Benjamin Smith (slave trader)
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Benjamin Smith (1717–1770) was a merchant banker, politician, plantation owner and slave trader from Charles Town, South Carolina. He served as Speaker of the Royal Assembly.
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He was born into one of the most prominent families of South Carolina. He was a great-grandson of the South Carolina governor and landgrave Thomas Smith, who had arrived in Charles Town in 1684. His grandfather was Thomas Smith II, the 2nd landgrave. He was also the uncle of North Carolina governor Benjamin Smith.[1]
He was one of the most prominent merchant bankers in the colony in his lifetime.[2] He inherited a two-thousand-acre plantation located in the St James Goose Creek parish. He also owned the Accabee plantation on the Ashley River and several other properties, including a town house with twelve slaves in Charleston. He was active in the slave trade and the fur trade, and owned seven ships with some other merchants. He held numerous civic offices and served in the Royal Assembly from 1747 to 1765, including as Speaker for many years. He also funded a "negro school" run by the priest Alexander Garden.[3]
He was the father of Judith Smith (1766–1820), who was married to the revolutionary officer and lieutenant governor of South Carolina James Ladson.
The Smith family lived in a large house on 49 Broad Street in Charleston, built in the 1740s and now known as the Benjamin Smith House.[4]
References
- ^ Alan D. Watson, General Benjamin Smith: A Biography of the North Carolina Governor, p. 5, McFarland, 2014, ISBN 9780786485284
- ^ The Nine Lives of Robert Deans: A Cabinetmaker and Master Builder in Edinburgh, Charleston, and London, 1740–1780
- ^ Dorothy Middleton Anderson, Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman, St. Philip's Church of Charleston: An Early History of the Oldest Parish in South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2015, 9781625854070
- ^ Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)