomas B. Poindexter purchased many tracts of land in the
Oauchita District of Louisiana in the 1840s. As of the 1850 census, Poindexter was enumerated in
Tensas Parish, Louisiana with
John Jenkins Poindexter (likely his brother or cousin) and the widowed John J.'s nine-year-old son. According to an advertisement placed in the
New Orleans Crescent in 1865, Poindexter's Tensas Parish plantation was located about inland from
St. Joseph on the
Mississippi River, in an area said to be "the best cotton-producing country in the United States, between
Natchez and
Vicksburg, and nearly opposite
Rodney." The property had "a good dwelling house" and "
negro houses for 200 persons". Of the 4,000 total acres, 1,500 had been cleared and put "under fence and ready for cultivation, with steam saw mill and grist mill, large steam cotton gin, barns and stables...all of the best description".
1860 for
Tensas Parish, Louisiana estates including T. B. Poindexter, 1860 In 1860, T. B. Poindexter was listed in the New Orleans census as a resident of the 11th ward, having the occupation of slave trader, owning real estate valued at and personal property worth . The other white residents of Poindexter's Tensas Parish household are a 25-year-old carpenter from Virginia named W. T. Gallsined and a 40-year-old from Ireland with no listed occupation named Michael Spelton. In 1860 Thomas B. Poindexter's brother or cousin John J. Poindexter appeared in the federal census of New Orleans with occupation "slave depot," and personal property worth $40,000. His nearest neighbors were the households of his business partner
Montgomery Lyttle, and another slave trader,
R. H. Elam. The
Poindexter & Little slave depot in New Orleans is described in the 1914 biography of
Allen Allensworth, a survivor of American slavery. In November 1860, Poindexter signed an open letter that described
Abraham Lincoln as a
Black Republican and called upon Louisiana governor
T. O. Moore "to secure our rights" (by calling a secession convention and exiting the Union, etc.)
Death and estate Thomas B. Poindexter died from unknown causes in
Tensas Parish, Louisiana sometime before September 1861, when his estate was inventoried. In November 1861, New Orleans auctioneer
Norbert Vignié listed for sale "at o'clock A.M. at the late residence of the deceased at the corner of St. Charles, or Nayades, and St. Andrew streets...7
bbl. fine ol Whiskey,
Claret Wine, White
do.,
Madeira do.,
Port do.,
Sherry do., 1 bbl. of White Sugar, lot of empty bottles" and two
scrips for the Merchants Insurance Company. In January 1862, Vignié advertised that he would sell "at the Merchants' and Auctioneers' Exchange, Royal street, slaves and property belonging to the succession of Thos. B. Poindexter and Cyprien Lorio. Unreserved and positive Sales." Estate sales between November 1861 and March 1862 yielded over . According to research by historian Judith Schafer, after Poindexter's slaves were freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation "many of them left his plantation, carrying off most of its movable property. A few months later, Confederate cavalry burned all of the cotton stored on the property, to keep it out of enemy hands, and confiscated the plantation's corn to feed their horses". The executor of the estate later sued for a commission percentage based on the 1861 valuation of the slaves, cotton, corn, etc. A lower court granted the petition, a higher court overturned the lower court and reduced the commission by about 80 percent." and 1830, and at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1842. Letters were also waiting for Thomas B. Poindexter and Nathaniel H. Poindexter in Augusta in 1830. Sometime between 1836 and 1843, Thomas B. Poindexter and John J. Poindexter were both involved in purchase and transfer of slaves from a semi-insolvent estate, which later resulted in lawsuits that went to the
Supreme Court of Mississippi. Similarly, in 1851, a
Supreme Court of Alabama decision about the correct endorsement of a "bill of exchange" involved both Thomas B. and John J. Poindexter. In 1855, 19-year-old Gertrude R. Poindexter, daughter of Thomas B. Poindexter, married Thomas D. Loney in Orleans Parish.
Horses Poindexter seemingly had an interest in horse racing, including at the
Metairie Course in Louisiana. The University of Virginia Libraries holds a letter to
turfman William Ransom Johnson dated January 18, 1852 "from Thomas B. Poindexter, Louisville, Kentucky, which discusses a racehorse, 'Sally Morgan.' The writer relates that it was the wish of Johnson's father to have the horse sent to Boston, where she is now a successful runner, and also to give the horse to himself." He is listed in the
American Stud Book as the owner of a horse named Nannie Clark. == See also ==