Walton, Augustus Q.: [Stewart, Virgil]:

$1,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JOHN A. MUREL [sic], THE GREAT WESTERN LAND PIRATE [wrapper title]. A later, odd printing of the accounts of the notorious bandit and slave-stealer, John Murrell, one of the most famous American outlaw narratives, and one of the most misunderstood. The author, "Augustus Walton," is in fact the invention of Virgil Stewart, by no means an innocent party to Murrell's extensive plotting. Stewart created a bugaboo of Murrell as a mass murderer, and, perhaps more frightening for the antebellum South, the ringleader in a massive uprising of enslaved people. In fact, Murrell's main villainy consisted of a much simpler confidence scheme: he persuaded enslaved people to escape, then resold them into slavery elsewhere. Stewart, who may have been part of these schemes, played the injured innocent with a vengeance once Murrell was caught. While many of the claims made in this pamphlet are as dubious as its author, they were widely believed in some areas of the South at the time. The "Murrell Excitement" caused tension and violence in cities like Nashville and Memphis, with numerous men supposedly involved hanged either by the city, or by the mob.Stewart's narrative was first published in 1835, with other editions following in quick succession. The present edition carries no date or publisher information other than "Cincinnati" on the wrapper, and clearly reproduces an earlier Cincinnati titlepage within. The final eight pages contain prefatory material dated 185

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