James Bowie, free man of color

THE PATERNITY OF JAMES BOWIE, FMC

Just who was the father of James Bowie, FMC? There are several candidates:

James Bowie (1735-1799) (father of Rezin P. Bowie, Sr & Rhesa Bowie.) – On June 19, 1800, James Menasco bought "a negress named Dinah, together with an infant mulatto, about eighteen months old, named Sam." Dinah had come from the estate of James Bowie. It’s possible that Sam wasn’t the only mulatto produced from the estate. Was James Bowie, FMC the son of this James Bowie?

[Also, in discussions of the adventures of Col. James Bowie, it was said he was often accompanied by his personal slave, Sam. Is this the same Sam?]

Rezin P. Bowie, Sr. (1767-1811) (father of John J. Bowie, Stephen Bowie, and Col. James Bowie). Rezin is a candidate biologically. Although he was married and had a large family, it wouldn’t necessarily preclude him from having a second family. But why would he name two sons James?

Rhesa Bowie (c.1780- 1848) (brother of Rezin P. Bowie, Sr.) Rhesa Bowie never married. Perhaps he never married because he had a black wife in common law? Rhesa is present in many of the transactions involving James Bowie, FMC.

[Rhesa adopted a son, James Scroggins. Scroggins took Bowie as his surname, becoming yet another James Bowie! He named his two sons James and Rhesa. Neither of them lived to maturity, so the line ended with them.]

John Bowie (? - 1816) (son of James Bowie, brother of Rezin P. Bowie, Sr and Rhesa Bowie) John Bowie owned land on the Bushley Bayou, a 640 acre tract. Could this be the same land that belonged to James Bowie, FMC at the time of his death?

John J. Bowie (1785-1859) (son of Rezin P.Bowie, Sr. and brother of Col. James Bowie) Right now, there are only two data points available in determining the age of James Bowie, FMC. – the 1820 and 1830 censuses. Unfortunately, they both use age categories instead of actual ages. The 1840 census was the first to report an actual age, but by then James Bowie, FMC was deceased.

The 1795 birthdate I’ve used is an approximation using the intersection of the 1795-1806 birth range (1820) and the 1776-1794 birth range (1830 census). If one or both of these dates is wrong, then 1795 is unsupportable. But John J. Bowie becomes a possible father candidate if the year of birth for James Bowie approaches 1800. [It can’t go too much beyond 1800, since his oldest son, Stephen Bowie, was born in 1817.]

In the 1820 census, it appears James Bowie, FMC and his family was enumerated in the household of John J. Bowie. When affidavits were taken in the disputed 1824 election of John J. Bowie to the Louisiana House of Representatives, the residence of James Bowie, FMC was one of the sites used. Many of the James Bowie, FMC business transactions are also signed by John J. Bowie.

None of the above – There’s always a chance that James Bowie, FMC is not biologically related to the white Bowies. I view this as a remote chance, since the early free Bowies were described as mulattos. In her book, The Rezin Bowie Family of Louisiana , Virgina Lobdell Jennings states (pg. 6) that "the origins of these [Catahoula Parish free black] Bowies is not known." My suspicion is that she didn’t look too hard.

When Walter Worthington Bowie wrote his Bowie genealogy The Bowies and their Kindred (1899), he solicited information Bowie relatives. Besides documenting all branches of the Bowie families, he was trying to verify the anectodal connection between the Louisiana, Mississippi and Maryland branches. A descendant of John J. Bowie, Lulu Leatherman Nelson of Vicksburg, MS wrote in an 1897 letter:

"I forgot to say that there is a family of Bowies living near here but I know nothing very good of them & as they all have negro families I don’t think we want them in the history even if they are remotely connected with our family & could establish the missing link for which [Walter] Worthington B[owie] is looking. One of the women is a colored nun in New Orleans." (See "A Colored Nun in New Orleans.")

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