Rebecca Hawkins Hagerty

Rebecca Hawkins Hagerty ( McIntosh; March 15, 1815 – c. 1888) was an American planter and slaveowner, who, in 19th-century America managed two plantations, in two neighboring counties of Texas, owning over 100 human chattel, with real and personal property values above $100,000 for more than a decade.

Early life and marriages
Rebecca was born on March 15, 1815 to General William McIntosh, Jr., the half Scottish and half Creek Chief of the Lower Creek Indian Nation, and Susannah Rowe, a Cherokee woman.

On April 30, 1825, Creek Indians murdered Rebecca's father for his involvement in creating the Treaty of Indian Springs, which ceded aboriginal lands in Georgia in exchange for territorial lands west of the Mississippi River.

Rebecca's blended family consisted of her parents, two step-mothers, and thirteen (half and whole) siblings. Her full-blood siblings included Delilah, Catherine Hettie, and Daniel Newnan (D. N.) McIntosh. Rebecca’s paternal McIntosh and maternal Rowe pedigree placed her among the Five Civilized Tribes.

Rebecca and her McIntosh Family were part of the initial migrants removed westward from the southern U.S. during the early 1830s to the Arkansas Territory (later Indian Territory, presently Oklahoma). While residing in the Indian Territory of the West, during March 1831, Rebecca married into the Hawkins Family when she wed her brother-in-law’s brother Benjamin Hawkins—an Anglo-Creek man. Benjamin acquired wealth through the John Jacob Astor trading company; through domestic slave trading; and as a removal agent, brokering land deals between Native Americans and Anglo Americans. During the early 1830s while in Oklahoma, Rebecca and Benjamin started their family. Their first two children born while in the territory were William, who died young, and Louisa, who was born at Fort Gibson and reached maturity.

Coffle lines in tow, Rebecca, Benjamin, and their family moved into Nacogdoches (later Red River, presently Marion County), Texas, securing a league and labor of land (over 4,000 acres). Benjamin began selling his human chattel to his wife Rebecca as a legal precaution, and by early 1838, she was purchasing land and enslaved people on her own. While in Nacogdoches, Rebecca’s second daughter Anna was born between 1833 and 1835. In March 1836, offenders killed Benjamin because of his involvement in re-settling Native Americans into Texas, though Benjamin was allegedly in alliance with Samuel Houston or Archibald Hotchkiss. Rebecca inherited land and chattel wealth from her father and husband Benjamin, and she continued purchasing land and chattel from her extended family, to build her plantation-based empire.

During March 1838 in Texas, Rebecca married another land broker and slaveholder, Spire M. Hagerty—an Anglo of Alabama. With Spire, Rebecca moved into Port Caddo, Shelby County (later Harrison County), Texas, where they jointly managed the Phoenix Planation, expanding its crop production and their slaveholdings. Rebecca had several children with Spire; three of whom died in infancy. Two children, Frances and Spire, Jr., lived to adult status.

Rebecca and Spire’s difficult marriage led to a divorce proceeding, which was abruptly halted at Spire’s untimely death. Rebecca enlarged her plantation holdings by petitioning the courts to protect her daughters’ inherited interest in their plantation operations. In one instance, Rebecca purchased controlling interest in the Marion County Refuge Plantation and sued Spire’s executors in another court for possession and control of slaves belonging to the Hagerty Estate of Harrison County. At the adjudication of Spire’s last will and testament, Rebecca gained controlling interest of the Harrison County plantation and estate. Rebecca continued managing both the Phoenix Planation and the Refuge Plantation, modeling affluent planters such as Reese Huges, Willis Whitaker, Sr., and William Thomas Scott. The chief crop on both plantations was cotton, and she produced 500-600 bales of it annually, primarily for buyers in New Orleans. For over a decade, Rebecca reigned over her twin plantation operations, increasing property values to over $100,000 and inventorying an enslaved population beyond 100 human chattel; thus, elevating Rebecca’s reign as the wealthiest female and Native American slaveholder in Texas.

Career and Civil War era
The American Civil War and its aftermath depleted Rebecca’s fortune and subsequent business ventures proved futile in replenishing her chattel-based wealth. During the war, Rebecca initially tried to negate her financial losses by selling beef and pork to the Jefferson, Texas Confederate Commissary. Partnering with her son-in-law Samuel H. McFarland, this business venture failed. After Emancipation, Rebecca decided to partner with a local Jefferson, Texas merchant Thomas B. Goyne, offering mortgage backed lines of credit. This venture likewise eventually failed. Ultimately during the Reconstruction era, Rebecca failed to shift to railway transit of her cotton crops and cattle hides, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared the Great Red River Raft, decreasing navigable waters around the vicinity of Jefferson and Marshall, Texas. Both the clearing of the river raft and the development of the railroad eventually impacted the population and property assessment, in the area.

Death and legacy
In preparation of her return to Oklahoma, Rebecca arranged for the building of a log cabin in Oklahoma during 1866. Returning to Oklahoma two decades later, Rebecca died circa 1888, while visiting her brother, former Confederate Colonel Daniel Newnan McIntosh; some sources cite her dying earlier, in 1886 or 1887.

Rebecca reportedly out-lived eleven of thirteen siblings. She also was reportedly predeceased by all of her brothers-in-law and sons-in-law except one, as well as six of her own eight children.