Monroe Edwards

Monroe Edwards (1808 – January 27, 1847) was an American slave trader, forger, and criminal who was the subject of a well-publicized trial and conviction in 1842. Originally from Kentucky, Edwards moved to New Orleans then settled in Texas. He smuggled slaves into Brazil in 1832 and used the proceeds to purchase land in Texas. In 1836, he was again smuggling slaves, this time into Texas. After attempting to swindle his partner out of the profits of the venture, partly with forged documents, Edwards was forced to flee the Republic of Texas to the United States. He then tried to scam money out of various abolitionists in the United States and the United Kingdom, partly with forged letters of introduction. He traveled to the United Kingdom, but his schemes were mainly unsuccessful, and he returned to the United States in mid-1841.

Edwards' largest swindle involved forged letters from cotton brokers in New Orleans, which he used to secure bank drafts for large sums that he then cashed. His fabrications caught up with him, and he was arrested and tried for the forgeries in June 1842. Convicted partly because his distinctive good looks made him memorable and easily recognizable, and partly from making the same spelling errors in his fakes, Edwards was sentenced to 10 years in prison and died in 1847 while incarcerated. Several sensational accounts of his offenses and trial were published after his death, and he was mentioned in Herman Melville's 1853 short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener".

Early life Edwards was born in 1808 in Danville, Kentucky. His father was reported to be Amos Nothing is known with certainty of his childhood. As a grown man, he was considered very handsome and usually dressed fashionably. Some accounts give him the title "Colonel".

Around 1822, Edwards was sent to New Orleans to learn business from a merchant named Mr. Morgan. By the late 1820s, Morgan had established a trading post on San Jacinto Bay near Galveston in what was then Mexican Texas. Sometime after, Edwards met a slave trader and joined his new acquaintance on a smuggling trip to acquire slaves in Africa. This first effort ended when they were shipwrecked, but on a second attempt in 1832 they succeeded in smuggling slaves into Brazil. he named his new home "Chenango".

Slave trading and forgery Edwards' next efforts in smuggling involved a new partner, Christopher Dart, as well as the importation of slaves, but gave Texas an exemption from emancipating slaves who were already in the territory. To circumvent the ban on importing slaves, traders instead reclassified them as indentured servants with 99-year contracts. The Mexican government cracked down on this practice in 1832, limiting terms of indenture to a maximum of 10 years. Edwards secured further financing from a New Orleans company named George Knight and Company and then went to Cuba where he purchased slaves.

Edwards then tried to change the deal with Dart. Instead of dividing the smuggled slaves between the two men, Edwards tried to keep all the slaves and instead repay the money Dart had advanced him, with some interest. One of these letters was to Lord Spencer, who was so impressed he gave Edwards £250 and this prompted the bankers to offer a reward for information on the forger. While in jail awaiting trial, Edwards forged a letter alleging he had funds in New Orleans, and then showed the letter to one of his lawyers to reassure the lawyer about Edwards' ability to pay for legal counsel. In an attempt to delay his trial, Edwards also forged a letter from a supposed witness, Charles Johnson, stating that he was in Cuba and would not be able to come and testify for Edwards for a while; this gained Edwards a three-month delay.

Trial

Edwards' trial was in June 1842 and was a media sensation. He secured a defense team of six lawyers, including John J. Crittenden, a sitting U.S. Senator, and Thomas F. Marshall, a sitting U.S. Representative. Both Crittenden and Marshall absented themselves from their legislative duties during the trial. who presented the opening remarks for the defense. Another defense lawyer was John Worth Edmonds, whom Edwards paid with a forged check. Edwards' handsome appearance worked against him when one of the bankers who had cashed the drafts identified him in court and remarked that he remembered Edwards because of his striking good looks. Edwards had also neglected to dispose of a marked bank bag from one of the banks that cashed the fraudulently obtained draft. A final tie-in was the commonality of misspellings between letters from Edwards and the forged letters. The trial ended with Edwards being convicted and given a 10-year prison sentence. The trial's proceedings were published by a New York newspaper, The Herald, and ran to 50,000 copies. None of Edwards' lawyers were ever paid for their services.

Legacy Edwards earned a mention in Herman Melville's story "Bartleby, the Scrivener". Melville used the names of contemporaneous events and people to give a contemporary feel to his short stories. One of his characters is imprisoned in the Tombs with the main character, and he asks if he is a "gentleman forger" like Edwards.

Edwards was known as the "Great Forger" during and after his trial. The main account of his life and trial is Life and Adventures of the Accomplished Forger and Swindler, Colonel Monroe Edwards, which was written by an editor of the National Police Gazette in 1848, probably by George Wilkes. It is the fullest account of Edwards' life, but mingles fact with fiction to the extent that it has been listed in bibliographies of American fiction. Wilkes' account is the source for the story of Kitty Clover, supposedly a slave who loved Edwards, rescued him, and followed him throughout his life. There are other accounts, including two anonymous narratives published in 1842.