John Murrell

He was released in 1829.

Murrell was convicted the second and last time for the crime of slave stealing, in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Tennessee.

He was released in 1829.

Given Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia, slaveholders were always ready to believe conspiracies of new violence, especially in the Deep South where whites were far outnumbered by blacks.

Those aroused by the pamphlet became part of increasing tensions and outbreaks known as the "Murrell Excitement".

He was incarcerated in the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville from 1834 to 1844.

According to Tennessee prison records, John Andrews Murrell was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, and raised in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Murrell was the son of Jeffrey Murrell and Zilpha Andrews, and was the third born of eight children.

While he was incarcerated in Nashville for slave stealing, his mother, wife, and two children lived in the vicinity of Denmark, Tennessee.

John A. Murrell had his first criminal conviction, for horse theft, as a teenager and was branded on the base of his thumb with an "HT" for horse thief, flogged, and sentenced to six years in prison.

Murrell was convicted a second and final time, for the crime of slave stealing, in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Tennessee, and incarcerated in the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville from 1834 to 1844.

While in the Tennessee State Penitentiary, Murrell, as part of his reform, was required to work as a blacksmith.

A decade in prison under the Auburn penitentiary system, of mandatory convict regimentation, through prison uniforms, lockstep, silence, and occasional solitary confinement, were said to break Murrell mentally and supposedly left him an imbecile.

He spent the last months of his life as a blacksmith in Pikeville, Tennessee.

The Nashville Daily American newspaper reported a different account of his last year of life.

It said that when Murrell was released from prison, at 38 years old, he became a reformed man, and a Methodist in good standing.

He worked as a carpenter by trade, and lived at a boarding house in Pikeville.

In a deathbed confession, Murrell admitted to being guilty of most of the crimes charged against him except murder, to which he claimed to be "guiltless".

In 1835, Virgil Stewart wrote that a slave rebellion was being organized by highwaymen and Northern abolitionists.

On Christmas Day, 1835, Murrell and his "Mystic Clan" planned to incite an uprising in every slaveholding state by invoking the Haitian Revolution, the most successful slave rebellion in history.

Murrell believed that a slave rebellion would enable him to take over the South, and make New Orleans the center of operations of his criminal empire.

Stewart's account of his interactions with Murrell was published as a pamphlet, written under the pseudonym "Augustus Q. Walton, Esq.," for whom Stewart invented a fictitious background and profession.

The validity of the pamphlet has been debated since its publication.

Some historians say that Stewart's pamphlet was largely fictional and that Murrell (and his brothers) were at best inept thieves, who had caused their father to go bankrupt as he raised bail money for them.

John Andrews Murrell (1806 – November 21, 1844), the "Great Western Land Pirate", was a 19th-century bandit and criminal operating along the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River, in the southern United States.

He was also known as John A. Murrell, and his surname was commonly spelled as Murel and Murrel.

His exploits were widely known, and he became a legendary figure in fiction, film and television in the 20th century.

He was first convicted as a youth for the crime of horse theft.

He was branded with an "HT", flogged, and sentenced to six years in prison.

John A. Murrell died on November 21, 1844, nine months after leaving prison.

He was reported to have contracted "pulmonary consumption" (tuberculosis).

Murrell was interred at Smyrna First United Methodist Church Cemetery, in Smyrna, Tennessee.

After Murrell died, parts of him were dug up and stolen by grave robbers.

Although the corpse had been half-eaten by scavenging hogs, the head was separated from the torso, pickled, and displayed at county fairs.

His skull is missing, but the Tennessee State Museum holds one of his thumbs.

Accepted facts about his life include stealing horses, for which he was branded.

He was also caught with a freed slave living on his property.

Murrell was known to kidnap slaves and sell them to other slave owners.

His 10-year prison sentence was for slave-stealing.

Murrell would be considered a conductor on the Reverse Underground Railroad.