Talk:Carter Braxton

Untitled
As a result of the leaders and participants of the American Revolution having become sanctified as the demigod like "Founding Fathers", their faults, foibles and contradictions are overlooked, something that shouldn't be allowed to go too far if we are to function as informed citizens and not credulous serfs.

In that spirit it should be known that Braxton was censured by the Continental Congress in 1780 together with Joseph Cunningham, the captain of a privateering vessel he held an ownership interest in, for the blatantly illegal seizure of a Portuguese merchantman and its cargo, Portugal being a neutral, thus causing an international incident. The motion, after furious protests by the Portuguese captain and his government, was introduced by future Vice President Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and passed overwhelmingly. It called for, in addition to their censure, that they be apprehended and subjected to "condign punishment." (1906 edition of collected minutes of Continental/Confederation Congresses).

It is believed that Braxton has the largest number of living descendants of any of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, although it should be known that as an individual with deeply rooted Tory sympathies he was one of two members who voted against it in Committee of the Whole. Tom Cod


 * I didn't know that any educated person sanctified any of the Founders as demigods. Obviously all were human with human faults and foibles.  Their contradictions, inadequacies and all-to-human failings makes what they did all the more remarkable.  VirginiaProp 13:07, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * As Adlai Stevenson is alleged to have dryly commented in response to a comment in 1956 that he was surely headed to victory in the presidential election based on the fact that any educated person could see he was more qualified for the job; better prospects would flow from a broader base of support than that narrow demographic.Tom Cod (talk) 19:32, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Why remove fact that he was slave owner?
WillC, Please explain the unexplained removal of the documented fact that Carter Braxton was owner of enslaved Africans? Thanks. Skywriter (talk) 19:13, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

WillC has replied to the above question here-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Skywriter#carter_braxton

The answer is opinion and not fact in that the Brown University study makes clear that Carter Braxton and his family were major holders of slaves on their plantations. Skywriter (talk) 20:51, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

More sources needed
I cleaned up the article, mostly using the only bio in my Virginia library's local history room, which isn't terrific IMHO. Somewhere I saw the author's profession listed as "public relations", so I'm not sure how much to weigh his assertion, at p. 41, that Braxton wasn't a lawyer, which contradicts the previous, unsourced version of this page. I also didn't include George Mason's comments in letters to his son not to believe Braxton as "plausible" but basically untrustworty. Frankly, I think more sources are needed, particularly concerning his possible slave-trading activities, as well as his plantations. But of course this is a very touchy area.Jweaver28 (talk) 23:06, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't know if or when I'll have time to finish this. The Dill references, other than as specifically noted, are to the 1976 Virginia Bicentennial Commission biography, which may have been citechecked. The other biography, while longer and slightly more recent, may well have been published by something akin to a vanity press, especially given the typewriter-style typeface. I haven't been able to check the original sources, but Dill (a reporter and PR man in his career who bought one of Braxton's houses which prompted his interest in the little-known founding politician) says that Braxton revised Virginia's laws, while the respectable bios of Wythe, Mason and Pendleton say that they did it pretty much alone (and without much contribution by Pendleton after he was invalided by falling from his horse).Jweaver28 (talk) 21:26, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Braxton and Indians
I know considerable research has been done recently concerning the First Virginians, but I haven't been able to locate much yet, and soon must travel once again, probably on an extended basis, to Chicago and thus won't be able to consult the local history rooms in Virginia in which I've recently found some of the links I've added to other articles recently.

IMHO, Braxton's relation with the Pamunkey and Mattaponi in particular are important. His West Point home was at what had been a trading post for over a century, possibly in the same village as the leadership of one of these tribes. Dill says that Braxton was a trustee for the Pamunkey, and that when the other trustees died off (presumably) the Pamunkey asked that he remain. Unfortunately, the citation looks bad, like that for Dill's story about the sheriff at his deathbed (with cited sources several months before). Complicating Dill's citation style is not only that Braxton's house burned down and destroyed records in 1776, but also that family members and collectors apparently want to keep his letters private, which leads me to cynically speculate that they might contain racist language or plans to commit fraud (like the Brown brothers letters, which Dill said were contingent upon Braxton evading Virginia's tobacco export tax) or simple corruption.

On the other hand, the Pamunkey and Mattaponi were the only Virginia tribes to retain their reservations (or parts thereof) into modern times. At least one reservation in Southside Virginia disappeared in 1792 as the Commonwealth organized its government with Braxton on the Executive Council and his friend Edmund Pendleton leading the judiciary. Pendleton's home plantation, Edmundsbury, was near what remains the reduced Mattaponi reservation. Did they protect or cheat these First Virginians? Dill mentions Braxton's landholdings in Amherst County, which is the traditional home of the relatively newly recognized Upper Mattaponi band. Complicating matters even further may be the rise of indentureships (enslavement for debt, a practice some Virginians brought to the Missouri and Illinois territories by 1810) and tribal practices concerning slaveholding. That the Cherokees held slaves is well-documented, but I have no idea concerning these tribes. The Cave book that I've used to edit the Bacon's rebellion article says those rebels (a century before Braxton) enslaved dozens of Pamunkey, and also that the foundation of the business of the William Byrd who founded Richmond was trading Indians into slavery. I don't know if Braxton was doing that, which IMHO could account for his preserved anti-democratic views.Jweaver28 (talk) 13:49, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150810065406/http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/braxton.htm to http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/braxton.htm

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Wrong Benjamin Harrison
In the "Financial Speculation and Troubles Section" I'm fairly certain the wrong Benjamin Harrison is linked as a business partner for Carter Braxton. The link goes to President Benjamin Harrison who was born almost 36 years after Braxton died. I think it's supposed to point to that Benjamin Harrison's great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V, another founding father and a contemporary of Carter Braxton. Renegage646 (talk) 04:58, 30 September 2020 (UTC)