The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace Book

There are many books available on the topic of the highwaymen and robbers along the colonial waterways and overland gaps. Even modern books on the subject regurgitate the same stories and information. Rarely are facts checked, referenced, or conflicting accounts analyzed. Coates, writing in about 1930, made an impressive study on the famous highwaymen and robbers of the 1780s-1810s.

The era was a time of rapid expansion westwards towards the Mississippi River and Louisiana, Franco-Spanish territory for most of the book. Coates provides some census data to show the explosive population growth early on in the book before he begins discussing the road warriors of the era. Migrants had two options for travel: down the Ohio or overland through the Natchez and Cumberland Traces. Oftentimes, according to Coates, people traveled down the Ohio and back over land. The namesake land pirates focused on the overland routes; but Coates spends plenty of page space covering the river pirates as well. In many cases, they were one and the same.

Coates focuses on the major desperadoes: The Harpe Brothers, Samuel Mason, and John Murrell. A mythology follows these bandits. Coates tries to penetrate the mysteries surrounding them. In the section on sources, he bemoans how difficult it was to make a story on the Harpes because there were so many conflicting accounts. Coates is one of the few authors who tries to pinpoint dates and events to their crimes. He claims he uses newspaper accounts; though newspapers would be scarce covering the overland routes ca. 1790. He hints that the mystique surrounding the Harpes was due to their bloodlust and unparalleled violence. The fear of the era might have been magnified if they were mixed race (Black and White) siblings.

Mason and Murrell have a mythology as well. Mason epitomizes the fallen hero. His story is like a Greek tragedy. He was a Revolutionary war hero turned bandit king. Coates makes a strong argument that Mason was not so different from many bandits of the ear except in his war credentials that gave him an added ego. His activities were scandalous in that he may have been a Justice of the Peace for the frontier he plundered. His fall from grace may have been his brutal punishment for some of his crimes. The whipping, beating, pillorying, and branding possibly made him insane. Afterwards his crimes increased exponentially.

In Murrell, Coates shows the evolution of the bandit leader. From the random mayhem of the Harpes, to the corruption of Mason, Murrell is the final form. Murrell is a southern gentleman who made a fortune stealing and selling slaves over and over again, usually murdering the slave after selling him or her multiple times. Murrell concealed himself behind a veneer of refinement. He also had connections to sell his stolen slaves, connections that expanded into highway robbery, piracy, fencing, murder, etc.

The mythology of Murrell is the vague story of leading a massive criminal conspiracy that was formenting a massive slave revolt to cause chaos while the brotherhood of bandits looted and robbed with impunity. Other authors have questioned the story. The only evidence supporting the story was from a single source, a man who traveled with Murrell between Kentucky and Arkansas over a period of four or five days. Although Coates supports the Murrell Myth, he also allows for some skepticism. What criminal mastermind would describe his plans in detail, including all major supporters, to someone he just met? Murrell himself appears to have been convicted of either horse theft or slave theft. Coates is uncertain; but most recent authors agree he was convicted on horse theft and died in prison. Like Mason, he suffered an early form of brutal frontier justice, and possibly developed an insane appetite for bloodlust. Coates tries to prove the mythology with a subsequent chapter describing vigilantes who tortured and murdered suspects. Coates accepts some of the tortured confessions, while dismissing others. The entire story rests on the word of Virgil Stewart whose own background is largely unknown.

Overall, this is one of the best detailed accounts of the early American outlaws and bandits. Readers can see how the bandits transformed from raw predators like the Harpes into something resembling organized crime. Along the way, America changes. Between 1790 and 1810, the roadways become civilized. There were fewer places to hide. The Harpes and Mason blended in with the wilderness. Murrell hid from town to town. This book is both a lesson in crime and American history.