James Strange French

James Strange French (1807-1886) was a lawyer, novelist, and later hotel keeper.

Early life

James Strange French was born in 1807. He was educated at the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia, then read law with his uncle Robert Strange in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Career

In 1831, French represented Nat Turner, as well as a number of other slaves accused of participating in Nat Turner's slave rebellion.^[1] French was joined in defending slaves by Meriwether Brodnax, William Henry Brodnax, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who published The Confessions of Nat Turner and is commonly referred to as Nat Turner's lawyer, and William C. Parker. In 1835, French helped secure the commutation of a sentence of a slave, Boson, who had been sentenced to death following the rebellion, then escaped from the Sussex County jail.^[2]

French was the author of at least two novels. The first, Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett of West Tennessee,^[3] appeared in 1833. The second, Elkswatawa,^[4] was set in the early nineteenth century. It was a romance set around Tecumseh's War. Edgar Allan Poe published a critical review of it in Southern Literary Messenger in 1836.^[5] Though they had studied together at the University of Virginia, Poe was quite critical of the plot and prose. French married Laura J. George on June 6, 1850 in "Willow Grove", Tazewell County, Virginia.

Death

French died on February 7, 1886 in Gordonsville, Virginia.

References

1. Alfred L. Brophy, "The Nat Turner Trials", North Carolina Law Review (June 2013), volume 91: 1817-80.
2. Scott French, The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory (2004): 61-64
3. Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett of West Tennessee(New York, 1833)
4. Elkswatawa (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1836)
5. Elkswatawa, Southern Literary Messenger (1836), vol 2:589-92