SECRET SOCIETIES
OF AMERICAS ELITE

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Born in Blood 1

PART ONE

Piracy: A Merry and a Short Life 9

Chapter 1 The New World Order 12

Chapter 2 Brothers to Pirates and Corsairs 32

Chapter 3 Under a Black Flag 48

Chapter 4. Skeletons in the Closet 68

PART TWO

The Lodge and the Revolution 91

Chapter 5 Smugglers, Patriots, and Masons 100

Chapter 6 Franklin and the Masonic Underground 122

Chapter 7 The Merchants of War 136

Chapter 8 The Bribe That Won the War 153

Chapter 9 One Nation Under the Great Architect 169

PART THREE

From the Sacred to the Profane 111

Chapter 10 The Slave Traders 179

Chapter 11 Red Cross and Black Cargo 188

Chapter 12 Master Masons and Their Slaves 206

Chapter 13 The Masonic Betrayal 228

Chapter 14 The Opium Brotherhood 238

Chapter 15 Opium: From the Lodge to the Den 259

Chapter 16 Wealth: The Legacy of the Opium Trade 276

Chapter 17 The Power of the New Skull and Bones 290

Notes 305

Index 317

Introduction

BORN IN BLOOD

Elite and secret societies have shaped history since the beginning of

civilization. From the time of the Crusades to the twenty-first

century, a handful of families have controlled the course of world events

and have built their own status and wealth through collective efforts and

intermarriage.

The greatest elite society was that of the Knights Templar.

Admission to the organization often required breeding and wealth that

were the privilege of a select few. Outside the core a larger force was

needed both to fight wars and to maintain the organization's far-flung

assets. These forces would grow to include an army, a navy, various real

estate (including agricultural properties), and a banking empire.

Admission standards changed over time to the degree necessary to

maintain the needed personnel, but the elite core was always in control.

When the massive Templar organization was suddenly outlawed by

the avarice of the French king, it did not die; it simply moved underground.

The survival of the underground Templars has been touched

upon by several authors, but only recently has more in-depth research

brought the Templars' survival to light.

The Templars survived militarily. By pledging themselves to various

powers, the military orders survived their open attack by both state and

church and the mass executions and imprisonments of the fourteenth

century. The Knights of Christ, the Teutonic Knights, the Swiss Guard,

and the Scots Guard, as well as several small but powerful military

orders, outlived those who persecuted them. Hydralike, the orders

survived, prospered, and multiplied. Several are alive and well in the

new millennium.

The Templar organization survived and regrouped financially. The

massive Templar, Incorporated that would bring banking to its modern

form survived by moving to Switzerland, where a handful of bankers

maintained and often controlled the massive wealth of the European

elite. The Swiss cantons, often flying flags only slightly different from

the Templar flags, protected by the Alpine passes and the Swiss Guard,

took the role of the Templar preceptory. The neutral status and the

preservation of secrecy would attract the funds of Europe from the

fourteenth century to the twenty-first.

The Templar ideal of commitment to learning, discovery, and brotherhood

greatly affected the world over the subsequent centuries. For

example, neo-Templar organizations were responsible for advances in

various sciences. Prince Henry, the grand master of the Knights of Christ,

made advancements in the art of navigation and funded the voyages of

discovery. And various members of the Royal Society progressed in

astronomy, in medical arts, and even in the transmutation of metals, and

their accomplishments frequently became the foundation of modern sciences.

Until the early 1300s, learning and experimentation were considered

heretical and could easily place a scientist under the control of the

Inquisition. Later post-Templar organizations understood the value of

secrecy to avoid religious persecution for philosophical and scientific discussion.

The Masonic brotherhood created in post-Templar Scotland was

largely responsible for influencing the American concepts of liberty,

freedom, due process, and democracy. The concept of the "military

lodge"—in which a non-permanent lodge traveled with soldiers—

brought to America by the fighting units of Europe would further the

ideals and fight the war for independence. Secretive groups such as

those meeting at Saint Andrews Lodge in Boston would instigate the

Boston Tea Party, and they spread like wildfire throughout the colonies.

The Caucus Club, the Loyall Nine, and the Sons of Liberty would grow

into the Committees of Correspondence, the Continental Congress,

and finally fighting militia units. Many were necessarily organized in

secret. Many would preserve their secrecy by oaths taken in Masonic

fraternal lodges. The climax was when French forces, enlisted through

Masonic channels, arrived under the command of high-ranking Masons

and Knights of Saint John and defeated the British at Yorktown.

The result was an elected American president who was a Mason,

sworn in on the Bible of a Masonic lodge by the grand master of New

York's Masons and a new form of government. Another was the nation's

capitol, which was built by employing Masonic geometric principles

and was dedicated in a strictly Masonic ceremony complete with highranking

government members in Masonic aprons.

But there was a downside.

Secret societies and the elite of mainstream society would strive to

perpetuate themselves through any means possible. The higher ideals of

liberty and equality were compromised by the elite, who remained in

control.

The breakup of the Templars was directly responsible for the dramatic

rise in piracy that plagued Europe, America, and even the Indian

Ocean. The pirates themselves were organized in fraternal brotherhoods,

they pledged themselves to the good of the group, they promised

to share equally in the proceeds, and they even fought under the

same battle flag that was flown by the Templar fighting fleet. Stranger

still, the pirate bases—ports in Scotland, Ireland, and America where

pirates could openly dock and sell their booty—were protected by

Masonic cells that extended to the courthouses and capitol buildings.

Smuggling, too, grew as a worldwide enterprise despite its illegality.

Ports from Salem and Newport to the Caribbean and Bermuda,

which harbored and facilitated the trade of pirates, had no qualms about

aiding and abetting smugglers. For the same reasons that Masonic

organizations grew into labor and artisan guilds that protected the

livelihood of their members, individuals in the smuggling business

needed to be considered trustworthy. In Bermuda, where possibly two

thirds of the eighteenth-century trade was illegal, trading partners had

to maintain secrecy. The island was and is a bastion of Masonry; the

Customs House itself more closely resembles a Masonic temple than a

government office.

Unfortunately, the slave-trading industry was also furthered by

Masonic groups. The Knights of Christ were actually responsible for

organizing the importation of human cargo to Europe and later for

licensing the trade in the Americas. The chivalric orders that controlled

the governments of Portugal and Spain sold licenses to other governments,

which in turn organized companies to propagate the trade. The

royals of Europe were the ultimate beneficiaries of the business; for a

share of the profits, they granted licenses to elite merchants and businessmen

who were part of the court. Licenses to trade in slaves were

sold by the merchants and businessmen to the highest bidders, allowing

newcomers to join the merchant class—yet connections would supersede

wealth. In America, democracy and free enterprise theoretically

allowed anyone to play a role in the buying and selling of humans, but

it was a handful of elite families, connected to counterparts in England

and France, that took over the business.

When the American Revolution broke out, Benjamin Franklin

turned to the Masonic elite of France, who controlled the slave trade,

to get arms, supplies, and military support. In the first fourscore years of

American history, the slave-trading ports from Charleston to Newport

were controlled by a handful of families bound by Masonic and family

ties. They were not like the Jeffersons and Madisons, who saw the eventual

end to the institution as befitting the new democracy; it was a mercantilist

capitalism that the slave traders put above freedom and

democracy.

These merchants would not relinquish the lucrative trade and

seemed to stop at nothing in fighting abolition. The presidency was

something members of the mercantile elite felt they could buy, and

when money couldn't decide an election they used other means to

seize control. In an effort to derail abolition, Presidents Harrison and

Taylor suffered sudden and suspicious deaths that put pro-slave vice

presidents in power. When even death failed to halt abolition, the country

wound up in the most destructive war it ever fought. The Civil War

ended at Appomattox, where the armies of Jefferson Davis surrendered—

but not for the elite. A conspiracy organized by members of the

quasi-Masonic Knights of the Golden Circle to kill President Lincoln

sought to nullify the Emancipation Proclamation and its effects on the

trade with England. The postwar efforts at reconstruction would also be

stained by another Masonic group of "knights," the Ku Klux Klan.

Although piracy and smuggling were no longer as profitable in the

newly independent America, institutions such as the slave trade and illegal

drug trafficking would take their place. The latter provided riches

for the elite that would become the bedrock of the American industrial

age. The illegal drug trade that the Americans and British united to create

in the first half of the nineteenth century would be a never-ending

plague. Again, a select core of families controlled the trade, and in both

Britain and America they were organized in Masonic cells. Family and

lodge connections were the only tickets to admittance.

While it is not surprising that America's Founding Fathers were

mostly slave owners, a legal activity, it may be surprising to discover that

they were often smugglers as well. Profits from drug running, smuggling,

slave trading, and even piracy are directly responsible for the founding of

several of the country's most important banks, which are still in operation

today. New England's staunch insurance business was born and prospered

through profits earned from insuring opium and slave ships. The large

railroad system that was built throughout the continental United States in

the nineteenth century was funded with profits from illegal drug smuggling.

And one of the greatest opium fortunes would provide seed money

for the telephone and communications industry.

The European Knights Templar was a massive organization, but at

the center was a hereditary elite that controlled and reaped the rewards

of the group. Even after the reported demise of the group, it retained

remarkable clout and power, always behind the scenes.

In America the influence of a core elite was as strong. This elite class

positioned itself to control the masses no longer for holy crusade, but

rather to enrich itself. Rooted in the Masonic lodge system, a new class

formed through connections made at the most famous lodges, such as

the Holland No. 8 Lodge in New York and the Solomon's Lodge of

Charleston, where members could control politics and legitimate business

while also enjoying the profits of corrupt and even criminal underworld

dealings.

The family wealth of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt had been

built on drug running. As in all opium-smuggling families, inbreeding

was important. The Delano side of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an

opium smuggler who made a fortune, lost it, and returned to drug running

to recoup it. Ulysses S. Grant married into an opium-dealing family

with connections in Europe and America. The first families of New

York and New England who graciously provided funds for Harvard,

Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Princeton Universities donated money

earned in the illegal drug trade. The same men would build railroads

and textile mills, found banks and insurance companies, and keep the

family wealth intact for generations to come. Besides the Roosevelts

and Grant, other presidents—including Taft and both Bushes—were

connected by a bizarre cult at Yale that was founded by and funded with

money from the China trade. That organization is as secretive, elite, and

powerful today as it was two centuries ago.

Other presidents have been connected to piracy by their relations.

John Tyler married into a family whose status was achieved on pirate

booty. Millard Fillmore's great-grandfather was tried for piracy. Like

opium trading, piracy was an enterprise that depended on a widespread

system of recognition and trust. From Cape Cod and eastern Long

Island to New York City, North Carolina, and New Orleans pirates

trusted each other and knew those in power who provided shelter, legal

protection, and a market for their goods. When on land, the pirate captains

reported to the powerful few who protected their trade. These

connections were made and preserved through the Masonic halls.

Governors, mayors, and judges licensed and invested in pirate voyages,

the proceeds of which helped build family fortunes.

Pirate ships were floating lodges where ritual, secrecy, and blood

oaths were the glue bonding the pirates. But the rank-and-file pirate

brothers were not welcome at the lodge meetings of the Holland

No. 8 in New York, where the Livingston family toasted their success

in backing pirates like Captain Kidd and were still protecting pirates

like Laffite a hundred years later.

Piracy was not the only crime on the high seas; the American

colonies also prospered through smuggling. John Hancock was a

wealthy Mason whose ship Liberty would put Boston on the path to the

Tea Party and Revolution. With one foot in the elite Masonic lodges

where shipowners and captains were welcome and another in the

lodges where the workingman was accepted, Hancock provided work

for one third of Boston. It was Britain's insistence on enforcing its laws

against smuggling that precipitated the Revolution. The colonies relied

on their smugglers to provide food, arms, and supplies to fight Britain.

The role of America's smuggling partners in the Caribbean and

Bermuda has hardly been examined by historians, but it was vital. At the

same time, smuggling and privateering provided a foundation for many

of America's political dynasties that remain in power today.

The Revolution put an end to the large profits of the smuggling

business. Piracy and privateering also ceased to be an easy road to profits.

The slave trade would provide the next avenue to wealth on the seas,

thriving in ports that were strongholds of Masonry. From Newport to

Charleston, belonging to a lodge meant access to funding, insurance, and

finding a crew for slave trading. It also meant access to the marketplace.

But Masonic membership did not merely present opportunity in

the underworld. Benjamin Franklin acknowledged that success in the

printing business hinged on just which Masonic lodge one belonged to

in the city of Philadelphia. John Jacob Astor, who once held one

fifteenth of all American personal wealth, joined the prestigious

Holland No. 8 Lodge in New York to advance his businesses. Success in

the legal profession, almost a prerequisite for government office, was

ensured to the sons of the wealthy who could study at the Temple in

London. Passing the bar is a term that originated in the Templar stronghold

in London, and it is a rite of passage that must be achieved today

in order to join the legal profession. Promotion in the military was

denied to many who would not be part of the military lodge, a portable

home to brothers that included George Washington, the Marquis de

Lafayette, and John Paul Jones.

The secret and elite structures that have built America's business

empires and family fortunes have concealed their history well. In an age

when the slightest indiscretions sometimes have the potential to disqualify

a candidate from public office, the tainted backgrounds and

family histories of the Founding Fathers of the country and its institutions

are remarkable. We have inherited colleges and universities named

for slave traders and opium dealers. We honor presidents and other

politicians whose families built their fortunes through crime. We

patronize businesses founded by men whose fortunes are rooted in illegal

activity.

Many of the families regarded as America's blue bloods, our equivalent

of aristocracy, have hidden in their ancestral closets men who

would make today's organized criminals look cherubic. They were not

mere horse thieves and snake-oil salesmen, nor were they con men who

were ridden out of town on the rail. These Founding Fathers rose to

great wealth. Their legacy was passed on to heirs who still enjoy that

wealth—and their power too, which is protected by the institutions

they put in place and ensures their participation in the future. The system,

thanks to ill-gotten gains and power, perpetuates itself.

In a country where everyone was given a new start, a fresh chance,

and an equal opportunity, it is curious that the gap between rich and

poor widened so dramatically after the American Revolution. But it

was not by chance or hard work; institutions from Europe, often underground,

established a network that would ensure the success and power

of their own. The same secret societies that had been established in

Europe for hundreds of years were imported into Europe's colonies

from the earliest days.

To understand how pervasive secret and elite societies are today and

how they played such a significant role in recent centuries, we must

begin at one critical day in 1307, when the greatest organization the

world had ever known saw its downfall.

PART ONE

Piracy: A Merry and a Short Life

MEDIEVAL EUROPE HAD a class structure that

divided the rich from the poor in more intrusive ways

than does the gap that divides the classes today. From the

lord of the manor to the king, life-and-death power was

wielded over the common man. Society and the Church

also played a great role in determining just what an individual

could or could not do. Strict conventions permeated

society to the point that even the clothes an

individual wore were subject to law. In colonial New

York, when pirates paraded from one tavern to another

in silk shirts and pistol-concealing waistcoats, they defied

not only a societal convention, but also the law. Wearing

silk or fur was a privilege of the landed few.

From medieval times in Europe to the colonial

period in America, society underwent a challenge that

would change the way man perceived and indeed lived his life. In

medieval times the choices for most young men (and women) were few

and unappealing. Inheritance law once gave the family estate to the eldest

son and allowed the younger brothers and sisters to stay only if they

remained unmarried. Daughters were married off and sons apprenticed

out or sent to study for the priesthood, as their fathers saw fit.

War brought opportunity. Enlisting for the Crusades gave men the

chance to leave behind a predestined life. The Crusades meant adventures

and the possibility of bettering one's circumstances. Going to sea

offered the same escape. Life at sea was adventurous, and enabled some

to return home with enough money to live out their lives. However,

most men who joined the Crusades to escape the mundane fate of

becoming priests or apprentices could not even step back into those

vocations. When Jerusalem was lost and the Knights Templar disbanded,

many had little chance of returning to society. Fearing prosecution or

simply poverty, many decided to keep on enjoying the daredevil life.

For the fighting soldier, one choice was to become a mercenary in

the newly emerging fighting orders from Scotland to the

Mediterranean Sea. For the sailor, the life of a privateer, a smuggler, or

a pirate held even more promise of reward. Both mercenary and pirate

became members of a society within the society.

Pirates have been portrayed as bands of swashbuckling, peg-legged

lunatics with homicidal tendencies since the days of the eighteenth-century

writer Daniel Defoe. The real story is less colorful—and more interesting.

Although many would live "the merry life and the short life," as

Defoe's fact-bending tales called it, others enjoyed a life expectancy

longer than that of sailors on British navy ships. They ate better, were

treated less harshly, and shared in a greater portion of their gains.

Pirates were banded together by covenants that provided more protection

than English naval law, and were regularly voted on by every

sailor aboard. The pirate ship and pirate ports like Saint Mary's in

Madagascar were the first instances of democratic rule. The one-man,

one-vote system aboard the pirate ship was not duplicated until the

American Constitution. Even then, voting was not as democratic as was

pirate rule.

Care for the injured and for the widowed, too, was usually more

reliable for the pirate than for the sailor in the English navy. The navy

embodied the most rigid of class structures and offered little in the way

of security.

Pirates bought supplies and arms, sold ill-gotten gains from wool to

jewels, and often retired to estates, or at least farms, bought with the

proceeds of their life's work. To deal with conventional society, they had

to have connections. To create such connections meant that they had to

belong to a brotherhood. The brotherhood went much deeper than a

small group banding together. As remnant Templars became organized

in lodges, old ties were restored. Masonry, more or less underground

until the early eighteenth century, provided lodging, employment, food,

and even clothes to brothers. Masonry also provided connections to a

network, underground and often above the law. When Freemasonry was

finally acknowledged, a secret oath for a Master Mason acknowledged

that masons were "brothers to pirates and corsairs."

Those who sailed under the skull and crossbones could rely on protection

in the ports and in the courts, where a secret handshake or

coded phrase required fellow Masons to come to the aid of a their

brethren.

Fortunes built by pirates and by those who outfitted them with

supplies and bought their goods survived the "golden age of piracy."

Dynasties created through underworld activity and membership in

secret societies would pave the way to power that survives into modern

times.

Chapter 1

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

October 13, 1307, would go down in history as the first unlucky

Friday the thirteenth. On that day the Knights Templar, who

had fought so valiantly for the cause of Christianity during the

Crusades, were ordered arrested by the French king. Operating on

orders that were sealed until the night before the arrest, the representatives

of the French crown launched an early-dawn raid on all the

Templar properties in the realm of the king. Special focus was given to

the center of the Templar organization, the Paris treasury. Within hours

both knights and servants of the order were under arrest and in custody.

Within days, interrogation under extreme torture began, and it soon

elicited confessions of many of the depraved acts and practices of the

order of warrior-monks. The greatest order Europe had ever seen soon

ceased to exist.

When it was formed almost two hundred years before, the Templars

were a military force organized like a religious order. The creation of

the Templars coincided with Saint Bernard taking control of the

Cistercian order of monks in France. Bernard was instrumental in

molding both organizations to carry out the mission he envisioned. The

rules for his order of monks were adopted by the fighting monks that

would be called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the

Temple of Solomon. They would become known as the Knights

Templar. Bernard's vision became reality. But he was not acting alone.

Saint Bernard was a member of an elite class at a time in European

history when the feudal system ruled every facet of life. This handful of

wealthy families, mostly centered around the town of Champagne and

its count, would be responsible for the Crusades, for the rapid growth

of the Cistercian order, and for the power of the Knights Templar. There

were nine members of the original Knights Templar; three were

pledged to the Count of Champagne. One of these was Andre de

Montbard, the uncle of Saint Bernard. The count donated the land on

which Bernard built the abbey of Clairvaux, which would be the center

of Bernard's power.

Fixing on the need to take back the Holy Lands from Islam,

Bernard preached a military crusade. It was said that when he reached

a village, women would attempt to hide their husbands, as few could

resist his call to arms. The act of seeing the world may have appealed to

a peasant class that was often regarded as the property of the feudal

estates that dominated the countryside. The Crusades offered adventure—

and salvation. After thousands marched against Islam and recaptured

the holy city of Jerusalem, thousands more desired to travel to the

sacred city. The nine original Templar knights went to the Holy Lands

to protect the roads for those making the pilgrimage. After several years,

they returned to a hero's welcome.

With Bernard's seal of approval, the Knights Templar grew and

flourished, becoming the vanguard of Europe's military. Their military

exploits against Islam are legendary; their financial exploits are misunderstood

and downplayed.

TEMPLAR, INC. BANKING

Although the full name of the organization was the Order of the Poor

Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the order was anything but poor. It

was, in fact, the richest organization that Europe had even seen and the

first ever multinational corporation. The business of the Knights

Templar was business, and it was conducted in a way that Europe had

never seen before. The loyalty of the order was directed to itself. The

Templars nominally owed their allegiance to the Roman pope, but this

loyalty was more in word than in deed. They actually fought against

other Christian armies and against their rival order, the Knights of Saint

John, and during the Albigensian Crusade some Templars even fought

against the pope and his genocidal purge of the Cathari in southern

France. The Templars' true allegiance was to themselves, as together they

could become masters of any industry they desired.

Banking as we know it today was an institution founded by the

Knights Templar. Before the Templars there were certain individuals

who would attend trade fairs for facilitating currency exchange, buying

and selling shares in commercial enterprises, and lending money. Many

of the early banking groups were Italian families from Florence, Venice,

and Lombardy. The activities of these bankers were restricted by numerous

laws.

In a world where the pope and the Catholic Church made the

rules, usury, the charging of interest, was banned. For the Templars there

were several ways to skirt the laws forbidding the charging of interest.

One way was simply to charge a commission to procure the loan, but

such a thinly disguised fee would still attract the condemnation of religious

members. Another way was to call usury by a different name. The

order was allowed to charge a "crusading interest" for loans. Its clients

were often the same nobility that donated lands to the Temple, for

which they received an income from the properties. Nobles, often the

kings of England and France, needed to borrow money to fight wars

and the Temple was willing to lend—for a fee. Where usury was a practice

not allowed even for the Temple, the Temple would earn a profit by

currency changing. For instance, wool from France that was carried on

Temple ships and sold to a buyer in England was subject to a currency

change that often placed less value on the payment currency.

Deposit banking was not banned by the Church, nor was the function

of acting as a safe deposit. Who was better prepared than the

Templars, with their numerous fortresses and strongholds stretched over

Europe, to protect the wealth of the Continent's elite? The Templar bank

secured the worldly possessions of merchants, knights, and royalty alike

and held them in one country while allowing withdrawal in another.

Fees were charged for each step of the transaction, and if the fees were

not enough, wise Templar bankers would charge more if one needed to

make a withdrawal of money in another currency. There was always a

profit to be earned.

The few records found in the Paris Temple show the various transactions

that took place on a typical day. Entries signed by the Templar

cashier of the day listed the amount of a deposit, the name of the depositor,

the origin of the deposit, and occasionally to whose account it

would be credited if not the depositor's. A network of fortified houses

throughout Europe and the Holy Lands served as the predecessor of the

modern branch system of any large financial institution. Five categories

of clients were served: Knights Templar (they often received payment in

cities outside of their homeland and were not willing to carry money),

ecclesiastical dignitaries, the king, other nobles, and the bourgeois. The

records were kept in the Journal of Treasure.1 This "treasure" would ultimately

attract the interest of the French king, who was on the accounts

receivable list.

TEMPLAR, INC. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Property and estate management played a large role in Templar affairs.

Before the fall of Jerusalem, the Templars controlled nine thousand

manors that had been donated to the order by Europe's landowners. An

English property census noted, "The number of manors, farms,

churches, advowsons, demesne lands, villages, hamlets, windmills and

watermills, rents of assize, rights of common and free warren, and the

amounts of all types of property, possessed by the Templars in England

... are astonishing." In Yorkshire the Templars owned several large

manors and sixty smaller parcels of property.2 In Sicily they possessed

valuable estates, large tracts of land, and rights of fishery, pasturage, and

cutting wood. In Spain the Templars were "endowed with cities, villages,

lordships and splendid domains."3 In Aragon they had castles in

several cities, were the lords of Borgia and Tortosa, and received the revenue

of one tenth of the kingdom.4

The list of Templar property filled an entire census book; they had

lands in Germany, Hungary, and France and in the territories bordering

France and Germany. In 1180 hundreds of acres were required to

support one knight in battle; a century later thousands of acres were

necessary. Templar property was exempt from local tithes yet could

receive them. While the common man would understand that the fruits

of his labors provided support to those fighting the Crusades, a neighboring

noble was not as gracious. A common man was generally

required to contribute time, and for most this was easy. A noble

(landowner) paid a higher price. He experienced higher costs and more

challenge in finding workers, as he competed with the Templars for

available able-bodied men. And a landowner, unlike his Templar neighbor,

paid taxes. Because the Temple employees were liable only to the

order that employed them, fugitives and felons could find refuge from

the law by working for a Templar estate.

The amalgamation of an international military force and a religious

order in the form of a business never again appears in the history of the

world. In addition to reaping profits, the Templar order was the beneficiary

of gifts that were meant as penance for sins. The greatest gift to

the Templar order was required of King Henry II of England as a result

of the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket.

Henry donated funds to equip two hundred knights a year, as well as

more money in his will. The Templars had every advantage and no one

to report to.

TEMPLAR, INC. SHIPPING

The Templar fleet was another source of profits that aroused the envy

of the shipowners and merchants of France's port cities. In the early

years of the Crusades, the Templars required massive movement of men,

arms, and horses. They would contract with merchants of Italian citystates

like Venice and Genoa. These merchants, especially those from

Genoa and Pisa, had merchant colonies in Barcelona, Marseilles,

Mahdia, Ceuta, Tunis, and Tripoli. Their ships brought in wares from

China, India, and Ceylon. Because minor kingdoms would coin their

own money, the Italian traders were also money changers and lenders.

The bankers from Venice, Genoa, Lucca, and Florence were called

Lombards, and they replaced the Jews as Europe's merchant bankers.

Loan rates could range from 15 percent for a business loan to 100 percent

for a personal loan. Templar, Inc. would move to take business from

the Italian merchants.5

In 1207 the Templars became shipowners. When they weren't using

ships for the transport of men, they would use the vessels for trade. The

profits and the fleet itself began to grow in size. By 1233 the city of

Marseilles was complaining that Templar ships were taking business

away from their own.6 The Templars soon had many preceptories in

port cities including Brindisi, Bari, Barletta, and Trani and on Sicily at

Messina. The trans-Mediterranean trade often involved transporting

goods and animals to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and returning with

slaves, who would work for the Templars in the West.

The Turkish port of Ayas in Cilicia was a center for the slave trade,

and the Templars established a wharf there. The Knights Templar and

the rival Christian order the Knights of Malta became the largest

European slave traders in the Mediterranean, and they established

themselves in Venice. Perhaps the most important slave port of the

Templars was the city of Acre in the Holy Lands. There all the slaves

were called Muslims, regardless of their religion; this was the result of

the pope in Rome declaring a ban on Christian slaves in the kingdom

of Jerusalem. Muslims who sought to convert were denied. Pope

Gregory was told of this and complained to the grand masters of both

orders, but the trade in all its avarice continued.

The Templar fleet served both to generate profits for the order and

as part of the Templar war machine. Flying the skull and crossbones as

its battle flag, the Templar fleet was used in military operations against

Egypt, the coast of Asia Minor, and throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition to transporting troops and carrying weapons and supplies

for their military operations, as well as slaves and goods for trade,

the Templars engaged in piracy. Piracy was defined as the act of capturing

another ship on the seas. But a Templar ship taking on an Islamic

warship was not considered piracy, as the two were at war. There were

few ships designed strictly for battle, as all shipping boats needed to be

armed. Thus the act of capturing an Islamic merchant ship would be

considered privateering. There was a fine line between piracy and, later,

privateering, which meant that a ship's captain had the permission of a

ruler, and later a letter of marque, to engage in piracy.

An English ship engaged in plundering English ships would be

defined as a pirate ship, even if it shared the spoils with the English king.

If an English ship took a French ship without the English king's permission,

it was still a pirate ship. If, however, an English ship sailed with

the permission of the English king to plunder the ships of other

nations, it was a privateer ship.

The Templars answered to no one except the pope, who did not,

according to record, issue letters of marque. When the Templars captured

enemy ships, they claimed they were acting on behalf of their

nominal ruler, the pope. But the ships of the Templar order did not stop

there, and often the ships of other Christian kings were fair game.

Most of the Templar fleet was originally the low-lying galleys,

which were similar to those used by the Muslim pirates of the Barbary

Coast. They were ideally suited for the coastal trade and equally suited

for piracy, as they could maneuver into shallow waters and were not

forced to depend on the winds. The Atlantic fleet of the Templars used

the sail, which allowed it to navigate the oceans as well.

Christian Europe and Muslim Africa and Asia were at war for hundreds

of years, but on a cultural basis many connections were made.

Simon Dansker, a Flemish adventurer, showed the North African pirates

the use of the long-range sailing ship in piracy Dansker started his career

in the French port of Marseilles but soon changed sides and names. As

Dali Rais, which means Captain Devil, Dansker switched to the side of

the Barbary pirates and captured Christian ships. Under his tutelage the

Muslim pirates extended their range into the Adantic. A Muslim fleet

even sailed to Iceland, where the pirates took slaves and plundered. But

Dansker changed sides one too many times and was hanged in Tunis.

The Templar fleet was made up of whatever ships could be built or

bought or captured from its enemies. The range of the Templars' sailing

ships extended from the North Atlantic to the eastern Mediterranean.

The ships carried goods and pilgrims from Italy to the Holy Lands.

With no fear of reprisals, the Templars engaged in piracy when profit

could not be made in legitimate ways. For those who manned the

Templar fleet, the career jump from privateer for the order to pirate for

one's own gain was small.

One early Templar-turned-pirate was Roger de Flor.The son of the

falconer of Emperor Frederick II, the eight-year-old Roger was taken

on as a cabin boy in the Templar port of Brindisi. Working his way up

through the ranks of the Templar navy, he soon assumed command of a

ship bought from the Genoese. He named his ship the Falcon. When the

final stronghold of Acre was being besieged, de Flor learned a new skill:

extortion. He used his ship to raise money for his future career as a pirate

by charging to rescue "ladies and damsels and great treasure."7 De Flor

eventually fell out of favor with the order and his ship remained in

Temple hands, but he had earned enough money to buy a new ship.

Through piracy and later mercenary work, he built a fortune and an

army. The renegade Templar even earned the hand of the niece of the

Byzantine emperor.

It was not only renegade knights who would resort to piracy; both

orders, the Templars and the Order of Saint John, profited from their

ability to loot Mediterranean ports and merchant ships, just as the

Muslim fleets profited from their capture of Christian ships.

For hundreds of years different ports around the world played host

to pirates and resisted or ignored the authority of any governments.

Ports such as the pirate kingdom of Saint Mary's in Madagascar, where

the only government was that of pirates in exile or hiding, served the

European pirates who preyed on the silver ships of the Moghuls of

India. In the Americas, Tortuga and the Bahamas would enjoy shorter

periods as pirate refuges. Even where ports had an official government,

they were often ruled by those who supported piracy, such as those in

Port Royal, Jamaica.

One of the greatest pirate ports of the medieval period was Mahdia,

on the North African coast. In the three hundred years that the Knights

Templar fought the Islamic conquerors of the Mediterranean Sea, there

were numerous periods of truce during which Arabs and Christians

exchanged ideas. The Europeans learned about history, religion (including

their own), science, mathematics, and medicine from their enemies.

The greatness of such interchange of culture cannot be measured, but

the Crusades had an enormous effect on Europe. Academic knowledge

was not all the Templars learned; they also picked up new military and

naval skills and a tolerance for their Islamic counterparts. The result was

that many ex-Templars simply switched sides and joined the Barbary

pirates. Author John J. Robinson suspects the Scottish "Mason's word"

mahabone is a corruption of Mahdia the good, just as the French Marie le

Bon (Marie the Good) survives in English as marylebone.8

Templar sea power is often downplayed in comparison to their military

land maneuvers. The Templar navy and merchant fleets were well

acquainted with the Baltic Sea, the British Isles, large portions of the

African coast, the Mediterranean Sea, and even the Black Sea. They

sailed as far as their Norman predecessors, and their purpose was not

only trade and plunder; supplying food and munitions, carrying troops

and pilgrims, and playing host to kings and their goods were important

in the long conflict against the Islamic nations.

When the war with these countries abated, the war between the

Christians filled the gap. In 1256 two Christian factions formed over

who should possess Acre. The Hospitallers came to the aid of the

Genoese and Catalan merchants to fight the navy of Venice, which was

joined by the Templar fleet.9 Despite the fact that one of the Templar

rules forbade killing a Christian, turf wars existed and the act of killing

fellow Christians was "absolved" by the necessity of preserving the

wealth and power.

THE TEMPLAR WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

In 1291 Acre fell to the armies of Islam. The Templar order would have

just sixteen years before it too would fall. The knights had already lost

Jerusalem, and now their last fortress was captured by their rivals. Public

opinion quickly turned against the order. In the eyes of the world the

Templars had lost their mission and were now simply a fat organization

of creditors, landlords, and competitors with an attitude to boot.

"Haughty as a Templar" was a phrase coined by Sir Walter Scott. His

novels describe an order that turned its back on its founders. Once dedicated

to poverty and obedience, the Templars became guilty of pride,

arrogance, and, by the beginning of the fourteenth century, possessing

more wealth than European kings. Pope Nicholas IV, the theoretical

commander in chief of the order, publicly directed his anger against the

Templars, blaming their squabbling with the rival Hospitaller order as

the reason that the last Christian bastion in the Holy Lands was now in

Islamic hands. The Templars allowed themselves to be viewed as uninterested

in protecting the most sacred possessions of the Christian

world.

A Church council had decided that the only way to fight an effective

war against Islam was to have a unified force of its own. The council

proposed merging the fighting orders, but the orders refused. The

Teutonic Knights of Germany and Prussia returned to Marienburg.The

Knights of Saint John moved to Malta. The Templars moved to

Cyprus.10

Although the Templar order had abandoned Acre, it would not

abandon its own possessions. To an outsider, the Templars seemed to be

on a crusade only to protect their enormous wealth.

In a watershed event that would become known as the Eperstoun

Affair, a knight who pledged half his wife's estate to enter the order

died. When the order came to claim the murdered member's property,

his widow refused to leave. Templars were sent to evict the widow, and

they had to literally drag the woman from her home. As she clung to

the doorpost of her house, the knights chopped off her fingers. Even

before public media, this was a "media" event so compelling that it

reached the ears of King Edward I. When he heard about the treatment

of the widow, he interceded to restore her property. Not yet comprehending

the concept of public relations, the Templars would go so far

as to kill the widow's son for revenge11 and seize the property after his

death.

Set against a backdrop of military losses, the transgressions of the

order were becoming too much to defend. In 1306 a new pope,

Clement V, was elected. Before becoming the pope he was Bertrand

de Got, the Archbishop of Bordeaux. His elevation to the highest rank

in the Church was engineered by his brother Beraud, who was the

Archbishop of Lyon. In June 1305, when the kings of France, England,

and Naples had representatives bickering over who should be the next

pope, the choice came down to the least objectionable person12;

Bertrand de Got had achieved that distinction. The French king certainly

did not object to de Got, and to the dismay of the Italians, he

never left France. He was considered weak and ineffective, and the

Italians believed that in establishing his papacy at Avignon he gave proof

that he was simply a puppet of the king of France.

The new pope was in an awkward position. On the one hand, he

was related on his mother's side to Bertrand de Blanchefort, a Templar

grand master. On the other hand, the power of the French king

appeared more threatening. He would stall as long as he could in making

decisions. It is possible that Clement V already saw the writing on

the wall that told him that unless he took action he would lose both of

his orders. His first act was to ask the new grand master of the Templars

and the grand master of the Knights of Saint John for a written summary

enumerating the reasons for and against a merger of the orders.

Jacques de Molay, the leader of the Templars, answered the pope, and

may have been aware that the ultimate goal of the French king was to

head a united order as the rex ballator, the warrior king. At the very least,

Molay knew he would be out of the number one position.

Despite the less-than-satisfactory answer, the pope hesitated to take

action. He was not unaware that agents of the king of France had been

responsible for the death of Boniface VIII and possibly the death by poison

of Benedict XI, according to rumor.

King Philip of France decided the time was ripe to remedy the

impasse. Because France was the home base of the Crusades and had

borne the heavy cost of war, Philip was impatient to repair his finances.

Earlier preachers such as Saint Bernard had often cleaned out a town of

its men, inspiring them to take up the crusade. The orders had been the

beneficiaries of thousands of donated estates. The Church had declared

that the state should not tax the fighting men or the estates of the order.

The net result to the French king was a depleted treasury. He took back

from the Templars the management of his own finances in 1295, creating

the Royal Treasury at the Louvre. He then debased the currency

and turned on the Italian banking families.

How close the Italian banking families were connected to the

Knights Templar may never be known. They initially played a role in

financing the Crusades and in transporting the crusaders. In Florence,

where the city minted its own coins, they would pay respect to the

patron saint of the order, Saint John the Baptist, on one side of the

coins. The other side depicted the lily, hinting at a royal bloodline.

Florence is one of the very few places where an octagonal baptistery

stands. This unusual style of baptistery was borrowed from Jerusalem

and taken to many Templar strongholds. From Tomar in Portugal to

Drogheda in Ireland, these structures represented the original baptism

of Jesus Christ by Saint John. The baptistery in Florence was dedicated

to Saint John the Baptist.

After maneuvers against the Lombards, Philip the Fair would prove

himself to be anything but fair when it came to replenishing his treasury.

He forced the Jews out of France in an attempt to seize their property

and restore his wealth. But the Jews hadn't been as prosperous as

he thought, and the move accomplished little. Philip was deeply in

debt—and mostly to the Templar bank.

What better way to fix the situation than to seize that bank?

On October 13, 1307, Philip's forces descended on all the Templar

preceptories in France. The pope was dismayed; technically, only he had

jurisdiction over the Templars. But Philip's forces threatened the pope,

so he quickly went along with the king. Philip would soon be dismayed

as well. Templar spies had gotten wind of the impending arrests. Having

commanded a large fighting force, a large navy, and a large merchant

fleet, and having possessed the world's largest bank, through which they

were close to aristocrats and clerics around Europe, the Templars had

intelligence operations that were certainly superior to those of the

French king. Jacques de Molay called in the order's books and had them

burned. Many knights went underground. And perhaps most significantly,

the treasure held in Paris, the second most desired possession of

King Philip, vanished.

The combination of the missing treasure, the burned books, and the

meek surrender of the Templars is intriguing. If the Templars understood

that arrest was imminent, why didn't they all flee or prepare to

fight back? The only explanation is that the order believed that Philip's

target was strictly monetary, and that once deprived of the Templar

bank, his suppression of the order would be short-lived.

If this conclusion is correct, then the members of the order who

stayed behind were simply unprepared for the incredible horrors to

which the arrested knights would be subjected. Under torture that

included the rack, the strappado, and the burning of fat-smeared feet,

the Templars confessed to anything. Because the charge was heresy, the

arrested had no right to counsel. Normally torture would be allowed to

the extent that it would accomplish its goal but not cause mutilation or

permanent injury. For the Templars, however, an exception was made.

The torture was "carried out with a barbarity which even medieval

men found shocking."13 Confined to dungeons, sustained with bread

and water, accused of the most heinous perversions, and tortured

beyond endurance, many knights lost their ability to reason, several

committed suicide, and most confessed to anything.

Those who survived the two years of imprisonment had little to

look forward to other than their death. In May 1310 the soldiers of

Philip bound fifty-four Knights Templar to carts and brought them to

fields near the convent of Saint-Antoine outside Paris, where they were

stripped, tied to stakes, and burned to death.

The king of France broke the order but failed to confiscate their

treasure. He was further disappointed by the reaction of his fellow

kings; instead of the other nations suppressing the Templars within their

borders, they had to be goaded into taking any steps against the knights.

In England, Edward II was very slow in reacting to the demands of

the Roman pope. The new king was simply uninterested, as his focus was

on the continuing war with Scodand and on his lover. After persistent

pressure from the pope, Edward made a handful of arrests and later succumbed

to the Church's demand for torture, which was forbidden by

English law. Edward did not shield the Templar organization and allowed

its property to be seized. To the disappointment of the Church, however,

the property seized did not revert to the Church but instead was distributed

by Edward in his own fashion, most likely to his creditors and allies.

Scotland finally agreed in principle to an inquisition of the Templars.

The country had continually fought the pope, who would eventually

excommunicate both the king and the nation. The degree of compliance

in Scotland was minimal, with a total of two knights questioned.

In Spain and Portugal the Templar fighting force was important to

the kings. After a few arrests and seizures, the Portuguese quickly reincorporated

the order into the Knights of Christ, which now reported

only to the Portuguese king. In the parts of Spain controlled by the

Inquisition there were arrests and torture, but the order and its men were

soon incorporated into several other orders of the Spanish military.

In Germany the Teutonic Knights, which had been formed separately,

marched into the court at Metz armed to the teeth and challenged

the court to bring charges. They were not Templars but

presented their case to head off similar charges. The court assured the

order its existence was not in danger.

Although all this frustrated Philip, his greatest frustration was the disappearance

of the treasure from the Paris Temple Bank. It had reportedly

been loaded on a wagon train that raced for the port of La Rochelle.

There the treasure was placed aboard the Templar fleet, again flying the

skull and crossbones, from which it disappeared once more. While many

of the French Templars who were captured suffered long imprisonments

and gruesome tortures, many others, who were now regarded as

outlaws, used the Templar fleet as their home base. It was difficult for a

large, armed group of men to escape detection on land, but the ships

provided a mobile hideout as well as a place to live. With their immense

treasure supplemented with piracy, the Templars who had escaped

France survived.

The final act against the order was committed on March 18, 1314.

The four surviving officials of the order—the grand master, the visitor,

and the preceptors of Aquitaine and Normandy—were burned on an

island in the Seine River in view of the Royal Gardens.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE TEMPLARS

While the arrested French Templars suffered imprisonment, torture, and

often execution, the remnant Templar organization became like the

mythical Hydra; one head was cut off at the neck and others sprouted.

The new organizations in Germany, Portugal, and Spain were all various

Templar reincarnations.

In Germany the Teutonic Knights needed their own raison d'etre,

and they quickly found one. They turned their attention from the armies

of Islam, which were apparendy too strong for Europe, to the more easily

conquered pagan Lithuanians. A new northern "crusade" found the

well-equipped Teutonic Knights doing battle with the Lithuanian peasant

farmers and converting or killing them in short order. This new crusade

was less an instrument of the Catholic Church for converting the

world than a weapon in the German war of expansion.

In the Iberian Peninsula the war against Islam was still an active

conflict. The kings of Portugal and Spain needed all the help they could

muster. Spain's most sacred pilgrimage spot was Saint James of

Compostela. The order of the Knights of Santiago (whose name was

derived from the Spanish Santo Iago, or Saint James) performed activities

that were similar to the original efforts of the Templars: It protected

pilgrims along the world's second most important route. In neighboring

Portugal the "new" Knights of Christ were allowed to keep the

properties and preceptories of the former Templar order and even the

Templar banner, a red cross on a white background. The order has survived

in that form to the present.

In England the Templars' survival would not be as simple. The

English version of suppression united the Templars with their rival

order, the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John. This order pleased the

demands of the Church, but according to some sources it was a charade.

Templar property was administered separately for years.

East of France, the Alpine regions that would later become

Switzerland provided refuge to the Templar knights. When their trading

routes were not by sea, the Templars used the same Alpine passes to

reach Italy and Germany that other merchants had used for more than

a thousand years. The order had fortified preceptories in various cantons,

and the power of the order soon grew. Three months after the fall

of Acre, three of the cantons formed a military alliance. They were

quickly joined by others, and the unified state of Switzerland would

take on many of the characteristics of the order. They were respected

for having a fierce army that defended itself against the expansionist

German states to the north and the avaricious France to the west. The

knights' reputation grew rapidly, and soon the Swiss Guard, as it became

known, was contracted to defend the Vatican, just as the Templars had

defended the Catholic religion.

The Swiss, of course, soon earned another reputation: that of

banker to the world. In The Warriors and the Bankers authors Alan Butler

and Stephen Dafoe point out that, although the treasury in Paris might

have been the Templars' greatest central bank, the order would certainly

not have kept all its valuables in one location. Switzerland grew in

importance because of its political neutrality and its position as the central

bank of the world. While the bank would no longer have the advantage

of state and religious backing, it possessed a very advantageous

geographical location. Few would underestimate the ability of a country

with a well-trained military and the access of the Alpine passes.

Anyone who has had to deal with an Alpine banker might be reminded

of the "haughty" description of the Templars given by Sir Walter Scott,

as more than one trait was passed from the Templars to the Swiss. The

discipline and secrecy maintained by Swiss bankers, however, allowed

them to achieve dominance both for their bank and for their currency.

The Swiss franc took on a mantle of stability that was possibly second

only to gold.

Butler and Dafoe refer to the survival of the Templars as well as

Switzerland's inheritance of the world banking industry. The authors

observe the stunning resemblance of the Templar red-cross motif to the

emblems of Switzerland—the country as well as its cantons. The Templar

cross has been simply reversed in color to become the flag of a united

Switzerland, and other variations would become the canton flags.

THE TEMPLAR UNDERGROUND

Most dramatically, the post-1307 Templar order took the form of a

huge underground organization. This form developed in the north

where the resurrected French Templars who sailed with the Templar

treasure fleet to Scotland reunited under the Anglo-Norman cousins of

the French Normans.

In France, the St. Clair family had been one of the handful of elite

families that were instrumental in founding the new Templar order. The

Scottish branch of the St. Clair family, which had Anglicized the

spelling of its surname to Sinclair, would preserve the order. They allied

themselves with Robert the Bruce, of the French Norman de Brus

family, whose name had also been Anglicized. At Bannockburn, Robert

defeated the English in the most decisive battle the Scots had ever experienced

against their oppressors. The victory came shortly after a fresh

force of Templar cavalry charged onto the battlefield.

But the Templars remained underground in Scotland, even after the

end of the War of Scottish Independence. Some of the more noble

knights continued their careers as mercenaries. Evidence shows that

twelve years after the Battle of Bannockburn the Scottish mercenaries

returned to France under the employ of the D'Anjous, another

Norman family that helped found the Templars. There they fought

under Joan of Arc in a war that history has done little to explain.

Others, more often the rank and file, put their skills of construction

and engineering to work in the trades. As a military force, the Templars

spent more time building than fighting. Thus the knights learned the

building trades by constructing houses, bridges, and castles. After 1307

they put these skills to work in building many of Europe's finest monuments,

including cathedrals.

French Templars had little trouble fitting in, as the French language

was spoken in the British Isles and was for years to come the language

of the court. French Templar words were corrupted into their British

counterparts. Remnant Templars, while fighting as paid mercenaries,

building bridges, or working in the trades, remained organized in

underground lodges. They often employed secret words and handshakes

to recognize each other and came to one another's aid. Their sons, too,

would keep up the tradition.

The term Freemason entered the English language in the same century

that the Knights Templar, as an order, was officially dissolved. The

term was another corruption of the French language; the Templar knights

originally referred to each other as brother, or frere in French. What was

frere macon in France became Freemason in English. When the Templars

traveled they erected quarters, and these became lodges, so named after

the French loges. The guard posted at the door of the lodge during meetings

was the tyler, in English, derived from tailleur, meaning "one who

cuts." But the term Freemason soon took on a new meaning. Unlike most

of the populace, which was shackled to the land by the feudal system that

prevailed in England and France, the former Templars became working

craftsmen who were free to travel to find employment.

At a construction site, which could be a cathedral, a castle, or a public

building, the masons would band together and erect a lodge. Most

lodges were not permanent, but would be built to protect the property

of the traveling men. Masons promised that if a brother mason came to

them, they would find him work, give him money, and, when he was

ready to leave, direct him to another lodge. Why would this be such an

important charge for Freemasonry? Because in a feudal system, finding

a home was nearly impossible for the remnant members of an outlaw

order. All their old ties were broken and there was no home to return

to—certainly not back in France. Freemasonry was created to protect

those whose lives were threatened because of their association with the

Knights Templar.

A Masonic initiation specifically states that the brothers are there to

feed you, to clothe you, and to protect you from your enemies. The initiation

also enigmatically states, "We will keep your secrets."'4 Why a

simple stonemason would attract enemies and have secrets that needed

protecting is questionable. But it is not so hard to understand the need

for secrets and protection from enemies for an outlaw Templar.

The building trades and crafts were an opportunity for ex-Templars

and later for their sons. The name Lewis came from a term meaning

"son of a mason," a status that was usually the only requirement needed

for entrance into a lodge. It was also helpful in gaining employment. In

The Hiram Key, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas write, "Now

we are certain, without any shadow of a doubt, that the starting place

of Freemasonry was the construction of Rosslyn Chapel."15 This chapel

was built on Sinclair property under the direction of the Sinclair family,

members of whom would become the hereditary grand masters of

the crafts and guilds and orders of Scotland. For many former knights,

Scotland was now home and building was their trade.

Some ex-Templars did not fit into the new way of life. Not all the

former Templars were masons and craftsmen; some took to the highways

as brigands and some to the seas as pirates. The skull and crossbones,

the same battle flag that had been used for piracy by the

Templars, remained the flag of choice for pirates after the Crusades. The

skull and bones announced the ship was a pirate ship. While it had a

religious significance, to the elite order it also had a more practical use:

to instill fear in the hearts of those under attack. It warned that there

was not to be any other action except surrender. If that was not heeded,

an all-red flag declared no quarter to be given. Like many of the Scot

Templar words that have been derived from French, the battle flag was

called the Jolly Roger, from the French joli rouge (pretty red). Later, the

name Jolly Roger was given to both flags.

The black skull and crossbones flag would come to be recognized

as an indicator of a pirate ship. The skull and two bones, however, had

a much deeper meaning to the original Templars who sailed under the

flag. Their insignia represented resurrection. The Catholic Church

taught that the resurrection of man was a bodily resurrection. But the

Templars believed, contrary to the Church, that only a skull and two

bones needed to be buried in order for a person to be admitted into

heaven. The skull and crossed bones became a popular motif on Templar

graves. To those who had dedicated their wealth and committed their

lives to the Templar order, the skull and bones suggested that the

Templar organization itself had been resurrected. The Templar fleet, in

particular, was alive and well. It had survived the army of the French

king and the Roman pope and would conquer again.

Just as the Templars had used military organization during the long

war against Islam, they now used military organization against their new

enemies. Upon coming into contact with a ship, the skull and crossbones

would be raised. If this was not enough to make the pursued ship

surrender, the Templars raised the red flag, the Jolly Roger, meaning that

"no quarter," or no mercy, would be granted. The message was quickly

learned by the captains who plied the seas with the wares of merchants.

Few would wait for the red flag.

The skull and crossbones continued to rule Europe's seas long after

the Templar order was officially in the grave. The New World too would

be threatened by the skull and crossbones, and well after America's

independence the remnant Templars would still exert their influence

and power.

Chapter 2

BROTHERS TO PIRATES AND CORSAIRS

Under the skull and crossbones, the fleet of the ex-Templars

roamed the seas. The menacing flag that to the Catholics had represented

resurrection now represented the resurrection of the outlawed

order. Lacking the same allegiance to the pope in Rome, the order now

served mostly to preserve and enrich itself. The ships that were once

manned by knights and sworn to protect religious pilgrims now threatened

anyone who traveled, transported goods, or traded on the high

seas. Rarely was retaliation considered. Even more rare was the capture

of a pirate ship; it was said that in that event, a flash of a secret signal

might allow a pirate ship a pass from its captors. Templar power was not

to be underestimated.

The fragmented Templars had succeeded in the goal of resurrecting

the order. At the same time, the pirates who ravaged the seas would

keep alive the Templar ideals of liberty, equality, and the protection of

their own. Ironically, the ideals of a corrupt organization would become

the basis of American democracy.

Pirates aboard a former Templar ship ran the ship in the same fashion

as a Templar preceptory, a model that was based on life in a

Cistercian chapter house. What did monks, pirates, and Templar knights

have in common? Democracy. While there was no example of a democratic

nation at that time and writers such as Voltaire, Jefferson, and

Rousseau would not be born for another four hundred years, Templar

pirates and Cistercian monks practiced democracy. Within the confines

of the monastery, the preceptory, and the pirate ship, leaders were

elected by their peers and could be removed by them. It was a concept

foreign to a feudal system, where birth and property determined title

and position. No one person was absolute; leaders were expected to act

in the interest of the group.

The Cistercian monks, ex-Templar pirates, and Templar knights had

other interesting similarities. In a world dominated by a feudal order

that used taxes and duties to force all wealth to the top, the Templars,

the Cistercian monks, and the pirates held wealth in common for hundreds

of years. This is not to be confused with a vow of poverty or even

with socialism. Rewards such as greater amenities were given to those

who exercised more responsibility. A pirate captain was often entitled to

a double share of booty, and the quartermaster might get a share and a

half for his role. It was strictly a result of merit. The failure to lead or a

propensity for greed could bring down a knight, an abbot, or a pirate

captain.

The ultimate irony is that democracy arose within orders created by

feudal powers. In this new social experiment, title, family name, and

appointed power were all secondary to the ability to lead and bring

benefit to all. The ideals of liberty and fraternity surfaced despite the

intentions of the feudal rulers.

Of course, not all pirates were Templars, and the order did not

invent the art of robbery on the high seas. The ex-Templar pirates, however,

were very distinct from other organized pirates. The pirates who

served aboard the ships of Islam, or even on the ships of the rival order

of Saint John, had more in common with the later English navy. The

captain of the ship, who was most often appointed as a result of high

birth or favor, would get the majority of the spoils; the common seamen

were often treated only a little better than the galley slaves who

served the fleets of Rome.

Life aboard the pirate ship was democratic, but it was still a feudal

world on the shores of the civilized world. Pirates were still forced to

deal with this reality. For example, ships were enormously expensive,

and therefore piracy was an institution that was generally not open to

the average man. In a world that knew no form of capitalism, there

were few ways to accumulate the funds to buy a ship. If a ship was captured,

it still had to be allowed to land in a safe port and to sell its captured

wares. This meant having the right connections. In the world of the former

Templars, connections often came in the form of elite families that

served to assist the remnant Templars and benefited from the role played

behind the scenes. Both the Templar version of piracy and the non-

Templar version of piracy depended on hidden guardians. The institution

of piracy was allowed to exist by the various states and kingdoms

as long as it could be officially denied and it provided a benefit to the

monarch who had domain over the pirate's home port.

MEDIEVAL PIRACY

Pirates often enjoyed the lackadaisical approach of the various monarchs.

Well before becoming the ruler of the high seas, England had one

of the poorest defense forces. Dutch, Flemish, and Breton pirates raided

the English Channel from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries,

simply because it was frequently easy to do. The king would benefit little

by wasting resources to protect the goods of merchants.

Prior to the arrest and prosecution of the Templar order, Henry III

ignored the piracy the various French states inflicted upon English

merchants.1 English pirates were given carte blanche to plunder if they

would offer a share in the spoils to their corrupt monarch. This pattern

repeated itself in the American colonies centuries later when governors

turned not a blind eye but a greedy eye on the profits made by pirates.

A share in the spoils was usually enough to buy clemency.

Edward I, the successor to Henry III, attempted to attack pirate

bases by land, as England had no real navy at the time. He was alternately

at war against the Welsh and the Scots, who considered English

merchants easy targets. Failing in his attempt to fight a war against the

pirates by land, Edward I instituted the practice of issuing marques, or

letters of reprisal. Such letters granted a merchant or shipmaster the

right to attack the pirates or their home port if the merchant or shipper

could claim to have suffered a loss at the pirates' hands.2 Other ports

would then have their monarchs issue the same type of documents,

which allowed them to plunder an English port should they be the victims

of an English pirate.

Edward's lack of ability to rule the seas was matched by his ineptitude

at ruling on land. His interference in the morass of bloody politics

that was Scotland led to many wars. The wars against Scotland and the

lack of centralized order in England would allow Scotland to flourish

as a pirate haven.

THE TEMPLARS AND SCOTLAND

A simple act would serve as the catalyst for new hostility between

England and Scotland. Alexander III, the Scottish king, had preserved

neutrality, but in 1284 he was killed—not in battle, but from falling off

his horse after a night of partying. Six guardians were appointed to ease

the successorship, and for a brief time these guardians ruled Scotland.

But Edward I of England exercised his right to choose who would succeed

Alexander. Of the handful of claimants to the Scottish throne, the

leading candidate was John Baliol, who was supported by the powerful

Comyn family. The other main candidate was Robert the Bruce, who

had the support of his country.3 Edward's court picked Baliol.

When Baliol and the Comyns would not back Edward in internal

conflicts, Robert would support Edward, which gave Robert the

opportunity to reclaim his lands from Baliol and the Comyns. After the

Wallace Revolt, Scotland was controlled by the triumvirate of Bishop

William Lamberton of St. Andrew's, Robert the Bruce, and John

Comyn. On February 10, 1306, Robert somehow managed to get

Comyn to meet him at the Church of the Greyfriars in Dumfries.

While neither side trusted the other, the hallowed sanctuary made

Comyn assume he was safe from violence. He was wrong.

Robert the Bruce eliminated Comyn in the church by stabbing him

and leaving him to die on the stone floor. There are several versions of

what transpired, but it is very likely that the attack was spontaneous.

When Robert ran from the church and told his confederate what he

had done, the man ran into the church. Seeing Comyn already in the

care of the friars, the confederate rushed to the wounded man and

stabbed him again until he was sure Comyn was dead. Robert then had

himself sworn in as king by Bishop Lamberton in the Abbey Church at

Scone.

Despite the official coronation, both England and the Catholic

Church made sure that Robert the Bruce would not take a throne. For

several years he was an outlaw king, pursued first by Edward, who died

in the campaign against Robert, and then by Edward's son, Edward II.

Robert spent the early years of his reign living in caves and traveling in

disguise. He was not only outlawed by the king of England, he was also

excommunicated by the pope.

Robert's exile did not last forever. His salvation was realized at the

Battle of Bannockburn, but events that took place hundreds of miles

away from the battlefield helped tip the scales in his favor. The same

papacy that made Robert an outlaw of the only official religion in

Europe had also declared the Knights Templar to be outlaws. The

Templar fleet and the remnant organization that managed to escape

from La Rochelle in the nick of time found refuge in Scotland. The

St. Clair family of France, a powerful force behind the Templars, had

most likely negotiated an alliance with Robert through its Scottish side

of the family, the Sinclairs.

The French had probably been arming Robert since 1310 by

smuggling arms into Ireland and then into Scotland. At this point they

smuggled an entire army to aid Robert. While the history of Scotland

both before and after Robert the Bruce is riddled with one defeat after

another at the hands of much more organized and better-equipped

armies, the Battle of Bannockburn was the exception. In this historic

battle, which was contested on June 24, 1314, a sacred day to the

Templar knights, the battle at first seemed to go well for Edward's army.

He had at his disposal twenty thousand soldiers and three thousand

knights on horseback, who fought against a force less than half their

size. But just when victory seemed at hand, a fresh contingent of

knights came charging from the rear of the Scottish force to soundly

and spectacularly beat Edward's troops. The remnant Knights Templar

led Scotland to victory over the English army, which made Scotland

independent of its overlord.

An elite group that was at the core of the Knights Templar existed

in France and Scotland prior to the arrests, and they remained united

afterward. At the heart of this group was the family of St. Clair. In

Europe they started as part of the Norse wave of conquerors that

changed the face of the continent. The St. Clairs and their Norse countrymen

were called Normans, and they settled in northern France,

where the king handed over great amounts of land in exchange for

being allowed to keep the rest. Under William the Conqueror, the

Normans successfully invaded England.This resulted in members of the

St. Clair family being granted tracts of land in England and Scotland.

The St. Clair branch eventually changed its name to the more

Anglicized Sinclair, but the family connections in France, Scotland, and

even to a degree in their Norse homeland remained intact.

The St. Clair/Sinclair family became a very strong presence in the

politics of both France and Scotland. Although they preferred a secondary

role in the public eye, they often controlled the politics from

behind the scenes. The loyalty of a strong military was one component

of their power.

After Bannockburn, Henry Sinclair, a descendant of the French noble

St. Clair family, organized the remnant Templars into military units and

guilds. They would become the integral force of his power base, and he

in turn would become their guardian. In 1320 Sir Henry signed a letter

to Pope John XXII asserting the independence of Scotland. This was a

unique document in the history of the world, predating the American

Declaration of Independence by more than four centuries. While Sinclair

never played the leading role, he ruled quietly from behind the scenes,

and the remnant Templars were his "big stick." They would remain

united, and cemented their loyalty to their benefactor.

THE GUILD AND THE LODGE

In times of peace the ex-Templars used their skills as masons, carpenters,

bridge builders, and merchants. The guild brought together members of

a single trade. As the guilds became specialized, the Templars who had

been seamen under the Templar flag now organized into a group that

manned the Sinclair fleet, which was among the largest in Europe. The

sea remained a gateway to riches, often more so in turbulent times. A fleet

needed merchants, and the merchants themselves were also organized in

guilds, which were the models for later companies.

The concept of guilds was originated by merchants and craftsmen.

Their work often included secretive operations, as they had to deal with

the prying eyes of the tax man, the competition of other guilds in the

same craft, and even the Catholic Church. The Church had declared

that a person who bought something with the intention of selling it at

a higher price was cast out of "God's Temple."4 Towns were actually created

by the guilds to employ workers in the manufacturing process and

for the purpose of meeting to buy and sell their wares. In modern Italy,

the guild system and its secrecy prevail. Some towns are still dominated

by one industry, and workers in that industry will reveal absolutely no

information to an outsider.

Guilds grew into larger merchant "companies" licensed to sell

goods abroad. Because Scotland and Europe exported wool, shipowners

would transport the merchants who wanted to carry the products

to continental Europe. In this less-than-golden age of freebooting,

pirates attacked ships even for such mundane cargoes. Therefore, merchants

needed a strong ship or fleet of ships to navigate the pirateinfested

waters. The Templars, inheritors of a military organization,

provided the strength.

Post-Bannockburn, the seas of commerce were anything but conducive

to trade. The Dutch pirates would attack the English wool

fleet—and often under letters of marque issued in their own country.

The English king Edward II had temporarily stopped issuing such privateering

papers, instead opting not to patrol the Scottish shores.

Unrestricted piracy against Scotland grew, but it had the effect of making

the illegal business more lucrative. Privateers and pirates from the

Low Countries, from the Hanseatic League, from France, and from the

Channel Islands now regularly attacked English ships. Because the relations

between Scotland and England were at best tense, the Low

Countries could also be counted on to provide military equipment and

food to Scotland, an act that the Scots regarded as necessary trade and

the English considered smuggling.

The history of Scotland is murky at this time, and naval history

even more so, as it was in no one's interest to record piracy. The fleet

of Sinclair in the post-Bannockburn years is known to have been one

of Europe's greatest; Sinclair had at his command more ships than

Edward II of England. The same irregular coast and innumerable island

hideouts had protected and hidden ships for hundreds of years before

the reign of Edward II, and it continued to do so for hundreds of years

after. In 1919 the German fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow in the northern

islands rather than surrender from its hiding place.

The Sinclair fleet underwent a major change in the years after

Bannockburn. Sinclair ships had been built like those of their Norse

relations, in the thin, overlapping oak-planked style that made them

light and flexible. But Sinclair now had to react to the heavier style of

ship being built in England. He built a castle in Kirkwall, in the northern

islands, imported the necessary lumber, and built thicker-planked

warships to accompany his Orkney galley ships.5

The fleet of the Sinclairs was now so strong that it was used to

defend possessions of the king of Norway, who had a much smaller fleet

that was "too weak to defend her own coasts against pirates."6 At this

time Stockholm had been seized by a pirate navy called the Victual

Brothers, or the Victualleurs. They soon raided the Norwegian coast and

sacked the city of Bergen.

The Templars who had come to Scotland to the protection of

Robert the Bruce and Henry Sinclair found employment aboard

Sinclair's neo-Templar fleet. They also served in their military tradition

in newly formed land fighting units—and for the same elite masters.

THE RELIGIOUS WARS

The backlash against the wealth and power of the Catholic Church had

started long before Martin Luther. In France the Cathar movement was

a desire to return to a "pure" Christianity not obstructed by indolent

priests and avaricious bishops. The Church quickly moved to stamp out

the heresy and sent Saint Bernard, the Templar proponent, to investigate

the Cathar sect. He discovered the movement to be larger than the

Church thought, and he also believed it to be a most Christian example

of living. The Church disregarded his report and sent Simon de Montfort

of Leicester, England, to lead an army against them.

The viciousness of the war may be evidence of just how severe

Rome regarded the threat. At Beziers the papal legate was asked how

to recognize the Cathari. He responded, "Kill them all, God will know

his own."7 Simon de Montfort was brutality personified, burning many

at the stake and blinding or cutting off the noses of those he allowed to

live.

The order of the Knights Templar, sworn to obey only the pope,

was not only visibly absent in the war against the Cathari; in some cases

members fought on the side of the heretics against Rome. At

Montsegur sixty knights served against the papal army. The Cathari, like

the ex-Templars in the next century and the Freemasons thereafter, had

secret signs and words to recognize their members. When the knights

arrived in Cathar territory the password was "Have you brought the

hatchets?"The answer was "We have eleven, freshly honed." Montsegur

would end in defeat for the Cathari, but the anti-Rome sentiment simply

went underground.

The Templar organization had less than a century to survive until

Rome would turn against it. The Templars may have had more than

ample reason to harbor anti-Church sentiments, but these would

remain underground from the time of the battle at Montsegur until the

Templar persecutions.

The Reformation that would thrive in Germany and Switzerland

as a reaction to the all-powerful Catholic Church was based on religion,

but the bitterness of the hundreds of years of the Inquisition, merciless

taxation, and numerous wars against any non-Catholic people played a

role. The Reformation also divided the former Templar knights on both

political and religious grounds.

As the Reformation took hold in Scotland, the original core

Templar group remained Catholic, including the Sinclair family, which

was described as ardently Catholic and suffered as a result. In France,

where the church and state had persecuted the Templars the most, former

seaport stronghold La Rochelle would become, like many French

ports, Huguenot—that is, Protestant. The religious wars pitted brother

against brother, as did any civil war.

The Freemasons, the surviving ex-Templars, would remain underground,

the lodge system not yet in its official (post-1717) period. The

symbols of the anti-Rome movement among the Cathari and the symbol

of the French Protestants in the north of France were often shared.

The dove (the symbol of personal enlightenment), the eight-pointed

cross, and the hatchet would grace the apparel and equipment of

Huguenots and Freemasons. The wars also divided the ex-Templars and

Masons along political lines, placing members of the descendant orders

on both sides. The English king Edward III managed to pit his country

against Catholic France in what would become known as the Hundred

Years War. Some of the original founding Templar families acted for the

Catholic side. The Scottish-French alliance created by the family connections

behind the Templars set the ex-Templars and their heirs alongside

the French in fighting England. But not all ex-Templars were

seagoing warriors. On land the Scots Guard became the inheritors of

the Templar tradition.

In 1445, one hundred years after the Templars were abolished and

the French Templars fled to Scotland, the neo-Templar Scots Guard, or

the Compagnie des Gendarmes Ecossis, returned to France to intervene

in French military adventures. The "auld alliance" renewed by the

Robert the Bruce—Sinclair power base brought Scotland to war on the

Continent. The Templar descendants often took the names of the men

to whom they pledged themselves in feudal Scotland, but generations

later they often kept their language and their patriotic leanings to their

homeland. In France they were organized under French names. They

were paid in livres toumois. And their officers and commanders were

often invited into a new knighthood, the Order of Saint Michael.

When the French dauphin was ready to flee Catholic France and

allow the victory of newly Protestant England, it was Joan of Arc who

intervened. A vanguard of Scottish soldiers helped Joan's armies reverse

the tide in one spectacular victory after another. The Scots Guard, a

neo-Templar organization, would become the King's Guard and the

King's Bodyguard, and play important roles in both military and state

affairs for almost another two hundred years.

The Hundred Years War was a particularly difficult time in Europe,

and England may have never seen a century of such lawlessness. On

land petty thefts were innumerable; on the seas piracy reigned. Bribery

secured judges and juries alike, and the ever-present tax collectors'

palms could be greased. Greed was the most significant force, and even

poets like Chaucer, who once denounced greed, now practiced it.8

The effect of the avarice was widespread poverty and economic

disruption. In England the fourteenth century ended with a massive

rebellion that would go down in history as Wat Tyler's Revolt.

Wat Tyler was actually Walter the Tyler, a Masonic name derived

from the French word tailleur, meaning "one who cuts." Each lodge of

Freemasons had an appointed tyler, and unlike the tailor who cuts

clothes, the tyler was designated to guard the door with a sword. While

it is often claimed that mob violence is spontaneous, Winston Churchill

in his Birth of Britain and author Barbara Tuchman agree that beneath

the mob violence was organization. By whom? The answer is obvious

according to some, as "no single group suffered losses comparable to

those inflicted over the next few days on the Knights Hospitallers, who

seemed to be on an especially aggressive hit list of the rebel leaders."9

Three generations after the Templars had been officially dissolved, they

was still taking revenge on their rival order.

The Crusades were over, yet the Templars remained a force both in

the public eye and underground. History records the achievements of

the military units such as the Scots Guard, but history leaves uncovered

the role of the ex-Templars in various forms, from merchants and

craftsmen to pirates. And the Templars were not the only order to

engage in piracy, although they were the only order to use the skull and

crossbones as their battle flag.

RIVAL ORDERS AS PIRATES

The main rivals of the former Templars, the Knights of Malta and the

Teutonic Knights, also turned to piracy to finance their orders. In the

period just after the Battle of Bannockburn, when Scottish and English

pirates ravaged the wool trade, the Hanseatic League turned to the

Teutonic Knights to protect its shipping. The envoys of Henry VI of

England who were sent to meet with the order's grand master to discuss

a truce were actually captured by Hanseatic pirates. England then

turned to the Knights of Rhodes, later the Knights of Malta, as they

were known to provide assistance with negotiations. Oddly, two orders

that had faced a common enemy during the Crusades were now enemies

with each other.

The Knights of Rhodes had been organized by merchants from

Amalfi.The order was created before the Knights Templar with the goal

of providing medical assistance to the crusading knights and the pilgrims

in the Holy Lands. The Knights of Rhodes first dedicated its

order to Saint John and was called the Order of the Hospital of Saint

John, or the Hospitallers. After the fall of Jerusalem, they went to

Cyprus. In 1306 the master of the order, Foulques deVillaret, who had

been the knights' first admiral, joined forces with a Genoese adventurer.

With their combined fleet they captured the island of Rhodes. The tiny

island that had served as a nest for Greek, Italian, and Saracen pirates

became the order's privateer base. But the order had little to do now

that Jerusalem was lost. It protected Christian shipping and attacked

Muslim shipping.10

The Knights of Rhodes developed a distinctive style of warfare at

sea, using grappling hooks and powerful soldiers to lock together ships

and immediately board them, pirate-style. Little better than pirates, they

launched an attack on Cairo. The first stop was in Alexandria, where

twenty thousand men, women, and children were killed before the conquest

erupted into an orgy of pillage and rape.11 Many of the military

contingents refused to go any farther because they enjoyed the spoils of

war and "some Brethren turned pirate." 12

From Rhodes the Hospitallers continued to harass Muslim shippers

until three successive sieges by the Turks dislodged the knights. They

then moved from port to port operating as pirates—even to the point

of allowing the "brethren" to share in the booty. In the sixteenth century

the Hospitallers resumed their naval operations from Malta. They

harassed Islamic shippers. They were at war, so in their eyes the piracy

was just privateering.

The Knights of Malta was very close to the various nation-states of

Italy, and was often allied with other states to carry out raids. Members

became known as corso, a word that later was Anglicized to corsair, or

pirate. Their sea caravans enriched the order through spoglio (prize

money) obtained in the sale of the goods they captured, including

slaves, and through ransoming captives.

Both the underground Knights Templar and the legitimate Knights

of Malta continued their piracy on the high seas and even in the

Americas. It is surprising that the role of these religious military orders

in the French settlements of the Americas largely remains secret.

THE KNIGHTS IN AMERICA

The Knights of Malta, which is active today, was influential in the settlement

of Canada, in early colonization of the New World, and even

in the American Revolution. In 1632 a knight of Malta, Commander

Isaac de Razilly, organized the expedition to Acadia and Quebec.

History records Samuel de Champlain as one of the earliest explorers

but pays little attention to his top lieutenants, Marc-Antoine Brasdefer

de Chateaufort and Charles-Jacques Huault de Montmagny. After

Champlain's death, Chateaufort and then Montmagny served as gover

nor of New France. Other French-Canadian knights would also play

significant roles in the early history of Canada.

The counterpart of the Knights of Malta in France was the Order

of Saint-Sulpice. Founded by the Abbe Jacques Olier, the order invited

wealthy patrons to form another group, the Society of Notre Dame,

which would in turn become the founding Seigneurs of Montreal in

Canada. Serving the same role as the Cistercians in relation to the

Knights Templar, the Order of Saint-Sulpice at times played a very

powerful behind-the-scenes role in international affairs. Unhampered

by the vow of poverty, the order grew in wealth and power. Many of

Montreal's streets, named for luminaries of the Sulpicians, remind citizens

of the order's key position. In the 1660s, when the overlords of

Montreal, the so-called One Hundred Associates, proved themselves to

be absentee landlords inclined to tax the city, the Sulpicians had them

expelled and took over the governance of Montreal. To their credit,

their wealth has been committed to good works, and the order remains

as wealthy today as it was three centuries ago. In France the order also

remains wealthy, powerful, and able to play a political role from backstage.

The Knights of Malta also colonized the Caribbean, including

Tortuga, Saint Croix, and Saint Barthelemy—islands that later passed

into the ownership of the French West India Company.

Another knight, Admiral Francois-Joseph-Paul de Grasse, delivered

the coup de grace to the British at Yorktown. His fleet arrived from the

Caribbean just in time to trap Cornwallis and the British army, who

were in full retreat. The British, waiting for reinforcements and supplies

that would never arrive, surrendered to George Washington and ended

the war. The admiral was a Knight of Malta, and he learned his seamanship

skills under the tutelage of the order. Of the French ships that

battled the British, several were commanded by members of the

Knights of Malta, including Admiral de Grasse's chef d'escadron at

Chesapeake Bay, Jean-Louis-Charles de Coriolis d'Espinousse.

After the war fourteen of the twenty elite Knights of Malta who

fought for the American cause became members of the Society of the

Cincinnati, a closed group formed by George Washington for his officers.

13 Despite criticism that the order was a version of European aristocracy,

membership was limited to a handful and future membership

required that an individual be a descendant of a member of the founding

group.

The French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars saw

the Knights of Malta defeated in battle. Napoleon seized the home base

of Malta in 1789 because the French knights had provided Louis XVI,

his rival, with funding. The Russian czar Paul I offered the knights

refuge and asked them to create a new order that would answer to him.

Napoleon immediately ended the order's income from its French property

and evicted the knights, forcing them into a brief sojourn in

Russia. In 1834 the order moved again to Rome and came under papal

protection. The pope restored the office of grand master in 1879.

The order slowly rebuilt itself in the twentieth century. The Knights

of Malta order survived and grew to the point that it became a very

powerful, albeit secretive, force in modern world politics. In 1921 it had

two hundred knights and 1,800 members of all grades.14 Today the

group is headquartered at Palazzo Malta on the via Condotti in Rome,

and it has a worldwide network of nine thousand knights and thousands

more lower-grade members.15 It is the most elite of the Catholic

orders, and although it remains behind the scenes, it has great power.

While the Knights of Malta does not own any property outside Rome,

the order is recognized as a sovereign state, complete with its own passports

and stamps.

The European press often regards the order as an old boys' club for

aristocrats, but it is actually active on several continents in both charitable

works and political action. In the United States, a branch of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was started in 1927, under

the leadership of New York's Cardinal Spellman. Since its founding, the

group has included the likes of Joseph Kennedy, Joseph Grace of W R.

Grace, and presidents of companies such as General Motors and U.S.

Steel. The SMOM has an influence in politics and has taken activist

roles from its earliest days, starting with opposition to the New Deal of

Roosevelt. In post-World War II politics the group has always leaned to

the right, sometimes to the extreme. In supporting the right wing the

SMOM has not shied away even from assisting Nazi war criminals.

After World War II the order granted its highest honor to German army

general Reinhard Gehlen, which might sound shocking but is nonetheless

in line with supporting a monarchist agenda. Although the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta does nothing to hide its existence or

membership and does little to disguise its right-wing political agenda,

it receives almost no recognition in post-Crusades history texts.

The rival order of the Knights Templar, however, is a much more

secretive entity. Because it is forced to stay underground, the order goes

to great lengths to conceal its existence and membership and to disguise

its activities. Nevertheless, it has survived.

The Americas presented great opportunity to the remnant Templar

factions. For many of the rank and file, the new lands represented a

place to survive the religious wars and start a new life. Jacobin Catholics

from Scotland, Huguenots and Catholics from France, and various dissenters

from England found peace and brotherhood in the Americas.

And the wealthy who had found power in the changing feudal hierarchy

of the old order also found new types of power in the Americas. A

handful of these people pulled the strings and enjoyed the fruits of

criminal activity from their secret positions.

Chapter 3

UNDER A BLACK FLAG

Execution by hanging was a gruesome affair in the days of Captain

Kidd, and for the convicted pirate there was no reprieve. In the

city in which Kidd had lived while attempting to secure his privateering

commission, he undoubtedly passed the execution dock at Wapping

numerous times. Had he ever thought his own neck might end up in a

noose?

Public executions were fascinating to the people of seventeenthand

eighteenth-century England. In order to have the opportunity to

see the law exercise its ultimate power over man, the power to take life,

people would flock in from all over London. The poor arrived on foot

and the wealthy by carriage to see the wretched plead for their lives.

No pains were taken to spare the public the crudeness of the death

penalty. A particularly barbaric highlight was having the executioner,

most likely a large specimen of a man, actually carry the condemned up

a ladder to the noose. There the hooded figure would place the neck of

the condemned in the noose. The victim might be given an opportunity

to speak his last words, to plead for his life, or to ask forgiveness.

Or he might simply have the rope tightened around his neck and be

dropped to his death.1

If he was lucky, the convicted felon's neck would break immediately

and he would be spared the horror of suffering a slow choking

demise. If the convicted was able to manage it, he might tip his executioner

beforehand, ensuring that the executioner would use a longer

rope and thus hasten the death. If the condemned didn't have any

money, he might have family or friends present who could rush in to

pull on his hanging legs so that his suffering would end faster.

In all, hanging was wonderful entertainment. At Tyburn the weekly

hangings drew two hundred thousand spectators. They would gather

the night before outside Newgate Prison to drink, dance, and fornicate

in the streets. In the morning the crowd followed the condemned in a

parade through the streets of London, all the while cheering or jeering

at the unfortunate criminals. The wealthy would pay as much as ten

pounds sterling to sit ringside and eat and drink during the execution.

This event, which might be the ancestor of the modern tailgate party,

was so popular it became known as the Tyburn Fair, and the rulers made

a very unpopular decision in finally ending such spectacles in the midnineteenth

century.

A pirate could expect treatment worse than that of the common

criminal. On occasion the executioner quickly cut down the hanging

pirate and disemboweled him while he was still alive. His entrails would

be burned before his eyes, and if he survived any longer, he could be

drawn and quartered. Women were spared from this indecency because

they were considered the "fair" sex. Instead they were burned to death.

On Friday, May 23, 1701, it was William Kidd's turn to provide the

entertainment; the stairs at Wapping would be his place of justice. The

body could be displayed for all those who traveled the Thames to see.

Kidd had no plans to repent and no plans to ask for mercy. To the end

he told all who would listen that he was a pawn of wealthy men.

Members of the elite ruling class on both sides of the Atlantic had outfitted

his ship and helped him get a commission, and they were due a

share in his gains. But none of his wealthy backers was called before the

judge. None of his elite partners stood before the executioner. All were

at home in landed estates, breathing a sigh of relief that they would not

be tarnished by their role in Kidd's crimes.2

Kidd himself was once a man of property, an owner of real estate on

what would become the financial capital of the world, Wall Street. He was

not a career criminal, although he was certainly not without blame. He

simply thought his ties to the men who pulled the strings of colonial

New York government allowed him to get away with murder. But the

political tide had turned. Piracy against the Muslim trading partners of

the East India Company caused trouble for many who had been shareholders.

While Kidd plied the seas for booty, a power play in London put

the interests of the East India Company above those of other would-be

adventurers. Pressure was applied to those who interfered. Kidd was the

scapegoat. The ties he relied on to protect him instead cut him loose. To

his surprise, Kidd was separated from those who commissioned him.

Now a convicted pirate, Kidd was at the dock in Wapping.

Those who came for a show were not disappointed. Kidd arrived

drunk and unrepentant. His last words were a speech against the liars

who testified against him. He was carried to the hangman's noose and

dropped. The rope broke. Dazed by the fall but still alive, Kidd was

quickly carried up the ladder again by his executioner. This time the fall

killed him.

The legend of Captain Kidd has grown out of proportion with its reality.

Kidd was no swashbuckler; he was a businessman pursuing wealth

in the fashion of the day.

New York City in the 1690s could be equated with the Wild West.

The governor, Benjamin Fletcher, was appointed to office by the military.

He arrived in New York in August 1692. As befitting a fat, greedy,

minor tyrant, Fletcher attained his wealth by being corrupt. He controlled

the exchange of real estate, and real estate was the first source of

wealth in the colony. In a short period of time citizens understood that

to favor the governor with a bribe earned them his favor. Fletcher allied

himself with Stephen van Cortlandt, William Nicoll, and Frederick

Philipse by giving them large pieces of land.

Fletcher soon turned his attention to another opportunity. In 1696

England passed the first of a series of ill-conceived laws limiting the

colonies' ability to engage in commerce. Defying such laws built some

of America's greatest fortunes and started a tradition of giving the

wealthy the right to be above the law. Smuggling quickly became an

accepted way to earning a living. With the European countries at war

and all shipping in danger of encountering an enemy, smuggling was

scarcely more dangerous than honest shipping.

Pirates and smugglers were always at risk when landing in a foreign

port. Their cargoes were subject to seizure and the pirates and smugglers

were subject to arrest. Governor Fletcher provided a safe haven for

all who were willing to pay his personal tax. This bribery greased the

wheel of commerce, and New Yorkers were able to get imported goods

from anywhere in the world. Local shops in the small port city offered

goods from exotic places around the world. Items such as teak furniture,

Oriental carpets, and Madeira wine could be found beside the

simple homespun goods of colonial New York. Currencies of European

and Asian countries were exchanged by the English, Dutch, French,

Jewish, Irish, and Scottish settlers in the city, which was already a melting

pot. Elsewhere the British, French, and Dutch men-of-war preyed

on the smuggler and legitimate shipper alike; in New York City, all who

paid Fletcher's fees were safe.

Fletcher, who "undertook to mine all the known veins of gubernatorial

graft, and to stake claims on some new ones,"3 backed all forms of

crime at sea. Fletcher found a way to profit from all aspects of pirate commerce.

The pirate captains dined at his table while their crews swaggered

around town spending their ill-gotten money. The pirate Edward Taylor

is on record as having paid Fletcher £1,700 to be allowed to land in New

York City and sell his wares. (In modern purchasing power, £1,700

would be about $250,000.) The privateer who applied to Fletcher for a

commission to attack enemy shipping would then attack anything he

could defeat. Such a commission could be procured for five hundred

pounds; the pirate John Hoar is on record as having bought one of these

commissions. The merchants who supplied New York's shops with exotic

goods bought from pirates and often had a stake in their voyages as well.

An example of Fletcher's liberal interpretation of his powers is in

his relationship with Thomas Tew. The legendary pirate was from an

English Quaker family that had settled in Rhode Island. His history has

not been recorded before his arrival in Bermuda, a smuggling capital,

in 1692. According to sources, Tew was already enriched by piracy.

There he bought a share of a ship called the Amity with gold he carried

in his pockets. Other shareholders were Thomas Hall, Richard

Gilbert, John Dickinson, and William Outerbridge, who was a member

of the governor's council. Tew received a privateering commission from

Governor Ritchier and headed for French West Africa to attack slave

ships. On the way, Tew "turned pirate," with the backing of his crew.

They headed for the Red Sea and attacked Arab shippers before settling

in the kingdom of pirates, Madagascar. After several adventures, Tew

returned home. He sold his Indian textiles in New York City and then

headed to Newport, sent for his partners, and divided the spoils—some

of which was buried near Newport and the rest in Boston.

Tew's Bermuda backers reportedly received fourteen times their

investment.4 Tew's share amounted to eight thousand pounds, enough

to provide a high-style retirement. For a while Tew took part in the

good life in Rhode Island, untainted by the same crimes that would see

Kidd hanged. But the governor of Massachusetts denied Tew another

privateering commission, so he applied to the governor of Rhode

Island and for five hundred pounds received his papers.

The first order of business was sailing to New York to meet with

the Philipse family. Frederick Philipse was the seventeenth-century

equivalent of a venture capitalist. He provided the equipment needed

for a pirate voyage, and in turn was entitled to a share of the gains. His

only risk was monetary and he hedged his bets by making numerous

investments. Those who came to him risked life and liberty. With

Frederick Philipse's backing, Tew outfitted his second pirate expedition,

one that would immensely benefit his patron.

Tew's second adventure found him capturing ships of the Great

Moghul and keeping one hundred unmarried girls as well as treasure.

After a sojourn in Madagascar, Tew and his crew headed home again for

the quiet life. This time his treasure was said to be more than a hundred

thousand pounds. Philipse, who risked only money, in comparison to

the pirates who risked their lives, would earn more than a hundred

thousand pounds backing numerous voyages.

Tew's weakness was that he could not retire. He sought another privateering

commission, this time from the new governor of Rhode

Island, John Easton, who refused. Tew then applied to Governor

Fletcher of New York. Fletcher knew that Tew was a well-known sea

rover, but felt justified in commissioning him to sail against the French.

When later defending his actions, Fletcher claimed he did not know of

Tew's reputation, but that the "stranger" had planned to attack the

French at the mouth of the Canada River. Such commissions against

the French were nothing unusual. But Tew saw the situation differently.

Tew outfitted his ship and then sailed between New York and

Boston recruiting fellow pirates and adventurers for his fleet. Fletcher

claimed the commission was for attacking the French in Canada, but

Tew openly acknowledged there was more money to be gained in the

Indian Ocean and that this area was his destination.

Thomas Tew made his final voyage to the Indian Ocean, where he

reportedly had some early success against Indian trading ships. But he

may have pushed his luck. He was never again seen in New England.

On occasion, Fletcher had to make a token charge against a pirate

or smuggler to confuse his enemies. In 1694 he seized a ship that had

returned from a Caribbean voyage. The ship was owned in part by one

of New York's wealthiest men, Robert Livingston. Livingston not only

beat the charges, but also sought a way to get rid of Fletcher at the same

time. It would take four years and the efforts of two partners. It was into

this early version of the "world trade center" that Captain Kidd sailed.

THE WORLD OF CAPTAIN KIDD

Born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1645, William Kidd climbed up the

career ranks as a seaman and finally a captain. Scotland was pirate central

after the Templar fleet had sought shelter there centuries before, and

the country, along with Ireland, would be regarded as a pirate haven for

another two centuries. Before the so-called Golden Age of Piracy,

pirates were more likely to be found capturing ships loaded with wool

or fish—but certainly not capturing the Spanish treasure fleet,

plundering the ports of the Golden Main, or chasing the fleet of the

Moghul of India. But piracy, like smuggling, was a living.

As Templar soldiers and their descendants remained in the military

service as mercenaries, Templar sailors and their descendants spawned a

culture of both legal privateering and illegal piracy. In the seventeenth

century, many Scottish seamen were commissioned to battle Dutch

attackers who preyed on English and Scottish shipping and fishing.

Later, after one more attempt to attain independence, Scottish Jacobites

swelled the ranks of the pirates in Europe and the Caribbean. It is little

wonder that the best pirate literature was also spawned in Scotland;

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the classic Treasure Island and fellow Scot

J. M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan.

Participation in piracy and smuggling was a frequent occurrence in

Scotland, despite laws that called for the highest penalties against these

offenses. The laws were only sporadically enforced and convictions were

nearly impossible to achieve. An underground society prevailed; it was

not necessarily hereditary, but it was so prevalent that it was not threatened

by a justice system. From the days of the Templar demise until the

eighteenth century, the lodges of men dedicated to a specific craft or

occupation enforced their own codes and often exercised power that

reached to the highest levels of government. These guilds of lawyers, sea

captains, craftsmen, and soldiers were individual cells, or lodges in

Masonic parlance, that operated independently yet assisted one another

in ways that those outside the brotherhood would never suspect.

Freemasonry was not yet public. Before 1717 it was truly a secret

society in which it was a violation of oath to admit membership or discuss

anything that went on in a Masonic meeting. A major event took

place less than twenty years later, when four of England's lodges met at

the Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden in London to form the Grand

Lodge. Shortly afterward the Irish, French, and Scottish lodges emerged

as public societies. There is no satisfactory reason why Masonry came

out of the closet, but the most plausible explanation is that the distrust

those in power had for the secret organizations encouraged the orders

to reveal themselves. Scotland's Masons hid a vast underground of

smugglers, pirates, and revolutionaries. Rather than risk being accused

of plotting against the king of England, the English lodges welcomed

royalty and toasted the health of their kings and queens. Scottish

Masonry was the preserve of such people as Andrew Ramsay, the tutor

of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Ramsay publicly spoke of the former

Crusaders setting up Masonic lodges upon returning from the wars.

The lodges survived the persecution of the Templars by remaining

underground. And the Bonnie Prince led a revolt by the Scottish

against their English overlords.

The Scottish version of the Masons had strong political overtones,

while the English version, which had distanced itself from politics, did

not present such a threat. Because of this threat, the Scottish secret

organization needed to remain underground.

Kidd was a Scotsman and was partnered with fellow Scotsman

Livingston, and both men became Masons as well. After a few short

years, Livingston was very public with his membership in the guild. His

family is still known as active proponents of the Masons. Kidd, of

course, did not have even a few short years.

The massive immigration of Scots to America and Canada was

resented by the earlier colonists. This Scottish "invasion" of America was

a direct result of constant war with England, and it increased dramatically

after the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion. A prejudice against Scots

existed from Massachusetts to Virginia, although these immigrants still

had a significant role in the formation of the new country. In 1776 a

play produced in Philadelphia was dedicated to "Lord Kidnaper . . .

Pirates and Buccaneers, and the innumerable clans of Macs and Donalds

upon Donalds in America."5 The dedication was in jest but the sentiment

was real, and the Scots-as-pirates stereotype was not helped by the

prominence of Captain Kidd in pirate lore.

In August 1689 Kidd had been on the island of Nevis in command

of a sixteen-gun privateer he had taken from the French. Two years

later, in another English expedition, his men—mostly former pirates—

had left him ashore, and he lost command of a ship. Later that year he

received another command to take on the French.

By the time Kidd arrived in New York, his reputation had preceded

him. He helped build the first Trinity Church and bought a lot on Wall

Street. William Kidd, man-about-town, then married a well-to-do

Dutch widow, Sarah Bradley Cox Oort.6 It was his wife's third marriage;

in fact, the marriage license was received just days after John

Oort, her second husband, died. Sarah Oort brought a nice dowry to

the new marriage, including a house on Wall Street and another on

Pearl Street. Kidd must have felt that he was a worthy catch, and titled

himself "Gentleman" on their application. Oort and Kidd lived in the

fashionable part of town, their home complete with furniture and carpets

that were imported from Asia. Kidd could have remained simply a

gentleman, but he didn't.

As luck would have it, the acts of piracy committed around the

emerging British empire were bringing complaints to the ears of King

William III. Especially irritating to the court was the role that Governor

Fletcher was playing in North America. King William met with his

Privy Council and Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont.They decided

that Lord Bellomont would be sent to New York to replace Fletcher as

governor and stamp out the pirate haven he had created.

Piracy was a worldwide problem for empire-building Britain. In Asia

the same countries that England was trying to trade with were complaining

about American pirates attacking their shipping, and they held

the British responsible. All the legitimate trade was carried on through a

royal-sponsored monopoly called the British East India Company.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the British East India

Company was trying to further establish itself in Asia. The company had

been doing well and had the favor of James II until his death. With a

royal monopoly, the average dividend was 25 percent in the last ten

years of the century. But this monopoly inspired jealousy. Other

European traders, American merchants, and even pirates were hindrances

to business. In the new market the British East India Company

was trying to develop, it also did not help that the company had little

the customer wanted. It introduced cheap opium, and tried to hold its

own against invaders and pirates.

Ironically, in this newly declared war against piracy Kidd was

enlisted to fight for the cause of the British. While visiting England with

New York's most respected merchant, Robert Livingston, Kidd was

introduced to Lord Bellomont, who desired the job of New York's governor.

Livingston, Kidd, and Bellomont plotted to get rid of Fletcher.

For his part in the deal, Kidd was commissioned to fight against the

pirates.

Pirates sailing out of New York, commissioned by Fletcher, frequently

attacked the Moghuls' ships. John Hoar actually attacked the

British East India fleet and captured and burned two company ships.

Tew's attacks on the Indian fleet caused rioting in the streets. The

account of Henry Every's pirate crew kidnapping and raping Indian

women, some of whom committed suicide rather than submit, caused

the offices of the East India Company in Surat to be attacked by mobs.

Several key employees were imprisoned, where they received harsh

treatment during the six months of negotiation between the Moghuls

and the British East India Company. Several did not survive.

Whatever the real intentions of Kidd, Livingston, and Bellomont,

the plan was first to capture the pirate Tew. Kidd, Bellomont, and

Livingston would be entitled to whatever goods were taken in the

process.

THE BIRTH OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY

Robert Livingston built a dynasty as fast as he could and in any way he

could. He was a Scot who had lived in Rotterdam for a time and

learned the Dutch language. He sailed to America in 1674. At that time

the Dutch still controlled New York, and the largest patroonship was

owned by Nicholas Van Rensselaer, who had joined another very

wealthy Dutch family through an arranged marriage to Alida Schuyler.

Van Rensselaer was the son and namesake of the man who had actually

received the grants of land and built the family wealth. Like many sons

of ambitious men, Van Rensselaer had no interest in the business or his

upstate lands; instead he fancied himself a mystic. He hired Livingston,

an obvious go-getter, to run his empire.

A trader by profession, Livingston caught on quickly and acquired

the ability to speak the Iroquois language—an ability many traders didn't

have. He also helped build the Van Rensselaer fortune.

In 1678 Nicholas was only in his early forties, but he began aging

rapidly. He took to his sickbed with an illness that could not be diagnosed.

One day he decided the end was near and called for a servant to

bring a pen and paper for his will. Instead Livingston appeared. "No, no,

send him away; he's going to marry my widow," cried Van Rensselaer,

just before he died.7 If ever a will was composed, it was never found.

But some have suggested that "if you believe a Van Rensselaer rumor,

still circulated to this day, Nicholas was poisoned."8

Nicholas the mystic had been right: Within eight months Alida and

Robert Livingston were married. Livingston acquired his boss's widow

and became the wealthy man he had designed to become. When he met

Kidd, Livingston was the wealthiest man in New York. As a Scot,

Livingston was embroiled in the religious wars that raged back home

and that spilled over into the colonies. His relatives in Scotland, the

Earls of Callendar and Linlithgow, had fought on the wrong side of

what became the Glorious Revolution. It was a precarious time

because of the religious upheaval, and many Scots and French

Huguenots were forced to leave the country. The hostilities did not end

once the immigrants reached America.

In New York the war was between Jacob Leisler and the Catholics.9

In his frantic effort to keep the pope from controlling New York, Leisler

seized the city. When Britain later sent a new governor, Leisler

attempted to defend New York against him. His rabid anti-Catholic

sentiment ended with his trial and that of five confederates. The same

evidence admitted in trial freed four and sentenced two to hanging.

Jacob Leisler was hanged on the land where the Manhattan side of the

Brooklyn Bridge would be built.

A bit of jury tampering may have helped the four who were acquit

ted. One of these possible beneficiaries was Peterse Delanoy. His family

subsequently dropped the last letter of their name and become the

Delanos.A later alliance through marriage would result in the Delano-

Roosevelt family.

With Leisler out of the way, the power vacuum allowed Huguenot

families such as the Delanoys and their allies among the Dutch power

base, including Livingston, to prosper. Livingston was now in prime

position to expand his empire. He traded with whomever he could and

owned outright or owned shares in several merchant ships. One of these

returned 500 percent in one 1694 voyage alone. But success had its

downside: Through a customs agent of the mayor of New York City,

Livingston was charged with the crime of trading with the French. It is

possible that the charge was correct, as not all legitimate voyages yielded

such high returns. But the mayor simply wanted a share in the profits.

The case was brought before the grand jury, whose chairman was

William Kidd. It is not known if this case also involved jury tampering,

but Livingston was spared. Jury chairman Kidd refused to indict.

Kidd and his new friend Livingston went to England to increase

their fortunes. The deal that was struck with Richard Coote, Lord

Bellomont, involved several other figures who moved in commercial

and government circles. The list included John Somers, the Lord

Chancellor; Edward Russell, the Earl of Orford, who was the First Lord

of the Admiralty; Henry Sidney, the Earl of Romney; Charles Talbot,

the Duke of Shrewsbury; Edward Harrison, a director of the East India

Company; and Richard Blackham, who would later be imprisoned for

bribery and currency manipulation. King William III was destined to

claim 10 percent of the return in exchange for his blessing of Kidd's

pirate-hunting enterprise.10

Livingston and Kidd were the core partners of the agreement, and

together they were required to put up six thousand pounds to purchase

and refit a ship named Adventure Galley. This was approximately one

fifth of the funds needed for the voyage, and in turn the partners would

receive one fifth of the prizes captured and get to keep the ship. The

men who signed on as crew members were on a no-purchase, no-pay

contract. This type of contract was used by whalers and pirate ships, and

it stated that if no prizes were obtained, no pay would be given.

Therefore, the inducement to capture something was great.

Kidd and crew were commissioned to capture pirate ships. Their

papers specifically targeted Thomas Tew of Rhode Island and two New

York-based pirates, Thomas Wake and William Maze. For good measure

the commission added any and all pirates, freebooters, and sea rovers.

Commission in hand, Kidd sailed out of London to New York. Along

the way he captured a French fishing ship—not much of a catch, but

perhaps practice for his new crew.

In New York, Kidd recruited more men for his adventure and

finally started his planned voyage on September 5, 1696. The destination

was the Indian Ocean, where the large island of Madagascar was

actually a pirate nation.11 The onetime French station Fort Dauphin had

become the home base of the pirate Abraham Samuel, who was called

King Samuel. The pirate king welcomed other pirates who presented

him with gifts. His kingdom and other pirate strongholds, as well as

slave ports run by merchants with no national affiliation, made

Madagascar a truly wild locale.

LIBERTALIA

Saint Mary's was a small island off the coast of Madagascar where the

pirates formed a democratic nation called Libertalia. It may have been

the world's first true democracy, in which each man had an equal vote.

It just happened to be a pirate nation.

Upon reaching the mature age of about thirty, many of the pirates

retired to Libertalia. Land was free, exotic Polynesian-African women

were plentiful, and the locals were not hostile. Plantations were started

and trading posts were established. Even though each man might be

able to return to his home port with a small fortune, many chose to live

on the island.

It is a mystery just why Kidd sailed into Saint Mary's if by this time

he did not intend to "go pirate." As a pirate hunter, he apparently had

no intention to attack the pirate port; instead he landed, to repair his

ship and recruit new men. But once he landed, his situation grew

worse. A greater enemy than the English would attack Kidd's crew: disease.

On the small island in the Indian Ocean, one fifth of the crew succumbed.

Kidd needed to replace even more men than he originally

intended. He took on new members, all of whom were most likely

experienced pirates.

The major distinction separating the privateer from the pirate was

a piece of paper. The commission that gave the privateer captain the

right to take certain prizes made his actions legal, whereas seizing

bounty without such a commission was an offense punishable by hanging.

Commissions would occasionally be honored, and sometimes

would expire because of the end of a war. Unfortunately, the privateer

at sea had little way of knowing that hostilities had ended and that a

truce voided his commission. Another difference between privateers

and pirates was the conditions in which they lived and worked. On a

privateer ship the captain was chosen by the owner. He had to be tough

and able to make difficult decisions, but he also had to be intelligent.

The men on both merchant ships and privateer ships received very little

pay, were treated as inferior by the owners and officers, and were

subject to physical abuse at the whim of their masters. Such abuse was

legal, and more men died of being flogged than died in battle.

Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon who served aboard the ships of the

Royal African Company, reported that one captain flogged a man to

death for losing an oar. Another captain forced men to eat live cockroaches

for his entertainment. Falconbridge is quoted extensively for

such cruelties to both seamen and slaves in Hugh Thomas's The Slave

Trade and Patrick Pringle's Jolly Roger, the Golden Age of Piracy. The slaves

aboard such ships often were of more value to the captain than his own

crew. The average mortality rate for slaves in the seventeenth century

was 25 percent; it was often as high as 40 percent for the crew.

The officers of the British navy treated their own crews just as

harshly.

It was no wonder that when a pirate ship attacked a merchant ship,

the crew was eager to surrender. The pirates treated them better. Those

who came aboard were treated as equals. Many were invited to join,

some were simply impressed by their lifestyle, but all were treated better.

Four hundred years after the Templar fleet left France, the lodge system

spawned in Templar preceptories and Cistercian monasteries was

alive aboard the pirate ships. The ship's rules were determined by articles

that each man signed. The men voted on such rules in a democratic

fashion: one man, one vote. Rules included not taking women aboard,

as they could cause friction; not discussing religion, as it too could cause

conflict; and spelling out tasks and duties.

On a pirate ship the captain was elected by the entire crew. Like a

privateer captain, he had to be tough and intelligent. He had to be well

liked, too, as his crew could simply unelect him. Shares were determined,

and the job of the captain and the quartermaster was to ensure

equal shares to all members of the crew.

The crew on both pirate and privateer ships would sail for a share

in the voyage. On the privateer ship the captain's share and that of the

high-ranking officers were greater than the crew's. On many pirate

ships all bounty was shared in a fairer way. The captain and the quartermaster

might get a double share; a highly proficient crew member

could get a share and a half. An injured pirate who was unable to return

to sea might be given a greater share to aid his retirement. The average

sailor on a pirate ship had a better chance of making a windfall profit

for the risks and hardships he endured. Some took their shares and went

back to the farm. Sometimes an agreement was struck so that all sailors

remained together until every man had a certain amount of money.

Life was potentially dangerous for the pirate, but the dangers were

not in attacking enemy shipping. Very rarely was a merchant ship willing

to mount a defense, and few pirate ships were ever captured outside

of ports. One pirate historian reports that brothel casualties were higher

than battle casualties. The greatest risk a pirate might endure was expulsion

by his fellow sailors. Marooning, or expelling a pirate from a crew,

took place on a desert island or sometimes on a sandbar that would disappear

at high tide. Pirates were usually marooned only for the worst of

offenses, which included abandoning their posts during battle. The term

maroon was coined from what the Spanish called Cimarrons, the group

of people created from the marriage of escaped black slaves to native

Amerindian women.

Life at sea was equally dangerous for the criminal pirate and the

legitimate privateer, as the common threats—injury, imprisonment, and

death—did not favor one type of sailor. For example, a privateer sailing

against Spain was a criminal in the eyes of the Spanish crown, as was a

pirate operating anywhere. Both could suffer equally for their offenses,

and death was the most common punishment. The difference was that

the pirate stood a better chance of making a profit. As a result, pirate

ships often had little problem defeating better-armed naval ships, merchant

ships, and privateer ships. Many times the crew of the captured

ship was happy to join the pirates—and they were often delighted to

see a cruel captain subject to his own medicine.

CAPTAIN KIDD AND THE PIRATES

Kidd knew the risks and the rewards of piracy. What happened aboard

the Adventure Galley to induce the captain and crew to "go pirate" will

probably never be known. But Kidd was low on supplies, had little to

trade, and had a crew that was most likely unhappy with the long

months at sea and his harsh leadership and lack of profit. With his leadership

and judgment in question and his reward system poor, it is surprising

that he was able to recruit veteran pirates. However he did it, he

set out from Saint Mary's as a pirate.

Twice Kidd brought his ship to within threatening distance of

British-protected shipping, and twice he was turned away. Finally he

captured a lone trading ship from Bombay flying the English colors.

Upon meeting the ship's captain, Kidd found out that he was already

considered a pirate. Word traveled quickly.

Kidd soon took three more ships, including the valuable Quedah

Merchant in January 1698. With his new fleet, he now broke all the rules

and attacked an East India Company ship. He left the coast of India

with his prizes and headed for Madagascar, where he spent six months

before heading back to North America.

It is hard to believe that an experienced captain such as Kidd would

think that he could return to New York and escape punishment because

of his connections, but that appears to have been the case. The Earl of

Bellomont, now the governor of New York, actually came to Kidd's

defense. The governor said he received reports that Kidd was forced by

his men to act as a pirate. But Bellomont was in an awkward position.

Having replaced Fletcher, who had given a commission to the pirate

Thomas Tew, Bellomont had to be careful not to cast himself in the

same light. He also was entitled to a large commission should he issue

a pardon. Kidd, however, had gone too far.

The capture of the Quedah Merchant had caused rioting in the

streets of Surat, where the British East India Company maintained its

offices. The company was already blamed for any acts of European

piracy, but this time the ship belonged to a member of the Indian

emperor's court. This news eventually reached New York—well before

Kidd.

Bellomont had to distance himself from the situation and cut his

losses. The governor of what is now New York and Massachusetts had

never seen Boston, and he traveled there on May 26, 1699, for the first

time. It appeared to his critics that he was on his way to meet his piratepartner

Kidd, who had just reached Delaware Bay and was heading

north. Bellomont later explained that he wrote Kidd a letter that purposely

did not threaten his arrest, as he didn't want to scare Kidd away.

Joseph Emmot, a New York lawyer whose specialty was admiralty

cases, advised Bellomont that Kidd had treasure aboard and had left

treasure behind in the Caribbean. Emmot also delivered two passes

granted by the French that Kidd had taken from the Moorish ships he

captured. These documents were evidence that the act of capturing

those ships, at least, was not piracy. Had these passes made it to Kidd's

trial, he might have been acquitted. But somehow Bellomont or

another backer of the voyage allowed the passes to disappear.12

While he was conspiring to have Kidd convicted, Bellomont sent

two men to get a statement from the pirate. They met with Kidd off

Block Island. Afterward Kidd seemed confident he could still trust

Bellomont. He set sail for a tiny island off the coast of eastern Long

Island called Gardiner's Island. He unloaded three or four small boats of

booty and then sent for John Gardiner, in whose care Kidd placed a

chest for Bellomont.

Gardiner's area of eastern Long Island was one of the two favorite

pirate places to anchor in summer; the other was across the mouth of

Long Island Sound, on the islands between Cape Cod and Martha's

Vineyard. Both were locales where ships, both pirate and merchant,

could rendezvous to trade and exchange cargo and supplies. It was an

illegal floating market at times. The mouth of Buzzards Bay was also

passed by ships cruising between New York and Boston, but docking a

ship there would mean drawing the attention of the navy.

As Kidd sailed around the eastern end of Long Island, he dropped

treasure in various places. One stash was delivered to an old pirate by

the name of Thomas Paine, who lived on Canonicut Island off Rhode

Island. When the governor of Rhode Island got wind of the story, he

searched Paine's house, but the gold was not there. It may have already

been moved back to Gardiner's Island, but proof against the Gardiner

family was not to be found.

Kidd's plan was to hedge his bets. If he hid enough treasure before

meeting the authorities, it would be something to use in striking a bargain.

As Kidd's real history grew into legend, people would tell tales of

him dropping his treasure as far north as Nova Scotia and as far east as

the South China Sea. But it's more likely that what he did not leave in

the Caribbean he hid around Long Island Sound.

Kidd was also attempting to deftly play the cards he was dealt. He

knew after meeting with Emmot that the situation was vastly different

since he had left New York. The British were cracking down on piracy,

the ships returning to New York were being seized, and the ships' captains

and crews were being hunted and arrested. Kidd had put his partners

Bellomont and Livingston in a very complicated position.

Bellomont, in fact, had much to gain either as Kidd's friend or as the

arresting officer of the court. Both scenarios allowed him to be

rewarded either financially or in reputation.

Not having all the treasure available for confiscation was one of the

strategies Kidd employed; the temptation to have more would serve as

an inducement for Kidd's apprehensive partner. Kidd's second play was

delivering to Lord Bellomont's wife an enameled box with four jewels;

he hoped it might tip the scale and make Bellomont back his partner.

But Bellomont did the math. Allowing that Kidd's charges might be

false and pardoning him—and thereby keeping his legitimate share—

could equal a thousand pounds. But seizing Kidd and claiming his legitimate

share as arresting governor gave him thirteen thousand pounds.

Bellomont's advisers warned him not to go against the British East

India company and the powers the company represented. Thus

Bellomont decided against his onetime partner; Kidd was to be

arrested. The other partner, Robert Livingston, was dismayed by

Bellomont's decision. He stood to gain all if Kidd was pardoned and

nothing if Kidd was arrested. In fact, Livingston had posted a bond

guaranteeing Kidd's behavior. Bellomont alleged that Livingston threatened

him, saying that Livingston would take reimbursement from

Kidd's treasure if Bellomont didn't return the bond. Did Bellomont

make up this accusation to distance himself from the crime? Or as

Bellomont might have feared, were Kidd and Livingston, brother Scots,

involved in a conspiracy against him?

Both Bellomont and Livingston had to bear the weight of public

opinion. In America the arrest was an exciting event; in England it was

a political event as well. The Tory party, closely tied to the British East

India Company, wanted Kidd convicted. The Whigs, several of whom

were backers of Kidd's voyage, were in a corner. In the end, all but Kidd

got their way. At the trial the book listing the owners of Kidd's ship, his

partners, and his instructions was missing. So were the vital passes

obtained from the Moorish ships, which might have acquitted him.

(The passes were discovered two hundred years later in a London

records office.) The letter from Bellomont to Kidd was also missing.

There were only two eyewitnesses against Kidd: Robert Bradinham

and Joseph Palmer. Both were military deserters who turned pirate.

Today an American lawyer might point out that such criminals may not

be credible witnesses, as they are not men of reputation, and they were

very obviously testifying against Kidd for their own reprieve. Their pardons

came days after Kidd's conviction.

It appears that a deal had been struck, one that convenienced all

except William Kidd. Kidd was the scapegoat and, as such, was hanged.

Livingston was cleared of all charges. Bellomont was enriched for his

role in arresting Kidd. The other Whig partners were unsullied by what

might have been a scandal, although they lost their stake in the ship and

any proceeds they might have expected. For England and the ruling

class, the bottom line was that Tory shipping was safe from Whig

upstarts.

Livingston made out better than he thought. He received his bond

back, although remarkably he was forced to pay off fellow partner

Robert Blackham for his stake in the venture. The members of Captain

Kidd's crew were mostly pardoned, and some died in jail. Kidd's wife,

Sarah Bradley Cox Oort Kidd, was jailed and her house seized on

Bellomont's order. Oort was known to have some of Kidd's loot, but it

was never found. She was eventually released and married a fourth time.

Those who had received the treasure were targeted by Bellomont,

who stood to gain a share of the recovered valuables. The greatest

amount of treasure was on Gardiner's part of Long Island. Threatened

with an enemy landing on his tiny kingdom, John Gardiner presented

Bellomont with bags of gold and silver. Thus, Kidd was killed, and all

those associated with him prospered.

Chapter 4

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET

The lifeless body of Captain William Kidd would join the bodies of

other captured and convicted pirates left to greet those who sailed

into London's port. The hanging criminals served as a warning for

prospective sea rovers that crime did not pay. The real message, however,

was that crime did pay, and it rewarded those who could pay others to

do their bidding.

The feudal system that gave birth to the Knights Templar gave rise

to noble ideals such as liberty, equality, and fraternity. Among those in

power, however, corruption ruled. Freemasonry developed from the

noble ideals of the Knights Templar, and the lodge system was created—

underground—to protect its members. Some lodges became more celebrated

than others, and membership in the more prestigious lodges

offered greater rewards. While Livingston would survive into days of

public Freemasonry, Bellomont would not. Almost twenty years passed

after Kidd's body hung over the Thames before Freemasonry went public.

From London to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the lodge system

separated those who pulled the strings from those who were left

hanging. Through the right connections family dynasties could survive

and build on fortunes made from nefarious crimes. Profits from piracy

became investments in more acceptable enterprises, and fortunes made

in seventeenth-century crime were the bedrock for wealth in the

twenty-first century.

THE GARDINER DYNASTY

Among those who benefited from the criminal activities of the

"expendable" was the Gardiner family. It is hard not to suspect the

Gardiners of running a sort of pirate bank on their tiny kingdom. They

owned Gardiner's Island itself and larger tracts of land stretching from

East Hampton to Smithtown on Long Island.

The progenitor of the family was an Englishman, Lion Gardiner,

who was born in 1599. He came to America in 1635 as a soldier, a

builder of fortifications, a trader, and a fighter against the Indians.

Gardiner's son David was the first white child born in what would

become the state of Connecticut. In what is now known as the Pequot

War, Gardiner was instrumental in enlisting opposing tribes to join a

small English force that sought to exterminate the Pequots. Gardiner's

principal ally was Wyandanch, a sachem from Long Island. Gardiner

agreed to trade with Wyandanch's group if he would "kill all the

Pequots" that came to him and "send . . . their heads." 1 From his new

friends the Montaukett tribe, Gardiner bought the self-named

Gardiner's Island, a 3,500-acre island kingdom (part of modern-day

East Hampton), for cloth, a gun, some gunpowder, and a dog. He added

to his Long Island holdings by rescuing Wyandanch's daughter from an

enemy tribe; for this feat he was given the land that would become

Smithtown, bringing his holdings to a hundred thousand acres.

Rights to Gardiner's kingdom were confirmed by King Charles I.

In the seventeenth century and later, Gardiner's eastern holdings provided

a great haven for pirates and smugglers, and evidence appears to

indicate that the early Gardiner heirs were more than simply willing

accomplices.

In 1672 a report indicated that a Massachusetts pirate named Joseph

Bradish set sail for Gardiner's Island with his loot. In 1692 the governor

of Connecticut reported that pirates were anchored off East Hampton

and engaging in trade. In another report, a prominent Connecticut citizen

was accused of receiving stolen property and selling it in Boston,

and it was noted that the shore of eastern Long Island was the haunt of

pirates and smugglers. Still another report stated that a pirate ship called

the Sparrow had taken on eighteen passengers under an agreement

made in the Caribbean. The master, Richard Narramore, then carried

the passengers to Gardiner's Island, where they disembarked, chests and

all. As the story spread, the unnamed men, who were suspected to be

pirates, were brought before a magistrate. Christopher Goffe was one of

the few accused men who appeared. He confessed that, as suspected, he

was a pirate, but he was able to obtain a pardon.2

The Gardiner family has maintained its wealth throughout the centuries

by the right connections to England prior to the War of

Independence and by more secret connections that lasted to the middle

of the nineteenth century. While many Whig families were able to

avoid losing their lands after the American Revolution, the Gardiners,

like their neighbors and often partners who had been Tories, walked a

thin line and were not subject to the postwar land grab. Many of these

families showed their reluctance to break from mother England, and

some of their actions bordered on treason.

The War of 1812 became a second war of independence, as Britain

had never ceased treating America as a colony. Her navy regularly

impressed American seamen. Her army armed and incited native border

tribes against her lost colony. Many families had prospered through

their relationships with British firms, and such pro-British Whig families

found themselves at odds with President Jefferson. A handful of

New England merchant families, who had survived the Revolution and

even prospered, proposed that New England leave the Union. Their

loyalty was not to their country but to their mercantile interests, which

were often shared with British counterparts.

In the decades before the Civil War, America was again threatened

with secession, this time from several southern states. One great secret of

American history is that the same New England merchant families who

had tried to leave the Union earlier were joined by New York merchant

families in aiding the breakup of the Union. Despite this treasonous activity,

few of the powerful families were held accountable. The Gardiner

family was one such family that straddled the two sides of the Civil War.

The Gardiner family, while always flying under the radar of public

comment, was a power base in New York and part of the Cotton Whigs.

The Whig party was divided on many issues, and the so-called Cotton

Whigs allied themselves with the powerful families of Virginia and the

Carolinas who by the nature of their business, cotton, remained close to

English banks and merchants. When Gardiner interests merged with the

interests of the planting families of Virginia and South Carolina, the

Gardiner family itself merged with the Tyler family of Virginia.

While American politics has evolved over the centuries, in the

nineteenth century it was not unusual for a president to be at odds with

his vice president. As the result of compromise within the Whig party,

William Henry Harrison and John Tyler ended up on the same ticket.

Harrison was regarded as a politician in the mold of loyal Virginia leaders

such as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and so was against the

divisive politics of South Carolina, which was first to threaten leaving

the Union. Tyler was part of the secessionist movement in Virginia that

was based at the College ofWilliam and Mary. Although he was a member

of the Whig party, he had no inclination to support Whig policy. He

agreed with admitting Texas as a slave state, and he was against abolition.

Harrison and Tyler still managed to take the White House, using

the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"; this motto referred to one of

Harrison's triumphs over the Indians.

Harrison assumed the presidency on March 4, 1841, and one

month later he died. His death was attributed first to intestinal illness

and later to pneumonia, though no autopsy was performed. Described

as robust, the war hero and sturdy farmer was somehow brought down

by a head cold. After his long inaugural speech, which was given in the

rain, the apparently healthy president became ill; many believe that his

cold turned into pneumonia.

InVictorian times it was not uncommon for doctors to misdiagnose

arsenic poisoning as "gastric poisoning," as the symptoms of arsenic

poisoning usually started with gastrointestinal disorders including

abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. But both of the president's

physicians were suspected of pro-British sentiment. Dr. Frederick May

was trained by the Freemason Dr. John Warren. May's son was an outspoken

Tory and close friends with Benedict Arnold. The other physician,

Dr. William Eustis, was also trained by Warren. He had been fired

by President Madison because of his actions in the War of 1812. Dr.

Eustis helped plan the defense of Detroit with General William Hull.

On the way to Detroit, Hull was ambushed. His supplies gone and

morale low, he surrendered Detroit as soon as he reached it. Madison

believed the British had been tipped off. When the War Department

conceived a plan to attack England's supply base in Nova Scotia, Eustis

would not allow it to happen. With Harrison dead, the pro-secessionist

Tyler was elevated to the presidency in 1841; John Tyler was the first

president of the United States to get to his post without election.3

Harrison was the first president to die in office. His suspicious death

started what was later called the "Twenty-year Curse" or the "Zero

Curse," which postulated that every president elected in a year ending

with a zero would die in office. The "curse" lasted 160 years before it

was broken by Ronald Reagan. Reagan, however, barely missed being

assassinated by the mentally disturbed son of a friend of the vice president.

Some said the curse was put on Harrison by Tecumseh, the Indian

warrior whom the president had defeated. But it is more likely that the

death was engineered.

Caleb Cushing, whose political leanings were influenced by profit

potential, was no stranger to political manipulation and subtle bribery.

He was a thirty-third-degree Mason, the highest level to which a

Mason could rise, and an opium smuggler. His fortunes were tied to the

pro-British mercantile smugglers, slave traders, and drug traffickers.

Cushing wanted to hold a government office.

Tyler claimed he was not a party man and had accepted his nomination

reluctantly. But after Harrison's death, Tyler immediately repudiated

most of the Whig platform that had brought Harrison to the White

House. As a result, the new president was not popular; in fact, he was

derided as "his accidency."

Tyler's first order of business was pushing for Caleb Cushing to

become Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate rejected his nomination

three times, with the third ballot securing only three votes for Cushing.

Tyler then proposed sending Cushing to China. This move was greeted

heartily, possibly because it was the farthest place from the seat of government

that the devious politico could be sent.

Harrison's death was the first of three during Tyler's stay in

Washington. The second death was that of Tyler's wife, Laetitia. Tyler

did not spend too much time grieving; instead he opted to unite his

Virginia plantation family with a northern merchant family. Julia

Gardiner, the spoiled daughter of the wealthy and prominent David

Gardiner, was Tyler's target.

After returning from a grand tour of Europe, Julia Gardiner became

part of the Washington social whirl, dating several congressmen, including

the future president James Buchanan, two Supreme Court Justices,

and a naval officer. She met President Tyler at a White House party, and

he invited her to return. Although she was thirty years younger than the

president, their first date ended with him chasing her around the White

House. He wasted no time in proposing to Gardiner, but her mother

stood in the way of the marriage. She was concerned that the president

was not a good enough catch for a Gardiner. The Virginia farmer and

plantation owner simply had no money when compared with the

Gardiner fortune.4

Tyler was not one to give up. The deaths of "Old Tippecanoe" and

Tyler's wife had paved the way down his new path, and a third death

would allow Tyler to get what he wanted.

The stage was set aboard the USS Princeton, where the navy

wanted to display a new cannon, which was dubbed the Peacemaker

because of its size. Several important personages were aboard and the

gun was fired numerous times. David Gardiner, a friend of Tyler's and

the New York State senator at the time, brought his attractive daughter,

Julia, to witness the scene. She quickly became bored and invited

the enamored president belowdecks for a glass of champagne. The

overheated gun was to be fired one more time as a salute to George

Washington as it passed his Mount Vernon home, but it instead

exploded and killed Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the

Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, and Julia's father, Senator David Gardiner.5

The fifty-four-year-old president and the twenty-four-year-old

Julia Gardiner became secretly engaged shortly after her father's death.

They later married privately. The huge difference in age presented more

fodder for public opinion and the media, but Julia Gardiner Tyler won

the hearts of the public even as her husband was the butt of their jokes.6

During Gardiner's "reign" as First Lady, as she called it, she revived

the formality of White House receptions, which had gone out of style.

She welcomed guests with plumes in her hair and surrounded by

twelve maids of honor dressed in white. She also instituted the playing

of "Hail to the Chief." Gardiner bore several children with the president:

David Gardiner Tyler, John Alexander Tyler, Julia Gardiner Tyler,

Lachlan Tyler, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Robert Tyler, and Pearl Tyler.

As president, Tyler's major accomplishment was repaying the favors

of his chief promoter, Caleb Cushing, among the Cotton Whigs. He

managed to make Cushing an ambassador of sorts, sending him to

China to reap the rewards of the British Opium War. The signing of a

treaty with China kept the American opium traders in business—a

trade that benefited a handful of New England and New York families.

Tyler was booted out of his own Whig party and had all but one

member of his cabinet resign. The remaining cabinet member was

Daniel Webster, who was deeply in debt to Caleb Cushing and at his

beck and call. Tyler was even impeached for not signing a tariff bill,

although the impeachment was eventually defeated. His lack of favor in

Washington went so deep that he didn't attend the succeeding president's

inauguration. Tyler left American politics to join the Confederate

government, making Tyler the first American president to bear arms

against the federal government. After his death in 1862, Julia returned

to New York and worked to promote the Confederate cause.

The Gardiners survived prosecution for assisting pirates, had survived

pro-British sympathies after the Revolution, and survived prorebel

sentiment during the Civil War. Today the sixteenth lord of the

manor still defends his preserve from more modern dangers, such as

taxes and disrepair. Gardiner's Island is the oldest family-owned estate

of its kind in America. The Gardiner estate is now in the hands of

eighty-eight-year-old Robert David Lion Gardiner, who divides his

time between estates in Palm Beach and East Hampton. With the

exception of having to comply with taxation, he is the lord of his

manor, just as a lord from another century. He regularly invites guests

to take part in a hunt to reduce the island's deer population.

For the first time in the Gardiner family history there is no direct

heir. Robert Gardiner's niece, Alexandra Creel, married into another of

America's first families, the Goelets, and will inherit the island. The

Goelets have been in America since 1676, and they built their fortune

in real estate, along with the Philipse and Roosevelt families. One of the

Goelets founded Chemical Bank with a grandfather of Theodore

Roosevelt. The Goelets and the Gardiners have been rivals for years, and

the last lord of the Gardiner manor has recently been quoted as saying

he is not happy to see his ancestral lands end up in Goelets province.

The bitter Gardiner-Goelet feud was covered extensively in Steven

Gains's Philistines at the Hedgerow, and some very colorful anti-Goelet

quotes are on peconic.net, the local newspaper covering the longstanding

feud.

While both families maintain a high degree of secrecy, Robert

Gardiner recently opened up his life and his struggle to the prying eyes

of the media. Historians and reporters alike were treated to a rare

glimpse of the island, visiting it aboard a Gardiner estate boat, the

Captain Kidd III.

THE LIVINGSTON DYNASTY

Robert Livingston, another of Captain Kidd's partners, was for the most

part unscathed by Kidd's arrest. The Livingston family would go on to

play a major role in the politics of New York and the nation, and its support

base was Freemasonry, which allowed members to also operate

from behind the scenes. Several early scandals connected them to

piracy, theft, and smuggling, but their power, which was always just

below the surface, allowed them to grow and prosper to modern times.

Just as Robert Livingston was breathing a sigh of relief that Kidd

was in the noose, Livingston's daughter Margaret married a Scotsman,

her cousin Samuel Vetch. The new son-in-law brought more notoriety

to the family, which apparently was not a concern for the Livingston

clan as long as the notoriety was matched by enterprise. The Vetch family

and the Livingston family had already been connected by marriage

in Scotland. Reverend John Livingston brought Samuel Vetch's father

into the Presbyterian Church. William Livingston, the older brother of

Robert, had also married a Vetch. Samuel Vetch was despised by many

in Scotland, and it is unlikely that the Livingstons and anyone else in

Scotland were unaware of his criminal activities.7

In Scotland a project had been created to found a new colony in

America. The Scotland Company Trading to Africa and the Indies was

formed in June 1695 with the goal of bringing to Scotland what the

British East India Company brought to England. The subscription

books, which allowed anyone with money to buy stock in the company,

were rapidly filled with the names of merchants, shipowners, and

wealthy individuals from physicians to widows. The plan was to buy

ships and bring Scottish settlers to their own colony, which would be

in Darien, on the coast of Panama. Little attention was given to the fact

that the land was claimed by Spain, and the company was not really in

the favor of England.

The project was plagued with disaster after disaster. Ships packed

with soldiers and colonists were provisioned poorly and would see forty

dead before reaching the New World. When the colonists reached

Panama they were nearly starving, as their worm-ridden food could

barely be tolerated. More were sick than healthy, and few had the ability,

the desire, or the knowledge to build a settlement. One ship hit a

rock in harbor, sank, and took with it half its crew. Crew members on

other ships attempted mutiny and many simply deserted. By the end of

the first rainy season, there were no plantations planted, no fortifications

erected, no trade established, and a government of five quarreling men.8

There were, however, two hundred graves in New Edinburgh.

After ten months the colonists were ready to give up their settle

ment. Over one third had died. Two ships left the colony to sail to New

York City in order to sell goods and buy provisions. Samuel Vetch was

on one of the ships. In the East River he tried to seize another ship, an

act of piracy that he would explain was his right by charter. Two friends

of Robert Livingston came to Vetch's aid. Stephen Delancey and

Thomas Wenham were Livingston associates who had built fortunes

financing the pirates of Madagascar. Livingston had to maintain a low

profile, however, as he was already under suspicion from his partnership

with Kidd.

Vetch, like his cousin Robert Livingston, was not likely to pass up

a lucrative opportunity. He decided to keep the shipload of goods that

was meant to buy provisions for the starving colonists in Darien.

Livingston helped him sell the stolen goods.

Of course, Vetch could not return to Darien or to Scotland; the

news of the fiasco would cause riots in Edinburgh. Hardly a family

below the Highland line would not have the loss of a family member

or friend to haunt them as a result of the ill-conceived expedition.

A second voyage saw three hundred of 1,300 dead before reaching

the devastated colony. Few made it back to Scotland. Because Vetch

would likely be hanged on the sands of Leith along with several other

criminals related to Darien, he decided to stay in New York. He married

Livingston's daughter, and the magnanimous Livingston gave the

young couple as a wedding present a house that was once the property

of Captain Kidd.

Samuel Vetch and John Livingston went into the smuggling business

together. They bought a ship and named it Mary, then sailed to Canada

to import French brandies and wines. On their second trip they were

smuggling cargo onto eastern Long Island, not far from Gardiner's island

kingdom, when they encountered problems. This early version of the

gang that couldn't shoot straight" left their ship beached without

anchoring it and then took off, presumably to find assistance. The ship was

swept away by the tide to Montauk, where it was seized—complete with

cargo, logs, and all the evidence required to bring charges against the pair.

No one was hanged; all were let off simply with the loss of a ship

and its cargo. The incident did, however, bring unwanted attention to

Robert Livingston, who was still hoping the Kidd affair would blow

over. Livingston called in his markers, and Edward Hyde, Lord

Cornbury, who took over for Governor Bellomont, had the charges

against the younger Livingston and Vetch dropped. He also repealed the

Bill of Confiscation, enabling Livingston and Vetch to keep their cargo.

Not coincidentally, Cornbury's six-year rule was highlighted by accusations

of bribery, mismanagement, and even attending parties dressed

in women's clothing.9

Samuel Vetch learned from his cousin and soon become a wealthy

merchant. Unlike his new in-laws, however, his luck did not last.

Fortune caught up with him and he died in debtor's prison in London.

Robert Livingston would do much better.

Livingston's life took an odd turn when he traveled to London to

plead the case of the Iroquois tribes in New York. On the way his ship

was accosted by French privateers, who had no idea they held at their

mercy the backer of the world's most infamous pirate. Their advantage

was short-lived, as the sudden appearance of a British man-of-war

turned the tables.

The immense amount of land held by the Livingston family was of

little value if it could not provide an income. In 1710 the opportunity

to change the idle lands to profitable lands came with a new governor.

While Robert Hunter was reputed to be honest, he may not have been

too smart. He had been warned on both sides of the Atlantic about

dealing with Robert Livingston. It mattered little to Hunter, whose task

was to provide a place to settle German refugees. After the first winter,

the starving palatines were in open rebellion against their landlord. The

English government refused them permission to leave, and Robert

Livingston admonished his wife, Alida, for wishing to give them bread.

A second freezing winter found the settlers fleeing across the Hudson

in the hope of escaping their feudal lord.

The eighteenth century was marked by wars between the British

and the French and ultimately between the colonists and the British.

For the Livingstons the century was marked by uprisings by their ten

ant families. They used the French and Indian Wars to increase their

wealth after being appointed to the lucrative position of provisioning

the British troops. When the American Revolution came, the family

straddled the fence for as long as possible. Then some members went

home to Scotland and others fortuitously gambled on the side of the

Revolutionaries.

One of the great-grandsons of Robert Livingston was Robert R.

Livingston. He played a pivotal role in politics and in the Freemasons,

of which he was the grand master for the New York branch. On April

30, 1789, he swore in the country's first president, George Washington.

Livingston had hoped for an appointment to Washington's new government

but none was forthcoming; it was possible Washington recognized

the Livingston clan as playing both sides. Several Livingstons had

left New York for the West Indies. Alida Livingston Gardiner, who was

married to Valentine Gardiner, had left for England.10 Robert R.

Livingston kept his own power base behind the scenes. The Livingstons'

power grew by dynastic marriages, as one Livingston married John Jay,

another married an Astor, and another wed a Roosevelt. But Masonic

ties were at least as important.

New York State's most influential and powerful lodge was the

Holland No. 8. Jacob Astor was aware of the power wielded by the

Masonic lodges in both his home in Germany and in London. When

he reached New York City, he used his marriage to a member of the

Brevoort family to gain entrance to the Holland No. 8 Lodge. There he

made connections with New York's governor, George Clinton, his

nephew and later mayor of New York City, De Witt Clinton, land baron

Stephen Van Rensselaer, and the Livingston family.11 De Witt Clinton,

in particular, was an ardent Mason, and among the offices he held were

lodge grand master, high priest of the Grand Chapter, a grand master of

the Great Encampment of New York, and grand master of the Knights

Templar of the United States. Clinton's power base, however, would

remain the Holland No. 8 Lodge.

When Robert Livingston was grand master of the Holland No. 8

Lodge he founded ten other lodges; still the Holland lodge remained

the most powerful. The old guard of New York was firmly in control as

the Masonic order and the Holland lodge grew in power. Many would

advance their careers through Masonic connections, including Charles

King, former president of Columbia University; Cadwallader Colden,

grandson of the provincial governor; and John Pintard, the secretary of

the Mutual Insurance Company. Masonry rewarded the Livingston

family well, and the family did not turn away from the craft even during

its unpopular years. Today the Livingston Masonic Library is maintained

on West Twenty-third Street in New York City.

New York was a power center for the Livingston clan, but its influence

was not limited to that state. Robert R. Livingston was disappointed

because he did not receive an appointment in Washington's

administration, but during Thomas Jefferson's administration he did join

James Monroe on a mission to France. They went to negotiate the purchase

of New Orleans, and they were reportedly surprised when

Talleyrand, Napoleon's minister, asked, "What will you give for the

whole?"—meaning the 825,000 square miles offered for sale.12 Without

permission and without the time to contact Washington, the two men

offered fifteen million dollars. Livingston later assumed full credit for

the purchase, altering his journal entries to say he was given the offer

three days earlier, before Monroe reached France. The government

issued a vigorous denial and published Livingston's real itinerary, and

the disgrace cost him whatever credit might have been due.

The area that was open thanks to the Louisiana Purchase was an

early equivalent of the Wild West. New Orleans was the gateway. Very

close to the city was a pirate kingdom second only to the one in

Madagascar a hundred years before. The new Libertalia was called

Barataria, and Jean Lafitte controlled the territory like a king. From

India to the Caribbean, Lafitte's career stood out among pirates. Since

his navy was so large it could not sail into any port, his kingdom, with

protective estuaries, became his home base. At Barataria the pirate created

a marketplace where pirates, smugglers, and legitimate traders

could buy and sell silks, wines, spices, furniture, and slaves, all of which

had been taken at sea. The pirate market at Barataria became so large it

threatened the merchants of New Orleans.

Weeks after the Louisiana Purchase was made official a new governor

William Claiborne, was appointed. He rode in with a military

escort to assume his office. The city turned out for the occasion: two

thousand Americans, French, Spaniards, Italians, blacks from Haiti and

Jamaica, Orientals in silks, Hindus in saris—and the brothers Lafitte.13

In a short time the newly appointed governor of the area was

goaded into offering a bounty for Lafitte and his brother, Pierre. Lafitte

posted his own bounty for Governor Claiborne. When Pierre Lafitte

was captured, District Attorney John R. Grymes quit his job. Instead of

prosecuting Lafitte he would became the pirate's defense co-counsel.

Robert Livingston's brother Edward, an active Mason and the mayor of

New York City, left New York to join the defense team. The two

defenders were allegedly offered twenty thousand dollars.

Edward Livingston had several reasons for leaving New York, all of

which had something to do with money, specifically his lack of it.

Livingston's land speculations and other ventures had left him in debt.

His position as mayor was not as lucrative for him as it was for past

mayors. New Orleans would be the start of a new life. He quickly married

a nineteen-year-old French widow, Louise D'Avezac de Castera

Moreau de Lassy, whose family was the owner of plantations in Haiti

and had been driven out by the slave insurrection. As grand master of

New York's grand lodge, Robert Livingston had influence that spread

far beyond the state borders. Edward Livingston became grand master

of the Louisiana lodge upon arrival.

Jean Lafitte was no ordinary pirate. Said to be a French nobleman

whose parents lost their lives under the blade of the guillotine during

the Reign of Terror,14 the swashbuckler was also an educated man who

could speak four languages. Called "the gentleman pirate," Lafitte was

described as tall, black-haired, and sporting a black mustache. He left

France aboard a privateer ship that he would later take from its captain,

and he began indiscriminately to raid ships of all nations. Lafitte started

in the Seychelles, where he bought a boatload of slaves for trade. On

the way to sell them in India he was chased by a British frigate. In desperate

need of supplies, he captured other British ships, including one

of the East India Company's. The privateer soon had a fleet.

Lafitte's reputation grew to gigantic proportions after he used one

of his ships and forty of his men to battle a very large, forty-gun British

ship manned by four hundred sailors. Lafitte's forty men, with daggers

in mouths and bandanna-clad heads, boarded the ship in a frenzy. Lafitte

commandeered a cannon and aimed at the men who remained on

deck, threatening them with certain death. They all surrendered.

From the Indian Ocean, Lafitte and his navy sailed to the Spanish

port of Cartegena, where he was given a commission. The city had just

rebelled and authorized him to attack Spanish shipping. At one point

Lafitte's navy had fifty ships and one thousand pirate sailors. From there

he built his kingdom in Barataria. Derived from the Spanish word

barato, the name refers to the part of the winnings a gambler gives to

the poor for luck. Lafitte's pirate city had a cafe, a bordello, a gambling

house, and warehouses. He would widen waterways to facilitate ships,

dig canals, and even build barges that would sail to the port of New

Orleans to sell their merchandise.

Lafitte survived the prosecutions of the governor and went on to

join the Americans in the Battle of New Orleans in 1812. Besides having

the legal protection of lawyer and Mason Edward Livingston,

another noted Mason would come to the pirate's aid. Andrew Jackson

rewarded Lafitte's crew with citizenship, and Lafitte tried to settle

down. When his crew could not give up their old ways, Lafitte sailed to

Mexico and was not heard from again.

The Livingstons, of course, would be heard from again. Today the

Livingston dynasty is remembered in the names of locations in New

York, New Jersey, and Louisiana. And the family is still active in politics.

During the Clinton administration, for instance, Robert L.

Livingston, the sixty-third man named Robert in the Livingston family

tree, was a candidate for the job of Speaker of the House. He is part

of the tenth generation, descended from the first lord of the manor in

New York. Other members of the Livingston clan still own vast tracts

of land in New York. Modern-day relations of the Livingstons include

the Bush family and Thomas Kean, the former governor of New Jersey,

who makes his home in Livingston township, New Jersey.

THE MORRIS FAMILY

The Livingstons were not the only landed family to have made their

start in piracy. The progenitor of the Morris family also made his fortune

capturing ships and used the proceeds to obtain vast tracts of land.

Locale names still exist on the maps of New York and New Jersey that

recall the extent of the Morrises' property.

Lewis Morris was a pirate who had a king's commission that

allowed him to prey on shipping in the colonies and split his prizes with

the crown. His nephew, also named Lewis Morris, was involved in the

triangle trade. Between running sugar plantations in Barbados and using

the labor of imported slaves to create end products like rum, Morris's

lucrative trade gave him an estate back in the colonies. The younger

Morris would later be a signer of the Constitution.15

The younger Lewis Morris was also part of an unusual rivalry that

developed into an important American historical landmark. In the early

1730s Morris served as the chief justice of the three-man Supreme

Court in New York. A fellow wealthy merchant named Rip van Dam

had become governor and then retired his post. The new governor,

Colonel William Cosby, was as corrupt as they come. He demanded

that van Dam return his salary as governor and give it to Cosby. The

case made it to Morris's court, where he cast the one vote in three

denying Cosby his claim.

Cosby, in control of the state publication, the New York Gazette,

relentlessly went after both van Dam and Morris. Friends of the pair

backed a rival newspaper and hired John Peter Zenger as editor to retaliate

in print. Cosby didn't like playing the role of editorial victim and

threw Zenger in jail. After a lengthy and much publicized trial, Zenger's

acquittal started the process that later developed into the freedom of the

press. Coincidentally, one of the other two men on the Morris court

was merchant and financier Frederick Philipse.

THE PHILIPSE DYNASTY

The Philipse family was one of New York's landed aristocracy. Frederick

Philipse was also a pioneer in another way; he built the family fortune

supplying pirates with goods and money. He had already been in the

business before Fletcher assumed the governor's position, but under

Fletcher's rule New York grew as a pirate haven and Philipse profited.

And many knew about Philipse's business. A Salem minister named

Reverend John Higginson once wrote in a letter to his son, "Frederick

Philipse of New York, it is reported, has a pirate trade to Madagascar for

near twenty years." 16

Philipse was well acquainted with Kidd and hired Samuel Burgess,

who had sailed with Kidd as a privateer. Burgess was recruited out of

retirement to sail to Madagascar with goods for the pirates. Clothing,

liquor, naval supplies, and ammunition were the imports of choice on

Saint Mary's. These goods were in turn exchanged for slaves, one of

Madagascar's only exports.

Another employee of Philipse was the pirate Adam Baldridge, who

was for a while one of the pirate kings of Saint Mary's. While his title

did not entitle Baldridge to rule in a monarchal way, it did make him

the number one fence for items stolen by pirates—a very lucrative position.

Baldridge bought goods at attractive prices and put them aboard

ships to Frederick Philipse. He would also serve as a travel agent, assisting

retiring pirates in making their return passage to England or the

North American colonies.

With the pirate king Baldridge on Saint Mary's and Burgess sailing

back and forth to New York, the aristocratic Philipse had his own trading

empire. The pirate Thomas Tew was also in his employ, and Philipse

did little to hide his role in piracy. One of his ships that sailed the Indian

Ocean for slaves and contraband and to engage in piracy was named the

Frederick.17

But life would not always stay simple for Philipse. After Kidd's

arrest, Bellomont was on the prowl for pirates, and he was not above

turning on acquaintances like Philipse. When Bellomont became aware

that two hundred pirates were being given passage to New York from

Madagascar on a Frederick Philipse—owned ship,18 he decided money

was thicker than friendship. The fee charged to each ex-pirate was an

expensive fifty pounds, but presumably that was the tip of the iceberg

of their personal wealth; the men were most likely loaded with booty

intended to provide for them in their retirement years. Luckily for both

Philipse and his cargo, Bellomont would not survive long enough to

intercept it.

Next Philipse's number one captain, Burgess, was captured at sea. It

was the second time for Burgess, who had previously survived arrest

being pardoned by Bellomont. But that was before the backlash against

piracy started by the British East India Company and the arrest of Kidd.

This time Burgess was brought to London, where he was condemned

to death. To his credit, Philipse sent to London his son Adolph, who

worked for three years to save Burgess from suffering the same fate as

Kidd. Burgess returned to sea, and later lived out his retirement years in

London as a consultant for the British East India Company.

Unlike the Livingstons and the Gardiners, the Philipse family's

power and wealth was divided after the Revolution. They had started in

the colonies as part of the landed aristocracy of the Hudson Valley,

which entitled them to the patroon system that granted lands to

favorites of the royalty back in England: Pelham Manor for Thomas

Pell, Philipsborough to the Philipses, Morrisania to Lewis Morris,

Cortlandt Manor to the Van Cortlandts.The families in control of these

extremely large tracts leased farmland to tenant farmers, who were

often kept in poverty and indebted to their land.

In 1766 the Philipse tenant William Prendergast started mob

actions along the Hudson that would affect both the Livingston clan

and the other patroon families' holdings. At his trial Prendergast said

that he was charged more for his small farm than were all the other

Philipse tenants. It didn't matter. He was found guilty of treason and

ordered hanged, drawn, and quartered in the feudal fashion of the lords

of the Hudson manors. When no one would come forward to perform

the execution, Prendergast received a stay and finally a pardon from

King George III.

King George disappointed the Philipse family a second time by losing

the War of Independence. The Philipses were part of a New York

contingent that declared their loyalty to the king and signed the

Declaration of Dependence. Frederick Philipse III was arrested by

Washington's troops and so he fled his home. Washington confiscated

the lands. The Morris family somehow ended up with one third of the

original grant. Tenant farmers were allowed to buy the farms on the

other two thirds after the Revolution.

Some of the Philipse heirs fared better than Frederick. Like the

Livingstons, some fled to England after the war, while others managed

to avoid being branded as Tories and stayed in the colonies. Also like the

Livingstons, at least one Philipse heir would marry into the Roosevelt

family. Another Philipse heir, Jacobus Goelet, started his own landed

dynasty that eventually united with the Gardiner family's.

Jacobus Goelet had been raised by Frederick Philipse, the lord of

the manor. Peter Goelet, the grandson of Jacobus, established himself in

business and in politics during the Revolution. Instead of being arrested

or deported, Peter Goelet used his close relationship with those in

power to remain in New York and prosper. Goelet's relationship with

the city controller, Benjamin Romaine, allowed the Goelet clan to

acquire real estate as favorably as had the Astors and other large-scale

investors like the Rhinelanders, Schermerhorns, and Lorillards.

Romaine was a failed schoolteacher who found his true calling as

an early member of the Tammany Society, which was founded as a fraternal

charity for Revolutionary War veterans in 1789 shortly after

Washington was inaugurated. Washington's Society of the Cincinnati

was for officers only and later for those with aristocratic family lines.

The Tammany Society was meant to be for men of all classes, although

it quickly emerged as a corrupt organization that helped only a handful

to loot government coffers. While the history of New York points

the finger at Boss Tweed and others who were the most corrupt, the

major beneficiaries, such as New York's first families, emerged with

larger fortunes, little criticism, and no criminal or civil penalty for their

roles.

Goelet's two sons married daughters of the Scottish merchant

Thomas Buchanan and furthered the family's rise. The younger Goelets

founded the Chemical Bank of New York at a time when there was an

antibanking sentiment in New York. It was nearly impossible to get a

charter for a bank, so several companies got a charter for a certain type

of business and then later amended the original charter. New York

Chemical Manufacturing Company was a small company formed to

produce dyes, paints, and drugs. One year after getting a charter for this

business it became a bank. Chemical Bank counted several generations

of Goelets on the board of directors.

The next Goelet generation would collect fortunes topping the

$100 million mark when their lands, including Union Square and Fifth

Avenue, appreciated. Families like the Goelets, Astors, and Rhinelanders

became "Old New York," as they owned so much property. And their

fortune grew with the population of the city.

When Newport, Rhode Island, began to attract the likes of the

Astors and the Vanderbilts, the Goelets too built their own mansion.

Goelet daughters married well, including the marriage of Hannah

Goelet to Thomas Russell Gerry. Goelet-Gerry descendants made ties

to the Livingstons, Harrimans, and Gallatins, as well as to British royalty.

Robert Goelet's yacht rivaled the yachts of the Astors, the

Vanderbilts, and the J. P. Morgans.

In 1870 J. Pierpont Morgan founded his own elite society, which

he called the Zodiac Club. Membership, like that in the private clubs to

which Morgan's father belonged, was limited to twelve Anglo-Christian

white men. Pierpont, J. P. Morgan's father, had claimed the family tree

included the pirate Morgan, and to drive home the point he called his

yacht the Corsair and flew the Jolly Roger. One hundred years after the

Zodiac Club was founded, Robert Goelet shared one of the coveted

chairs with eleven of the mid-Atlantic's most powerful businessmen.19

Despite the dilution caused by marriages, the wealth of the secretive

Goelet clan is far-reaching. They have been involved with Guaranty

Trust, Equitable Trust, the Illinois Central Railroad, and the Union

Pacific Railroad and institutions like the Metropolitan Opera and the

Museum of Natural History in New York. Through the Goelet

Corporation the family has interests in mining, oil, and gas.

The Knickerbocker Club once represented the highest level of

wealth in the city of New York. Because New York is a financial capital

of the world, entrance to this club is no longer simply for pillars of

New York society such as the Goelets and the Astors. In 1965 the ranks

of the Knickerbocker included the Aga Khan, Giovanni Agnelli, C.

Douglas Dillon, the du Ponts, the Goulds, the Huttons, the Ingersolls,

the Rockefellers, Alfred Sloan, and William Vanderbilt.20

PIRATES TO PATRICIANS

When the Knights Templar were disbanded in the fourteenth century,

they had at their core a handful of wealthy and noble families that had

always acted from behind the scenes. Although the illiterate Jacques de

Molay was burned at the stake, the elite core remained alive and well.

The majority of the rank-and-file Templars also survived—not in their

estates in France but in hiding. They were protected by the heirs of the

Norman families in France that held power in Scotland. And they were

protected by their sworn loyalty to one another. On land some ex-

Templars found work as mercenaries and others in the building trades.

They established a system of secret passwords and handshakes and a

lodge network that protected them from disclosure and from being

unemployed in a feudal world. They were sworn to feed and shelter

each other until work could be found.

As there had been a handful of core families behind the Templars,

there would be a handful of core families behind the ex-Templars. The

best known is the Sinclair family of Scotland. The network of lodges

created in the aftermath of the Templar downfall emerged as

Freemasonry and the Sinclair family was named its hereditary

guardians. Former Templars were employed on land by the Sinclair

family as construction workers and on the sea as sailors on the massive

Sinclair fleet. The same men who sailed under the skull-and-crossbones

flag as Templars continued to ply the seas.

The Reformation played a harmful role in dividing the Catholic

Stuarts of Scotland, England, and other elite families who had backed

the Templars in France. After a century of displacement and massive

warfare, Europe experienced a breakdown in morality. America was

populated alternately by whatever religious group was out of favor in

Europe. The French Protestants known as Huguenots, the Catholic and

Protestant Scots, and Englishmen would meet in America and in some

cases continue the wars started at home. Masonry, however, would serve

to breach the religious divide.

Masonic lodges provided a refuge for many and were places where

the ideas of tolerance and brotherhood prevailed amid an intolerant

world. For many the lodge system offered the possibility of breaking

out of the caste system. The pirate community went a step further:

Democracy in its pure form, brotherhood, mutual protection, and

equality existed among the pirates in a way that was rarely seen elsewhere.

The Kingdom of Libertalia might have served as a model society

if it had not been colored by pirate fiction and tainted by its

prosperity being linked to stolen goods. In Libertalia all men had a vote,

wealth was held individually, and all provided for the community. The

old and infirm were provided for by all. Crime against fellow pirates

was rare; not only was each man armed and dangerous, but also each

had signed articles that did not allow for such activity. The presence of

any man who caused disruption in the community was not tolerated in

law or in practice.

At the same time both the Masonic lodge and the pirate life were

gripped by the same evils that pervade the human condition. Pride and

greed guaranteed that some were at a higher level than others. While

equality might exist within an individual lodge, the lodges soon separated,

with the sea captains and shipowners belonging to one and the

dockworkers and ship's crews belonging to another.

As in the earliest days of the Knights Templar, some core families

were able to use and discard the rank and file at will. The pirates who

sailed under the same flag as the Templars needed to rely on the elite

few who could walk in both worlds. Like the Sinclairs in the Old

World, the Livingstons, Gardiners, and Philipses in the New World

could operate and profit through their connection to the underworld.

At the same time they could retreat to their manor houses while the

Kidds and the de Molays bore the blame.

Although the seed of a democratic society had formed aboard the

pirate ships and among the Templar fighting units, the remnants of a

feudal society remained. Ex-Templars and elite families continued their

symbiotic relationship in America in the years to come. Family wealth

would be built through secret societies. Profits would be made from

smuggling, the slave trade, and even the opium-trafficking business,

where the fleets of the China traders would still sail under the skull and

crossbones. As in the fourteenth century, the risks were often borne by

the many, while the gains were enjoyed only by the few who could

exist in both worlds.

PART TWO

The Lodge and the Revolution

FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AFTER the Templar

order was outlawed by the papal authority, it was still

alive in the form of numerous entities. Despite being

fractured by the religious squabbles of Europe, the order

still retained many of its goals, which included survival,

resistance to the overbearing religious powers of the day,

and a conspiratorial brotherhood of self-protection. By

the early eighteenth century there were several institutions

that could claim direct descent from the original

Knights Templar. Among these groups were military

orders that could exist in the open and secret societies

that survived underground. The secret society of underground

Masonry in Scotland was the most authentic

remnant Templar group, and it would later call itself the

Ancient Lodge.

The underground lodge system had been the refuge of the ex-

Templars; for decades it helped many survive and evade arrest. Through

the centuries, however, the lodge system became more open, and it gave

birth to the more public Freemasonry. The world and the Masonic lodges

would then become divided as a result of religion, politics, and economics.

No longer would every Mason be welcomed in every lodge.

Europe and Masonry would be torn apart by the revolt against the

papacy. The conflicts that had started in Europe found their way over

the Atlantic, as did the solutions. The revolt against the Church led to a

revolt against the aristocratic system that kept the majority in a peasant

caste. This economic revolt gave rise to a middle class in which anyone

could participate provided he could find a means. Secret societies and

law breaking provided the fastest route to economic prosperity.

Europe was rife with conspiracies great and small. Men conspired

to protect themselves from the horrors of the constant wars over religion.

They conspired to protect their own industry by keeping competition

out. They conspired to break a multitude of trade laws that did

little to foster trade and much to enrich the kings. And everywhere

there was conspiracy, there were places for conspirators to meet. The

lodge system provided that refuge.

Not all conspiracy could be considered bad. Joining a secret society

in America provided the means to raise one's station in life, to find

work, to belong to a community, and to transcend the religious squabbles

of the Europeans. At the same time, it also provided avenues to

wealth through breaking the law, and it bred dissent and stirred the

mobs against the weak government. Once the hostilities against the

crown started, secret societies allowed the colonists to create a spy network

and to strike the enemy in the most unsuspecting way.

The American Revolution began as a reaction to Britain cracking

down on smuggling. Those whom the British declared smugglers were

considered by the Americans simply to be merchants, although these

merchants had something in common. Like pirates, the smugglers

needed connections to survive. This meant belonging to the right

lodges. While smuggling was done by individual merchants, it required

The Lodge and the Revolution 93

a support system that was anything but small. Merchants buying even

basic commodities from any of the numerous European possessions in

the New World were almost always breaking the law. A system of trust

evolved through a secret society: Masonry.

The American Revolution was fought by a network of spies, diplomats,

smugglers, Freemasons, and slave traders. Although they were rarely

united politically, they did share an interest—and the means to accomplish

their interest. Masonic ties allowed conspirators from England, New

England, New York, and the Carolinas to find a common ground and

make critical moves behind the scenes. One prominent example is

Benjamin Franklin, who moved freely through Masonic circles that

stretched from London to Paris and Nantes. Franklin was able to stir dissent

among the British, bring in supplies from the Netherlands, and ultimately

bring the French into the war. From Britain, Franklin enlisted

members of a hedonistic entity known as the Hellfire Club, whose

orgiastic activities would shock even modern Britain to muster public

support against the war and for the Sons of Liberty. Through a smuggling

network that operated in the Caribbean from Bermuda and from

Europe, American sea captains supplied the Revolutionaries with munitions.

Franklin's Masonic connections in France were wealthy slave

traders, often Huguenots, who operated through lodge systems that

reached everywhere their ships sailed. Friends were also found among the

aristocratic class in France, with Masonry again paving the way—even as

the royals were ardent Catholics.

In a most audacious move, a wealthy French family bribed the

British admiral heading the war effort to deny support to Cornwallis at

Yorktown. At the same time the French contingent led by the Knights

of the Sovereign Order of Malta supplied the American side. The

American Revolution was won not on the battlefield as much as in the

secret meetings of numerous conspirators like Benjamin Franklin and

his lodge brothers.

With the war won, the architects of the new republic gave birth to

a government steeped in Masonic symbolism, while Washington

founded an aristocratic society where breeding and heredity were the

most important tickets for admission. Strange? Yes, but less so as one

understands the maelstrom of the eighteenth-century world, in which

the old ways of religious and aristocratic authority were being challenged

on a regular basis.

The dramatic changes that affected everyone's daily life created a

nation while also fostering a new elite. The new elite, unfortunately,

promoted an elitist attitude long after the independence that allowed

criminal activity, as long as they were the ultimate beneficiaries.

John Hancock might serve as the best example of a well-connected

Mason who became a great patriot for the sake of his own fortune.

With one foot in an elite lodge and the other in a workingman s lodge,

he somehow was able to present himself as a champion of liberty and a

prince of industry. Hancock rode in a well-appointed carriage around

Boston clad in the aristocratic purple that was his trademark, yet he

would be a hero to the thousands of hardworking dockworkers who

depended on him for employment. One could argue that the American

Revolution started when a ship belonging to Hancock, the Liberty, was

seized. The event and the actions that followed connected the wealthy

Hancock and his lodge to the working class, who belonged to numerous

other lodges, and to Sam Adams.

John Hancock was born into a wealthy and connected mercantile

family. He became one of the wealthiest merchants through inheritance

from an uncle. He understood from early on that a merchant needed

connections, and one very important way to develop those connections

was through Masonry. Hancock's uncle became a Mason in an aristocratic

lodge in Canada. By being admitted to a lodge in one city he

could then attend lodge gatherings in other cities. In Boston, Hancock

would attend the meetings of a working-class lodge known as Saint

Andrew's.

Masonry was undergoing a great change. The craft in America and

England had seen a dilution of its original values, which had included liberty

and equality. While liberty was prized by all, equality was not present

in the new class system. What would be called "modern" Masonry

shared much with the rising mercantile and professional classes that

The Lodge and the Revolution 95

formed the English Whig party in the political arena and a bourgeois class

in the economy. With new Masons accepted by invitation and common

agreement, individuals in the lower echelons of the changing society—a

stonemason, for example—were not always welcome. This was a repudiation

of the Masonic ideals, and the effect was that an elite class was

allowed to develop and service the careers of its members.

Politics and religion were still inseparable, and the Modern Lodge

Masons were pro-Parliament and very much Protestant at a time when

the world was still fighting a constant series of wars over the religious

leanings and marriages of its kings and queens.

On June 24, 1717, representatives from four English lodges met at

the Goose and Gridiron alehouse in London and created the Grand

Lodge. By going public the Grand Lodge, also known as the Mother

Lodge, ended centuries of underground operations. Instead of being a

craft guild where members of the same trades could meet and act to

serve one another's interests, no longer was a particular trade required

for membership. Masonry in the Grand Lodge style became "speculative"

masonry; this modern interpretation eliminated the titles and tools

of a working craft and made them into mystical symbols. There were

four major lodges in England that went public to create the Grand

Lodge. They had been meeting for years, so it was not much of an event

at the time. Within two years the number of lodges increased tenfold,

but as many as twenty-six had been already in operation.1

When these lodges met, they toasted the Hanoverian king and sang

patriotic songs. Because this was just a short time after the most recent

Scottish rebellion, the Modern Masons hoped that going public would

distance them from the Scottish Masons and help them avoid suspicion.

The establishment of the English Modern Grand Lodge as a public

institution served more than one purpose: It allowed English masons to

publicly distance themselves from Jacobite Masons, and it also may have

forced the Scottish and Irish lodges to go public. In a very complicated

world where the change of the monarchy would often lead to war,

these lodges were ostensibly pro-Catholic and pro-monarchy; in

England they were the basis for the Tory party. But at the same time as

these lodges were accused of being reactionary, they actually held the

finer Masonic ideals to be true.

Although they often fell on the Catholic side of the never-ending

religious wars, the Grand Lodge had more to do with Templar tradition

than adherence to the papal authority. The Grand Lodge had three

degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. The

Scottish Rite Masonry claimed higher degrees and direct descent from

the Templar organization.

In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. James was a

Stuart, and his family was connected to the Guise-Lorraine families of

France, who had been instrumental in the creation of the Knights

Templar. The old Templar sword and the trowel of the master builder,

which were so important to the roles born hundreds of years before, were

now part of the Stuart heraldry. The Stuart ascension to the throne

attempted to undo the losses of both Scotland and Catholicism. Noble

Scottish families played a strong role in England's affairs, and two families,

the Hamiltons and the Montgomeries, moved to Ireland to start the

Ulster Plantation.2 James I was Catholic and a Freemason, and in the early

seventeenth century his status would politicize Masonry. James constantly

fought with Parliament, which tried to increase its influence in matters

such as taxation, foreign policy, and religion. The Stuart rule would not

last the century; it ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Charles I, the son of James I, ascended the throne in 1625. The Parliament

of 1640 to 1641, however, declared that it and not the king had the

power to tax. This threat to the king's power might have led to the 1641

rebellion in Ireland against the Protestant rule. While Charles I was actually

Anglican, his wife and his Stuart family were Catholic. Parliament saw

the Irish rebellion as a conspiracy; they felt the king was using the rebellion

to raise troops to form a counterrevolution against Protestantism.

Parliament attempted to end the king's power to raise troops, but the king

ordered soldiers to arrest certain members of Parliament. Civil war broke

out, and it ended with the Stuart king being beheaded.

The alternative to Charles's actions was worse, however, with

Cromwell attacking not only Catholics but extremist sects of Protestants

as well. His Commonwealth did not last the decade, and, remarkably, the

son of the beheaded king, Charles II, was put on the throne. Charles II

abolished many of the privileges of the monarchy, but when his Catholic

brother, James II, took the throne the old religious bugaboo reared its

head again. James was dumped in the Glorious Revolution.

Charles and James had a sister, Mary, who had married the Dutch

prince of Orange. James also had a daughter named Mary, who was a

Protestant and who also strengthened the family bond with the Dutch by

marrying the son of the Prince of Orange, William III. The Dutch House

of Orange was united from earlier times with the German House of

Nassau, a region bordering on the state of Hesse. It would shed the designation

Nassau-Orange and come to be called simply the House of

Orange. German families were especially adept at the art of strategic

marriages, and after the hard-won struggle to get the English throne,

the Stuarts would lose it to the House of Orange.

A new Bill of Rights was established under William of Orange and

Mary, but it did not resemble the later American Bill of Rights, as it

banned Catholics from the throne. The rule of William and Mary also

gave rise to the Tory and Whig factions. The Whig faction was made up

of several powerful English and Scottish families and was based in

Protestant Holland, which was under the rule of the House of Orange.

A brotherhood modeled on Masonry was established and called itself

the Order of Orange. It was anti-Catholic, and its legacy lives on today

in Belfast, where the no-longer-secret order has one hundred thousand

members.3

When William died (years after Mary passed away), the daughter of

James II, Anne, took the throne. When Anne died, the House of Orange

relinquished the throne to the rulers of the German state of Hanover.

From that point on the Hanoverians provided England with all her

monarchs, though they did change the family name much later to the

House of Windsor to appear less German. Anne was succeeded by the

grandson of Elizabeth Stuart and Friedrich, Count Palatine.

The Stuarts clung to the belief that they could regain the throne.

For the purpose of putting a Stuart heir back on the throne, a new

branch of Freemasonry was created by Michael Ramsay, a Scottish mystic

and the tutor of the children of James III. His plan was to resurrect

the old ideals. He modeled the new branch after the Knights Templar,

and for the first time in three hundred years he would publicly claim

what many in Scotland and Ireland had kept secret: that the Masonic

organization was the direct heir of the original underground organization.

One of Ramsay's co-organizers, the Earl of Derwent Water,

claimed that the authority to create the Knights Templar lodge came

from the Kilwinning Lodge, Scotland's oldest lodge.

The Kilwinning Lodge was actually formed before the arrest of the

Templars. It dates to 1120, and by the seventeenth century it was practicing

speculative Masonry, meaning it wasn't simply a craft guild. The

history of the Kilwinning Lodge is complicated, as it was first independent,

then joined, then separated from, and then joined again the

Grand Lodge of Scotland.

Following the creation of the new lodge, a series of pro-Stuart

Jacobite uprisings of the early eighteenth century began, which culminated

in the horrible defeat at Culloden in 1746. To the English,

Culloden was meant to be the last attempt by Scotland. After the battle

the survivors were hunted down and killed. Their families, too, were

prosecuted, and a massive Scottish emigration ensued—much of it to

the Americas.

Events in the not-so-United Kingdom affected the American continent

in many ways: European wars became American wars, Protestants

increased their suspicions of Catholics, and the displacement of populations

and religious intolerance caused waves of migrations by

Puritans, Huguenots, and Scotch and Irish Catholics. These events also

forever changed Masonry. Masonry was linked to the Stuarts in

Scotland, as the craft had developed and lodges had met since the

ancient days of Henry Sinclair's guardian status. It was not, however, a

Jacobite conspiracy, as lodges met in England as well among the anti-

Jacobite, pro-Whig, pro-Parliament system that was in power.

In America the Grand (Modern) Lodge was established early.

Though accurate records remain undiscovered, one of the earliest

appointments was by the Duke of Norfolk, who in 1730 granted to

Daniel Coxe of New Jersey the grand master title for New Jersey, New

York, and Pennsylvania.

In 1733 Henry Price founded a Grand Lodge in Boston.4 James

Oglethorpe, known in American history as the founder of the colony

of Georgia, established and became master of his colony's lodge in

Savannah. His family included active Jacobites, and his less than enthusiastic

command of English forces led to his court-martial.

By 1738 there were established lodges meeting in Boston, New

York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Cape Fear, North Carolina.5 They

attracted and admitted the merchants and shipowners while excluding

the average worker. This was not the intent of Scottish Masonry, which

stuck to the principles of an egalitarian society.

In Boston and Philadelphia new lodges sprang up, seemingly without

any authority. The most celebrated is the Saint Andrew's Lodge in

Boston, which met at the Green Dragon Tavern. It received its warrant

from the Scottish Rite Lodge rather than the Grand Lodge, and a fissure

was created in American Masonry. The ancient lodges attracted a

handful of the merchant class but were made up mostly of craftsmen,

artisans, carpenters, and shipwrights. The notable exceptions in the

Saint Andrew's Lodge were Dr. Joseph Warren, who became grand master,

and John Hancock. Both men served important roles in the early

conflicts that ignited the war.

Masons played roles on both the English and the American sides of

the conflict. In the confusion, a revolution started by the Boston Whigs

operating out of a lodge chartered by a Scottish lodge system found as

opposition the Catholic Scots that had remained Tory. As brother fought

brother and neighbor fought neighbor, Masons too would fight on

either side of the American Revolution.

Masonic influences started the war, and Masonic connections tipped

the balance toward the Revolutionary side. When the war was finally over,

Masonry played the single most important role in creating the new nation.

Chapter 5

SMUGGLERS, PATRIOTS,AND MASONS

On November 16, 1776, the first salute acknowledging the sovereignty

of the United States of America was fired. It might have

been fired by France, which was just days away from joining the fighters

for the American colonies. It might have been fired by Spain, which

was next in line and being wooed by American agents. Or it might have

been fired by any number of European countries that wished to see

Britain suffer a setback in its conquest of the world. But it wasn't.

The shot was fired by the tiny Dutch possession of Saint Eustatius,

an island in the Caribbean that was unknown at that time except to sea

captains and traders, and is hardly known today despite the Caribbean's

appeal to travelers. The shot was fired in reply to a national gun salute

by the American brig Andrew Doria. While few have even heard of the

tiny island commonly called Statia, it was pivotal in deciding the

American Revolutionary War and, as a result, American independence.

The Golden Rock, as the island was also called, was the central headquarters

of a massive smuggling operation that had gone on throughout

the century and that provided guns and ammunitions to the

struggling Continental army.

At a most critical time of the American Revolution, the British

Admiral Rodney was in command of a fleet of British warships. He had

been instructed to rendezvous with Cornwallis at Yorktown, where the

British were dug in and waiting for reinforcements and supplies.

Rodney was responsible for bringing help to Cornwallis from his fleet

and instructing the fleet in New York to bring more help. Had Rodney

reached Virginia, the combined ragtag war-weary Americans and their

new allies may not have succeeded.

Rodney decided instead to punish the tiny island of Saint Eustatius.

He later justified his action by claiming, "This rock of only six miles in

length and three in breadth has done England more harm than all the

arms of her most potent enemies, and alone supported the infamous

American rebellion." Instead of speeding toward Virginia, Admiral

Rodney took his time in attacking and then looting the island's hundreds

of merchant ships and stores. The tiny "free" port, the home of

smugglers of several nationalities, paid the price for aiding the American

cause. It wasn't until 163 years later when the president of the United

States, Franklin Roosevelt, a Dutchman by descent who was born into

a family that was no stranger to the smuggling business, would honor

the Dutch island for firing this first salute. A plaque honoring Saint

Eustatius and its governor, Johannes de Graaff, who had ordered the

salute, was presented.

It is very possible that Saint Eustatius managed to play two roles:

being one of the key supply depots of the war and providing Admiral

Rodney with a diversion. The actions of the island may have caused

Rodney to miss the most important role he might have played in the

Revolution—as well as the ability to emerge from the battle with his

wealth and prestige intact. It was no accident that Rodney was not present

to save the war.

There is no question that the Battle of Yorktown was the single

most critical battle of the ten-year war. After Saratoga was lost by the

British, the English public began to lose its appetite for a protracted

war. Yorktown cinched victory for the Americans, and it was a true

defeat of the British military, thanks in no small part to the French army

and navy. It disheartened the English populace and finally tipped the

scales in the Parliament. The surrender of Cornwallis accompanied to

the tune of "The World Turned Upside Down," played by the military

band as the army turned in its weapons, marks the beginning of the end

of the war, although the peace treaty would have to wait another two

years. It also marks the recognition of American independence.

But the war that ended with the diversion provided by a smugglers'

haven also started with an attempt to curb smuggling.

LIBERTY SEIZED

In May 1768 the Liberty, a sloop carrying a cargo of wine imported

from Madeira, entered Boston Harbor. The captain told the customs

agent, Thomas Kirk, that it contained twenty-five casks of wine, but the

agent knew that the ship could carry much more cargo than declared.

It was, after all, a ship belonging to John Hancock. The customs agent

decided to look for himself.

Once aboard the Liberty, Kirk was shoved into a cabin by a gang of

men who then nailed the door shut. While the agent was locked on

board, the ship was unloaded. When Kirk was released he was warned

by another captain that his life and property were in danger should he

ever open his mouth about what happened. He might have complied,

except that the British warship Romney had also pulled into Boston

Harbor. Kirk filed his report, accusing one of the city's most prosperous

merchants of smuggling.

The captain of the Romney landed troops, seized the Liberty, and

towed her out to his own ship. He underestimated the anger of the

Boston mob, however. One thousand men made their living because of

the ambitious firm run by the Hancock family. They took to the streets

armed with clubs. Their first targets were the customs agents. Several

were beaten by the mob. One, Joseph Harrison, had his own boat at the

wharf, which the mob burned. While the crowd stoned the customs

house, the Madeira wine of John Hancock was safely removed from the

docks.1

It is no coincidence that Boston would become the headquarters of

the American Revolution. Boston's economy, and in fact the economy

of the entire eastern part of Massachusetts, depended on its maritime

interests. The king of England depended on the income he could

siphon off the business of trade, and he passed laws that hindered the

profitability of trade. As a result Boston was also the epicenter of

American smuggling.

The resistance was financed by a handful of men including John

Hancock, Josiah Quincy, Elbridge Gerry, James Bowdoin, and Richard

Derby2 Smuggling served as both the cause of and the solution to the

problem. What would be regarded as free trade for the New England

merchants was actually smuggling under the laws of Great Britain. The

economic life of the colonies depended on breaking the laws. America

became so adept at smuggling that it was the primary means of supplying

itself for the long war.

Britain had passed a series of laws over the course of the previous

hundred years, starting in 1660 when the king put restrictions on certain

commodities. Tobacco was the first smuggled item, and later

molasses continued a lively business. In 1707 Parliament forbade any

commerce that did not sail through Britain and sail out on a British

ship. In 1733 the Molasses Act closed the loopholes that allowed the

Caribbean trade, as well as trading with the French.Virtually all trade in

molasses was illegal under British maritime trade rules, although they

were rarely enforced.

A commodity such as sugar cost 30 percent more from a British

island in the Caribbean than in a French-controlled island. In fact, the

available sugar produced for export in the British West Indies was not

enough to keep the Rhode Island distillery business supplied. On the

other hand, a ship loaded with lumber from New England would not

find enough of a market among the British islands. Trading with the

Dutch and French was a necessity made illegal by regulation.

The Molasses Act, which specifically targeted the rum and sugar

trade, appeared to New England merchants as intentionally designed to

aid the British West Indies plantations at the expense of the New

England merchants. But from the English king's viewpoint, he was

merely treating American merchants equally. He regarded merchants as

ripe for the plucking. In fact, American merchants were possibly better

protected at sea than were English merchants at home.

The merchants of the newly formed colonies would steadily accept

their positions as smugglers as the law became entirely counterproductive

to business. Those who complied were soon out of business; those

who defied the law succeeded. For the people seeking freedom from

religious persecution, necessity brought such changes. The colonists

were already persecuted by the very nature of their religion, so being

on the wrong side of the trade laws mattered little.

The Huguenots in Europe had already made a very strong presence

in the ranks of the merchant traders. They were often French, but under

constant threat of the Catholic monarchy, they were a mobile population.

Exiled for years in the Netherlands, they became allied with

Walloon-speaking peoples, and together they migrated across the

Atlantic.

The anti-Rome reaction that later became known as the

Reformation began long before Martin Luther. The Cathar movement

in the south of France had been more of a threat to Rome than Islam

represented. The Cathari believed in a purity in which man and woman

shared in directly relating to God. This purity was made possible without

a patriarchal hierarchy of priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes. To

the papacy the threat of losing power and the implied threat of loss of

revenue produced by Church taxes were more important than the

armies of Islam. The purists Cathari took as their symbol the dove,

which even in Catholic art represents knowledge. The same Gnostic

sentiment was shared by the Knights Templar. Their worship of an

alleged severed head called Baphomet was actually an appreciation of

wisdom, or sophia in the Greek translation. Although under torture

some Templars confessed to worshiping a severed head, there is no proof

of its existence.

When the pope decided the Cathari would be the victims of a crusade,

he had to get support from England; the Templars of France had

refused. Ironically, the Templars, who were supposed to take direction

only from the pope, fought against their master. The end for the Cathari

came at the siege of Montsegur, where Templar knights defended the

Cathari until their surrender.

While both the Templars and the Cathari were victims of the

Church, the tradition of a more humanistic Cathar religion continued.

The blood of the Cathar defenders watered the soil of southern and

western France, and when the seed of the reformers was planted three

centuries later, it bore the most abundant fruit in those lands. Both the

Templars and the Cathari carried their ideas into exile into nearby

Switzerland, and this group of cantons became a country that protected

the reform movement.

Although Martin Luther of Germany and John Calvin of France,

who were both exiled to Switzerland, were better known for the

Reformation, it had begun earlier among the populace of France.

Hughes Besancon, a preacher, may have gave his name to the people of

the Reformation, the Huguenots. They were often more than just spiritual

descendants of the earlier attempts at reforming Christianity. The

Templar eight-sided cross became the cross of Languedoc and subsequently

the Huguenot cross. Combined with the descending dove, the

symbolism of the cross and dove is hard to miss.

THE TEMPLE AND THE CROSS

As a large contingent of French Templars had survived in what would

become Switzerland, it is not surprising that the Protestant Reformation,

under leaders like John Calvin, would find refuge in Switzerland at the

same time that the religious revolution was spreading rapidly through

France and into England. Within twenty years of Calvin's proselytizing,

Huguenots were established in France; in Kent, England; in the Channel

Islands; and in the New World. The reaction to the conversion was

equally swift. In 1545 Protestants were massacred—often burned at the

stake—in twenty-two towns. It seemed like the anti-Cathar crusade was

starting all over again. The powers behind the original Knights Templar

were often found on both sides of the reform movement. The Guise family,

which owned the border state of Lorraine, were militant Catholics.

The duc de Guise instigated anti-Huguenot massacres and toppled any

peaceful initiatives that the French king attempted.

When Charles IX became king of France, the Queen Mother,

Catherine de Medici, controlled France. While she was allied with the

Guise family, there was no peace. Through the century the Christianversus-

Christian wars worsened, highlighted by high-level assassinations

and ultimately the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre, where tens of thousands

of Huguenots were slaughtered. Finally Henry of Navarre became

king. He owed his political survival to the Huguenots but needed to

remain Catholic to be king. He could appease both groups by bringing

peace and religious tolerance to France with the Edict of Nantes in

1598. Religious freedom was granted in degrees to Christians in seventyfive

towns. By this time the port of La Rochelle, once a Templar stronghold,

was now a Huguenot stronghold. Reportedly the Catholic mass

was not said for forty years in La Rochelle.

The cross of Lorraine and the eight-pointed Maltese cross came to

represent both sides of the religious conflict. To the Huguenots the cross

with a descending dove represented the freedom to seek God through

individual knowledge. To the Catholic orders, such as the Knights of

Saint John, the same cross represented the feudal order in which the

Church and the king were the masters.

The protection granted under the Edict of Nantes was suddenly

revoked a century later, and fifty thousand families fled France for their

safety. The Huguenots were a mobile population, but they were also

highly organized in lodges or guilds. They would dominate many

industries, such as thread and lace making, glassmaking, and cloth manufacturing.

With no homeland, many took to the sea as merchants and

traders. As merchants they were under threat of both piracy and English

customs; many turned to piracy, to smuggling, and to the Americas. The

Huguenots were among the largest groups to settle both French

Canada and English America. From Nova Scotia to Boston, New York,

the ports of the Carolinas, and even south to Florida, Huguenots

escaped the volatile climate of Europe.

The colonies of the New World did not always offer the freedoms

desired, but religious and social prejudice was minor in comparison to

the repressive religious wars of the Continent. Economic repression

became the threat to the colonists' newfound prosperity. The series of

laws designed to raise the king's taxes or protect his friends, such as the

British East India Company, affected the colonies—some more than

others.

MERCHANTS AND SMUGGLERS

For Virginia the laws weren't much of a detriment, as the state's products

were shipped directly to markets in England. New England in general,

including Boston, was self-sufficient in comparison, a mercantilist

entity that had the materials and manpower to build ships and trade

with the world. The currency of the time reflects just how important

trade was. The most common currency in New England was the

Spanish dollar, the famous piece of eight. While many currencies traded

hands, including money from France, the Netherlands, and Portugal,

they were all valued against the Spanish dollar.

Merchants who understood their business profited from the

unworkable policies and unenforceable rules. A typical starting point

was the British-owned island of Saint Kitts, which specialized in false

British documents. On Saint Kitts a captain could pay a cash-only fee

to secure the necessary documents showing that his cargo was sold in a

British port. From Saint Kitts he would then take the cargo to

whichever foreign island paid the best for his commodity.

Trade with foreign nations was so ingrained in New England that

smuggling was just a natural consequence. The restrictive laws, enacted

one after another, were hardly enforced, as Britain did not have the

means. Customs agents in general were receptive to bribes, as were

many officials. The numerous ships of the Boston merchants carried

restricted items such as gunpowder, paper, and luxury goods along with

bulk commodities like sugar, molasses, and spirits aboard the same ships

as those carrying legal commodities.

The damage done was twofold. The British presented arbitrary

rules that were apparently designed to sacrifice the interests of some to

the interests of others. The Americans, an apparently principled people,

were developing a deeper disrespect for the law. By the time of the

Revolution, smuggling had been a way of life for two generations.

John Faneuil, whose name is immortalized in Boston's Faneuil Hall,

was a French Huguenot whose fortune was built on disobeying the

laws of the absentee government. He was a Freemason at a time when

most Masons belonged to lodges that were composed of people in similar

trades. Faneuil's lodge consisted of sea captains and merchants. John

Hancock was another merchant, shipowner, Mason, and smuggler.

John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1737. He

was seven when his father died, so he was sent to live with his uncle

Thomas. Thomas, an apprenticed bookbinder, had married into one of

New England's wealthiest merchant families, and as a result became rich

himself. While he claimed he was in the whale-oil business, he did

much better than other legal commodity merchants. The whale-oil

business was one of the few legal trading businesses in which a person

could sell to Britain and get cash, in the form of sterling, rather than

trade credits, which depended on the solvency of other houses.

Thomas Hancock's ships carried foodstuffs to Newfoundland, then

took on whale oil in exchange and sailed for England. Others, however,

engaged in the same trade, and because of the volatility in the prices of

these commodities, the merchants would not always do well. Hancock

had a larger house, dressed in a more dignified style than his fellow merchants,

and was rapidly building a small navy of trading ships.

Hancock's secret was that he was importing tea from Saint

Eustatius. He had his agents in England, in the Netherlands, and on the

island that came to be called the Golden Rock. A Hancock ship would

sail south to the Dutch port on Saint Eustatius with legally exported

items and return with contraband. Hancock maintained a high degree

of secrecy aboard his ships to avoid attracting attention. His men were

cautioned never to speak of their business, and were not allowed to

write home to their wives.

As a smuggler, Hancock was also a visionary. Most likely he

received news of Europe through his agents in various ports. When he

came to the conclusion that war in Europe would spread to the

colonies, he anticipated the profits it could bring from importing arms.3

During the French and Indian Wars, the poorly supplied British troops

came to Hancock's firm to buy munitions.

Hancock's sudden rise in wealth thanks to sound business practices—

and illegal trading practices—eventually brought him attention. While his

contemporaries were mystified by Hancock's wealth, the governor,

Thomas Hutchinson, was not. But finding proof was another issue.

Thanks to the wealth of Thomas Hancock and his firm, his nephew

John, whom he adopted, was sent to Harvard and graduated to a partnership

in the company. Thomas died in 1764, and John inherited the

business. Today the value of his inheritance is estimated at more than

$100 million.4 While not yet thirty, John Hancock was at the helm of a

thriving business.5 He emulated his uncle in every way; he valued his

ostentatious home, he rode in a fine carriage, and he made his money

in the smuggling business.

One of the goods Hancock smuggled was tea. With the opening of

trade in China, Americans, like their British cousins, became addicted to

the exotic beverage. The colonists drank an estimated six million pounds

of tea per year. In 1773 Hancock supplied one million pounds. It was, of

course, good business, but although it was very profitable, it was also illegal.

The British East India Company was given a monopoly over the tea

business, and as coincidence would have it, Thomas Hutchinson, the acting

governor of Massachusetts, was an investor in the company. In fact, he

committed all his capital to company shares.6 In addition, his pay was

linked to how much tax he collected on the tea.

The British East India Company was the second largest British

financial institution, second only to the Bank of England. It was also

near bankruptcy, as it had not managed to addict China to opium yet.

The company set the price of tea at three shillings a pound, compared

with the two shillings a pound set by the Dutch. The company so

important to the British aristocracy then had the British government

ban all other tea. It was a move that served only to make smuggling

profitable and to pit the governor of Massachusetts against her wealthy

citizens, who rose to the occasion.

Hancock remained a member of the Grand Lodge for a year, and

when he received his inheritance he returned to a Grand Lodge, mingling

with people of similar newfound merchant status. His business,

however, depended on the labor of the dockworkers and shipbuilders,

warehousemen and carpenters, so he could not separate himself completely

from the common men of Boston. Hancock remained close to

Sam Adams, who had the ear of the worker populace on which

Hancock prospered. Carefully treading his way in both circles was a

necessity, and when it came time to putting his workers between himself

and the British law, Hancock didn't hesitate.

If Hancock's motivation for rebelling against the crown seemed

only monetary, he was fortunate to meet men whose motivations were

political.

SAMUEL ADAMS

Sam Adams was born in Boston. His father, Samuel Sr., was a pillar of

the community and was called the Deacon. He was a merchant who

owned a wharf, he was a brewer, and he was an investor in land and

property. His high status did not keep him above renting houses that

were used as brothels. However, young Sam had grown up with an

aversion to sin; he didn't smoke or drink. Born into a family of twelve

children, he enrolled in Harvard at age fourteen and placed fifth in his

graduating class of twenty-two scholars.

High standards did not mean great fortune for the son of the Deacon.

Samuel Sr. had lost one third of his money in the early 1740s as a result

of a currency crisis. Sam Jr., who was studying law at the time, had to

leave school. He waited tables. He went to work in a countinghouse but

left the position by mutual consent with the owner. He borrowed

£1,000 to start a business, but it failed and the debt remained. Adams

then went to work in his father's brewery. But it appeared that Sam Jr. was

not career bound; he dressed badly, often wearing the same clothes for

days. He had no money, and whatever money he occasionally had he forgot

to carry with him. He had few prospects.

Adams did have a strong sense of values, in both personal life and

political affairs. When he was not allowed entry in the Caucus Club,

which dominated political affairs, he started his own. While the Caucus

Club appealed to the wealthy shipowners and merchants like Thomas

Hancock, Sam Adams's club allowed in the dockworker and the mill

worker. Within his circle were the Loyall Nine, who would manipulate

mobs, sometimes by simply putting up signs all over Boston to bring

out the mobs the next day. Sam Adams was not a Freemason, but his

circles overlapped with Masonic groups and his own secretive cells. He

manipulated Masons, dockworkers, shipwrights, and shipowners for his

cause.

When Sam Jr. was twenty-six, his father died. Sam inherited the

brewery, as well as enough money to pay off his debts. He also had

enough money to get married; the next year he wed Elizabeth

Checkley. But the idyllic life didn't last long. Adams's poor management

of the brewery caused the firm to fail.

Adams was elected tax collector of Boston a short time later, a job

that would last until he was forty-seven. It was, however, not a pleasant

career. He was accused of malfeasance, sued several times, and almost

lost his own property at auction. His failing was his inability to collect

from many people, as Boston had suffered severe recessions that kept

many unemployed, yet Adams would still count them as having paid.

His crime, according to one biographer, was being kindhearted,

although at the same time he was considered a poor handler of money.

When Elizabeth died, Adams was at least solvent enough to marry

a second time. In 1764 he owned a home, received income from the

wharf, and had a new wife, two children, and a Newfoundland dog that

had acquired a hatred for anyone in a British uniform. If his personal

financial status was rocky at best, Adams's political thesis always

remained solid. He believed the loss of a single liberty was the first step

to enslavement. He would never back down from this ideal, even when

other Revolutionary War leaders modified their own thinking after liberty

had been achieved. He wrote that every man had the right to life,

liberty, and property, as well as the right to support and defend such

rights. While most of Boston's merchants were going around the laws

of England, Adams believed in confronting the laws. Three years before

the Liberty was seized in Boston's port, Adams and John Hancock had

started a letter-writing campaign to fight the Stamp Act.

The meeting of Adams and Hancock may be one of the most critical

events of the war for independence. Hancock provided the money

to keep Adams's political clubs afloat while Adams validated the ideals

and enlisted the mobs that would make sure everyone heard about

them. Following the Stamp Act, an Adams-incited mob from the waterfront

attacked the Admiralty Court and attempted to destroy all its

records. Then it turned on the home of Justice Hutchinson, who years

earlier had outlawed paper money, bringing ruin to many including

Adams's father. A Sam Adams editorial the next day condemned mob

violence and pointed out the unfairness of the Stamp Act. In the editorial

he called the mobs the Sons of Liberty, naming them after a

speech in the English Parliament by Isaac Barre sympathizing with the

American cause. Chapters of the Sons of Liberty were then started in

every city in the North.

When the Liberty was seized, Sam Adams again aroused the mobs,

telling them, "If you are men, behave like men."7 He also started a celebration

to commemorate three years of resistance to the Stamp Act.

Free beer flowed thanks to his brewery. But even as Adams was responsible

for inciting the mobs, he and a handful of patriot leaders later

negotiated peace. Hancock was acquitted of smuggling charges and the

mobs went unpunished. This rebellion, along with a general boycott of

British goods in Boston and Philadelphia, led to the repeal of the

Townshend Acts, but Britain would still quarter troops in Boston.

Although the situation quieted, the mobs were given plenty of fodder

for future riots. While the officers of the British were welcomed in

Tory homes, the common man had no room for the common soldier.

Bar brawls and street fights were started among commoners, and many

British soldiers deserted as a result of the harsh treatment and the hostile

daily life.

Two years after the Liberty affair, a mob armed with snowballs containing rocks went after the British. The fight resulted in gunfire from

the redcoats, and four Bostonians were killed. As was Adams's style, the

confrontation was orchestrated; three days before the incident, posters

appeared informing that the British would be attacking townspeople.

Adams's newspaper had been publishing incidents of boys being

roughed up by soldiers and of rape committed by the occupying army.

The day of the massacre church bells all over Boston rang to alert people

that something was happening. Adams would dub the incident the

Boston Massacre, a name that has survived in the history books.

Remarkably, the patriots again brokered the peace. John Adams,

who had defended John Hancock in the Liberty incident, defended the

captain of the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.

The confrontations worked, but even after repealing the Townshend

Acts, the king of England decided not to lose face and keep the exclusive

right of the British East India Company to sell tea to America. He

would also appoint just which agents could import the tea in America.

The colonies responded by boycotting tea. Consumption of tea

dropped dramatically. In 1769 the colonies had imported tea costing

900,000 pounds sterling, a figure that dropped to 237,000 pounds sterling

three years later. This drop of almost 75 percent did not help the

British East India Company, which was nearly bankrupt. The king

decided that the tea would be forced on the colonies.

In October 1773 Philadelphia was first to hold meetings and

appoint a committee to challenge the authority of the king and the

British East India Company. They forced the British tea agents to

resign. In November meetings in Boston attempted to force a similar

action, but the colonial governor was opposed to their resignation.

Three ships sailed into Boston Harbor, and despite the colonists' refusal

to unload them, Governor Hutchinson demanded that the city pay the

tax on the tea aboard the ships, even if they sailed away unloaded.

Sam Adams addressed a crowd of eight thousand to rally the opposition

to the tea tax, but that was just part of the plan. At the Green

Dragon Tavern, later called Freemasons Hall, Saint Andrew's Lodge and

other groups, some clandestine, would meet. While the Masonic groups

were aboveboard and signed in at every meeting, other groups such as

the Committee of Correspondence, the North End Caucus, and the

Sons of Liberty (with their core group, the Loyall Nine) could not

always afford to be so open. The Freemasons, which was an ancient

order-chartered lodge, had the largest and most open membership, and

often membership overlapped between it and other organizations. The

North End Caucus consisted of the wealthier shipowners; the Masons

were more a working-class group.

Adams and his Sons of Liberty decided to dress up as Mohawks

and board the British tea ships. They cracked open ten thousand

pounds' worth of Darjeeling tea and dumped it into the water. The

night of the event, which became known as the Boston Tea Party, was

a regular lodge-meeting night. Only five members showed up for the

meeting, however, signing their names and leaving a notation in the

book that the meeting would not be held on account of the lack of

attendance. These members were most likely Tories or were at least

opposed to the planned activity, and their signatures would possibly

serve as alibis. At least twelve of the thirty known "Mohawks" were

Saint Andrew's Lodge members, although Sam Adams was not, and

twelve more would join the lodge after the Tea Party. At a time when

the Modern Lodges were often Whig and Protestant and the ancient

lodges were more Tory, Stuart-leaning, and often even Catholic, the

ancient lodge of Saint Andrew's defied the classification of American

Masonry.

Sam Adams was the one to be contended with, and the king knew

it. In a late attempt to stop the resistance, Adams was visited by General

Gage, who, on behalf of King George, offered Adams a deal he wasn't

supposed to be able to refuse. The choice was to make peace with the

king and be paid for backing down or to risk the wrath of the king.

Adams's reply was, "Sir, I trust I have long since made my peace with

the King of kings."The Sons of Liberty sent New England horsemen

south to the other colonies, posting handbills with a skull and crossbones

warning them of the British reaction.8

Adams, while not a Mason, displayed the traditional ideals of the

craft: liberty, fraternity, and equality. Meanwhile Hancock, a Mason, an

elitist who favored a class structure even within the craft, was an active

attendee of both a modern and an ancient lodge. A third brand of

Masonry was also developing in the Americas: the Military Lodge.

THE MILITARY LODGE

Shortly after the Grand Lodge went public in the early eighteenth century,

Freemasonry began to grow in both the colonies and the English

army. Within the army the "lodge" was now mobile and the paraphernalia

of Masonry carried by the regiment. The commander of a unit

was typically the master of the lodge, and both officers and common

soldiers were brought together by the brotherhood of the lodge. It often

allowed the common-born to advance in rank to officers, an option not

available before becoming a lodge brother. Commissions of officers

were still purchased, but the commander would frequently lend the

candidate the funds for his commission.

The Irish Grand Lodge, not the English Grand Lodge, authorized

the military field lodges. In 1754 the French and Indian Wars began as

a result of French and English hostilities in Europe. The population of

the colonies had been growing by leaps and bounds, due to immigration

from Scotland and Ireland. The new lands offered an escape from

the religious war and from post-Culloden persecution, and provided a

way to increase one's standing in the world. Many served in the military

specifically for the social advancement, and it was no secret that

being admitted into a lodge was the ticket—and not just for the common

soldier.

Jeffrey Amherst began his career in the military during the War of

Austrian Succession. His military prowess earned him recognition, but

by the end of that war he was a middling officer without the prospect

of advancement. Although he had been aide-de-camp to General John

Ligonier, Amherst was serving as a procurement officer. The outbreak

of war gave Ligonier the chance to recommend his protege for a position,

yet Amherst did not have the funds to buy a commission. The

funds were loaned by Lionel Sackville, the First Duke of Dorset.

Sackville's two sons were very active in Masonry; Charles Sackville

founded a lodge in Italy and was a close friend of Sir Francis

Dashwood, and George Sackville was a regimental lodge master who

would later become the grand master of the Irish Grand Lodge. With

the help of friends in high places, Amherst was put in charge of the

siege of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. Amherst's victory at Louisbourg

and Ticonderoga and his efforts in attacking Montreal led him to the

position of commander of all the British forces in the colonies.

Wherever Amherst served he established a field lodge, and his influence

grew because of his military exploits. Amherst was one of the earliest

commanders to establish the different fighting methods that would

work well in the Americas. Instead of two opposing regiments simply

picking away at each other, the new tactics of sharpshooting, camouflage,

skirmishing, and scouting were employed in the heavily wooded

hills of Pennsylvania and New York. Under Amherst's command many

of America's prominent Revolutionary War heroes received their training.

These included Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, who fought at

Ticonderoga; Israel Putnam, who later would be the hero of Bunker

Hill; Charles Lee, who participated in the attack on Montreal; and the

New York patrician Philip Schuyler.9 Amherst captured Louisbourg,

Ticonderoga, and finally Montreal in 1760 in the coup that would

cause France to admit defeat and sue for peace.

Amherst was not the only high-ranking military officer to spread

Freemasonry throughout the English forces in America. Under his

command was Lieutenant Colonel John Young, who fought at

Louisbourg and Quebec. Young had been appointed deputy grand

master of the Scottish Lodge by William St. Clair of Rosslyn. In 1757

Young was the provincial grand master for all the Scottish lodges in

America and the West Indies. He was succeeded by Augustine Prevost,

who became grand master of all the warranted lodges in the British

army that were Scottish Rite.10 From Amherst to Young, Prevost, and

further down the command, the Temple and the Lodge systems show

how junior officers have been promoted and subsequently put in

charge of lodges that would later dominate Canadian provinces.

When the American Revolution broke out, many high-ranking

British Masons refused to play a role in defeating the American

colonists. Sir Jeffrey Amherst turned down a command. Because the

Freemasons fought on both sides of the war and Tory-leaning Masons

even attended the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston, it is not possible to

reach the conclusion that a massive Masonic conspiracy was responsible

for the defeat of the British. However, numerous minor conspiracies

swirled that certainly thwarted the British military effort.

Between the Boston Tea Party and the outbreak of war, the groups

that Samuel Adams created built up a guerrilla movement that operated

from the inner core, the Loyall Nine, and spread to other cells. From

there a militia was created and munitions were obtained in secrecy and

kept hidden. English intelligence was active too, and soon the English

decided to seize the munitions and the patriot leaders. They sent troops

into the countryside. The famous "one if by land, two if by sea" warning

was given by Paul Revere, a descendant of a French Huguenot family

and a master craftsman and a Mason.

War broke out on April 19, 1775, when the Massachusetts militia,

alerted by Revere, attempted to head off an advance guard of British

troops. This first battle of Lexington and Concord would go down in

history as "the shot heard round the world." Three weeks later Ethan

Allen and Mason Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga in New

York to obtain badly needed supplies and ammunition. In June the

Battle of Bunker Hill exposed the weaknesses of both sides. The British

"won" the battle at a tremendous cost, leading many to question the

motives of General Gage, who could have cut off the Americans from

reinforcements and didn't, and General Howe, who had let the

American forces withdraw intact.

The American forces had their own doubts as well. Men were not

brought into battle at critical times, the command structure was a shambles,

there was a lack of discipline among the soldiers, and there were

inadequate supplies or inadequate means of getting the supplies to

where they were needed. Among some of the militia, officers were

elected, and at critical moments the soldiers huddled together to decide

their plan.

Two days before Bunker Hill, John Adams decided that the

colonists needed a "Continental Army" and a commander. His choice

for the latter was George Washington. Within days the Continental

Congress appointed Washington general and commander in chief of the

American army.

George Washington was initiated into Masonry on November 4,

1752, at the age of twenty, in the lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia. His

entrance fee was a steep twenty-three pounds sterling, an amount the average

man would be unable to afford. But Washington was not an average

man, and although his lodge was an ancient lodge, it still attracted men

of greater means. George Washington's life seemed set for that of a

modest landowner until 1752, when his brother died. George had

looked up to his brother, Lawrence, who had sailed to the West Indies

under the command of Admiral Edward Vernon (the namesake of

Mount Vernon) to fight the Spanish. When Lawrence suggested George

take a seaman's job, their mother prevented him. His brother's family,

however, was soon hit with tragedy: Lawrence's three children succumbed

to tuberculosis. George went to Barbados with Lawrence in

the hopes of alleviating his brother's condition, but the climate change

did not help and Lawrence soon died too.

Through inheritance George's landholdings grew to 2,500 acres.11

Through marriage he would add another 17,500 acres, increasing both

his wealth and his social standing. He rose quickly in his lodge as well,

attaining the rank of Master Mason within a year. But it was an ancient

lodge and not particularly influential.

From his brother George had stood to inherit a military rank, that

of the colony's adjutant general. The position was divided into three,

and George was forced to lobby for a lower rank. He intended to use

the position as a starting point and quickly volunteered for action

against the French. On his first expedition against the French he was

promoted to lieutenant colonel, and he was made second in command

for another expedition. The driven young commander, who constantly

set plans and rules for himself in writing, had broken from the rules of

his family. He was a natural leader because of his impressive bearing and

his understanding that keeping a certain distance encouraged respect

from his men. From his earliest time in the military George looked to

his Masonic brothers to fill positions of importance. He brought a

Dutch interpreter from his Fredericksburg lodge on his next expedition

against the French. This Masonic brother, however, would let

Washington down after the loss of Fort Necessity.12

Negotiating the terms of surrender of the fort was difficult because

of the language barrier between the French and American commanders.

The interpreter rushed through a document in the rain, and since it

was poorly translated, it appeared to frame the English not only as the

provocateurs but also as assassins. The French had already claimed the

English were the aggressors, and Washington's initial foray was unprovoked.

Washington was then put under review and demoted. When he

went to war he would go back to the Fredericksburg lodge only once,

instead becoming active in the military lodges.

Before long, another engagement in the French and Indian Wars

allowed Washington's bravery to shine through and restored his briefly

tarnished reputation. The war had spread to Europe and claimed nearly

one million military casualties. The loss of pounds sterling was equally

distressing to England, which raised taxes. Unable to collect the necessary

taxes at home, Parliament turned to the colonies. The series of

repressive measures that would lead to the seizure of the Liberty, John

Hancock's ship, and to the beginning of revolution in Boston had their

roots in the actions of the French and English wars from years earlier.

Washington returned home from war to live the life of a country

gentleman. He was elected to the House of Burgesses on his third try—

possibly because of his engagement to the wealthy widow Martha

Dandridge Custis. Her 17,500 acres did much to increase his social

standing, and there is evidence that this is what the young military officer

sought in a marriage. Just before settling down, he visited another

young heiress, Eliza Philipse, for the last time. She was one of the inheritors

of a real-estate empire built by the profits earned from supporting

piracy. Washington had been courting Philipse for a while before her

family's Tory stance distanced them from the Washington family, which

was decidedly Whig.

While Boston's ancient lodges often represented the more common

working man, Virginia's lodges usually leaned toward the aristocratic

elite. Washington himself was no exception. When Washington's stepson

John Parke Custis attended Kings College in New York, the boy ate

with the faculty—a privilege not granted to any other student.13

After Washington was appointed military commander, he immediately

set out to create a real army. He asked the men of the various militia

groups to commit to an enlistment of one year, only to discover that

few were willing. In fact, the entire Connecticut militia decided to head

home. Washington wrote, "Such a dirty, mercenary spirit pervades."14

He then turned to his Masonic brethren for officers. He hoped that the

unity found in the lodge system could be brought to the ragtag continentals.

According to Lafayette, Washington "never willingly gave independent

command to officers who were not Freemasons." At least

twelve of the generals in Washington's army were Masons.15

Washington first looked for candidates from his own

Fredericksburg Lodge, later called the No. 4 Lodge, from which he

appointed several of his commanders. General Hugh Mercer of

Virginia, who would die of wounds at Princeton, was a Mason in the

Fredericksburg Lodge. Brigadier General William Woodford was a

member of the same lodge, while Brigadier General George Weedon

was made a Mason at the Port Royal Kilwinning Cross Lodge, which

was affiliated with Fredericksburg. Brigadier General Paul Muhlenberg,

who was a member of the Royal Arch Lodge No. 3 of Philadelphia, was

also from Virginia.

The British gave Washington a year to put together a fighting force.

Why they had not pursued the weak and nonunified colonials in New

England is one of the major questions of the American Revolution.

Instead they abandoned New England and made brief inconsequential

forays elsewhere in the colonies. Washington anticipated that New York

City was where the British would attempt to get serious, and he was

right. A massive fighting force of thirty-two thousand troops, the largest

the colonies had ever seen, was on its way to New York.

Washington had fortified Brooklyn Heights, only to be faced with

a force that threatened to end the war in one fell swoop. While

Washington made a mistake by positioning his troops with their backs

to the water, fishermen and sailors from Massachusetts rescued 9,500

men by ferrying them to Manhattan. At the same time, General Howe

stopped his advance and sipped tea for two hours in Murray Hill at the

residence of Mrs. Robert Murray. Washington continued his retreat to

White Plains, then across the Hudson to Fort Lee and west across New

Jersey. The British followed slowly.

The British clearly had the advantage: a superior land army complete

with nine thousand foreign mercenaries, a large navy, ample supplies,

a large treasury to buy more supplies, and even a large loyalist

population, the Tories, who aided their efforts. The Americans had an

inferior force, no navy, inadequate supplies, and no means to buy more.

Their own population had divided loyalties, as did their leaders. So how

did the Continental army defeat the British? The war was won by the

efforts of a handful of men, often bound by Masonic ties and sometimes

united by religious events, often operating illegally and almost always

acting in a self-serving way. In the end the crowning achievement, victory

at Yorktown, was accomplished by an audacious act of bribery that

was not atypical of the times.

Chapter 6

FRANKLIN AND THE MASONIC UNDERGROUND

One of the greatest untold stories of the American Revolution

involves the behind-the-scenes intrigues of Benjamin Franklin

and his European cohorts. Had it not been for Franklin's efforts to keep

the colonials supplied and funded and to bring French and Spanish

allies aboard, the war might not have turned out the same. Franklin

operated through Masonic groups in England and France, and his partners

in the pro-American war effort were more often than not hedonists,

occultists, Rosicrucians, slave traders, and spies.

Franklin had made his fortune by a young age, mostly through his

ownership of newspapers and Poor Richard's Almanack. He was a Quaker

but also had occult tendencies. Franklin could be called a pioneer of the

New Age, as he meditated every morning and evening, occasionally

practiced vegetarianism, and was concerned with life after death and

the possibility of reincarnation. He was a self-assured, happy extrovert

who popularized hard work and frugality while enjoying the high life

and a liberal sexual code. He enjoyed the company of women and

wrote about the joy of sex with older women.1

Franklin was a joiner and a founder who would start his own political

club, the Junto, as well as the Philosophical Society. He planned to

create the United Party for Virtue when he was introduced to Masonry.

The craft employed the ideals that Franklin valued, and it also attracted

him because of its esoteric roots. And being a Freemason had a practical

side; Franklin was able to observe how jobs and contracts were awarded

to other Masons in Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey. While it

had no social barriers, the craft did place an emphasis on assisting the

already elite gentlemen of the city. How else could a printer's apprentice

meet the Penns and Shippens of Philadelphia?

Franklin became a Freemason in the Lodge of Saint John in

Philadelphia in 1731. The lodge was made up of the leading merchants

of the city; in fact, 75 percent of its members were merchants or sea

captains.2 Franklin jumped in with two feet, using his intellect and his

printing presses to promote Masonry, writing pro-Masonry articles,

drafting the lodge's bylaws, and printing the first Masonic book in

America. Masonry brought him contacts and contracts, and he attributed

his being awarded the contract as assembly printer to his "friends

in the House."3 His fortunes soared in the ten years after his initiation.

As an independently wealthy publisher, Franklin was ever the student,

"majoring" in philosophy and "minoring" in politics. He rose to

master of his lodge and shortly afterward to grand master of the

province. He was among the first to speak out against taxation without

representation and went to England in 1754 for that purpose. It was

Franklin who drew up a plan of union that included a large house of

representatives.4

Franklin established firehouses, hospitals, libraries, and street lighting.

He was occasionally self-serving, and his post office was started in

part so his newspapers could be delivered for free. He owned eight

newspapers in places from New York to Antigua, including a Germanlanguage

newspaper in Pennsylvania. In 1748, at age forty-two, he

retired from the newspaper business to devote his life to his science and

politics, although he never stopped writing.5

While Franklin is remembered for his public works and practical

proverbs, another side of him is generally ignored. His world straddled

both the practical day-to-day existence among the new colonies and

the esoteric secrets of science. His connections to philosophers,

Rosicrucians, occultists, and especially Masons allowed Franklin to

move freely around all sides of the conflict.

THE HELLFIRE CLUB

Among the men Franklin met on his pre-Revolution travels to England

was Sir Francis Dashwood. Dashwood was the chancellor of the

exchequer and also the founder of his own society, the Dilettanti, and

later another semisecret group called the Friars of Saint Francis or the

Monks of Medmenham. Neither group bore any resemblance to a religious

order. Dashwood s parties were infamous and were said to have

included prostitutes dressed as nuns, satanic rites, goddess worship, and

orgies.

Dashwood was the son of a wealthy businessman, a Mason who was

initiated in Italy at a very early age and who married into aristocracy.

Dashwood sat in the House of Commons for more than twenty years

and held numerous posts, including chancellor of the exchequer, treasurer

to King George III, and postmaster general. This Mason's money

allowed him to rebuild his family's ancestral home in West Wycombe in

a way that would make Caligula proud—complete with statues of

Greek and Roman deities, ceiling murals inspired by ancient Rome,

and even a lake created to stage mock naval battles. The west wing of

the building was a re-creation of a classical temple to Bacchus, with

Dionysus and Ariadne in leopard-drawn chariots. Another room in

Dashwood's mansion was designed like a Masonic temple. His pagan

theme extended to the garden, with erotic depictions of classical gods

and goddesses in stone.

Nearby was the Abbey of Medmenham, which Dashwood also

modified into a pagan monument, with a carving over the front

entrance advising, "Do as thou will." The dining room, however, with

its statues of the Egyptian and Roman gods of silence, advised visitors

not to speak about their adventures. His strangest conversion was in

excavating a network of caves under West Wycombe Hill, where it is

said that his fellow "monks" could pair off with female guests. An

underground inner sanctum it is believed to have served as the setting

for Black Masses that were part of the entertainment.

Having been initiated in Masonry and dabbled in the black arts

while founding one society after another, Dashwood moved within the

highest circles in England, which became known as the Hellfire Club.6

He was, however, too strange for some. Once a member of a druidic

order founded in 1717 to revive the Celtic religion (members also

included the poet William Blake, a druid and the grand master of a

Rosicrucian order), Dashwood was expelled as the stories of the West

Wycombe activities spread.

In 1758 Franklin was in England and West Wycombe, and he and

Dashwood met to discuss their vision for the colonies. Franklin was

admitted into the Hellfire Club, where he mingled with luminaries

such as John Stuart, the Earl of Bute; John Wilkes, a radical politician,

member of Parliament, and later Lord Mayor of London; John

Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich; the son of the Archbishop of

Canterbury; and the Prince of Wales.

John Stuart, the third Earl of Bute, was born in Edinburgh and was

the first Scottish-born British prime minister. Educated at Eton and the

University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Stuart married Mary Wortley

Montagu. His status was elevated further when he met the Prince of

Wales at the races and became a member of his card-playing clique.

Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales, was the son of King George

II, who was then the ruler of England. George II detested his son, as did

the queen, and neither wanted anything to do with him, despite the fact

that he was heir to the throne.Young Frederick was small, frail, and ugly,

with a low receding forehead, bulging eyes, baggy eyelids, and a flabby

double chin. In effect, he was a Hanoverian.7 Frederick and his wife,

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, were evicted from Kensington.

Frederick found refuge in the weeklong orgies at West Wycombe, and

Princess Augusta would give birth to George III, the boy who would

be king during the revolution in the colonies.

John Wilkes, the young Parliament member, was, like Sam Adams,

the son of a malt distiller. He married a much older woman, the heiress

Mary Meade, for the convenience her money offered. She owned a

large estate at Aylesbury, although Wilkes spent little time there. Instead

he lived the lifestyle of many English aristocrats: as a rake and a gambler.

Wilkes soon lost his wife's fortune and then separated from her and

turned to politics. Despite his active participation in the Hellfire orgies,

he came to hate the English king and the Earl of Bute. When the earl

was made prime minister, a large number of members of Parliament

were unhappy, as Bute was considered incompetent. Wilkes in particular

turned on his old friends at the Hellfire Club and went public,

speaking out in Parliament against the monarchy and for a constitutional

government.

In his most famous speech, published in issue 45 of the North Briton,

a journal he distributed, Wilkes declared: "The prerogative of the crown

is to exert the constitutional powers entrusted to it in a way, not of blind

favor and partiality, but of wisdom and judgment. . . . The people too

have their prerogative." Interpreting the last line as an invitation to revolution,

the king had Wilkes imprisoned in the Tower, although his

Parliamentary immunity soon earned his freedom. After returning to

Parliament, Wilkes continued to write, and his later writings, which

mixed obscenity and power, earned him expulsion. In England and

America, however, Wilkes was viewed as a hero.8 In 1774 he was elected

Lord Mayor of London. The active Freemason served as a secret British

representative of the American Sons of Liberty and raised money for

the Continental Army, which would be passed through Franklin.

Another member of the Hellfire Club was the Earl of Sandwich,

John Montagu. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, well traveled, and an

active member of the Royal Society, Montagu was also a rake and a

gambler. He is rumored to have refused to leave the gaming tables even

to eat, instead placing meat between slices of bread and thus inventing

the sandwich. His personal life was as tragic as his public life was full of

accomplishments. His wife, Dorothy, left him while she was suffering

from progressive mental illness. His mistress, Martha Ray, was a popular

seventeen-year-old singer when they met. Montagu shared his home

with Ray for seventeen years, until the singer was murdered by a

deranged clergyman who wanted to marry her.

Montagu had several military appointments including Lord

Admiralty of the English navy. He was responsible for modernizing the

navy, but his navy still lost the Revolution to upstart American fighters

and their French allies. Montagu was almost immortalized when he

sponsored the expedition of Captain Cook, who discovered the

"Sandwich Islands" in the middle of the Pacific. The islands would later

undergo a name change, however, to Hawaii.

Sandwich met Dashwood in 1740 and became a member of the

Dilettanti and the Order of Saint Francis. Sandwich met Benjamin

Franklin when he headed the navy, and they became fast friends, as both

enjoyed the parties at their mutual friend s West Wycombe home. With

Montagu in charge of the navy, Dashwood in charge of the English mail

system, and Franklin heading the Committee of Secret

Correspondence, the men were an odd threesome.

At such an early period of the mail system, postmaster would also

mean "spymaster," as the chief postman had access to all the mail.

Franklin had been in England for years as an agent of Pennsylvania and

later as spokesman for America, and he was brought up on charges and

ordered before the Privy Council at the time England was receiving

news of the Boston Tea Party. Franklin was charged with attempting to

create an American republic, but he suffered only the loss of his office

as postmaster for the colonies. The spy was also being spied on, his own

mail being opened and read.

FRANKLIN IN FRANCE

The contributions of Franklin and the anti-Tory support in England

cannot be overestimated. From behind the scenes a propaganda war was

launched to keep English public opinion divided. When American

intelligence got wind of the hiring of Hessian mercenaries, Franklin

went into action. He worked with Jefferson to fight the Hessians on

two fronts. In Europe Franklin penned a letter allegedly written by a

German prince to his American commander, arguing that the British

figures for the Hessian dead were too low, and that he was being

cheated out of his payment for each of the dead soldiers. He encouraged

the officer to allow the wounded to die, rather than send home

crippled and thus burdensome wounded. In America Jefferson distributed

notices offering Hessian deserters land grants in the colonies. In

the end, more than five thousand Hessians deserted.

It is possible that friends in high places—and in low ones—helped

Franklin avoid being hanged as a traitor. He soon established his

Revolutionary War headquarters in Paris. Franklin and family did not

traffic with the common French people; instead they were wined and

dined, entertained, and boarded by the aristocracy. The high-born of

France and England were well acquainted with each other and the

backstage intrigues would frequently cause embarrassment to those

involved. One of Franklin's acquaintances, Caroline Howe, was the sister

of General Sir William Howe, who had fought at Quebec and was

rumored to be getting a command in America.9 Another brother,

Admiral Lord Richard Howe, was already the commander of the

British navy's efforts in the colonies. General Howe's sister brought

Howe and Franklin together, a move that led later to accusations against

General Howe.

Franklin understood the value of the people who plied the seas in

trade. They were an all-important means of supply and communication,

they were generally supportive of the cause of liberty, and

because almost all of them routinely broke the ever-changing series

of trade laws, they operated in secretive brotherhoods. Masonry ruled

the seas, and even Franklin needed an entry to gain the trust of

the merchants.

In France such connections were made through Sieur Montaudoin

of Nantes and Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg of Paris. When Franklin

reached France, he headed straight for the Masonic stronghold of

Nantes. The busy port was controlled by merchants, and few had any

intention of following the rules that hindered trade. They communicated

through a series of codes that kept outsiders from penetrating

their cabal. Nantes was also a slave-trading port—France's largest—and

the triangular trade that brought slaves and munitions to America

depended on the Caribbean merchants, who were often Americans.

The relations between French and American smugglers would be very

important in the fight for independence. The French slave traders were

heavily armed and often carried letters of marque that allowed them to

take a British ship. Franklin's new friends were valuable assets to the

American cause; Dubourg bought the badly needed supplies, which

were carried on Montaudoin's ships.

In Paris, Franklin's wartime acquaintances were all Masons, and they

helped gain him membership in three Masonic lodges. The most prestigious

was the Lodge of the Nine Sisters. Franklin was rapidly admitted

into the lodge, which was a nest of political activity. The lodge had committed

itself to the politics of the reform of French society. One of its

goals was to provide an alternative education system, which would take

control from the Catholic Church. Public lectures were given on history,

religion, and science at the lodge-sponsored College of Apollo. One

Masonic writer even credits Franklin with creating the Apollonian

Society to further his goal of uniting science and religion. Later revolutionary

zeal caused the college to rename itself the Lycee Republicain.

Members included the duc de La Rochefoucauld, who translated the

American Constitution into French,10 Captain John Reinhold Forster,

who would sail with Cook, and the philosopher Voltaire. Franklin, in fact,

would be present at the initiation ofVoltaire into the lodge in April 1778.

Dr. Edward Bancroft, a friend of Franklin's as well as an agent for Lord

Auckland, the head of the British spy network, was another member.

After the war, John Paul Jones was admitted into the order.

The intrigue that assisted Franklin in building his support network in

France defies full understanding. At once the high-ranking Masons of the

Lodge of the Nine Sisters appeared to be both pro-Church and anti-

Church. Many of the members met at the salon of the wealthy and

eccentric Anne-Catherine de Ligniville d'Autricourt Helvetius, who was

despised by John Adams and was also the target of Franklin's amorous

interests. Her salon was regularly attended by members of Catholic religious

orders and by men of business and science. Such an ambiguous circle

would have similar government and religious leanings.

Franklin, ostensibly a deist (a nonallied believer in God), was active

with the aristocracy in France who had desired a gradual move from

the monarchy. The most suitable form of government, they believed,

was a constitutional monarchy that maintained a king, as well as a strong

relationship with the Catholic Church.

The headquarters for this intrigue was at Saint-Sulpice in Paris.

Here met the priests who would later be ostracized because they

refused allegiance to the Revolutionary (anti-Catholic) state. Instead,

they allied themselves with the Knights of Malta, who also found themselves

threatened by the mob state and later by Napoleon. A cure of

Saint-Sulpice would one day be the confessor to the wife of the

Marquis de Lafayette, Marie Adrienne d'Ayen de Noailles. Lafayette

had fought for freedom from the tyrannical monarchy in England but

found new problems at home after the war. His refusal to take the oath

of the new government became a dividing line that forced the Lafayette

family to take a stance. They sided with the Catholic Church and paid

the price.

Many aristocrats and Church leaders literally lost their heads as a

result of the Revolution, which was as much against the Church as the

monarchy. But Saint-Sulpice and its secret Company of the Sacred

Sacrament survived. After the French Revolution, an order of the company

called the Ladies of the Sacred Heart enjoyed the support of the

d'Ayen family. Their duty was a constant devotion to the sacred sacrament,

an unveiled host. Every hour a sister would replace the last sister

in the perpetual vigil. Even this order of sisters was forced to operate in

secrecy.

Such steadfast devotion to the mysteries of faith contrasted with the

practical realism of men of science, but this was not an issue to Masonic

cabals like the Nine Sisters and religious centers of influence such as

Saint-Sulpice. Whatever Franklin's opinions might have been, he kept

them to himself. He had a role to play, namely the securing of supplies

for the struggling colonies. For this reason Franklin also joined the

Lodge of Saint Jean of Jerusalem, the Loge des Bons Amis," and a mysterious

conclave called the Royal Lodge of the Commanders of the

Temple West of Carcassonne. Such connections were invaluable, and

helped procure badly needed supplies that were then shipped on

Mason-owned ships such as the Jean Baptiste, which was named for

Masonry's greatest saint. Ninety percent of the gunpowder used by

Washington's army originated in France.

Through the efforts of Franklin and his Masonic collaborators in

Europe, other traders and even pirates joined the American war effort.

When the participation of the French merchants became known

among the merchant underground, the Dutch were quick to follow. As

a nation they had lost their command of the seas and their colonies to

the English. The Crommelin House of Amsterdam was more than

happy to tweak the nose of the English king and make a profit securing

gunpowder for the Americans.12 To maintain the appearance of

neutrality, Dutch ships sailed directly to the tiny island of Saint

Eustatius, where they would unload their cargoes of ammunition and

tea for the American ships. When British ships posted themselves in the

Netherlands' waters and British spies uncovered their mercantile plots,

the Dutch used Portugal as a go-between. Goods were shipped to

Portugal and then reshipped to the Caribbean. The British soon understood

the problem, but they had no solution. Rather than risk a further

breach in relations and face a war at home, they sat back and watched

as Dutch ships were repainted, changed flags, and transported their cargoes

to the Americans.

The British had larger problems than stopping the trade; the country

was concerned about the revolution and the war spreading to other

colonies. It may have been only the relative distance from the original

American colonies to some of England's other colonies that kept the

revolution from spreading. The West Indies, Canada, and the isolated

outpost of Bermuda all had their own interests, and their loyalty was

never a sure thing.

The Masonic underground that united one smuggler with another

bound Americans to their English cousins on Bermuda. Men like John

Hancock needed to maintain a certain amount of secrecy in order to

maneuver around the customs ships of the English, as well as the series

of constricting laws. Masonry provided the protection of a wide-ranging

brotherhood. To be able to make connections in the far-flung islands

from Bermuda to Barbados, a ship's captain or merchant needed to

connect to those he could trust. The Masonic brotherhood that existed

on the high seas allowed many to straddle religious and political conflicts

and survive. The Tuckers of Virginia and Bermuda are one example

of how duplicity, questionable loyalties, and blatant crimes didn't

impede prosperity—providing the right connections were in place.

THE TUCKER CLAN

The history of Bermuda is very much linked with American history.

Discovered first by the Spanish in 1503, the Isles of the Devil, as they

were called by Juan de Bermudez, remained unsettled for a hundred

years. King James I awarded a land grant to the islands to the Virginia

Company. In 1612 a group of sixty Englishmen became the first settlers.

From the earliest days of settlement the economy was based on

smuggling and piracy, tobacco trading and whaling. Freemason lodges

on Bermuda recently celebrated their two-hundred-year anniversary,

but the craft was established on the island for at least fifty years before

the Lodge Saint George officially received its warrant in August 1797.

The Earl of Strathmore, the grand master of the English lodges, had

appointed a provincial grand master for the islands around 1544. Lodge

Saint George is, however, the oldest continually working Scottish lodge

operating outside of Scotland. The prevalence of Masonry is visible

even today where the Customs House at Saint George resembles a

Masonic temple more than an official government building.

With an estimated one third of all trade in colonial Bermuda considered

smuggling, it was no small wonder that very strong connections

existed between the American colonies and Bermuda. In 1775 a small

delegation from Bermuda attended the Continental Congress in

Philadelphia. Bermuda remained loyal to the crown, but that did not

stop the residents from providing assistance.

The Tucker family of Bermuda and Virginia represented the leader

ship of the resistance movement. The Tucker dynasty traces its history

from the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror. Seven hundred

years later, as Britain expanded its role in the New World, the clan again

played a role in the invasion. The Tuckers landed in Charleston, South

Carolina,Virginia, and Bermuda, where they rose to power and privilege.

Colonel Henry Tucker was the agent for Bermuda during the

American Revolution. In July 1775 the Continental Congress gave

permission to trade foodstuffs for gunpowder. Washington told the congress

that his army would desperately need the gunpowder, while residents

of Bermuda desperately needed food. In August of the same year

two patriot ships rendezvoused with Colonel Tucker's men. The

Bermudians helped the Americans break into their own Fort William

to steal one hundred barrels of gunpowder, which were quickly loaded

on Bermuda whale ships and then transferred to American ships. The

gunpowder thieves were never apprehended, as England was afraid the

populace was looking for an excuse to join the American cause. It also

helped that Colonel Tucker's son was the governor of Bermuda, and

despite his potentially treasonous actions, he remained governor well

after Britain lost her colonies. In addition, the grandson of Colonel

Tucker, Henry St. George, became the chairman of the British East

India Company.

During the Revolution, American diplomat Silas Deane had recommended

that the island of Bermuda be used as a supply port and a

harbor that could keep America's very small navy provisioned and protected.

In exchange, the Bermudians would receive food. The island

provided the Americans with fast ships made of Bermuda cedar.

St. George Tucker was a Virginia relative of the Tucker clan with strong

business ties to the island, and he suggested a takeover of Bermuda to

George Washington in 1780.13 St. George would serve at Yorktown as

interpreter for Rochambeau; his help was apparently more valuable off

the battlefield, however, where the French commander needed help in

meeting women.

The combined efforts of the Tucker family in the Revolution,

which may have been considered treasonous from a British standpoint,

did little to tarnish Tucker's prestige. The Tucker House in Saint George,

which was named for Henry Tucker, the colonial treasurer and

Governor's Council president who purchased it in 1775, is a part of the

Bermuda National Trust and a current tourist attraction. The Tuckers'

prestige and connections helped them to survive almost any scandal.

"India Henry," as Henry St. George Tucker was known, spent six

months in jail for an "attempted rape" committed while he was chairman

of the British East India Company.14

John Randolph, the son of the prominent Virginia statesman (also

named John), and his wife, Nancy, were charged with the murder of

their infant child. Related to the Tucker clan, they too had the charm

of surviving any scandal. The Randolph "dream team" of lawyers

included Patrick Henry, Alexander Campbell, and John Marshall.15 The

Randolphs were acquitted of the murder.

In America the Tuckers married well. In 1778 St. George Tucker

married the widow of John Randolph (of the Jefferson-Randolph

clan). He received 1,300 acres on the Appomattox River. Ann Tucker

married Lyon Gardiner Tyler, son of the president and heir to the owners

of the pirate refuge at Gardiner's Island.

Wherever the Tucker family was prominent, it imported Scottish

Rite Masonry. In Bermuda the Tucker clan was instrumental in bringing

the Scottish Rite Freemasonry to prominence over the Grand

Lodge Masons. In Charleston, where belonging to the right lodges was

the ticket to mercantile wealth, Scottish Rite ruled. And in Virginia,

where the secessionist movement orbited around the College of

William and Mary, the Tuckers, the Tylers, and others who played key

roles in the Confederate side of the Civil War were prominent Masons.

It may have been Scottish Rite Masonry that allowed the individual

Tuckers to avoid the ultimate penalty for treason against the British from

their Bermuda base during the Revolution and again in the Civil War.

For example, Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, serving as the U.S. consul in

Liverpool, used his office to start constructing Confederate ships for use

against the government that paid him. During the war he was part of the

"Canadian cabinet" that instigated draft riots in U.S. cities. Tucker would

even be indicted for playing a role in the Lincoln assassination.16 But

somehow the charges were dropped, and when Tucker returned to the

United States, he served with the Pennsylvania Railroad as a lobbyist.

From Medmenham to Nantes and from Bermuda to Boston, the

men who were the forces behind the Revolution were not always

motivated by pure or singular interests. Of questionable morals and

unquestionably law breakers, many of these men were at least as corrupt

as those they fought against. The power of elite groups as well as

rank-and-file Masons, however justified, served to forever change the

political landscape of the eighteenth century.

Chapter 7

THE MERCHANTS OF WAR

While it is surprising that those who played major roles in the

war abroad had to turn to Masons, occultists, slave traders, and

smugglers for support, it was hardly different back in the colonies. Men

like Sam Adams, George Washington, and Patrick Henry would risk life,

liberty, and property for the cause, but the motivations of others were

not as pure. When war with England became a reality, many American

merchants lined up to make their fortunes. People who built fortunes

from the importation of arms and supplies included New York's

Livingston clan, Marblehead's Elbridge Gerry, Philadelphia's Stephen

Girard, Boston's Thomas Cushing, and Virginia's Benjamin Harrison.1

Benjamin Franklin put together what became known as the Secret

Committee. Gaining an appointment to it was getting a license to steal,

or at least to overcharge. The Secret Committee was supplied with an

immense amount of funds from the newly formed Congress, and it was

made up of merchants who knew the ropes and were not above breaking

the laws for their own gain. These men were responsible for keeping

the colonies supplied. The first chairman of the Secret Committee

was the business partner of Robert Morris, Thomas Willing. The first

contract went to his own firm, which raised an outcry from the other

merchants and members of the new Congress.

Despite the criticism Morris, at age forty-one, became the greatest

supplier of military goods in the war. He was born in Liverpool, the son

of a Chesapeake merchant. After his father's death he joined the firm of

Willing and Company; he later became a partner. The firm of Willing

and Morris had a fleet of merchant ships in the West Indies, which

meant they participated in the underground economy that thrived

under a mass of complex and ever-changing rules and regulations. The

partners both had reputations for being clever and honest, as smuggling

was not considered a dishonest act. While Franklin realized that the

combination of the firm's experience in the Caribbean trade and their

network of agents around the world made Willing and Morris capable

of transacting the business, Congress estimated that the firm would be

making an exorbitant gain at the same time. Morris, in fact, wrote to an

associate remarking that he stored powder until prices improved before

delivering it to Congress.2 Merchants did not see any moral dilemma

in making a profit while defending the country.

It did not help that the very first assignment went badly. The commissioned

ship, the Lion, reportedly could not find any goods to be

bought in Europe and returned empty It was highly suspicious that a

seasoned captain would return with an empty hold from such a long

voyage. Morris offered to return the thirty thousand pounds sterling

(eighty thousand American dollars) advanced by the Congress, but

instead a new assignment was given.3

The second assignment went better. Ammunition and powder were

bought in England, shipped to Saint Eustatius, and then sent to the

colonies. The firms taking the contracts were entitled to 2 1/2 percent on

both the exported goods and the imported supplies. It was actually a

very small commission considering the risk that the ship's owners were

taking. This did not stop the committee from handing the contracts to

their own firms, to friends, and to family. Robert Morris was quick to

learn which angles could maximize profits and minimize losses—such

as shipping the firm's goods alongside goods that Congress was paying

for aboard American warships. Morris and Willing are not on record as

ever having paid the freight for their company's exports of indigo and

rice to France. Having Congress pay the insurance for the entire cargo

of the ships was an opportunity Morris could not pass up.

Franklin, with his great experience as a Philadelphia business leader

and his connections with English and American merchants, was quick

to recognize the talent and administrative abilities of Morris. Congress

would soon come around to accept Morris as the best man it had.

It comes as no surprise that other members of the committee,

which included Silas Deane of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston,

John Alsop, John Dickinson, and Francis Lewis of New York, gave the

assignments to themselves or to friends. The Browns of Providence

increased their slave-trading fortune by war profiteering. Samuel Otis,

Thomas Cushing, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts also participated

in profiteering. Arthur Lee, a Virginia planter, was the biggest

critic of the commercial side of arms procurement, in part because he

mistrusted merchants. His brother William, however, took part in the

double-dealing with speculations of his own. But the greatest amount

of mud being slung at the profiteers was directed at Silas Deane.

DEANE AND LAFAYETTE

Silas Deane was born in 1737 in Groton, an early seaport town on Long

Island Sound. His father was a blacksmith. Deane, however, managed to

put himself through Yale and was admitted to the bar. Teaching school

in Hartford while also practicing law, Deane's career path took a dramatic

turn when he settled the estate of Joseph Webb. Whether it was

opportunity or love, the young lawyer met and married Webb's wealthy

widow, Mehitabel. Her family was active in the West Indies trade, and

Deane gave up teaching and the law. Instead he began making voyages

to the West Indies and learning the trade. After his first wife died, he

married Elizabeth Saltonstall, the granddaughter of a governor and

daughter of a general. While her family had also been active merchants,

their political influence was greater and the opportunist Deane went

into politics. A member of the new Congress and a merchant, Deane

was in the right place at the right time to get assignments as a munitions

supplier.

When Deane lost his congressional seat because of a dispute with

fellow Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, Deane's close friend

Morris found a better assignment for him: He went to Europe as an

envoy to the French and a merchant, and his mission was to enlist the

French in the American cause, or at least to procure supplies for the

war. By some accounts Deane exaggerated his accomplishments with

the French, but he did well in the war supplies department, where he

was entitled to a 5 percent commission. At home his enemies grew and

Congress not only failed to pay his commissions but also charged him

with misappropriating funds. His letters to a British correspondent suggesting

a negotiated settlement of the war earned him the accusation of

treason. When Deane finally left Europe to return home, he was

gripped with a violent abdominal attack that led to his death within

hours. It was believed that he was poisoned by the British double agent

Dr. Edward Bancroft.

Whatever truth is in the accusations of Deane's detractors, he

deserves credit as well. Early in the war Deane contracted for thirty

thousand rifles, four thousand tents, thirty mortars, and clothing for the

troops. He was responsible for the introduction of more than one young

French aristocrat to the American cause. One of Congress's problems

with Deane was his giving of contracts to French officers who desired

high ranks and believed they were getting them by enlisting in the

American cause. One such officer was Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette. Born in 1757, Lafayette's

father was killed in the battle of Minden at the age of twenty-seven by

a battery commanded by the English general Phillips. Lafayette was

only two at the time, but he was destined to get revenge. Twenty-two

years later he commanded a battery in Richmond, Virginia, and

bombed a house where General Phillips reposed.4

The future major general was raised by his mother and grandfather,

but they too met an early demise when Lafayette was thirteen. He was,

however, one of the wealthiest men in France and had advisers who

looked after his numerous holdings. At fourteen he was committed to

an arranged marriage with his 12 1/2-year-old cousin, Marie Adrienne

d'Ayen de Noailles, and they soon set up home in Paris.

De Noailles's family was equally noble and of ancient lineage. Her

grandfather was the Marechal duc de Noailles, which gave him a

hereditary right to maintain his own cavalry regiment. Lafayette and his

brother-in-law, the Viscount of Noailles, met for dinner in August 1775

with the Duke of Gloucester, who was the brother of King George III.

In a candid moment the duke announced that the insurgency in

America could actually escalate and provoke France to start new hostilities

against England. The marquis and the viscount called on a third

relative, the comte of Segur, who married into the d'Ayen family, with

their plan to join in the fray. The trio, dubbed the Three Musketeers by

their family, quickly rushed to the home of Silas Deane to enlist.

The young marquis had the rank of captain of the reserves when

he sailed to America. Described as an overgrown boy stuffed into a

handsome uniform, he was pudgy, red-haired, and already balding and

had a long nose. He supposedly proclaimed, "The moment I heard of

America, I loved her; the moment I heard she was fighting for freedom,

I burned with desire of bleeding for her." Such sentiment, as well as a

shipload of munitions and supplies, endeared him to Congress and

especially to General Washington. Washington and Congress may have

also been endeared to the family that Lafayette brought with him: His

brother-in-law, Viscount Louis-Marie de Noailles, also came to the

colonies and was second in command to one of France's legendary

fighting units, the Soissonnais. Lafayette was commissioned a major

general, one of the highest ranks in the Continental army. When he was

wounded at Brandywine, Washington instructed the surgeon, "Treat

him as if he was my son."5

The meeting of Washington and Lafayette began a long friendship,

and Washington lived to repay the favors. When the marquis's ideas on

liberty and equality backfired in a faction-driven madness that is called

the French Revolution, only funds from America bought Lafayette's

release from prison.

Although Lafayette served with distinction and earned the respect

of the regiment he was given to command, not all such foreign volunteers

were welcomed. Massachusetts was a closed society that admitted

few to its cliques. While New York City was an open society at the close

of the eighteenth century, Boston was always English. Prejudice against

Irish and Italian immigrants would arise later, but in the colonial period

simply being from Scotland was a barrier. Masonry would overcome

that hurdle.

JOHN PAUL JONES

John Paul Jones is an odd hero. He was born John Paul in

Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1747, at a time when there was not a world

of opportunity awaiting those who stayed home. His father was a gardener

who was married to a housekeeper, and they were both

employed on the estate of William Craik. Many believed John Paul's

real father was James Craik, the son of William. Craik and John Paul's

mother, Jean, got married a day apart to other people, and Craik provided

Jean with a cottage to start her new family. Even biographer

Samuel Eliot Morison points out that Craik's activities "suggested"

Jean's relationship with him was as more than housekeeper.6 From

birth a cloud hung over John Paul because of his unclear parentage. At

age fourteen he started his career aboard a ship engaged in the Barbados

trade of rum, sugar, and humans. By age seventeen he was a third mate

on a blackbirder, the term for a slave ship, having proved himself able at

sea. He would sail aboard slavers for another two years before quitting

the "abominable" trade. It was not as much the morality that assaulted

his sensibilities as it was the smell. A slave-trading ship that confined

sometimes hundreds of men and women in its hold without sanitary

facilities could be smelled for miles away.

Upon sailing home from Kingston, Jamaica, the master and mate of

Paul's ship died, so he brought back the ship on his own. In doing so

he earned the appointment of master, a great achievement at the early

age of twenty-one. Paul did all he could to live the part. He tried to

drop his rural Scottish accent and he learned to read and write well—

in fact, better than his peers. He dressed the part of an officer and

sought out the company of other officers. He also enforced discipline.

At five foot five inches tall, command did not always come easy

for Paul. Over the course of his career, he would more than once

single-handedly quell a mutiny. Discipline, however, had its risks. On an

early voyage as captain, Paul ordered the son of a wealthy merchant

whipped three separate times. The man pressed charges, of which Paul

was acquitted, but later died aboard another ship heading back to

Scotland. The father then pressed further charges against Paul and had

him arrested. Again Paul was cleared, but he came to understand the

value of connections.

Within days of his release from the Tolbooth jail, Paul applied and

was accepted to the Saint Bernard Lodge of Freemasons in

Kirkcudbright. As a member of that lodge, he was welcome to visit and

sometimes find accommodations in other lodges around the world. He

also made connections in the lodges that would advance his career and

even save his life.

Three years later, Paul was again charged with murder. His version

was that the leader of a mutinous crew was about to hit him with a club

when he ran the man through with his sword. The incident occurred

on Tobago, where the small population of whites was mostly Scottish

and the lieutenant governor was a friend. However, the young captain

chose to flee. He disappeared for two years and then turned up in

Virginia with the new surname Jones. Most likely he hid in Edenton,

North Carolina, where he had a hometown friend, Robert Smith. He

then moved to Virginia, where Robert's brother James, also from

Kirkcudbright, was a shipowner and an officer in the local Masonic

lodge.

With a new name and a new life, Jones found safety and acceptance

in Scotchtown, Virginia. Smith was a partner in a shipping firm with

Joseph Hewes, who would become Jones's patron throughout the

Revolution. Another friend was Dr. John K. Read, who was related to

Ben Franklin's wife and was also active in Masonry. Jones knew Patrick

Henry and would compete for the hand of Dorothea Dandridge in

marriage. When war broke out, Jones called on Hewes and another

Kirkcudbright Mason, David Sproat, for an appointment in the first

American navy.

Before meeting the enemy, Jones had many battles to fight. He

encountered hostility from the New England bluebloods who resented

a Scotsman; in fact, they resented anyone who was not a Saltonstall or

a Winthrop who rose above his caste. Incompetents such as Dudley

Saltonstall, brother-in-law of Silas Deane, who was descended from the

Winthrops, received command instead of an upstart like Jones. It was

only after others proved their incompetence that Jones received choice

ships. Another battle was finding men. The American navy paid less than

it did to sailors aboard the privateers. When a prize was taken, a privateer

sailor could get twice the share.

Jones overcame his first hurdle by lodging with Boston Masons

such as Thomas Russell and Abraham Livingston and Portsmouth

Masons like John Wendell. Wendell was a member of the very important

Saint John's Lodge of Portsmouth and introduced Jones. Jones in

return hired Wendell's son, David Wentworth Wendell, cousin to both

John Hancock and John Adams, as a midshipman. Repaying Abraham

Livingston would be tougher, as Livingston "ordered" twelve cases of

claret, a Chinese tea set, tableware, decanters, glasses, almonds,

anchovies, capers, and olives from Jones's voyage to Europe.

The second hurdle was overcome by "impressing" sailors, forcing

them into service at pirate hideouts like Tarpaulin Cove in the

Elizabeth Islands. It didn't win him friends, and in fact almost caused his

arrest in Providence until he pulled his sword on the local sheriff.

Jones made his career in Europe, shocking England with attacks on

her ports and ships. Timing is everything, and Jones's timing was excellent.

France was beginning to question the American chance at independence

when news of Jones's exploits hit. When Jones landed in

France he was the toast of the town and was accepted in France's most

prestigious Mason group, the Lodge of the Nine Sisters. Benjamin

Franklin and Voltaire were also brothers of this mysterious group, which

met at Saint-Sulpice.

Jones spent his time in France accepting medals, dining with his

new Mason brethren, and shopping for war supplies and tableware. After

having denied Virginian Arthur Lee passage home because of his enormous

baggage and retinue of servants, Jones made a new enemy. Once

home he had to answer to charges of delaying the needed war supplies.

His hero status allowed him to answer in an abbreviated style, avoiding

mention of anything but the condition of his ship.

The war was then being fought on several fronts. Washington's

Continental army went from one defeat to another, retreating across the

rebel country, while the British took advantage of the loyalist Scottish

Tory factions in the south to demoralize the American forces. In

Europe, American agents like Franklin and Deane labored behind the

scenes to find America friends. And at home a handful of wealthy elite

took advantage of their appointments to build fortunes.

BENJAMIN HARRISON

Benjamin Harrison was a Virginia aristocrat whose family had prospered

most likely from both being politically connected and being one

of the first families in Virginia. From 1632, when the first Harrison

landed, the family was represented in Virginia's governmental body, the

House of Burgesses, By the time of the Revolution the Harrisons'

property, called the Berkeley Hundred, was a kingdom within the state.

A one-and-a-half-mile road bisecting the property wound past tobacco

fields and slave quarters before reaching the great Harrison mansion.

Benjamin Harrison was by this time related to every aristocratic

Virginia family, including the Lees, the Carters, and the Byrds. Besides

being a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a governor of

Virginia,7 he was also a secret partner in the Willing and Morris firm.

In 1776, with the war just starting, Harrison the planter and Willing

and Morris the merchant traders bought most of the American tobacco

crops. The prices were low because everyone believed shipping the

product to Britain for sale would be impossible at a time when a war

was happening. But Morris and Harrison understood that at the same

time that prices were falling in Virginia they were rising in England.

Tobacco represented half the value of America's exports, and the stakes

were huge. Morris hired ships from New England, Deane insured them,

remarkably, in London, and they set sail. They did not have to go far;

the free-trade market in Saint Eustatius was the market. This helped

make Morris extremely rich during a time when he was competing

against the Secret Committee, on which he served.8

Harrison fathered seven children, including William Henry

Harrison, who became the ninth president. William's record in the War

of 1812 and the family's patrician status helped him gain notice. The

publicity surrounding his involvement in the small skirmish called

Tippecanoe might have gotten him elected, but Harrison wasn't really

a war hero. He had marched his thousand-man force against a Shawnee

village half the size in a punitive measure. Despite his force being twice

the size and his army losing more men in battle than did the Shawnee,

Harrison claimed victory. The media took his word for it, and he was

considered a hero. His campaign for the presidency was not going so

well until he came to Richmond on a stop. There a pickpocket being

hauled off to jail yelled "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," which became

Harrison's campaign slogan. Harrison was soon elected America's shortestterm

president.9

Harrison's administration lasted only one month, as he became the

first of two presidents to cross the Cotton Whigs. Both Harrison and

Zachary Taylor died of stomach distress after very public events.

Harrison's death, first declared to be from a stomach ailment, was later

blamed on his catching a cold during the inaugural address. Taylor's

death was blamed on his eating cherries and drinking milk. Both deaths

conveniently paved the way to significant policy changes in

Washington.

The family wealth and status remained, and the great-grandson of

Declaration signer Benjamin Harrison, who was also named Benjamin,

would become president. At the time, Harrison s party was divided. At

its convention the party went through seven ballots without a leader. At

the critical moment James Blaine, who has been credited with putting

the previous president, Grover Cleveland, in the White House, sent a

cable from Scotland that read, "Take Harrison." Because he was

perceived as a man who could be manipulated, Blaine got the job of

Secretary of State. Benjamin Harrison, like his grandfather, would

deliver his long inaugural address in a March rain, but he survived. His

accomplishments are few. His pet causes were high tariffs, banning Asian

immigration, and overthrowing the government of Hawaii in order to

annex the territory.

ELBRIDGE GERRY

Elbridge Gerry was one of the Marblehead aristocracy. In a time when

and a place where merchant shipping paved the way to wealth, Gerry's

father was a wealthy and politically active merchant shipper. His mother

was the daughter of a British merchant. Marblehead was known more

as a fishing port, and a great deal of the Gerry business was shipping

codfish to Barbados to be used as food for the newly imported slaves.

Before the war Marblehead rivaled Salem in importance, and Gerry was

one of its richest citizens.

As a man of wealth who was dependent on trade, legal or otherwise,

Gerry did not agree with the growing anti-British feeling building

in Boston. He was outraged by the Boston Tea Party and left his

low-level political job as a result. Under the influence of Sam Adams,

however, Gerry returned to politics. But like Hancock, his motives were

often designed to increase his pocketbook. He served as the chairman

of the Committee of Supply, a post that suited him perfectly. In addition,

he sat on a congressional board that regulated finances. When

Congress was stingy in doling out money to suppliers like Gerry, he

walked out. He became considered the "soldier's friend" for his

demands for better equipment and supplies, although he did nothing in

the debate for soldiers' pensions. During the war Gerry could not have

been luckier. The British closed the harbor of Boston, yet somehow

they left Marblehead alone. Marblehead's importance soared as patriots

around the colonies donated goods for Boston and Gerry shipped

them.

Haughty and aristocratic, Gerry was never popular among the

Massachusetts voters. His interest had always been in his own wealth

and property. The night of the British march against Lexington and

Concord, Gerry hid in a cornfield in his nightclothes. Before the Battle

of Bunker Hill he tried to persuade Dr. Joseph Warren, the president of

the Provincial Congress, from joining the battle.10 Warren said to Gerry,

"Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori," meaning "it is a sweet and glorious

day to die for one's country." Warren then went to his death. Gerry

didn't.

Although he was publicly for independence, Gerry had his doubts

about signing the Declaration. Benjamin Harrison joked with Gerry

about the danger of signing, saying his own weight would ensure a

quicker death at the gallows than the slender Gerry's.11 Gerry may have

taken this to heart, as he was absent when the Declaration was signed;

he put his signature on the document months later. Gerry's strongest

effort in the Provincial Congress was getting the Congress to issue letters

of marque. This allowed shipowners like him to legally capture

British ships and profit from the goods seized.

To keep himself and his favorite politicians in office, Gerry redrew

the lines of various districts to manipulate the effect of the vote. One

district was drawn to resemble a salamander, and the term gerrymander

entered the vocabulary.

THE CUSHING FAMILY

The Cushings represented the American aristocracy. Thomas Cushing

was an active merchant and a political ally of Sam Adams's father.

Cushing, whose nickname was Death's Head,12 saw no need to separate

politics from profit. As a businessman he attempted to serve both

"gods." He gathered intelligence information on the Tories but was

sometimes reluctant to share it. He was equally reluctant to elevate the

conflict, and checking the "violent designs of others" was his goal

before the war.

The men in charge of supplying the military might today be accused

of allowing themselves excessive commissions and profits. In the

eighteenth century it was almost expected that these men and their

friends would use their posts for personal gain. While Cushing and Gerry

made fortunes in the war effort, those who supplied them thought nothing

of marking up goods 500 percent. The smaller merchants saw little

wrong in selling to the British as well, and in overcharging the French,

who had entered the war to save the colonists' efforts.13

The Cushing clan raised self-interest to the most treasonous levels.

After making profits during the war, the Cushings, led by Caleb Cushing,

acted in a step-by-step method to defeat the interest of the United States

and to enrich themselves. Caleb Cushings mentor was John Lowell, who

served as an agent for many of the wealthy British forced out of Boston.

He would go on to play a leading role in New England's Essex Junto,

which attempted to incite the region to secede from the newly formed

United States because the merchants did not like the policies of Jefferson.

Shortly after going to work for Lowell, Cushing married the daughter of

a leading member of the secessionist movement.

Cushing became a power broker and apparently would stop at

nothing to turn a profit. He was a one-man Masonic conspiracy. As a

thirty-third-degree Mason of the Scottish Rite, he used his influence to

enrich himself, bring his country to war against China and Mexico, and

finally lead the United States to the breakup of the Union. Publicly

Cushing was an abolitionist, yet at the same time he fought for the

annexation of Texas, which most of the northern states feared would

tip the balance in the conflict. Cushing, as a Cotton Whig, saw no problem

in a divided Union if trade with England was secure. That trade

depended on cheap cotton as a key export; cheap cotton depended on

cheap labor. Soon after it became obvious that President Harrison had

no intention of furthering the cause of annexation, he was dead. Not

everyone believed it was from natural causes.

A book titled The Adder's Den was published in 1864. The author,

John Smith Dye, claimed that the agents of the pro-slavery South had

poisoned Harrison to put Tyler in the White House. Harrison had been

a farmer, had served in the army, had marched through wilderness for

months at a time, and had fought as a soldier. It would seem unlikely

that spending two hours in the rain could lead to his death. After the

suspicious death of President Harrison, the accidental president John

Tyler appointed Caleb Cushing to be Secretary of the Treasury.

Cushing, however, was not liked or trusted, and the Senate rejected his

nomination. Tyler then appointed him as a commissioner to China.

Cushing's family was made wealthy by the opium trade in China.

Shortly after the British began a war against China to impose its right

to sell the country opium, Caleb Cushing ordered American ships to

enter Canton with guns blazing to further humble China. His next act

was to push for war against Mexico. Admitting Texas and other states to

the Union as "slave states" helped slavery to continue. New England

and the Brahmin families depended on the South s ability to provide

cheap cotton. The cotton could then be spun into textiles in New

England's mills, of which Lowell was the preeminent force.

When support was needed to rally certain Southern states against

the abolitionist movement, Cushing dispatched other New Englanders

to the South. Albert Pike, from Cushing's home base in Newburyport,

Massachusetts, was sent to Arkansas. He too would be raised to the

thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite, and he played a key role in formation

of the Ku Klux Klan. Another friend, John Quitman of New

York, was sent to Mississippi, where he started Scottish Rite

Freemasonry and a secessionist movement.

After the war against Mexico, Cushing invited his Mexican war

generals, including Jefferson Davis, to Massachusetts, where he

informed them that he wanted Franklin Pierce to be president. Zachary

Taylor had been the hero of the Mexican War but had alienated the

Cotton Whigs by opposing the extension of slavery into California.

Nevertheless, he was elected. After sixteen months in office, Taylor participated

in the decidedly Masonic dedication of the obelisk known as

the Washington Monument. He allegedly became sick after eating cherries

and drinking milk and died shortly afterward. Again a war hero

who had survived both the travail and the rigors of war was brought

down by a simple problem.

Cushing still played a strong behind-the-scenes role in the

Buchanan White House, and once war became inevitable he supported

Lincoln. Despite the fact that he had planted men in the South to lead

the way to secession, Cushing's duplicity was never enough to keep him

out of government.

STEPHEN GIRARD

Stephen Girard started his career as a pilot of a French ship in the

Caribbean trade. His first voyage was aboard the Pelerin to Port-au-

Prince in Saint Domingue.This slave port was one of the capitals of the

triangle trade. Slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar

plantations. Sugar was the return cargo, having been produced there for

almost two hundred years, when the Portuguese built many of the mills.

The pilot was the man in charge of the trading, and he was often given

carte blanche by the ship's owner to make a profit in any way he could.

Selling the sugar to the American colonies brought higher prices

because the trade had been outlawed by the British.

Girard made six such voyages before being promoted to captain.

On his last trading voyage from France he decided he had done poorly,

as commodity prices had dropped. Instead of returning to France with

a less-than-profitable stake for his backers, he simply sold the goods and

kept the money. With the ill-gotten proceeds he took on a cargo of

sugar and brought it to New York. There he joined Thomas Randall in

the New Orleans trade, but it was the British blockade that would

finally plant Girard in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love was

especially warm toward its Masonic brothers, and Girard, who had

become a Mason in Charleston, quickly joined his city's lodge. The

lodge would serve as an old boys' club for merchants like John

Wanamaker and ship captains like Girard.

An ugly man with one bad eye, Girard married a penniless Irish

maiden, Mary, at age twenty-seven. Five months into the marriage he

caught her cheating with a British colonel. His brother visited and left

him with a black concubine called Hannah, whom he would name in

his will. His wife was committed.

During the Revolution the wealthy merchant and shipowner added

to his fortune by acting as a privateer for the American side while also

trading with the British. Girard had taken an oath of allegiance to the

colonies, but his allegiance had been first and foremost to himself. His

treasonous trade with the British, his participation in the slave trade, and

his later role in the opium trade made him the fourth richest American

ever.14

After the war Girard hired a new eighteen-year-old mistress. His

wife, who was still in the asylum, gave birth to a daughter he never

would meet.

Girard's fortune grew, as he was a pioneer in the China trade.

Biographer George Wilson says, "He eventually derived more profits

from the China trade than any of those who were in on the ground

floor."15 When the British were banned by the Chinese government

from smuggling opium into the country, American ships such as

Girard's took up the trade. Girard raised capital through a British banking

house, Baring Brothers, to finance his entry. From both legitimate

trade and smuggling Girard became one of America's richest men.

During the War of 1812 he put up half of the sixteen million dollars

the country needed to get through the conflict, charging his country a

10 percent commission.

At age seventy-seven Girard hired his fourth and last live-in maid

and mistress. He lived four more years. His will provided generously for

those who worked for him; housekeepers, servants, and sea captains all

received lifetime incomes. Girard's Masonic lodge received twenty

thousand dollars. The orphans of Philadelphia received a school to

house and educate them that remains to this day. Today Girard's living

will is still more than two hundred million dollars.

The American army marched from one defeat to another and was

forced to subsist on minimal rations and without proper uniforms or

even shoes. At the same time the American procurement effort was in

the hands of Cushing, Gerry, Girard, and other profiteers who thought

nothing of cheating and overcharging their own side. The British side,

however, had no shortage of self-serving and inept politicians and military

leaders who managed to steal defeat out of the jaws of victory on

several occasions. The responsibility was then left to the French, and in

particular a small circle of French aristocrats and Masons, to tip the

scales.

Chapter 8

THE BRIBE THAT WON THE WAR

The story of how one French aristocrat may have been responsible

for the American victory has never before been told.

The American Revolutionary War is an illustrious tale of victorious

moments. The first was the remarkable turning point at Saratoga, which

served as the catalyst for bringing in America's potential allies. The second

was the surprise crossing of the Delaware at Christmas, where the

ragtag starving American army defeated the well-trained, wellequipped

Hessians. The climax came at Yorktown, where the Americans

and their new allies, the French, surrounded the army of General

Cornwallis.

Students of the war, however, see another side. They see the few

victories weighing against the multiple losses of the Americans through

Brooklyn, Manhattan, and White Plains; the English chasing

Washington from one defeat to another; the starvation and deprivation

of untrained continentals, and their subsequent desertion and mutiny.

The army of freedom fighters was half destroyed in battle and nearly

finished off by starvation and sickness, but the colonies were still populated

by many who were not loyal to the new cause. Tories dominated

the population of eastern Long Island, where the British army was able

to buy cattle. New Jersey was mostly Tory and provided food for the

English army while Washington starved across the river in Pennsylvania.

Tory landowners dominated the Carolinas, their loyalty often to their

personal pocketbooks, which were closely tied to England. Many

Americans, while loyal to the cause of liberty, still put their personal fortunes

first, denying food to Washington's army and refusing the

Continental as a currency.

Despite the state of the economy, the constant defeats in skirmish

after skirmish, and the loss of most of the American army to disease, capture,

and desertion, the outcome of the war was an outstanding victory.

The serious student might be led to wonder just how this was possible.

There is a third side of the story that might seem even stranger. Sir

William Fraser once said, "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the

playing fields of Eton." His statement refers to the school where

England's future leaders were trained. It may be valid to paraphrase

Fraser when discussing how the Revolutionary War was won: The battle

of Yorktown was lost on the playing tables of a London gambling

house known as White's.

HIGH SOCIETY IN LONDON

At a time where the sun never set on Britain's empire, London society

may have been at its most decadent. It was the largest city in the world

and England, of course, was the master of the ocean. While the poor

starved in the streets, the upper crust of society delighted in heavy

drinking, wild gambling, practical jokes, and bawdy behavior. As the

world's largest port city, there could be as many as eight thousand ships

in the Thames at any one time. The number of drinking houses and

brothels to serve the thousands of sailors and officers was staggering.

The upper classes distanced themselves from the lower classes even in

partaking of London's vices.

From an establishment called Shakespeare's Head, a Covent Garden

tavern popular with sea captains and directors of the British East India

Company, John Harris published a list of the better prostitutes and

where their services could be found.1 But for those at the pinnacle of

London society, there were gentlemen's clubs.

The fashion of eighteenth-century London gentlemen was to

belong to one or more of the gentlemen's clubs. Many of them moved

from place to place; others were anchored in a specific tavern or hall. A

handful of the clubs were as spectacular as modern-day casinos, and

becoming a member was everything to the aristocratic class. Almack's,

Brooke's, and White's were among the top clubs. Almack's had a large

ballroom that could accommodate seventeen hundred of London's

fashionable dandies. Gaining admittance was important to London's

young social scene, and the Duke of Wellington was once turned away

because he arrived in trousers rather than the required knee breeches.

Women were admitted at Almack's, and it became a marriage mart for

London's most eligible.

The main attraction of the gentlemen's clubs was gambling. At a

time when the average wage earner was paid a pound a week, it was

not uncommon to see ten thousand pounds sterling on the table.

Brooke's and White's were strictly men's clubs, and the chief amusement

was gambling. They kept an open betting book where one could wager

on anything, and seats at the card tables were occupied all night. Whist,

loo, faro, and hazard were the favorite games, and the size of the wagers

ruined many of England's young elite.

White's and Brooke's would occasionally attract members divided

by politics, and in the years before the American Revolution Brooke's

was regarded as a Whig club and White's a Tory club. White's members

included the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Rockingham.

Brooke's members included Charles James Fox, Lord Robert Spencer,

and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Charles Fox may epitomize London's macaronis. Born with the

proverbial silver spoon, Fox's wealth brought him election to the House

of Commons at the age of nineteen. At the time of his election he was

traveling throughout the Continent, so he did not suffer the boredom

of a campaign. In fact, according to his own letters, he was laid up with

a bout of the clap in Nice. Back in London, Fox would spend days hopping

from Brooke's to White's to Almack's to other clubs, where a bad

night might cause a loss of ten to fifteen thousand pounds and a good

night might see its return.

While the Fox family fortune supported such excess, the same

could not be said of all of the young dandies who made up the Saint

James Club scene of London. A massive gambling debt incurred at the

gaming tables of White's in London led to the bribery of the one man

whose role would be so pivotal in the final outcome of the

Revolutionary War: Sir George Brydges Rodney.

Born into a Somerset family that traced its lineage for twenty generations,

Rodney studied at Harrow. Like many other naval commanders

of his day, he left school at an early age, twelve, to train in the navy.

But prestige and profit did not always go hand in hand. An elegant,

handsome figure, Rodney was a rake and a gambler without any of the

inherited wealth to pay off his losses. The young dandy lost his family's

fortune on the playing tables of White's.

Even worse than his losses were the debts he incurred. Rodney

planned to go to sea in order to share in the booty that was promised

to the commanders. In one early action in the West Indies he was able

to partially repair his finances. While the income bought him time, the

sea would disappoint him as much as the gaming tables of White's.

Rodney spent his remaining funds to get into Parliament, but even this

campaign failed. His debts were all too often to men in office, and his

connections soon became a detriment to his career.

Unable to stay away from White's or regain his finances, Rodney

was forced to flee London and his creditors. While in exile in France he

heard that he had been picked to head the British navy. But he owed

French creditors as well, and was told he would have to pay off his debts

before he left. The prospects were gloomy indeed. Even if he found

enough money to get out of France, he could still be thrown in a

debtors prison in England before he even saw a warship.

Taking command of the navy was the light at the end of Rodney's

tunnel. In his darkest hour Rodney was approached by a representative

of one of the wealthiest families in France. Rodney would be provided

with enough money to satisfy his monumental debts, but what was

required for such a favor was equally monumental.

MASONIC BROTHERS FROM ABROAD

The winter of 1777 to 1778 was particularly hard for the American

army under Washington's command. Many soldiers had little more than

blankets to keep out the cold, as their shirts and pants were in tatters.

Shoes were a luxury, and many soldiers lost their feet and legs to the

cold. Often those on sentry duty stood in their hats to keep their bare

feet warmer. The food was so scant that the Thanksgiving treat was four

ounces of rice cake.2 At the same time, German farmers in nearby Valley

Forge were driving cattle to Philadelphia for the British.

Washington himself had to contend with the constant excuses of

Congress when he pleaded for food, clothing, funds, and medicine. And

a handful called the Conway Cabal plotted against Washington. The

army was undernourished and poorly clad and had been forced to

retreat from one defeat to another for years. It appeared that if victory

were to be had, it would be a miracle. That miracle finally became a

reality with the arrival of assistance from Europe.

The efforts of American agents in Europe brought the French on

board as allies. Early in 1778, while Rodney was hiding in Paris, the

French had signed an alliance to join the Americans. They would not

actually declare war against England until July, however. One of the first

conflicts featured the French navy and the English fleet near the island

of Ushant. The two forces were equal, but the English were used to

winning. When the French fleet was forced to retreat, the two English

commanders somehow confused their signals and also retreated. In a

move that was very reminiscent of the numerous land battles fought in

America, it appeared that the English refused to press the advantage.

Because the battle was so close to home for the English and the failure

was so public, the citizens rioted in the streets of London and both

commanders were court-martialed. Each blamed the other for the failure

to exact a victory.

The English army appeared unable to press its advantage on land,

as well, although the public was less aware of what occurred across the

Atlantic. There had been worse blunders. After the war Sir William

Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and Lord Charles Cornwallis were blamed

for incompetence. The famous story of Howe sipping tea while letting

the defeated Continental army escape Long Island is one that most

likely plagued him. But Howe was competent. He had served with

Amherst, who had taught the American commanders and Howe alike

the values of guerrilla fighting. He was a knowledgeable battle-hardened

commander who had fought at Montreal, Louisbourg, and Quebec

before the American Revolution. Howe did make serious mistakes. He

had allowed Washington, whose army spent the night in the rain without

tents and low on ammunition, to escape Long Island. And this was

not the last time Howe allowed the American army to escape. He followed

Washington across New Jersey, where desertions reduced the

small force to less than ten thousand. With victory again simply a day

away, Howe allowed Washington to cross into Pennsylvania.

When winter came, Howe's army was camped within twenty-five

miles of the Americans, but Howe had no desire to shiver through winter

in a camp. Instead he headed back to New York City, where his mistress,

Elizabeth Loring, kept the general warm. Her husband had been

sent by Howe to Boston to watch over the prisons. A London newspaper

accusing the general of ineptitude was brought to Howe. He

decided to turn in his resignation, and while he waited for it to be

accepted, he and Loring enjoyed dinners, concerts, and ballroom dancing

in Philadelphia. When Franklin was asked by the French if Howe

had taken Philadelphia, Franklin replied that Philadelphia had taken

General Howe.3

Sir Henry Clinton was a military man as well. He started his career

at the age of thirteen in the Coldstream Guards, where he was commissioned

as a lieutenant. He also distinguished himself in battle and

rapidly rose through the ranks to become a major general in 1772.

When he took over for Howe, he was more interested in being in New

York than in commanding his troops in the field. After the war Clinton

was called on to explain his failure as a commander. He blamed

Cornwallis and the other generals, even going as far as writing a book

about his actions. He claimed that three times his army was in danger

of starving, although compared to Washington's forces, starving was a

relative term. With twelve thousand pounds to cover his salary and

expenses, Clinton's provision orders included brandy in ten-gallon lots,

beef, veal, mutton, fish, sweetbreads, and eggs.4 He held four houses in

New York City, which, he claimed, were used for hiding because his life

was in danger, and he also had a mistress in the city.

Cornwallis was a very well-trained military commander born into

a wealthy and prestigious family. His grandfather had been awarded a

baronetcy by Charles II, his father was the first Lord Cornwallis, his

mother was the daughter of Lord Townsend and was related to Prime

Minister Robert Walpole. Charles Cornwallis likely chose the military

at an early age. He enrolled at Eton, where the younger classmen were

the object of harsh treatment by older classmates. Cornwallis, a tall man,

thrived at Eton and went on to be tutored by a Prussian officer. He

bought an officer's commission in the Grenadiers Guards. At age eighteen

he took a tour of Europe with his Prussian tutor and then enrolled

in the Military Academy of Turin. It was one of Europe's finest, and the

young officers combined military strategy with ballroom dancing in

their curriculum. Over the course of Cornwallis's career, his training

helped him serve with distinction in the Seven Years War, in Ireland, and

in India. After he married he took a brief respite from the military and

enjoyed the estate lifestyle with his bride. He was favored by King

George III but at the same time counseled against the harsh measures

exacted by the king against his colonial subjects. Cornwallis's loyalty

was never in question, however, and when war broke out he volunteered

for his command against the American rebels.

Cornwallis lost heart soon enough. His wife at home in England

had taken ill, and his commanders, Clinton and Howe, disappointed

him. Cornwallis had outflanked Washington on Long Island only to

watch Howe allow his escape. Cornwallis beat the Americans at

Brandywine in 1777 and Monmouth in 1778, and was then sent south.

Clinton, with Cornwallis as the field commander, effectively stopped

the resistance in the South, so Clinton headed for New York, leaving

Cornwallis in charge. The war heated up as Cornwallis fought several

major battles and worked his way north. From New York Clinton

ordered Cornwallis to find an area where his army could position itself

to be supplied. He chose Yorktown, which turned out to be a fatal decision

as the French, by sea, and the Americans, by land, surrounded him.

Eight days under siege ended the war. Cornwallis's actions in the

Revolution did not hurt his career for long, however, and he went on

to serve with distinction in India and to quell rebellion in Ireland.

Baigent and Leigh's The Temple and the Lodge examines how the

effect of Mason fighting Mason may have hindered determination.

Howe had served with Amherst, where most of the officers were brothers

in the craft. Twenty-nine of the thirty-one regiments under

Amherst's command had field lodges. Cornwallis served in two regiments

that had military lodges. His brother Edward had served as well,

and was the founder of a lodge in Nova Scotia. Clinton served as aidede-

camp to Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, one of the most influential

Masons of his day.5 Three seemingly capable British commanders chose

to avoid making the coup de grace at every turn, instead simply continuing

the war until, like America's Vietnam War, the soldiers in the

field and the citizens back home despaired of ever seeing victory. If

conspiracy is the secret behind defeat, then the final battle ofYorktown

was the stage. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that Cornwallis had

planned for anything less than victory. But there is evidence that one

man would serve to destroy the chances of the British.

BEHIND THE SCENES IN FRANCE

As the efforts of the Americans Franklin and Deane in France paid off,

a French fleet and French soldiers headed to America. When the

American effort was exhausted, France stepped in to provide most of

the troops, the arms, the food, and the money to fight the final offensive

of the war.

The commander Rochambeau was one of the first and most

important figures of the French effort. He was quickly followed by the

troops of Count William Deux-Ponts, who led a regiment from the

Saar Valley; the Viscount de Noailles, from whose regiment in France

Napoleon would later emerge; Count Mathieu Dumas, who would

become a hero at Waterloo; the Marquis Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon;

and the Duke de Lauzun. All had been enlisted through the diplomatic

efforts of Franklin and Deane and had supplied clandestine aid before

France officially committed to war with England.

Rochambeau and his troops were ferried by seven transport ships to

Rhode Island in July 1780. They stayed for a brief time, with the wellfunded

army enjoying the good life, but they were shocked with the

allies they came to save. The Americans overcharged them for supplies,

openly traded with the British who blockaded their coast, and on occasion

shot at them. The first French troops did not see any action until

Yorktown; however, when it came time for action, the French impressed

both the Americans and the English with their order and discipline.6

General Jean-Baptiste-Donatien deVimeur, the comte de Rochambeau,

was a career military man with a mission. He, like Lafayette and

others, wanted to see the rebels break their ties with the monarch of

England. When the French king Louis XVI signed a treaty with the

Continental Congress, his first act of assistance was to supply America.

His second was to send over a six-thousand-man army called the

Expedition Particuliere under Rochambeau s command.

Rochambeau had entered the military at age seventeen and fought

at the siege of Maastricht in Holland during the War of Austrian

Succession, in a French expedition against Minorca, and during the

Seven Years War. Rochambeau was fifty-five when he brought over

three regiments to fight the decisive battle at Yorktown. One unit was

the Deux-Ponts. Under the command of Rochambeau, this thousandman

unit was recruited from Germany. It was a typical unit in that the

officers were often adventurers. Many sailed aboard the French fleet

accompanied by their wives and children, and at least one officer, Baron

Ludwig von Closen, brought his servants.7

Other military leaders who commanded troops in America were

interested in the social experiment that became a new country. Saint-

Simon's cousin became the founder of French socialism. Like Lafayette,

the duc de Lauzun was very interested in the New World's social experiment.

His desire was to be present at the birth of a new age, to fight

for the cause of liberty. Like many French nobles, the contradiction of

the noble class fighting for democracy did nothing to dim his enthusiasm.

Lauzun was from an ancient family that had titles from the time of

the Crusades. As was tradition in such a titled military family, adventure

called first. At age thirteen Lauzun became an ensign in the elite French

Guard. At eighteen he married into another French royal family. Lauzun

went to Corsica and proved himself in battle. He was rewarded with the

title of colonel of the Legion Royale. But peace bored him, and he was

among the first to volunteer to aid the American cause.

Lauzun sailed from France as part of the fighting force that joined

Rochambeau. Lauzun's cavalry and infantry joined the ancient regiments

of the French military, the Bourbonnais, the Deux-Ponts, the

Saintonge, and the Soissonnais, and they marched to Yorktown.

Lauzun's Legion, as it was called, was made up of men from various

European countries. Most had come from the Alsace-Lorraine corridor

between France and Germany; others came from Sweden, Italy,

Poland, and Russia. They spoke eight different languages, and by tradition

they would curse in Hungarian. They were volunteers, and often

adventurers; many were from noble families, others were rakes and

thieves. They were the predecessors to another French fighting force,

the French Foreign Legion.

For the duc de Lauzun, the American Revolution was just one

more adventure. His exploits in both the battlefield and the boudoirs

of Europe were legendary. He was said to have made love to every

woman he met in France and Newport, Rhode Island, where he was

first headquartered. His men followed his example, and despite their

prowess against the British they also achieved the dubious distinction

of fighting the most duels among themselves, typically over women.

Lauzun continued to have great adventures after fighting in America,

including becoming Marie Antoinette's lover. While Lauzun was aware

of his rank and his importance—he was even privy to Rochambeau's

and Washington's discussions of strategy—he may not have been aware

that his presence in the war was the single most critical factor in its

outcome.

While the Marquis de Lafayette, the duc de Lauzun, Count William

Deux-Ponts, Count Mathieu Dumas, the Marquis de Saint-Simon, and

the other nobles eagerly awaited battle, their supreme commander,

Rochambeau, debated strategy with Washington. Washington thought

that a move to recapture New York would advance the war effort.

Rochambeau argued that a decisive victory against the English in the

Chesapeake Bay would end the war. Rochambeau's logic won, and the

focus was turned on beating the one commander who was a serious

contender: Cornwallis. Rochambeau and Washington marched to

Virginia to catch Cornwallis while both the Americans and the English

were depending on the navy to arrive on time.

After the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the forces under

Cornwallis's command were low on supplies. At Yorktown, Cornwallis

spent three months digging in while waiting for his rendezvous with

Admiral Rodney. The British fleet commanded by Rodney was supposed

to be the most important factor in the outcome of the showdown

between the British army and the combined forces of the

Americans and the French. Supplies and reinforcements were to be

brought by Rodney; this was the reason Cornwallis hadn't marched farther

north.

Rodney had other plans. Instead of sailing north when he had the

advantage over the French, he launched a vicious attack on tiny Saint

Eustatius. While Cornwallis's army had its head in an ever-tightening

noose that could be relieved only by Rodney's ships, supplies, and fresh

troops, Rodney stayed to loot Saint Eustatius. His army spent valuable

time confiscating everything from almost every citizen of the tiny

island. In fact, he instructed his men to go as far as looting graves, claiming

that valuables had been buried.

Meanwhile, Washington and Rochambeau used the three months

well, coordinating their cross-country march and the arrival of the

French fleet. Lafayette used a small force to block an English retreat,

Washington and Rochambeau rushed to cover five hundred miles, and

Admiral de Grasse sailed up from the Caribbean with twenty ships and

three thousand fresh troops.

Francois-Joseph-Paul, the Marquis de Grasse-Tilly and Comte

de Grasse, had joined the fleet of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem,

also known as the Knights of Malta, at age twelve. This was the original

order known as the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, and was

established even before the Knights Templar. While both orders were

ostensibly Catholic, the exposure to different faiths may have had a lasting

effect on the Templars, who supported the Cathari during the papal

crusade and were accused of heresy. The Hospitallers had no such crisis

of faith, but they needed a reason to exist after the Crusades. They

took refuge in the Mediterranean, where they waged endless wars

against the Barbary pirates to protect Christian shipping.

After six years of training, de Grasse was attached to the French

navy. Like his fellow Knights of Malta, de Grasse had an interest in the

American cause of liberty. He was joined by nineteen other knights in

the effort. After the war, fourteen joined Washington's Society of

Cincinnati.8 Admiral de Grasse became part of the French Revolution,

retiring when the excessive bloodshed stained the cause of liberty.

Admiral de Grasse had overnight become a key figure in the

Revolutionary War.9 With a fleet of twenty ships, he sailed from France

in March. His fleet, including the Ville de Paris, the largest warship in

the world, guided a convoy of 150 merchant ships carrying supplies for

the war. De Grasse reached Martinique in late April and sent thirty

ships with troops and supplies to Rochambeau. The resupply included

the infantry of Marquis Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon, and the ancient

regiments of Agenais, Gatinais, and Touraine. De Grasse's fleet found

action almost immediately after landing the merchant ships.

In late April, de Grasse encountered the British navy. This first brief

action was later described as indecisive, but the British lost six warships,

which had a lasting effect. De Grasse had outmaneuvered the fleet of

Admiral Hood, which was under the command of Admiral Rodney.

Hood blamed his early loss on Rodney's incorrect positioning of his

ships; it was Rodney's second mistake but certainly not his last.

Five weeks later Rodney again ran into the French fleet. On June 5

Rodney's navy reached the French fleet, counted twenty-four ships

and five frigates, and chose to do nothing. Rodney had the advantage

of size, yet he failed to pursue de Grasse, allowing the French admiral

to head north to Virginia. But Rodney was aware of the crucial importance

of French naval and military support in determining the outcome

at Yorktown. Still, he failed to give priority to stopping or even slowing

the French assistance. The most critical engagement of the war was

decided on which side was more prepared for the battle. The American

and French side needed Admiral de Grasse; the British side needed

Admiral Rodney. There is ample evidence that both naval commanders

were aware of their importance.

Admiral de Grasse was scheduled to rendezvous with thirty

American pilots who were necessary for navigating Chesapeake Bay.

De Grasse supplied his food stores in a hurry and chartered fifteen new

merchant ships to carry food. Not wishing to wait for letters of credit,

he paid for the supplies with his own money.

While it seems that Rodney had failed to understand the implications

of his delay, his actions prove otherwise. He dispatched a warning

to Admiral Graves in New York, stating that the French navy was on the

way. He told Graves that both fleets needed to link up to prevent the

French navy from supplying Rochambeau and Washington. The first

message was intercepted; the second arrived days after the French fleet

had already destroyed part of Graves's fleet. Rodney even wrote to his

wife that he would attack the French if given the opportunity, and that

the "fate of England may depend upon the event." Given the evidence

of Rodney's letters, it is shocking that he chose to then split his forces

and sail home with his loot from Saint Eustatius. This final action can

hardly be deemed a mistake; Rodney deserted his post. At the same

time that he abandoned his mission, Rodney warned his charge,

Admiral Graves, of just how important it was to bring the fleet to

Yorktown. Rodney's actions, combined with the lack of timeliness of

his warnings, contributed to the American and French victory.

Historians have pointed out that Rodney's errors may have been

attributable to problems with his health. But the true cause of the victory

at Yorktown is that Admiral Rodney allowed himself to be defeated

on purpose. In doing so, he ensured the French-American victory,

which was allowed to repay a monumental debt.

THE MOTIVE

As mentioned earlier, in 1774 Rodney fled to Paris to escape debtors

prison.10 The gambler was still in Paris in 1778 and still an admiral,

though he did not have a post. Rodney had been put on a half salary

by his superior, the Earl of Sandwich. The Earl of Sandwich, when not

at the gambling tables himself, served as Lord of the Admiralty. The earl

was also a friend of Benjamin Franklin's through their shared adventures

at Wycombe.

After nearly four years in exile, Rodney was informed that he was

being recalled to active duty. It was an opportunity to rebuild his fortune

and his career, but because of new debts incurred in France, the

down-and-out admiral could not return to England to accept his command.

Even worse, he could not rebuild his fortune without the command.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, a French noble and commander of

the French Guard offered to help Rodney. The Marechal duc de Biron

offered Admiral Rodney the money needed to pay off his debts and

assume his command. Some historians call it a loan; others call it a gift.

In either case, the implications are staggering.

It seems that at least one of the two parties was committing an act

that could be deemed treason. While Rodney's reasons were evident,

one must wonder, What was the French commander's motivation?

When the offer was made, the duc de Biron's nephew was Armond

Louis de Gontaut, the duc de Lauzun. It is unreasonable to think that

the duc de Biron actually wished to help Rodney take his post; in doing

so the duke would be aware that he might be contributing to his

nephew's defeat or even death. Apparently the well-timed loan or gift

to Rodney was the one way the duc de Biron could ensure his

nephew's success. The loan was a bribe. And that bribe won the war.

Rodney upheld his part of the bargain. When he could have pursued

the advantage, he chose to wait. When he could have stopped the

French fleet, he chose to defend Tobago. When he could have raced to

Yorktown, he decided it was time to punish Saint Eustatius. Finally, he

simply headed home.

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

Rochambeau and Washington continued to tighten the siege around

Yorktown. Lafayette had been reinforced with the fresh troops of Saint-

Simon. Meanwhile, four thousand British troops sat in New York

Harbor and Rodney's partner Graves waited. When Rodney's message

arrived, the Brits set sail. It was then two days after the surrender at

Yorktown; when the British fleet was informed of Cornwallis's defeat,

they simply turned around.

After losing the war, Britain would go through a long series of

blaming people. While others pointed their fingers at their fellow commanders,

Rodney seemed above the fray. The reason was that before any

charges of incompetence, cowardice, or treason could be leveled against

him, he returned to the West Indies to become a hero.

Despite the surprising victory at Yorktown, it would still be more

than a year before Britain ended the hostilities. Clinton in New York

still had a standing army during this lull, and Rodney returned to pursue

the French fleet. He sighted the French fleet under de Grasse sailing

for Jamaica; the same French commander that he avoided meeting

prior to Yorktown he now chased. For three days Rodney followed the

French fleet until he was in position in the passage between Dominica

and Guadeloupe known as the Saints. He had thirty-six ships against

the French fleet of thirty-three, and the battle was a standard line battle

in which ships form a line and fire directly at each other. A fleet captain,

Sir Charles Douglas, recommended Rodney break the line after

the French left a gap in their formation. But this was against the Fighting

Instructions, the British navy's rules of engagement, and it was a gamble

that could result in a court-martial or even a firing squad if it failed.

Rodney was not even sure his captains would follow such an order.

Years of gambling, however, inspired Rodney to take such a great

bet, and he won. Five ships followed him and he circled several French

ships to fire upon them from both sides. His other captains also

exploited gaps in the French line. Even the Ville de Paris, the world's

largest fighting ship, was overtaken, abandoned by its crew, and set on

fire by the British. Of course, this had no effect on the outcome of the

war in the colonies. It did serve to make Rodney a hero, however, and

so his motives would not be challenged after the war.

The deal made between the duc de Biron and the indebted Admiral

Rodney worked out very well for both men. Admiral Rodney had his

fortune back, and despite abandoning Cornwallis at Yorktown, Rodney

was still regarded as a war hero for the naval battle he chose to win. The

duc de Biron's nephew was safe, for the time being, and was now regarded

as a hero in a war against England. However, the duc de Lauzun's

status would not save him from the terrors of the French Revolution.

He would go to the guillotine, but not before offering his executioner

a glass of wine. The deal that allowed Rodney's gambling debt to be

repaid also allowed America to win independence.

Chapter 9

ONE NATION UNDER THE GREAT ARCHITECT

Even though the war ended in February 1783, it would still be

almost ten more months before the peace treaty was signed in

Paris. The new nation then turned to winning the peace.

From the very beginning of American history it was evident that a

handful of Masons would exert a powerful influence both in the open

and in secret. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up by the

non-Mason Thomas Jefferson. It was first signed by a Mason, John

Hancock, and on its first vote on July 1, 1776, the document was

approved by nine of the states—a clear majority. The next day the vote

reached twelve, with the New York delegation not voting. (John Adams

had predicted that July second would forever be celebrated as the day of

independence for the American colonies.) On the fourth New York

voted and the Declaration was signed by the president and the secretary

of Congress, not by Hancock or any of the other fifty-six signers, which

would come later. When the Declaration was signed, up to forty-one of

the signers were Masons, even though not all of these Masons were publicly

acknowledged as such. Among Masons July 4 was held as a sacred

day. It marked the rising of Sirius, which in ancient religions was related

to the god Thoth, who brought knowledge to man. It was also considered

the guardian to the goddess Isis; as such it was the most important

star in the sky, and at least seven major Egyptian temples were oriented

to it. The Fourth of July was now sacred to the new nation, as well.

1The Constitution was also drawn up by several influential

Masons—including Washington, Franklin, and Randolph—and by

non-Masons John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. All of them had been

influenced by the philosophical movement that swept Europe and

included Sir Francis Bacon, Rousseau, and Voltaire. The Founding

Fathers, however, had ambiguous feelings toward the secret societies

that spread these philosophies. Washington was known never to willingly

promote a non-Mason in the military, but John Adams, on the

other hand, wrote several anti-Masonic tracts. Adams believed Masonry

was one of the greatest moral and political evils, and regarded it as a

conspiracy of the few against the many.
2 Jefferson was not a Mason, although his attendance at Masonic

meetings has been documented. There is some evidence of his flirtation

with Rosicrucianism, including some Rosicrucian codes that were

found among his writings.
3 There is stronger evidence that Franklin was

connected to the Rosicrucian group that was centered in

Germantown, Pennsylvania. And certainly there is no shortage of evidence

of Franklin's numerous Masonic affiliations.

Of the forty men who signed the Constitution, many were already

Masonic brothers and others would become Masons afterward.

Masonic lodges claim that nearly all the signers at least participated in

lodge activities, but most historians agree that several were not Masons,

including Madison and Jefferson.

The Illuminati group was the most secretive and possibly the most

conspiratorial entity in Europe, but members did not make headway in

the colonies the way the Masons did. Washington spoke out against that

group, condemning them as "self-created" and unrelated to

Freemasonry.
4 But Washington could trace his own family's aristocratic

roots, and despite his efforts on behalf of a democracy, he was an elitist

who would create the Society of the Cincinnati, which admitted only

those with aristocratic backgrounds. This elite society caused widespread

fear of a new aristocracy, and even fellow Virginian Thomas

Jefferson immediately distrusted the institution. Washington later

stepped back from the aristocratic leanings of the group.

One Nation Under the Great Architect 171

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as president.

The oath of office was administered by Robert Livingston, who

was the grand master of New York's Grand Lodge. The marshal of the

day was another Freemason, General Jacob Morton. Yet another

Freemason, General Morgan Lewis, was Washington's escort.

Washington, the master of the Alexandria lodge, took his oath of office

on the Bible from Saint John's Lodge of New York.
5 THE NEW ORDER OF THE AGES

Soon the nation's new capital was laid out. The location was in a

wilderness more suited for hunting grouse than for administering the

new country, but it had its advantages. Washington feared that New York

would serve as a bad example and allow the money men like Hamilton

to control the country, and he did not want to place the capital there.
6 Jefferson enjoyed the proximity of the new capital to Virginia. The city

was blueprinted in a Masonic plan, designed by the French Mason

Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, who had volunteered to fight for liberty. He

was close to Washington and a member of the Society of the

Cincinnati. The ceremony commemorating the laying of the Capitol's

cornerstone was strictly a Masonic event. Washington served as master,

wearing the apron and sash of his lodge. Members from lodges all over

Maryland and Virginia were in attendance and accordingly dressed in

Masonic regalia. The ceremony itself was a Masonic ritual performed

with baptism by corn, wine, and oil to signify nourishment and refreshment.

Masons were also called on to design, plan, and build university

buildings, state houses, bridges, and war memorials, which they then

consecrated with their corn, oil, and wine blessing.
7 The Capitol building and the east-west axis of the new city were

oriented in a complicated way to correspond with the arc of the sun.

The dome of the Capitol is "a symbol of the half-arc of the visible

heavens . . . where the equinoctial and solstitial points meet."
8 The tradition of incorporating arcane geometry and esoteric symbols continues

to modern times. In May 1974 Senator Joe Biden of Delaware

172 The Lodge and the Revolution

made an official inquiry into the astrological symbols on the ceiling of

the Senate post office and the Civil Service Committee Room.
9 The Great Seal of the United States was designed at the same time.

It had been proposed that Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson design the

new seal, but their suggestions of heraldic devices, twin goddesses, and

the illuminati eye of God in a triangle were rejected. Two new design

committees would be employed before the designs were acceptable to

all. The final Great Seal is also full of arcane symbolism.

The bald eagle is said to represent Scorpio, who is associated with

death and rebirth. The eagle holds a scroll that depicts the thirteenletter

motto E pluribus unum, meaning "one out of many." Some believe

this motto represents one nation arising from the thirteen colonies, but

others believe that it refers to the concept of one God over all gods—

a Masonic tenet. The reverse of the seal is a truncated pyramid, a common

Masonic symbol. The pyramid has thirteen steps, one for each

colony. Its face has seventy-two bricks, representative of another number

that is sacred in religious writings from the Rig Veda to works of the

Babylonian Berosus to the Finnish Kalevala. The pyramid without its cap

is said to be the loss of wisdom by humanity because of the long reign

of the Church over knowledge. This symbol first appeared on colonial

money. The seal also depicts the all-seeing eye, which was a cult symbol

that can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Many believe the eye represents

the goddess Isis, who is also regarded as a personification of

knowledge.

Another thirteen-letter motto, Annuit Coeptis, is taken from Virgil's

Aeneid and is a prayer to the pagan god Jupiter to bless the new undertaking.

In Virgil's work the prayer is annue coeptis, which contains twelve

letters, but the spelling was purposely modified to give the phrase thirteen

letters.
10 In addition the Great Seal contains the words Novus Ordo

Seclorum, meaning "the new order of the ages."
11 This phrase too is taken from Virgil, and in modern times the New World Order has ominous

meanings, although its Masonic meaning was a breakaway from

the religious intolerance of Europe.

The eighteenth-century Masonic architects of the American nation

One Nation Under the Great Architect 173

did not stop using arcane symbolism with the Great Seal. The modern

one-dollar bill includes the same Masonic symbolism of an unfinished

pyramid topped by an all-seeing eye. The all-seeing eye was on

American currency as early as 1778.

A MASONIC FAITH

There are numerous claims regarding just how many of America's

Founding Fathers were actually Masons. Washington and Franklin were

documented and active members of Masonic organizations, while

Jefferson and Adams were not. They all shared a common belief, however—

a variation of faith known as deism.

Adherents of deism believed that a superior power created the

world and established nature as his law. Masons believed the supreme

power was the great architect of the world, and his law was reflected in

and revealed by science. The G symbol, which is so often debated, may

simply be representative of the science of geometry. Deists, especially

the eighteenth-century followers, held in contempt the wars between

Christians in which people were killed over minor points of doctrine.

Men of science, treated with suspicion by the Church, also held dear

the respect Masonry held for science. This new religion, the deist religion

of the Masons, found a conciliation between God and science, and

the G symbol was revered as a sign of this progress.

The ranks of American Revolutionaries that held deist beliefs

included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,

Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and

John Quincy Adams.
12 Paine was one of the most outspoken, and his

Age of Reason is an anti-Church treatise. Washington attended the

Episcopal Church but usually left before the communion. Jefferson

regarded Christianity as a tyranny over the mind of man. Franklin, as a

member of the Nine Sisters Lodge, was a brother to Voltaire, who, along

with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is given the credit for being the leading

proponent of this "natural" religion.

Deism did not require a structured religion, nor did it oppose

174 The Lodge and the Revolution

adherence to one. Although Franklin still called for prayer at the

Constitutional Convention and Hamilton opposed it, both were

Masons. Masonry allowed its members to transcend the divisions of

religious pettiness and unite with each other. At the same time, there

was a dark side to Masonry.

Like organized religion, Masonry preached equality and practiced

elitism. The American government itself was formed not so much as a

democracy as a hierarchal organization that could bar representation.

For example, the right to vote was typically limited to men of property.

Those "inalienable rights" declared in 1776 were not a desire of all

people. When Thomas Jefferson and George Mason pushed for a Bill of

Rights for individuals, they had to overcome the staunch opposition of

men such as the elitist Alexander Hamilton. George Mason believed

slavery to be a crime and an abomination, but there were many opposed

to any attempt at ending that institution. But Mason was joined by

Virginians Richard Henry Lee and James Madison in overriding

Hamilton, and the Bill of Rights was accepted.

Masonry had been born in the feudal Dark Ages when a small portion

of the population had life-and-death control over the people in

their realm. Liberty and equality were ideals that were not always shared

by those higher up the food chain. The great American gamble

achieved a result that somehow eluded countries that chose to follow

its example.

Writers like Franklin and Jefferson had seemingly declared that

challenging government by violent means was acceptable. Revolts

ignited throughout Europe and South America and were mostly led by

Masons. In some countries, new republics were formed quickly and

without violence, such as in the Netherlands, in Switzerland, and among

the various states of Italy. In Italy, the grand master and thirty-thirddegree

Mason Giuseppe Garibaldi fought to unify Italy and place

another Mason, Victor Emmanuel II, on the throne.
13 In Russia Freemasons were the primary leaders of the Decembrist Revolt, which

was planned in Masonic lodges. In Latin America, Freemason revolutionaries

included Simon Bolivar, Jose de San Martin, and Benito Juarez.

One Nation Under the Great Architect 175

In France, where Rousseau and Voltaire inspired freethinking and

Masonic ideals, the revolution took bizarre and bloody twists, turning

the country into a mob bent on murder and destruction. Sadly, many

of the champions of the American cause suffered dearly, including the

marquis de Lafayette and the duc de Lauzun.

In America, elitist concepts and an "end justifies the means" philosophy

allowed a handful of men to steer the membership of lodges. The

product of such organization would rear its ugly head in massive organized

criminal activity. From the slave trade to Asian opium smuggling,

the elite would prosper while the rank and file took the risks for them.

PART THREE

From the Sacred to the Profane

IN THE CENTURIES THAT FOLLOWED the arrest

of the Knights Templar and the dissolution of their order,

the secret society became a powerful force in world

events. No longer was the secret government as organized

as it had been prior to 1307, but despite its fractiousness,

its power had not diminished.

Several European countries and states were in direct

control of the knights of various surviving ex-Templar

orders. Portugal, Spain, and the not yet united German

states serve as examples. In other countries, most notably

Scotland, the orders exercised control over the military.

The soon to be united cantons of Switzerland preserved

both the military tradition and the institution of banking

that had descended from the Templar organization.

Banking, international trade, statecraft, merchant guilds,

and even the average worker's job would soon come under the influence

of organizations that were typically closed to outsiders and often

above the law.

While these secret societies, which included the Knights Templar,

had rebelled against autocratic government, the power and misrule of

the Church, and the hostility of the organized religions to science, they

were becoming the new establishment. As such they would be as corrupt

and powerful as those they sought to change.

Piracy and smuggling were more often the province of the wealthy

and powerful than of the colorful individuals that history portrays. The

same is true of the institution of slave trade and the trafficking of drugs.

In both cases, the religious orders have played a role in the creation of

these institutions, and lodges and merchant guilds continued the trades

well after they became illegal. The toll that the slave trade and drug trafficking

took on the world is well known. The fact that both institutions

were controlled by a handful of wealthy individuals whose names were

often carved in marble in libraries and at universities is America's darkest

secret.

The so-called pillars of society were such a force to reckon with

that even the president of the American nation was disposable when his

programs threatened the profits of those with more organized power.

While there is no denying the assassination of Lincoln was a conspiracy,

at least two other presidents would fall victim to the cabals that

desired to control the government as well as they controlled the most

profitable trades.

Chapter 10

THE SLAVE TRADERS

Antigua was barely out of sight when Captain Hopkins, the leader

of the brig Sally, realized there was a problem. The small crew was

getting sick with the flux, a disease later known as dysentery. The weakened

state of the men was alarming, as belowdecks in the hold was a

live cargo that outnumbered the skeleton crew. The cargo was a boatload

of African slaves who had been captured or sold into slavery in

Africa, branded, and then delivered to a coastal port for export. Beaten,

underfed, and bound in chains, the slaves usually were placed aboard a

British ship for the transatlantic passage. Many did not survive the journey.

Those who did survive were then placed in holding pens in another

port. There they were fed and bathed, as the smell of confinement was

enough to make the neighboring farmers complain. The slaves were

then brought to market to be resold to an American trader, beginning

the process of confinement at sea yet again.

When the crew was outnumbered by as much as a hundred to one,

it was never safe to allow the Africans on deck. The condition of the

Sally, however, was becoming desperate. Captain Hopkins decided to

take a chance; he allowed a handful of his slaves to be brought topside

in order to augment the efforts of the crew. The Africans quickly realized

they had the advantage, and they began freeing the others in an

attempt to take the floating prison. The captain was armed and quickly

killed or wounded several slaves and began ordering the others to jump

overboard. After eighty men were forced into the Atlantic, order was

restored.

The owner of the ship, Nicholas Brown and Company, was quickly

notified of the loss, which it had the foresight to guard against with

insurance. The Newport Insurance Company, the Bristol Insurance

Company, the Mount Hope Insurance Company, and other large companies

that dominate the New England economy got their start from

marine insurance. One modern insurer, Aetna, recently issued a public

apology for its role in insuring the lives of slaves. While that does not

sound unlike modern life insurance, the difference is that the slaves

were being insured as property.
1 A myriad of rules on just what could be collected from the insurers

often put a burden on shipowners. A cargo of very sick Africans rendered

worthless by their passage was not covered. One enterprising

captain decided to throw his sick passengers overboard, as cargo lost at

sea would then be covered. The Supreme Courts in Louisiana and

North and South Carolina regularly heard cases in which a shipowner's

claims were denied because of mitigating circumstances. In Aetna's policies,

such exclusions included slave suicide, slaves being worked to

death, and slaves being lynched.

In 1781 the slave ship Zong, which was owned by two prominent

merchants from Liverpool, carried 440 slaves from Sao Tome. The captain,

Luke Collingwood, erred in his sailing directions and the voyage

took longer than expected. When disease hit the ship, sixty slaves died

and almost half of the ship became sick. The captain ordered 132 slaves

thrown overboard in order to capitalize on the insurance. The insurance

company, Gilbert, et al., turned down the claim and the owners of the

Zong brought the insurers to court. The shipowners argued that cargo

was thrown overboard to save the rest of the goods, making their claim

legitimate. The Zong's owners won. Even the judge was surprised at

how easily the jury accepted the concept that sacrificing the slaves was

no different from if they had been animals.
2 In New England owners of slave ships took any means available to

hedge their bets; they organized and invested in the marine insurance

companies that would provide for such losses.

Nicholas Brown and Company was also in part responsible for the

The Slave Traders 181

early development of another New England business: banking. The

company played a role in establishing the Providence Bank, which

allowed it to finance its own ships, and out of this institution the modern

Fleet Bank, one of the country's largest banks, developed.

The Brown family began its ascent to fame and fortune in the New

England whaling business, in which ships sometimes had to be out at

sea for years with the goal of transforming whales into spermaceti candles.

Needing funds for his business, Nicholas Brown fitted out the first

Guineaman—a name given to mean a slave ship trading with Africa—

the Mary, for the slave trade. In 1736 his son Obadiah Brown signed on

as the supercargo, or head trader, on what would become Providence's

first venture into the slave-trading business. Obadiah soon came into his

own and fitted out another ship, the Wheel of Fortune, to join in the

trade. The young man then brought the entire family into the business

and developed a colony-wide reputation. Virginia planters like

Revolutionary War statesman Carter Braxton wrote to the company

requesting to participate in a joint venture with the Browns.
3 For the Browns, wealth led to greater power, and John Brown

became a congressman representing Rhode Island; fellow slave trader

James De Wolf represented the state as a senator. Profit from the trade

brought all the trappings of wealth. When former President John

Quincy Adams visited the Browns' home he called it the "most magnificent

and elegant mansion that I have ever seen on this continent."

Today the house still stands at Fifty-two Power Street in Providence,

where it is operated by the Rhode Island Historical Society,4 which

would like the family's slave trading mentioned as little as possible.

The fact that the Brown family fortune was made in the slave trade

is a matter of historical record. In August 1797 John Brown became the

first American to be tried in federal court for violating the Slave Trade

Act. Brown's legal maneuvers and favors from cohorts did not save him

from reaching the court, as his brother Moses was the person pressing

charges. Moses had seen firsthand the horrors of the slave ship and subsequently

quit the family business and became its greatest opponent.

His efforts stopped the importation of slaves into Rhode Island, and he

helped enact a federal law against it. A bill freeing the children of slaves

and completely banning the trade would have succeeded, but William

Bradford of Bristol removed the clause on the ban. His rum business

depended on the slave trade. The business of his son-in-law, James

De Wolf, depended on it more. John Brown died in 1803, before the

trade was banned forever.

The profits from the slave trade helped the Brown family reach

immortality. Near the Power Street house stands Brown University.

Because the Browns were such great benefactors, the school originally

known as Rhode Island College showed the family the ultimate gratitude

by changing its name to Brown University. Although Brown

University is the great monument to the profits of the Browns' slave

trade, a lesser known monument to John Brown is the Fleet Financial

Group of New England. Brown was one of the founders in 1791 when

it was called the Providence Bank. It merged with Samuel Colt's creation,

the Industrial Trust, and underwent a name change to Industrial

National Bank. In 1982 the Rhode Island bank changed its name again

to Fleet Financial. Finally it merged with the Bank of Boston to

become the seventh largest financial holding company in the United

States.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE SLAVE TRADE

There are many secrets surrounding the slave trade. The profits from

dealing in human cargo built a great deal of American, and particularly

New England, industry. The trade brought together a handful of tightly

knit families bound by Masonic ties and intermarriage. The same families

still have inherited fortunes and inherited power that dominate the

economic landscape. While being a Mason was often a necessity to get

hired by a shipowner or a shipbuilder, the lodges that the workers were

welcomed into were not the same as the lodges that the owners joined.

An elite layer had once again risen to the top of society, just as it had in

the feudal period.

The French Normans did not invent the feudal system. The elite

Normans, however, did thrive by controlling every aspect of the economy.

They exported this type of economy to England, Scotland, and

Ireland, where Norman overlords impoverished and evicted entire populations

in order to establish their estates. They brought the feudal

economy to Italy as well, where Norman armies had wreaked more

havoc than the Celts had a thousand years before. The same Norman

families that had amassed huge estates had created the Knights Templar,

which became Freemasonry. Yet liberty and fraternity within the organization

had its bounds; membership in the powerful lodges was centered

first on the aristocracy, and only when industrial society replaced the

feudal economy would a professional class come to power within the

organization. The rank-and-file trade lodges, in turn, remained at lower

levels in both public society and Masonic society.

Entry into the upper crust of society could be accomplished by marriage,

but more often members of one shipowning family married members

of other shipowning families. Only the captains of the ships had a

chance of being upwardly mobile, as they shared in the profits of their

voyages. The captains started as members of the lodges that included

dockworkers, carpenters, wrights, and sailors. Unions, which came much

later, did not invent the closed shop. The unions, however, built on the

concept of the union hall and joined together in quasi-Masonic groups

like the Knights of Labor. Being admitted was the all-important first

step. Being accepted by the captains who did the hiring was the next

step. For this a laborer had to be considered trustworthy and focused on

the goals of the captain and his masters, the shipowners.

The geometric terminology employed by Masons was just as

important as a secret handshake. Being regarded as "on-the-level" or

"on-the-square" meant that a prospective hire was a lodge member.

This showed the owners that they had the employee in their control as

surely as if they were feudal lords in fourteenth-century France or

Scotland. Being included meant having a job and surviving the harsh

economy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; being excluded

could mean being homeless.

The irony is that where the populace had played such a critical role

in igniting a war of independence and creating a democratic society, the

elite were still able to retain their roles as the power behind the economy.

Masonic principles of brotherhood and equality were lost as the

Masonic organizations gave a handful of masters the ability to control

their organization.

Americans today have a particular view of history that grants New

England the moral high road. The Pilgrim myth tells how the Pilgrims

landed, made friends with the Native population, and soon invited

them to celebrate Thanksgiving after a particularly harsh year. The

Pilgrim reality was that the Pilgrims landed in the wrong place, fought

among themselves, nearly starved to death, and were rescued by a

Native population. The Natives—not the savages later portrayed in

books and films—instructed the Pilgrims in the science of agriculture.

The survivors then repaid their hosts by subjecting them to a land grab

that would not stop until the "savages" were confined to reservations.

The Puritan culture is thought to have steered America into creating

a democracy, but religious freedom and tolerance were not hallmarks

of the early Massachusetts colony. Citizens were placed in stocks

for dancing, sent fleeing to other areas because of minor religious differences,

and frequently burnt as witches not for any religious reason

but instead to settle feuds with neighbors. While it cannot be denied

that New England, and, one could argue, Boston, was the cradle of

American democracy, the region soon became the high command of

the Federalists, who replaced the values of the Revolution with those

of a merchant-class elite that introduced slavery, furthered smuggling,

invented child factory labor, and nearly overturned the Bill of Rights in

a short-lived attempt to end dissension.

The American dream was tarnished by the unbridled power and

unquenched thirst for money that led those we now call the Boston

Brahmins into slave trading, opium trading, and labor abuse. In this

Brahmin-like class, members preserved their status through Masonic

societies that excluded the average worker and through intermarriage

between New England elite and occasionally aristocratic English families.

The elite class had access to both financial and political power

because of the enormous wealth the trade brought. The same elite class

exists today.

The basis for many of the fortunes of today's political leaders can

be traced to a handful of Founding Fathers. They built fortunes in criminal

conspiracies that were as illegal and immoral then as they are now.

They plowed the profits into factories and railroads. When their empires

were threatened, they became politicians and lawmakers. And along the

way they decided that there was value in public relations, and so they

endowed schools from Brown to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

THE SUGAR PLANTATION

The world of the Cabots, Lodges, and the rest of the Boston Brahmins

would never have existed if not for the slave-trading Brown family and

a more powerful but lesser known family, the Perkinses. The Browns

developed their empire on the slave trade, on banking, and through the

most remarkable act of industrial piracy, the textile industry. The

Perkinses went even further. By starting as slave traders, they took New

England to its highest level of wealth by introducing the region to the

opium trade. The Perkins family united the Whitneys, the Tafts, the

Roosevelts, the Cushings, the Appletons, the Bacons, and others in the

criminal enterprise that would form the bedrock of New England and

American wealth.

It is little wonder that the Perkins family roots were in the slave

trade, specifically in Saint Domingue, an island where in the late eighteenth

century thirty thousand white planters and their soldiers controlled

a half million black workers. Control was maintained by harsh

treatment, and this control made Saint Domingue wealthy. While it was

ostensibly governed by the French, the island was made up of eight

hundred sugar plantations that were often owned by Americans. The

island, which would one day become Haiti, was responsible for two

thirds of all France's overseas trade. Saint Domingue outranked all the

agricultural exports of the Spanish Indies combined. Commerce with

the mother country employed a thousand ships and fifteen thousand

sailors. Cotton from Saint Domingue kept the cloth mills of France in

operation. Historians estimate that in France, one person in five

depended on the overseas trade for employment. This staggering wealth

was the envy of all the European countries.5 The Haitian plantations

maintained a higher degree of profit than any other island in the

Caribbean. One third of the plantations returned to their owners 12

percent each year, compared to an average of 4 percent in the Britishowned

islands.

The media of the day often supported business against its detractors,

as happens today. While Adam Smith wrote of the superior treatment

of plantation workers by the French, it was a fantasy, and the

mortality rate of slaves proves it.6 One survey shows a plantation going

through four times its original slave population; this means that the act

of killing 80 percent of one's workforce through harsh treatment was

somehow acceptable in sugar plantation economics.

Workers were poorly housed and underfed. The food for slaves was

often the stock fish brought in on the four thousand or more American

ships that registered in Saint Domingue. The American ships were

mostly from New England and returned with sugar and molasses. The

American ships also traded slaves. Industry in New England and France

prospered as those who engaged in slave trading plowed their profits

into the factories, the railroads, and the mines.

In order for a small population to control such a large population,

violence was commonplace. For a minor infraction, whipping and the

application of salt and pepper on the wounds was typical. Branding,

mutilation, and death were typical as well. A runaway slave could expect

to be hamstrung. The act of eating sugarcane was punished by being

forced to wear a metal muzzle. Women could be raped without

recourse. Documented cases exist in which disobedience was curtailed

by nailing a man by the ear to an object. And in one case a slave's ears

were cut off, cooked, and forced upon him as food.

Common slave tortures included spraying the slave with boiling

wax or cane syrup, sewing the lips together with wire, binding men

glazed with molasses in the paths of ants, and sexual mutilation. Death

was a blessing to many, and hundreds committed suicide to avoid being

burned alive or hanged by the planters and their overseers.7

The Perkins family plantation might have been typical of any Saint

Dominguan plantation. Although lucrative for the owners, it was a living

hell for those forced to work for them. In the Memoir of Thomas

Handasyd Perkins, Thomas Perkins spared future readers the details of

the sugar plantation business and his participation in the slave trade.

Instead his memoirs simply mention that the Perkins brothers had a

"house," or company, in Haiti, but found the climate not agreeable and

so returned to Boston.8

The "climate" Perkins referred to was a revolution of the black

slaves against their white overlords, in which two thirds of the whites

were killed or forced to flee and one third of the blacks were killed. It

was the third in the series of revolutions starting with the American

Revolution, which then spread to France and to Saint Domingue.The

Perkins family and its heirs survived the carnage and became pillars of

New England society.

The slave trade was not invented by the Perkinses or even by the

New England merchants. Instead it had existed in Europe, Africa, and

Asia for thousands of years. Europe's involvement in the African trade,

however, did grow and thrive after coming under the control of the

post-Templar military orders.

Chapter 11

RED CROSS AND BLACK CARGO

Modern history attributes the beginning of the European slave

trade in America to the Portuguese. The Knights Templar, reincorporated

in Portugal as the Knights of Christ, were under the control

of Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese grand master who saw an economic

opportunity developing as the reconquista, the reconquest of the

Iberian Peninsula, pushed the Arabs out of Iberia. Henry didn't invent

the institution of slavery; it was already thousands of years old when he

became master of his order. But Henry did modernize slavery so that

he could incorporate it into his quest for new lands, just as he had

incorporated the trade in a number of other commodities. He licensed

slavery. He developed a system in which the trade would grow and he

could collect royalties from it.Yet slavery as an institution is as old as civilization.

Prince Henry and the Knights of Christ "improved" the trade

and institutionalized the business, but neither Henry nor the Knights

can shoulder the blame for inventing slavery.

Aristotle wrote that humanity is made up of slaves and masters.

Plato, who believed no honest man could ever be rich, saw nothing dishonest

about the slave trade and believed only in regulating its role in

the marketplace. Pre-Christian Rome employed slaves in galleys and

the proverbial salt mines, where they worked under horrid conditions.

Roman Christianity did not question the slave trade, as yielding to

Caesar's decisions was still the rule. The barbarian Alaric raided Rome

with the aid of forty thousand captured slaves. Later Anglo-Saxons and

Vikings traded white slaves who had been captured in raids and war. In

Ireland slave girls were an actual unit of exchange or currency, and were

valued more highly than male slaves.1 In an early version of enlightenment,

Venice was one of the first city-states to ban slavery, in A.D. 960.

THE MILITARY ORDERS

AND THE SLAVE TRADE

Slave trading prospered all the way through the spread of Islam. While

Europe participated in the age-old institution, it used mostly white

slaves from European lands that had been conquered rather than African

slaves. The Arabs simply made the slave trade more international. When

the tide turned against Islam, the Italian merchants and then the fighting

crusader orders stepped into the trade. In fact, Italian shipowners

had a reputation for simply selling a boatload of passengers to an Arab

trader. Such acts led to Templar ships being considered safer from the

passengers' viewpoint, as the Templars were more likely to protect their

pilgrim passengers. Later the Templar orders and the Knights of Saint

John joined the slave trade to fund their operations.

In Iberia, the Arabs used black slaves to cultivate the land and to

fight against the Christians. During the reconquista, much land was given

to the military orders, including those of Calatrava, Alcantara, and Aviz

of Spain and the Knights of Christ in Portugal. Estates were also given

to the Cistercian order of monks, who saw no moral conflict in cultivating

the land with slave labor.2 With the Arab invaders mostly pushed

out of Europe, the Templars' chief business became business. When the

Templars were suppressed, the order underwent both a name change

and a management change. The Knights of Christ re-created the

Knights Templar at their worst. They became an international business

cartel with the approval of the government. Henry and his intrepid

explorers understood the opportunity to profit by taking over the

lucrative slave-trading business. They then licensed the trade for royalties,

and ships of the order and ships owned by others but licensed

through the order soon plied the seas from Angola to the Slave Coast,

buying or stealing slaves from the Arab merchants.

Henry the Navigator had the benefit of being highborn. As the

third son of King John I of Portugal and Queen Phillippa of Lancaster,

Henry was given the title of grand master of the Knights of Christ. The

Knights were one of four military orders in Portugal, all of which were

the remnants of the Knights Templar, which had been disbanded by the

efforts of the king of France and the Catholic pope. While the French

knights were arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake, the Portuguese

knights simply changed their name and were born again with the blessing

of Pope John XXII. The knights kept their wealth, their status, and

even their regalia: a red cross on a white field.

Although he was called the Navigator, Prince Henry did very little

navigating. He did, however, pilot his order from a castle in Sagres,

Portugal, where he gathered all the nautical wisdom of his day. He

improved on the nautical instruments, gathered maps and perfected the

art of cartography, developed new vessels such as the caravel (a small,

graceful, two-masted ship built to navigate shallow seas and make longdistance

crossings), and trained would-be mariners to sail.

Henry's navigators, possibly with the aid of ancient maps, soon

rediscovered Atlantic islands such as the Azores and Madeira and then

set their sails toward Africa. In 1441 Henry's first caravel reached

Africa—and returned with black slaves. The trade was not new to

Africa. Black tribes had enslaved each other for thousands of years. The

Islamic Berbers and Arab Moors then took over the trade.

The costs of outfitting a fleet and a world-class university at Sagres

were great, and the sugar trade with Madeira and the slave trade would

defray some of the high costs of maintaining both. Henry also had agricultural

projects, dye works, soap factories, fish pools, and coral fisheries,

but he was still forced to borrow money.3 Where Henry's ships pioneered

the rest of Europe followed. Lions were brought to Ireland.

Parrots and monkeys were carried to Bruges. The king of Denmark was

given the tusks of an elephant, and an entire expedition was launched

with the goal of capturing a live elephant. The expedition was never

heard from again, but Europe's fascination with Africa only increased.4

Anticipating the future criticism of capturing, buying, and selling

human beings, the Knights of Christ was given spiritual jurisdiction of

Guinea, Nubia, and Ethiopia. As "Master of the wealthy Order of Christ

which had inherited the riches of the Temple," Henry now had a mission.

5 Europe's entry into the African slave trade became official and

was placed under the elite order that not only still exists but also flourishes

today, with the president of the Republic of Portugal as its current

grand master.

If the Portuguese were responsible for bringing the black slave

industry to Europe, the Spanish were more than equally responsible for

expanding the trade. Columbus had finally sailed for America in 1492

after years of negotiating for a sponsor. The marriage of Isabella, queen

of Castile, and Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, united much of Spain. In

the conquest of Granada, which unified a great deal of what is now

modern Spain, the government was quick to employ what we would

today call ethnic cleansing. The Islamic conquerors were first to go.

Next were the Jews; they had thrived under a more tolerant Islamic rule

and were allowed to be educators, merchants, and bankers. The third

target was the heretics. Even before the 1492 capture of Granada, the

Inquisition was in place, its goal to drive out pagans and Christian

heretics alike. By 1492 Dominican tribunals were operating in eight

major cities. Christians and conversos, the converted Jews, were regularly

consumed by flames in city squares. August 2, 1492, the day before

Columbus left Spain, was the final deadline for all Jews to convert or

leave.

When Spain ran out of people to expel, it sent an expedition to the

Canary Islands. There the Spaniards met a culture they called the

Guanches.With an armed expedition, the Spaniards went to war against

the isolated people and eliminated the entire population of two hundred

thousand.6 The Canary adventure served as a blueprint for what

would happen in the Americas.

THE MYSTERIOUS CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Columbus himself is of interest more as a man of mystery than as an

explorer. His first biography, written by his son Ferdinand, questions

even their surname. Columbo, meaning "the dove," was a chosen name,

says Ferdinand, as it was the symbol of wisdom and of Saint John the

Baptist. Saint John was sacred to the Templars.7

Columbus's first service outside commercial expeditions was for the

Good King Rene. Little was written regarding the Columbus-Rene

d'Anjou connection. The book Holy Blood, Holy Grail claims that Rene

was a grand master of the Priory of Sion, the secret organization that

was behind the formation of the Knights Templar. Certainly Rene was

involved in some very select chivalric orders, including the Order of the

Crescent, the Order of the White Greyhound, and l'Ordre de la Fidelite.

It is not known whether Rene played a role in introducing Columbus

to the secret orders. More likely the circuitous route that led Columbus to

a connection with the resurrected Templar order was through marriage.

In 1477 Columbus sailed north to Iceland, where the Vikings had

settled hundreds of years before, and used the area as a way station

between Greenland and the Americas. He sailed to Ireland, where in

Galway Bay "flat-faced" natives, leading Columbus to believe they were

Asians, had washed up dead. These were possibly Inuit from Greenland

or North America. Columbus also sailed to the port city of Bristol,

England, which was once a stronghold of the Knights Templar and later

a stronghold of the English slave trade.

Columbus was more than well read; for his time he was a scholar

extraordinaire. At his bedside was a book titled Imago Mundi, by

Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, which Columbus had read and reread and

whose margins he had filled with notes.8 He also read Marinus of Tyre,

who had divided time into twenty-four hours. Columbus found support

from Strabo and Pliny, who estimated the world at one-third less

than its true size. And the adventurer read Aristotle and Seneca, who

believed the Indies were just a few days' sail from Cadiz.9 In Medea

Seneca wrote, "An age will come when Ocean will break his chains, a

huge land will be revealed."10 Columbus also owned a copy of the

Book of Ser Marco Polo and an Italian translation of Pliny's Natural

History.11

Like the other famous Genoese explorer John Cabot (born Giovanni

Caboto), Columbus married well. After being shipwrecked in Portugal,

he settled in Lisbon and attended mass at the Church of All Saints. The

Moniz-Perestrello family had come from Genoa a hundred years before

and settled in Portugal to work as merchants, traders, and adventurers. By

the time Columbus reached Portugal, the family had achieved wealth and

status. It had also endowed the Conventos dos Santos, where Columbus

met the widowed Felipa Moniz. Dona Felipa was twenty-five; Columbus

was twenty-seven. Within a year they married.

How the son of a weaver married into a family of the Knights of

Christ is a mystery that has never been solved. Moniz's father,

Bartholomeu Perestrello, was trained by Henry the Navigator at Sagres

Castle and had taken part in the exploration of the Atlantic islands. He

was given the title of governor, or capitano, of Porto Santo, where he

received the revenue from all trade and commerce. His son later inherited

the title, the position, and the revenue.

Columbus and his new bride honeymooned on Madeira, accompanied

by his new mother-in-law, Isabel Moniz. Her family also had a

long distinguished history with roots in the Algarve. Although marriage

into the Moniz-Perestrello family brought Columbus status, Isabel

Moniz gave Columbus something even more appreciated by the

explorer: the books and charts of her husband. The successive discovery

and rediscovery of the Canaries, the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape

Verde archipelago revealed an ocean full of islands just as Plato had

written.12 Armed with the knowledge of geography that was available

to the few who could read, as well as the maps and charts of the Atlantic

known to a few and protected by the secrecy of the Knights of Christ,

Columbus sailed west.

The New World was not as Columbus expected. First, it was not

China, then called Cathay, or anywhere else in Asia. There were no

spices, which were at that time as valuable as gold.There was some gold,

but it was around the necks of the particularly warlike Arawak tribe,

who first greeted Columbus. In search of gold they were convinced

could be found somewhere else, Columbus's expedition searched the

Caribbean Sea.

Along the way they discovered that the Taino natives of the larger

Arawak group on the island of Canoa, a province of Hispaniola, had

seagoing vessels that could hold forty-five people. The Spanish called

these dugouts "canoes," but they were actually as long as a European

galley and eight feet wide.13 In comparison, the three ships on

Columbus's expedition held ninety people total.

An Arawak group known as the Lucayans were active traders who

sailed to Guatemala for beads, jade, and quartz, which they used to

make pottery. The natives were also capable of smelting gold, silver, and

copper.

The natives discovered the "thunder reeds" of the newcomers, from

the wrong end of the rifle barrels. In March 1495 in Hispaniola, the

island later split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the first

battle was pitched between the Spanish people and the native population.

The island's population would be reduced from 250,000 to 500 by

1558.14

NEW WORLD SLAVE TRADE

Spain's complicity in the slave trade started with Columbus bringing

slaves from the New World to Spain. At first it was a handful of Taino

natives, who were brought to Spain almost as a curiosity. By the time

of Columbus's fourth voyage, the Spanish might have brought as many

white or Moorish slaves as blacks. In 1505 fifteen black slaves were

brought to Hispaniola,15 but shortly afterward the native population

was reduced by smallpox at such an alarming rate that replacement

workers were needed. The Spanish viewed a black as being worth the

labor of four native Caribbeans and with better resistance to disease.

The early Spanish slave trade may have been half white and half black.

Jewish captives in the continuing war against Moorish cities and

Muslim slaves were sold in the Valencia market. Black Africans would

accompany the Spanish explorers both as slaves and as free men. In fact,

on the Cortes exploration of Mexico, Juan Garrido, a free black born

in Spain, was given the distinction of being the first European to plant

wheat in Mexico.16

The Native American population collapse soon opened the floodgates,

and licenses were granted even to the Catholic holy orders to

import slaves—sometimes by the hundreds. Bartolome de Las Casas,

scion of an old French family in Spain, saw firsthand the destruction of

life that Spain was causing among the natives and recommended that

blacks be put to work in America instead.17 Soon both white Europeans

and black Africans were making the dangerous crossing to work as

slaves for the new ruling class of the Americas. Two hundred and fifty

thousand white Englishmen were transported against their will to work

on the plantations of the Caribbean.18 Their treatment was as harsh;

their survival was short.

When slavery is discussed today, race is usually emphasized. But

slavery, as horrible an institution as it was, would not become a racial

issue until after the American Revolution. Prior to this time slavery

more often involved peoples who were captured or subjugated in warfare;

as such it may have taken on a cultural focus, but it was not along

the lines of color. Whites enslaved whites, blacks enslaved blacks, and the

conquering armies and navies of Islam enslaved Europeans and Africans

as opportunity allowed. The blame for slavery cannot be placed on any

one particular group, as the practice was nearly universal.

The early slave trade was an effort of the Old World as a community.

The Portuguese and then the Spanish licensed the trade. The sea

captains of Genoa bought the licenses. The banking and merchant families

from France to Flanders lent the money that paid for the licenses

and mounted the expeditions. Slavery was an equal-opportunity

exploiter; everywhere, the powerful could enslave the less powerful. The

early trade was a matter not of capturing slaves, but rather of buying

them. The Africans themselves were an integral part of the trade;

remarkably, Prince Henry's slavers even found a market for black slaves

among black chiefs, who accepted the slaves in payment for ivory and

gold.19

The Wolof tribe of Senegal understood that in Africa a horse had

the value of seven men. They also understood that in Europe, Salic law

set the price of a slave as equal to one horse. The Wolof, who were rich

in slaves, soon became rich in horses, and they were no less complicit

than the Europeans who came to buy. The Songhai empire in

Senegambia was at least as sophisticated in trade, currency, and social

status as the Portuguese. Their markets were as developed and often

older than those of the traders who came to buy.

The 1520 through the 1540s saw the trade grow to heightened proportions.

Conversos, or Jewish families who claimed conversion to

escape death, found their way to the Netherlands, and then to the New

World, where some would play a large role. Jesuits too owned slaves,

traded slaves, and ran plantations. From the northern European Danes

and Dutch to the Iberians and Arabs in the south, the business was conducted

for the profit of those who could build and buy the ships and

capture, sell, or employ the slaves.

When the Americas were invaded by the Spanish conquistadors, an

early use for forced labor was in the silver mines of Peru and Cuba. The

Indians had worked these mines before but not under the harsh conditions

imposed by the Spanish. The cruelty of the conquerors led to a

much greater mortality rate among the natives. Because the slave owners

felt the Indians died too often, blacks were brought in to replace

them. The black slaves were destined to work the sugar plantations first

in Santo Domingo and then in Puerto Rico. Between 1529 and 1537

the Spanish crown granted 360 licenses to import slaves to Peru alone,

and most of these licenses went to Francisco Pizarro and his family. The

other licenses were doled out to friends of the crown, who often sold

them to bankers. Selling the licenses was as lucrative as actually buying

slaves in Africa and crossing the ocean to sell them in the New World.

Although every ethnic group and numerous countries participated

in the slave trade, perhaps most of the blame can be laid on the doorstep

of a few elite countries. Those who could afford to exploit others did,

and in whatever form possible. Often the people who could afford to

exploit others had powerful connections. The remnant crusader organizations

were still in the best position to participate in these activities.

The Portuguese ex-Templar order, the Knights of Christ, started

the trans-Mediterranean trade of Africans to finance its explorations.

They later brought the trade across the Atlantic. The Spanish crown,

acting through a host of military orders, licensed the rights to explore,

conquer, and subjugate foreign peoples and lands. Once an empire was

in place in a new region, the government took upon itself the right to

sell licenses granting others the right to buy and sell slaves. These

licenses first went to the elite families who financed and led for-profit

expeditions to the Americas.

THE FRENCH ENTER THE SLAVE TRADE

France was separated by the destructive wars between the Catholics and

the Protestants, but both sides would soon follow in the Caribbean

sugar and molasses trade. Both Catholic and Protestant participated in

the slave trade as well, though usually from different ports. While the

French Protestants, or Huguenots, conducted business through a more

modern system that gave great power to individual mercantile leaders,

the Catholic military orders that survived acted as one great company,

like the Knights Templar had before 1307.

Saint Christopher, the first Caribbean island to be colonized by

France, was bought by the order of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1653.20

The order soon added the islands of Tortuga and Saint Barthelemy to its

holdings. The knights, however, did not enjoy the slave trade. The slave

trade was a physically dirty business and most likely less profitable than

the order's mainstay of piracy. The order soon transferred ownership of

its Caribbean islands to the French West India Company.21 After the

order paved the way for French participation in the Atlantic trade, individual

companies run by Catholics or Huguenots filled the vacuum.

France was still a Catholic country and followed the lead of the

pope in Rome in justifying the trade. Edicts beginning with those of

Alexander II in 1493 and the Code Noir of the French king Louis XIV

in 1685 instructed that slaves be baptized aboard the slave ships.

Somehow the convoluted reasoning allowed the conquerors and slave

merchants to believe they were "saving" their victims. They were either

killing the "heathen godless pagans" or converting them. But the combined

military and religious conquest had an unintended result: The

religions of the Africans, as well as their own elite "lodges," were

brought to the Americas.

SECRET AFRICAN SOCIETIES AND THE SLAVE TRADE

While the elite European military societies played their part in buying

slaves, transporting them, and selling them to American planters, elite

African societies played another role. Secret and elite societies may have

even run the other side of the business, procuring slaves to sell to the

Europeans. In The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wade Davis describes captured

victims of the western Yoruba being brought down the Niger and

delivered into the hands of the Efik. The Efik were ideally suited at the

mouth of the river to meet the Europeans. The slave ships that anchored

at the river's mouth were required to pay a duty to the Efik chiefs in

exchange for slaves. Order was maintained by a secret society, the Egbo,

or leopard society.

The Efik chief, called an obong, often was the head of an Egbo

group that maintained discipline through fear.

The weapons of the Europeans were guns first and organized religion

second. The weapons of African societies were similar; first the victim

population was conquered and enslaved by force, and later it was

subjected to religion. Religion in early Africa was most likely grounded

in superstition, as it was in the rest of the world, but it was different in

that it utilized more drugs. One of the weapons of subjugation was the

Calabar bean, a source of datura, a psychoactively violent herb.22 The

use of such psychoactive drugs was carried to America to maintain

order. On the surface it appeared that the elite of the New World

required only their weapons and the martial powers of the military and

the military orders to maintain order. But religion did serve a purpose;

in addition to keeping order, it provided justification for the act of conquering

the American Natives. And it provided an excuse for the cruelty

of enslavement.

The slaves—blacks and Indians alike—did not, of course, simply

forget their own religious beliefs. Their religions, which were often the

products of numerous nations, regions, and languages, blended with the

Catholic iconography. The result was a multitude of new hybrid religions

built on a base of pagan beliefs. The religion of the saints became

Santeria in Cuba and Puerto Rico, obeah in Jamaica, vodun (voodoo)

in Haiti (Saint Domingue) and later in New Orleans, Curanderismo in

Mexico, and Candomble in Brazil.23

The glue that Catholicism was supposed to have provided for society

was actually supplied in a way for which the Church and the slave

owners were not prepared. The same shamans and members of secret

African societies who survived the passage brought their own cohesive

structure to the New World. On the islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica, and

Cuba these groups escaped into the mountains, led by religious leaders

and their core elite. They inspired others to escape and join, and they

roused enough fear in others that secrets were kept. Assassinations were

even conducted by group members who could move around invisibly.

The voodoo-inspired revolution that chased the likes of the Perkins

family back to Boston was as deadly as the terror of the French

Revolution.

The white traders and planters brought Freemasonry across the

Atlantic. Just a few years after lodges were established in the northern

colonies, they spread south. The first Caribbean lodge was established in

Jamaica in 1739. The prosperous island of Barbados had a lodge of its

own the next year, and by 1749 Saint Domingue too had its own lodge.

The French in Saint Domingue allowed blacks into their lodges at a

time when the growth of vodun was at its greatest. The rebellion that

brought whites and blacks to New Orleans from the Caribbean introduced

both the European lodge system and the vodun secret societies

into the United States. The American vodun religion, with its symbolism,

ritual clothing, and mysterious doctrines, appears to be an amalgamation

of African, Freemason, and Catholic influences.

The black slave insurrection was led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and

Toussaint-Louverture, both active Masons. Toussaint-Louverture had

declared independence for Saint Domingue in 1791, and although

France's emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, attempted to suppress it, there

were thirty thousand whites among 465,000 black slaves. The population

had seen an increase of forty thousand blacks in the three years

preceding the revolution. The independence movement eventually succeeded

under the leadership of Dessalines, who then renamed the

French part of the island Haiti, an Arawak name. Between 1791 and

1794 there was a reign of terror as revolutionary blacks had their own

version of Robespierre, Boukman. Boukman used a network of voodoo

priests and the mystery of voodoo ritual to incite the revolution. Under

Boukman's rule, whites were raped, tortured, and killed; plantations

were pillaged; and property was burned. In three years ten thousand

whites and an unknown number of blacks fled, mostly to Louisiana. Ten

thousand whites were killed, which was one third of the population.

HUGUENOTS IN THE TRADE

As Catholic France paved the way, the Huguenot slavers and smugglers

played an even bigger role in the commercial activity of the new

American colonies. From the same ports that the Templars once held in

the fourteenth century, like La Rochelle, the sixteenth-century

Huguenots organized into secret groups from which they supported

each other against often larger enemies. These groups were organized

through a series of Masonic lodges.

Much of the English and Scottish participation in the slave trade, in

smuggling, and even in piracy was organized in lodges and cells whose

members protected one another. Masons enjoyed protection that

extended to the highest levels in power. Although slave trading today is

statutory piracy, it used to be the prerogative of the English crown. The

Duke of York organized the English monopoly of the trade, and the

largest shareholders were the members of the royal families—who were

often at the pinnacle of the secret societies.

The Protestant French did not always have the same blessing from

the royals as did their English competitors or the Catholic slavers. The

Huguenots were among the last to enter the slave trade, but they caught

up quickly. In 1691 a Huguenot in the service of the French Senegal

Company became the governor of Saint Domingue.24 At home in

France three ports—Nantes, Bordeaux, and La Rochelle—ended up in

control of 70 percent of the slave-trading business.

Nantes, which is up the Loire River from the Atlantic coast, soon

controlled 50 percent of the trade by itself, thanks to the tightly knit,

intermarried Protestant families of Michel, Luynes, Boutelhiers,

Drouins, Bertrands, Grou, and Montaudoin.25 Islands in the Loire provided

suitable harbor for importing cotton and other goods, the final

product of the trade that started with African slaves. The house of Rene

Montaudoin emerged as the single largest company, controlling the

majority of the trade in Nantes, the largest slave-trading city. The family

business outfitted 357 ships in the eighteenth century, almost double

the amount of the Luynes family, the next closest competitor.

Rene Montaudoin was a member of the Royal Academy of Science

and also a Mason. His home base, Nantes, was a Masonic stronghold

imbued with the ideas ofVoltaire and Rousseau. Montaudoin became

close friends with Benjamin Franklin and helped supply the American

cause against the British. But the rights of man had little application in

the principal business of Nantes—the buying and selling of humans.

The role of the French Masons in the slave trade is a prime example

of the divisive goals of Masonic groups and of the elite themselves. In

1789 there were more than six hundred Masonic lodges in Paris. They

ranged from the craft worker and social groups to the more restrictive

lodges with nobles, priests, and even brothers of the king. Prominent

lodges included the leaders of the Enlightenment. The Lodge of the Nine

Sisters was one such lodge; founded by the astronomer Lalande, the lodge

was joined by Condorcet, Chamfort, Houdon, Danton, and Benjamin

Franklin. They adhered to no religious doctrine outside of the deist belief

that there is a supreme architect of the universe.26 They acted against the

Catholic religion, however, and were instrumental in expelling the Jesuits

from France. They were pledged to mutual assistance and religious toleration,

which conversely allowed them to control the slave trade and force

the Catholic religion on slaves.

There were also liberal Masonic groups whose membership

included Lafayette, his in-laws the Noailles, Mirabeau, the duc de La

Rochefoucauld, and the duc d'Orleans. Lafayette worked to end slavery

and experimented by buying two Suriname plantations from the

Jesuits and educating his own slaves in preparation for their freedom.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that the Masonic-inspired revolution

backfired against the membership's nobles and elite. A decade before the

Reign of Terror would count thousands of heads lost to the guillotine,

Masonic-linked families like the Montaudoins came to the aid of the

new experiment in democracy.

Rene Montaudoins family enterprise might have provided an

example to the American captains of the slave and textile industries.

Montaudoin donated money to build the Nantes hospital and plowed

much of his wealth into factories where cotton was processed.

Members of the De Wolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island, were classic

imitators, financing the textile industry of New England with the

money earned in the slave trade.

Although the motive of the French in the slave trade was primarily

profit, their actions took on political and religious overtones. The

French Huguenots had numerous enemies, and the Catholic Church

presented the greatest threat. French Freemasons brought blacks into

the lodges as a way of keeping the groups from becoming Catholic.

When Britain went to war with American colonies, France saw an

opportunity to hurt its long-term enemy.27

THE ENGLISH SLAVE TRADERS

The English were latecomers in the exploration of the New World.

After a very brief effort employing John Cabot to sail the coast in 1497,

the English waited more than a hundred years, until the time of Queen

Elizabeth I, before conducting further exploration. Elizabeth was surrounded

by a court of adventurers and alchemists, who advised the

queen to participate in the conquest.

Elizabeth's reign began shortly after the death of the Catholic

queen Mary I. Mary's death had ended a tense struggle between

Catholic and Protestant factions over the throne. Elizabeth's father,

Henry VIII, had an unusual propensity for marrying and then dispensing

with his wives. One of them, Anne Boleyn, was Elizabeth's mother.

Boleyn was accused of the crime of fornication and was beheaded,

making Elizabeth illegitimate. That status was not important to the family

of the Duke of Northumberland, who wanted a Protestant ruler. The

duke and his group attempted a coup to put Elizabeth on the throne

instead of Henry's other daughter, Mary. The so-called Dudley

Conspiracy ended badly for the twenty conspirators; they were sent to

the Tower, some to be executed and others to be imprisoned. Elizabeth,

however, remained physically unharmed, but the affair made her almost

paranoid.

A few weeks after Mary's death, on a precise day (January 15, 1559)

picked by Elizabeth's astrologer, Dr. John Dee, Elizabeth was made

queen of England. She had been drawn to the occult since childhood,

and it was one commonality she shared with her father. Her long-term

friend and rumored lover Robert Dudley introduced Elizabeth to Dee.

Dee had been hired by the Duke of Northumberland to teach science

to his two sons.

Dee's reputation as a sorcerer grew from his school days, when in

the middle of a Greek play at Cambridge he displayed an ability to levitate

a large scarab. The year he graduated, he was imprisoned as a sorcerer.

The short imprisonment did not hurt his chances at gainful

employment; he soon found himself a favorite of Elizabeth's court and

was given a home called Mortlake.

At Mortlake the cabalist, alchemist, and mathematician amassed a

library of four thousand volumes, the largest in England. Dee's library

would be used by two of England's greatest chroniclers, Hakluyt and

Holinshed. To Dee there was no divide between science and magic. He

displayed a magic mirror that mystified all but would not allow anyone

to reveal what he or she had seen. A maid reported that she had seen a

cloud of bees swarm downstairs from his chambers, plainly familiars of

the doctor.

Dee introduced Elizabeth to Francis Kelly, who claimed to be able

to transmute metals into gold. Elizabeth hired him to avoid taxing her

subjects.

Dee persuaded Elizabeth that she was entitled to enormous areas in

the New World based on claims that the Saxon version of the Greek

conqueror Alexander, King Edgar, had made. Her Majesty was also a

direct heir of King Arthur, according to Dee. Dee convinced Elizabeth

that Britain had a destiny to rule as Britannia and that as an island the

country needed a great navy. He told her that the Americas were to be

the new, Greater Britannia, the virgin continent for the Virgin Queen.

Now the quest was on for the new Avalon. Having been confined to

her palace, Elizabeth lived her life vicariously—intellectually through

Dr. Dee, emotionally through the men Dee brought to her.

In 1577 Dee wrote The Perfect Art of Navigation and dedicated it to

Christopher Hatton, who financed the maritime adventures of

Elizabeth's court. Elizabeth gathered together Sir Francis Drake and Sir

Walter Raleigh. Drake changed the name of his ship to the Golden

Hind, which was the heraldic device on Hatton's family crest. Drake

was then set loose to plunder the Spanish Main and claim lands for

Elizabeth. He brought her an emerald-studded crown, a diamond cross,

and a share in the 235,000 pounds' worth of plunder from Spain. Her

share alone exceeded her annual royalties.

Drake is regarded as one of the greatest English sea captains of all

time. His exploits as a navigator brought Britain into the world-encircling

role of Britannia, the empire. Drake declared northern California to be

Nova Albion, and claimed it for Elizabeth. His exploits as a privateer—

a pirate with permission—helped finance further voyages and added to

the coffers of the English kingdom. The Virgin Queen was quick to

catch on to the ways of the world. She licensed trade, conquest, and

piracy. The risks were small, unless one includes war with Spain. The

Spanish were indignant over the raids on their shipping and encroachment

on their new lands, and so they threatened to invade England.

Elizabeth's chief conjurer, John Dee, put a hex on the Spanish Armada,

which is believed to have brought bad weather and the English victory.

Elizabeth gave licenses to Dr. Dee, who at one time had the patent to

all American lands north of 50 degrees latitude. The queen also

licensed explorers John Davis and Walter Raleigh to find a northwest

passage to China and India.

Sir Walter Raleigh was a maverick. Alternately in and out of favor

with the queen, Raleigh was renowned for his bravado, energy, and

intelligence. For Elizabeth and the glory of Britannia, Raleigh searched

South America for the legendary treasure of El Dorado. He believed

that a source of gold was not far from the Orinoco River, which he

called the River of the Red Cross, a reference to the Templars. Raleigh

believed he was meant to play the role of the Red Cross Knight, a figure

in the Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.28

Raleigh did go down in history as the first to briefly attempt colonization

in the New World, which failed. He at least managed to

imprint the queen's name on the New World, on the state of Virginia.

John Hawkins, a cousin of Sir Francis Drake, introduced the English

to the African slave trade. Other English captains before him had been

to Africa, violating the exclusive trade claimed by Spain and Portugal.

But Hawkins was given express permission by Queen Elizabeth to trade

for slaves. Hawkins's backers included his father-in-law, Benjamin

Gonson, the treasurer of the navy, and Sir Thomas Lodge, the Lord

Mayor of London.29

Hawkins had no qualms about capturing the slaves himself or buying

or stealing them from the Portuguese. His first voyage was a mild

success, but his subsequent voyages made great profits, and for this he

was knighted. His new crest included a female African figure.

Chapter 12

MASTER MASONS AND THEIR SLAVES

From his castle in New York, Frederick Philipse looked down the

Hudson River, his highway to riches. From New York ships owned

by the Dutch-born entrepreneur sailed around the world. Philipse had

come to America in 1647 and immediately recognized that the laws

were not brought to bear on those who held the wealth. He started by

selling gunpowder and rum to the pirates.1 Then he moved on to providing

financial backing for the pirates' voyages. Finally he graduated to

become one of the pioneers of the American slave trade. It soon

became a family business, with Philipse's son Adolph arriving in

America from Madagascar on a ship full of slaves. With the money from

piracy and the slave trade, the Philipse family bought what was once a

Yonkers plantation and established more than one mansion on the

Hudson. Despite his business interests, Frederick Philipse achieved

respectability and wealth. He held political office and was a long-standing

member of the Council of New York.

While many of the early colonists came to America seeking religious

freedom, many also sought economic opportunity. Loosening the ties

that bound society created opportunity. Not every freedom-seeking

immigrant needed to exploit others to better himself. But for every

Sam Adams there was a Caleb Cushing, and for every Thomas Jefferson

there was a Thomas Perkins. The institutions and alliances made in the

Old World prevailed in the New World. The system of an elite group

that controlled the masses had existed from feudal times, and although

it was altered by mercantilism the system still predominated. Men like

Abraham Lincoln would carry the banner for equality and individual

rights while others would perpetuate the status quo.

There is no dividing line to say where English slave trading ended

and the American trade began. Tracing the start of slavery in what

would become the United States, Hugh Thomas, author of The Slave

Trade, found a letter from the Reverend George Downing of Harvard

that was written to his cousin John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut.

The letter suggested importing slaves into New England and held

British-owned Barbados as an example of the profits of slavery. George

Downing's father, Emmanuel Downing, of Salem, also wrote to

Winthrop suggesting the same. New England merchants had discovered

that the trade was a lucrative business, even though the area itself had

little need for imported labor. Massachusetts had only about a hundred

slaves in the seventeenth century. But ships owned by Massachusetts

firms would move tens of thousands of slaves for profit.

The most successful American slave traders had relationships in

Europe. As the slave trade grew in Europe, the English port of Liverpool

went from a fishing village to a first-rate seaport. Four families dominated

the trade; the wealthiest was Foster Cunliffe, who had four ships

that sailed for Africa each year. His wealth grew from the trade and he

was elected mayor. The American headquarters of the Cunliffe trading

business was at Oxford, Maryland, where Cunliffe's American agent was

the father of Robert Morris, the chief financier of the American

Revolution.

Just as many American fortunes are founded on the slave trade, opium

running, and smuggling, so are many of England's. The slave trade grew

in leaps and bounds in Britain and two cities, Bristol and Liverpool,

became hot spots for the trade. Bristol had become an important seaport

during the Crusades, and Templar ships controlled the industry there.

When the slave trade exploded as an economic opportunity, Bristol's

business increased, with her merchants responsible for the yearly transport

of seventy thousand slaves. Liverpool's history was shorter; it evolved into

a seaport as a result of the slave trade. Prior to Liverpool's entry into the

trading business, its population numbered five thousand. After entering

the cotton, sugar, and slave-trade triangle, businesses such as shipbuilders,

textile mills, and supporting industries enlarged the tiny port

and its surrounding towns to nearly one million people.

Prominent English families who controlled the trade included the

Leylands, Ingrams, Cunliffes, Tarletons, Claytons, Bolds, Kennions, and

Banastres. These families started the city's banks and industries, many of

which survive today.2 Not much was done to conceal the ugly business;

even the Liverpool city exchange building depicted African heads and

elephants.

New England's first slave-trading ship came from the seaport city of

Marblehead, but it was built in Salem and was registered there. The

Desire did not pioneer the trade to Africa but simply sailed to the West

Indies and returned with slaves for sale in Connecticut.3 Marblehead

and Salem were capitals of a sea-trading empire that spanned the seven

seas. Those who took part in the trade were firmly connected by the

Masonic lodge system. In fact, a Marblehead lodge carried American

Masonry to China, where in the heyday of opium trading

Massachusetts had a beachhead.

The lodges of the Massachusetts seamen were often fraternal and

would admit shipowners and common laborers, but as the owners

became wealthy, they often gravitated to more prestigious lodges.

Within a generation or two they frequently moved to Boston. Colonial

Masonry rose above the divisive factors such as religion and color, but

it reinforced the barrier between the rich and the poor.4

Boston's first families soon entered the trade. Peter Faneuil, a Mason

and a Huguenot, was an active trader. He was joined by the Belchers,

the Cabots, and the Waldos. While the customers of the slave trade were

the southern plantations, the shippers were New Englanders. Modern

Boston tries to downplay its role in the slave trade, with Massachusetts

historians pointing the finger at its neighbor Rhode Island. Historian

Samuel Morison claims, "The 'Guinea trade' had never been an important

line of commerce in Massachusetts,"5 yet at the same time he

admits that Salem had a regular trade with Africa, selling rum and fish

for gold dust, palm oil, and ivory. "It would be surprising if the occasional

shipmaster did not yield to the temptation," notes the author.6

Morison, who was from a prominent Brahmin family, equally warned

readers against exaggerating the opium trafficking.7 But there is no

denying that the bedrock of New England's wealth, including that of

many of today's most successful corporations, was funded with the proceeds

of both the slave trade and the opium trade.

Despite Massachusetts's claims to the contrary, it was involved in the

trade almost as far back as Virginia was. Samuel Vassall, one of the

colony's first promoters, is on record complaining about the monopoly

of the Guinea Company, an English institution, in the lucrative trade in

1649.8 A 1724 letter from Irish merchant Thomas Amory suggests that

the shippers of the slave trade were predominantly from New England.

Other historians also conclude that the slave trade's contribution to the

industry of New England is much greater than most will concede. The

authors of New England and the Sea claim that 30 percent of the traffic

in blacks was done on New England ships. Furthermore, the tobacco

and rice plantations, fueled by slave labor, were the biggest customers

for New England's exports: timber, rum, and fish. As the authors put it,

"The coffers of some of New England's proudest families were filled

with profits from this trade."9

Massachusetts might have been the first New England state to get

involved in the trade, but as it devoted its attention to China, the state's

slavery business was soon eclipsed by that of its neighbor Rhode Island.

RHODE ISLAND AND THE TRADE

New Englanders like to claim the slave trade was centered in Rhode

Island, and they are not completely incorrect in assigning the blame.10

Rhode Islanders, in turn, like to point the finger at the Jews, which is

also in part correct. In 1654 a handful of Portuguese Sephardic families

fearing a new Inquisition left their country for the Netherlands. After a

brief time they came to America. Rhode Island, founded by Roger

Williams, offered religious freedom. It also offered something even

more revolutionary to a small group of families: economic freedom.

This handful of closely related families learned quickly, and soon

came to represent most of the slave-trading business of the tiny colony.

Sephardic families including those of Aaron Lopez, Abraham Redwood,

Abraham Pereira Mendes, Jacob Riveras, Jacob Polock, and the De Wolfs

joined English colonists like William Ellery, Henry Collins, Samuel

Vernon, John Canning, and Joseph Wanton, who also made money from

the trade. The slave trade was not the province of Jews, Episcopalians,

or Huguenots. It did, however, pay to band together and operate in

secrecy. Christian or Jewish, the slave traders had to be connected, at

least to each other. Religious affiliation was often the tie that bound.

But not every slave trader was from a persecuted sect.

For this reason it was very important to be accepted into a lodge.

The lodge system, which was composed of the elite shipowners, made

navigating the treacherous waters of both the Atlantic Ocean and New

England political life easier. The Newport Lodge was founded by a

merchant from Boston, and once it was established it was populated

mostly by Jews from Portugal and the Caribbean. Moses Seixas served

as grand master for Rhode Island from 1791 to 1800"; he went on to

become one of the founders of the Bank of Rhode Island.

Intermarriage among Newport's first families tightened the bonds,

as it did among the Boston merchant elite. But intermarriage did not

mean marrying within one's race or religion; it meant marrying within

one's caste. A Protestant could marry a Jew as long as they were both

from the same station in life. Shipowner, sea captain, and merchant were

three titles within the higher caste of Rhode Island life.

In America, Jews in general did not suffer the degree of hostility

that they encountered in Europe. While in many countries Masonry

rejected Jews, and at least one still does, in America Masonry welcomed

them. Moses Michael Hay, a Portuguese Sephardic Jew, was instrumental

in bringing Scottish Rite Masonry to America, and Paul Revere, a

Huguenot, was his deputy grand master. Hay was also instrumental in

founding the Bank of Boston.

Not all of the men who were instrumental in fomenting rebellion

were Masons. Sam Adams, for example, used the taverns where lodges

met as a means of getting mob support. He was very much against the

slave trade and refused the gift of a slave. John Adams, too, declared that

any slave who entered his house was a free man. He was against the

trade and was an outspoken critic of Masonry; the cronyism it bred

allowed many to be above the law.

Among Rhode Island's Jewish merchants, Aaron Lopez was possibly

the most famous, with thirty ships to his credit. After fleeing a new

wave of inquisitorial zeal in Portugal, Lopez arrived in Newport in the

1750s with a second group of Sephardic Jews. He made contacts rapidly

in Boston, Charleston, New York, and Jamaica, and began trading

rum, furniture, candles, and slaves. In 1775 he was the single biggest taxpayer

in the state and had an estate in British Antigua as well. This was

Newport's golden age of trade, and Lopez was Newport's most successful

merchant. His family takes credit for building Newport's famed

Touro Synagogue and for introducing the sperm-oil industry to

America. Before his ships went to Africa in search of black slaves, his

fleet plied the oceans hunting for whales. A collection of his papers,

including ship's manifests, receipt books, and various records, fills 147

volumes and is preserved today.

Rhode Island has been called an American Venice, a tiny area

unsuitable for farming but by nature a trading mecca. The state's industry

would benefit from the slave trade in other ways. It may have been

the center of the rum business, with thirty rum distilleries depending

on the triangular trade that depended on African slaves. The rum, sugar,

and slave businesses all evolved around each other, which kept Rhode

Island prominent in the slave trade. Author Jay Coughtry in his book

The Notorious Triangle estimates that a hundred thousand Africans were

taken aboard more than nine hundred ships registered to Rhode Island

owners.

Many families descended from slave traders would later destroy

family documents and alter others to absolve the family from guilt.

Their wealth and power were never diluted, and many prominent

names built their fame on the triangle trade. Traders included the

Wanton family, whose Joseph Wanton would be remembered as the

fourth governor of Rhode Island; Abraham Redwood, benefactor of

the Redwood Library; John Bannister, owner of Bannister's Wharf;

Samuel and William Vernon; Philip Wilkinson; and Stephen d'Ayrault.

One family that was extremely wealthy and prominent because of

the trade and thus could not erase the past was the De Wolfs. They came

to Rhode Island through the Caribbean. Marc Antoine De Wolf, whose

migration started in Portugal and proceeded to Holland, Guadeloupe,

and finally Bristol, Rhode Island, married the English immigrant

Abigail Potter. Bristol was the namesake of England's largest slave port,

and there De Wolf was introduced to the trade as a captain on the ship

of his brother-in-law, Simeon Potter. Potter traded slaves and rum in the

Caribbean, and De Wolf learned quickly.

With his eight sons following De Wolf into the slave business, his

extended family may have been responsible for a quarter of Rhode

Island's slaving expeditions. Not everyone in his family was happy with

the business, however; his youngest son, Levi, was so disgusted after one

slaving voyage that he resigned from the family firm. But others showed

no signs of dissension. One of Levi's brothers was famous for throwing

a slave who had smallpox into the ocean.

Rhode Island had attempted to stop the trade and took several

actions against the De Wolf and Brown clans. When a slave ship was

confiscated, the slavers united to help the owner to buy it at a rigged

auction. When the government sent agents to correct the abuses, they

were hauled away or beaten. When the federal government sent a special

prosecutor, John Leonard, to try a slave trade case against James

De Wolf, a Rhode Island jury failed to convict the trader. Winning the

case was not enough, though, and De Wolf sent his own agents to

Washington, D.C., to deliver a message. They beat Leonard on the

courthouse steps.

The Bristol and Newport trade went on long after it was illegal.

James De Wolf quit in 1808, but his brother George continued until

1820, twelve years after the national ban. James married the daughter of

William Bradford, who owned a rum distillery and served in the U.S.

Senate. He put his slave trade profits into textile mills and became

owner of the Arkwright Manufacturing Company, which survived into

modern times and is currently part of a Dutch company.

The De Wolf family would also be remembered for founding one

of the first New England insurance firms. The firm insured both the

slave ships and the "cargo." Today the De Wolfs' imposing mansion,

Linden Place in Bristol, is a tourist attraction. It was built in 1810 by

General George De Wolf, who moved his headquarters to Cuba and

continued growing his fortune in plantations, the slave trade, and West

Indian piracy. In 1825, when the sugar crop failed in Cuba, George

abandoned his mansion and skipped out of Rhode Island ahead of his

creditors.

The family home changed hands several times, but each time to a

different De Wolf. Theodora De Wolf married Christopher Colt, the

brother of the famous handgun manufacturer, and had six children with

him. After Theodora's death, Samuel Colt bought out his brother's

interest and remained in the house. Samuel Colt is also credited with

founding the Industrial Trust Company, which merged with Fleet

National Bank, now called Fleet Boston Financial, one of the largest

banks in New England. Samuel P. Colt, Samuel Colt's nephew and

Theodora's son, became a prosperous lawyer in New England and handled

the Vanderbilt estate. He is also remembered for merging small

rubber companies to create U.S. Rubber, which later became Uniroyal.

Rhode Island remained a closed society long after the slave trade

was history. Membership in a Masonic lodge appears to have been a

requirement for political office in the state. Governors David Russell

Brown, Norman Case, Robert Livingston Beeckman, William Gregory,

Charles Kimball, Herbert Warren Ladd, and Frank Licht were all

Masons, as were and are numerous Rhode Island senators, congressmen,

and other officeholders.

PATRIOTS AND PROFITS

It is often said that New England was the core of the Revolution. Those

hurt by the restrictive trade covenants of the mother country were the

merchants and traders. The early stages of rebellion are traced to the

Stamp Act and other mercantile edicts. In 1764, when Britain tried to

raise the price of sugar and molasses, the merchants and shipowners of

Massachusetts banded together to oppose the action. Such commodities

were essential to the slave trade, which was vital to New England

commerce. Colonial shipping employed four thousand seamen in New

England and was responsible for thousands of peripheral occupations.

The Cabot and Russell families of Boston were two of the largest shippers.

George Cabot was an Anglophile and a staunch Federalist whose

family wealth was built on merchant shipping. He served as a senator

from Massachusetts and was appointed the first secretary of the navy but

declined the post. Although many of those who sought independence

for the colonies were made wealthy through the slave trade, others were

opposed to it.

The success of the Revolution may have depended on the money

and connections of the merchants, but its ideals were not dependent on

the merchants whose politics would carefully straddle the proverbial

fence until a decision was forced.

NEW YORK IN THE TRADE

The numbers of slave ships sailing from New York were small compared

to those of the New England states. But the wealth of the New Yorkers

who prospered through the trade is at least as great. The trade was

restricted to the elite families that had often been among the feudal

overlords from the colony's earliest days. The intermarried elite core

that brought the Scottish Livingston family together with their Dutch

neighbors the Schuylers was joined by the Philipses, Thomas Francis

Lewis, the Beeckmans, the Marstons, the Van Homes, the van Cortlandts,

and the Walters. Until the American Revolution, the wealth of the

philipse family might have put them among the top ten in the colonies.

Frederick Philipse had arrived with Peter Stuyvesant as a master

builder for the West India Company. Philipse exploited the valuations

of native wampum, bought land, and invested in trade from the beginning.

His backing of pirate voyages may have been among his greatest

ventures, and he would even marry the widow of another transatlantic

trader. Philipse's slave trade was just one part of his vast operation. By

1693 the Philipse lands stretched twenty-one miles along the Hudson,

for a total of ninety-two thousand acres.

Philip Philipse, an heir to Frederick's fortune, married Margaret

Marston, thus linking another powerful family to his own. The

Marstons owned land on Wall Street as well as the huge Prospect Farm,

a country estate near what is now Eighty-fifth Street. The Marstons too

were a mercantile family, and as slave traders they would keep slaves on

their Manhattan estate. Margaret's father, Nathaniel, was active in the

Anglican Church and is buried in the family vault in Trinity Church, a

Manhattan landmark. His portrait in the Museum of the City of New

York depicts him with his ledger book, a reference to his participation

in the China trade.

Although the volume of ships owned by New Yorkers was less than

that of New Englanders, their role might have been just as great. Even

after slavery was made illegal, ships owned by New Yorkers were found

conducting an Africa-to-Cuba business. In 1859 eighty-five ships from

New York City were supposedly working in the Cuban slave trade. The

proceeds were used to add "to the treasuries of political organizations"

and "carry elections" in nearby states.12

Only a few of those in the trade owned slaves themselves. Robert

Livingston was one of these people. As the elected speaker of the New

York provincial assembly in 1718, business kept Livingston in Albany

while his wife, Alida, managed their plantation. One letter Robert

received from Alida requested that he find old shoes for the Palatines

and slaves, who were barefoot. Robert Livingston is one of the few

New Yorkers who actually tried farming with black slaves, and when

the experiment did not work the Livingstons kept the slaves as servants.

Another letter shows Robert buying a Negro girl for his son Philip.13

As early as 1690 Robert Livingston had an interest in a Dutch ship

that sailed to Madagascar, then Barbados, and finally Virginia. In the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries, there was still prejudice against the

Scots, even in the melting pot of New York. In order to rise above one's

station, the ticket was to marry into a Dutch family, comprising the

aristocracy of New York. At the peak of the slave-trading business

owned by Philip Livingston, Robert's son, the merchant endowed Yale's

first professor's chair.

Alexander Hamilton, the illegitimate son of a Scottish plantation

owner in the Caribbean, followed Livingston's road to fame and fortune

by marrying a Dutch woman, Elizabeth Schuyler. He became a

Freemason for the connections it offered. After the war the fact of his

low birth was completely forgotten, as he became a member of the elite

Society of Cincinnati.

Hamilton became the antithesis of what Thomas Jefferson held as a

role model for the country-in-formation. Like Jefferson, Hamilton

owned slaves and called for their freedom; unlike Jefferson, who targeted

New York as a city of money-grubbers, Hamilton's lifetime ambition

was to found a bank. Hamilton understood that he who controls

the money has the most power. George Washington appointed

Hamilton the first secretary of the treasury. His first act was to

announce that the debts of the new country were to be paid. It was

ostensibly a noble idea, but one that was built on an early version of

insider trading. Hamilton and his cohorts bought up as much of the war

debt as possible at a rate of pennies on the dollar. They were made

wealthy when these were paid. Many cried foul at this action, yet

Hamilton was a proponent of power without limitation and despised

the checks-and-balances system.

Hamilton then founded New York's first bank, the Bank of New

York, in 1784 and brought in three other Scots to fill the board.

Another early New York bank, the Manhattan Company, was founded

by Aaron Burr, who promptly loaned himself a fortune. The Manhattan

Company was seized in a hostile takeover by Hamilton's allies—the

Livingstons—who ousted Burr. A war between Hamilton and Burr

ended in the infamous duel that left Hamilton dead, Burr a fugitive, and

the Stock Exchange (the Tontine Coffee House, at that time) closed for

a day. The bank survived the scandal and is still alive and well today

under the new name Chase Manhattan.

America's Scottish immigrants were tightly knit through Masonry

and other connections and were particularly adept at using these connections

to organize syndicates, companies, and institutions. Another

Scotsman and merchant, Archibald Gracie, started the first savings bank

in New York. He had emigrated from Dumfries in 1784, and within

two decades the sea trade made him one of New York's wealthiest citizens.

Gracie is described as fabulously wealthy, and there were probably

fewer than five men in New York whose fortunes could rival his.

Today the Gracie mansion serves as the home of New York City's mayors.

Neighbor of the Astors, Rhinelanders, Crugers, and

Schermerhorns, Gracie's parties were legend, and the New York glitterati,

including Alexander Hamilton, James Fenimore Cooper, and

Washington Irving, were frequent guests. In addition, Gracie is often

given credit for developing New York as a seaport.

Scotsmen played a key role in establishing banks in Europe as well.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694 by William Paterson, a

farm-born Scotsman who had a vision of a world banking system controlled

by central banks. That system is in place today. Paterson is also

remembered as the promoter of the ill-fated Darien scheme, in which

many Scotsmen died (see chapter 4), which Livingston would find himself

connected to by marriage. Another son of Scotland, John Law, was

born around the same time as Paterson and left his homeland for

France, where he started the Banque Generale. The bank brought prosperity

to France as it made trade more viable. Law, however, lost his

proverbial shirt in his own American adventure. He combined the bank

with the Mississippi Company, which he established to develop the

Louisiana territories in America. The venture ended in bankruptcy and

with Law fleeing for his life.

Scots even brought the word dollar into the English language. King

James VI introduced a thirty-shilling coin that became known as the

sword dollar because of the design. The Scots used the term dollar to

distinguish their currency from that of their overbearing neighbor to

the south. The word took on an anti-English, independent connotation

which the Scots brought with them to the Americas.

PENNSYLVANIA

The first Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia, one of the

colonies' most important port cities. The meeting was attended by

many in the slave trade. While Pennsylvania was not a plantation state

and Philadelphia was not as active in the trade as some colonies, its merchants

did participate. Thomas Willing, of the Willing and Morris firm,

was one of the merchants in attendance. His partner, Morris, represented

one of Europe's largest slave merchants, Foster Cunliffe. Philip

Livingston, whose slave ship the Wolf plied the Atlantic, also attended.

Present from the South were plantation owners including future president

Madison, George Mason of Virginia, and Henry Laurens of South

Carolina.

Philadelphia's Society of Friends, also called the Quakers, did not

approve of the trafficking of human lives. However, some individual

Quakers did make profits from the trade. Friends involved in slave trading

included William Frampton, who carried the first slaves to

Philadelphia, as well as James Claypole, Jonathan Dickinson, and Isaac

Norris. Even the always-industrious Benjamin Franklin, who was a

friend to the Montaudoin family, considered entering the slave trade.

He also entertained the idea to breed slaves, rather than import them,

in Florida.

The City of Brotherly Love was founded by William Penn, whose

Quaker beliefs earned him the enmity of his own father. In England

Penn fought for religious toleration and was imprisoned in the Tower

of London. There he penned his text No Cross, No Crown and advised

his jailers they had better issue his death sentence, as he would not

change his philosophy. After his release, Penn continued his fight and

was jailed several times. He finally petitioned the king for a charter to

start a colony in the New World. The king, no doubt relieved to be getting

rid of the trouble-stirring Penn, granted the man's wish.

Penn was a paragon of religious toleration and envisioned a land

where all were free to practice their faith. Voltaire, Ben Franklin's

brother in the Masonic Nine Sisters Lodge, called Penn the one who

could boast of bringing a new Golden Age to earth. From his

Pennsylvania paradise Penn wrote that men were "born with a title to

perfect freedom." Sadly, followers of this paragon of toleration and freedom

were silent on the issue of slavery, although the Quakers would

later be counted among the first abolitionists.

VIRGINIA

Virginia was a planter state, and as such the state's aristocracy was made

up of people who had great expanses of land and slaves to maintain the

plantations. Its history starts with the chartering of the Virginia Company

in 1606 to London's leading merchants, including Richard Hakluyt and

Sir Thomas Smith, the son of one of Raleigh's financial backers.

From the earliest days, life in Virginia was tough and the actions of

the powerful handful that constituted the authority might shock those

who accept religious freedom as the reason for the colonization of the

Americas. Blasphemy and sacrilege were crimes that were subject to the

death penalty, as was the crime of killing a chicken.14 For stealing oatmeal,

one man had a needle driven through his tongue and was then

chained to a tree and left to die of starvation.15 But the white colonists'

inhuman treatment of each other for the pettiest of crimes did not

extend to the elite members of the colony.

The Virginia Company charter included the island of Bermuda,

which allowed Virginia's founders, like Lord Robert Rich, to make a

fortune in piracy as they sailed from safe harbor in Virginia to safe harbor

in Bermuda. Slave labor would simply replace one cruel system,

servitude, with another. Men earned transatlantic passage by agreeing to

work for the planter families, often for an indefinite period of time.The

planters took advantage of the system and extended the length of service.

London's poor and troublesome were disposed of by workhouses

prisons, the gallows, the military, and this new option, Virginia.

Black slave labor came to replace the indefinite servitude of the

whites. A head of cattle worth five pounds in Virginia was worth

twenty-five pounds in Barbados, and that island would be a great source

of slaves for the Virginia plantations. Unlike the sugar industry, in which

the way to profits was working one's slaves to death, the tobacco business

featured easier work, and slave families were imported to maintain

the plantations for a longer term.

Despite the nature of tobacco planting, which was easier than that

of the sugar industry, life was still dangerous for people who had no

legal recourse. In 1669 the Virginia assembly passed a law allowing the

murder of a slave as discipline for bad behavior. When Robert Carter

applied to the court in order to be allowed to dismember two disobedient

slaves, his application was granted.16

Virginia s first families, like the Ludwells, the Byrds, the Carters, and

the Spencers, shared the spoils of office and a series of well-placed marriages

to become a new aristocracy. They built huge mansions on their

landed estates: The Harrisons built Berkeley; the Lees built Stratford; the

Carters built Sabine Hall, Nomini Hall, and Carter's Grove; the Byrds

built Westover; the Randolphs built Tuckahoe; and the Washingtons

built Mount Vernon.

Masonry united the Virginia aristocrats, and important members of

high society were lodge members as well. Although lodge records often

did not survive the centuries, the membership of George Washington,

George Whyte, and George Mason is without doubt. There is evidence

that future presidents Monroe and Madison were also Masons, and the

Masons do not claim only one of Virginia's aristocracy, Benjamin

Harrison, as a lodge brother.

James Madison, a scion of the planter aristocracy, played an active

role in the Constitutional Convention. Like fellow planter George

Washington, Madison had doubts about the concept of slavery and

worked toward sending the black slaves back to Africa.

Benjamin Harrison, the ancestor of Presidents William Henry

Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, and a cosigner of the Declaration of

Independence, was the descendant of still another Benjamin Harrison,

who was most likely a Bermuda planter.17 The Tucker clan started with

William Tucker, a sea captain who arrived in Virginia before 1620. He

was entrusted with trading on behalf of the colony. In doing so he concluded

a treaty with the Pamunkey Indians by killing two hundred of

their tribe with poisoned wine.18 The Tuckers also had one foot in

Bermuda, with plantations there and in Virginia dating to the early days

of the Virginia Company.

THE DEEP SOUTH

North Carolina had a plantation-driven economy, although only one

Constitutional Convention member from that state, William Blount,

was a plantation owner. Like several other signers, he was a lawyer and

a Freemason. Blount was also a Revolutionary War hero who earned

the respect of many in battle.

Blount started anew after the Revolution as a land speculator. His

threatened finances, however, induced him to take a subversive role

designed to lead the country back into war. He wanted to see the new

country defeat the Spanish and open the West. For this reason Blount

became part of a conspiracy that attempted to turn over Florida to the

British. He was booted from the Senate as a result. Blount had many

friends, including fellow Mason Andrew Jackson, whom he had named

attorney general of the Tennessee Territory. These friends in high places

and important lodges prevented Blount's impeachment from hindering

his family's political dynasty, which would prosper into the next

century.

In South Carolina the elite caste, which built its fortunes in the

slave trade and plantation industry, was all-powerful and ran the colony

in much the same way as the Caribbean states were run. The first governor

of South Carolina was Sir John Yeamans, a Barbados planter who

founded Charleston and introduced slaves to clear his own plantation.

A hundred years later the planter aristocracy was in full control of the

state, even though the country was at the doorstep of democracy.

Henry Laurens, who was at the Philadelphia Convention, was a

partner in the firm of Austin and Laurens. The company was the largest

of twelve firms in Charleston, capturing 25 percent of the slave trade.19

Laurens held some of the largest plantations in the colony and was one

of the biggest merchants, handling rice, indigo, rum, beer, and wine.

Slave traders usually earned a commission of 10 percent of the sale price

of their trades, and the slave trade was big enough that the greatest mansions

of Charleston were owned by the merchants and slave traders.

Henry's father, John Laurens, was a Huguenot from La Rochelle in

France. He was part of the Huguenot wave of immigration that fled

Catholic France because of religious war and persecution. John would

send his son Henry to England in 1744 to be trained as a merchant.

Henry's education was furthered in South Carolina by making the

right friends. He became a member of the Solomon's Lodge and was

trained in the craft by another wealthy Charleston merchant, James

Crokatt.20 Membership in the lodge was very important in being

accepted by other merchants and businessmen. Stephen Girard of

Philadelphia had also joined Masonry through this influential lodge.

Henry Laurens started the family trade, importing rum and other

tropical goods from the West Indies, bringing manufactured goods from

England, exporting rice and indigo, and buying slaves from British

traders and then selling them to South Carolina planters. He was soon

sending his own ships to Africa to eliminate the British middlemen. The

profits from his trade were invested in land, and by the Revolution he

owned eight plantations. He also entered politics, first at the local level

and later in increasingly important positions. In 1770, with his fortune

made, Henry brought his son to England to arrange for his son's education.

There Henry became involved with the American contingent

protesting grievances to Parliament. Once he returned to South

Carolina, he withdrew from the merchant life and from the slave trade.

This did not stop him from keeping his own slaves, however, who numbered

three hundred.

While on a mission to Europe to arrange a loan from the

Netherlands, Henry Laurens was captured by the British and spent fifteen

months in the Tower of London. He returned to South Carolina

to find his business ravaged by the Revolution, so he resigned from

public life. When asked to join the Constitutional Convention as a representative

of South Carolina, he declined, instead sending his new sonin-

law.

After the battle of Yorktown, when England's willingness to support

the protracted war was over, Laurens's English connection, Richard

Oswald, was sent to negotiate the peace. Oswald, a Scottish slave trader

who had appointed Laurens as his American agent, was sent by Lord

Shelburne to Paris to meet with Benjamin Franklin. As the merchant

caste was an elite minority, it was in its best interest to keep the group

exclusive. From New England to the Carolinas intermarriage was the

norm of the times. Charles Pinckney was the son of Colonel Charles

Pinckney, a wealthy plantation owner, a lawyer, and a prominent

Mason. Young Charles followed in his father's footsteps but did himself

one better: He married Mary Eleanor Laurens. Shortly after Pinckney's

marriage, his career and his wealth soared. He became the governor of

South Carolina, and along with his cousin Charles Cotesworth

Pinckney he represented the state at the Constitutional Convention.

Cousin Charles was also the son of a plantation owner and was trained

as a merchant and a lawyer. He too was in Washington's elite Society of

Cincinnati. South Carolina's third and fourth delegates were also

planters and lawyers.

Pierce Butler was the son of a member of Parliament. He came to

America because of the institution of primogeniture, which did not

allow him to inherit the family estates as he wasn't the eldest son. In

1771 he married Mary Middleton, the daughter of a wealthy plantation

owner. They moved south, with Butler resigning his military commission

in the British army. He was outspoken in making sure the interests

of the slave owner in South Carolina were represented and served in

both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.

John Rutledge was born in Charleston and was sent to London to

study law at the Middle Temple. He returned to amass a fortune in

plantations and slaves. He served as governor of his state, and after the

war he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate rejected

his appointment because of what was perceived as declining mental

health and an anti-Federalist position.

James Oglethorpe, the man who founded Georgia, started his career

with the Royal African Company. He became a director of the company,

whose charter gave it the right to import gold into England and

black slaves into the Americas—for a thousand years. Oglethorpe's

company included some powerful gentlemen, such as James, the Duke

of York, who was the largest shareholder, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord

Craven, Sir George Carteret, and Sir John Colleton. All were involved

in the plantation business in one way or another; Colleton was a

landowner in Barbados before he bought land in the Carolinas. Smaller

shareholders included John Locke, the philosopher whose call for liberty

obviously did not include all.

Oglethorpe was a Mason in England, and he organized the first

lodge in Georgia in 1733 without the benefit of a charter for the first

two years. The Grand Lodge soon came around and warranted his

lodge, even assisting it financially. Most of Oglethorpe's family were

Jacobins and supporters of the Stuart cause. Oglethorpe was placed in

an awkward position in 1745; as a military commander for the English

he was supposed to help put down the rebellion led by Bonnie Prince

Charlie. His lack of concern earned him a court-martial, although he

was eventually acquitted.21

FLORIDA

Florida still belonged to Spain during the American Revolution. When

the state was admitted to the Union, it had a unique status among the

slave states in that it allowed blacks many of the same rights as whites.

The polarization of early-nineteenth-century politics would eliminate

those rights.

The first black slaves were brought from Spain, not Africa, where

they were employed in mines and in agriculture. Spanish slaves had

unique rights; they were able to hold property, buy and sell goods, and

initiate legal suits. These rights added up to the ability to gain their freedom.

Free blacks sailed with the Spanish to America and were part of

slaving expeditions against the Taino Indians. After 150 years of being

part of Spanish Florida, black militias and black fortresses made up of

free blacks developed. Members gained status by serving in the militia,

and this gave them the ability to acquire titles and privileges.

Many blacks, including Prince Witten, used such activities to

achieve a high degree of status in Florida. He and his wife, Judy, fielded

a large amount of requests to act as godparents to children in the community,

and they evolved into a sort of royalty, with Judy having a slave

of her own. The slave revolt in Saint Domingue was led by Jorge

Biassou, who commanded an army of forty thousand. Biassou's brotherin-

law, Jorge Jacobo, married Prince Witten's daughter Polly, Unking a

leading Florida family with a leading Haitian family.

Juan Bautista Collins was another northern Florida black whose

achievements stand out among both the free black community and the

white Florida colony. He became a merchant and built a mercantile

firm in Saint Augustine that developed trading links in South Carolina,

Saint Domingue, Havana, New Orleans, and central and western

Florida. Collins's agents were able to trade among the Seminole nation,

which became an amalgamation of the Creek Indians and the runaway

blacks. Collins raised cattle, bought and sold livestock, owned property,

and, like the upper-caste Spanish, kept the Catholic faith and served in

the militia.

In 1763 the British took Florida from the Spanish. British colonies,

especially the neighboring Carolinas, felt threatened by armed blacks so

close to home, and the rights and status enjoyed by free blacks became

threatened. King George III gave his favorite prime minister, the

Scottish Earl of Bute, the charge of picking Florida's first British governors;

both were aristocratic Scots. The first, James Grant, conceived of

a colony where massive plantations, owned by absentee Scottish aristocrats

like him, would employ black slave labor to raise cash crops such

as indigo. Grant's own plantation was created in 1774, three years after

his retirement from the governorship, and produced one quarter of the

entire state's indigo production.

In 1763 American and British investors united to form a slavebreeding

experiment. Richard Oswald, a Caithness-born trader who

started his career in Glasgow and later became a member of London's

slave-trading community, teamed up with Henry Laurens and

Benjamin Franklin to import and breed Africans. Oswald owned an

island in the Gambia Paver, married into the Scottish Ramsay family

(who brought estates in Jamaica into his portfolio), started his own

holdings in Virginia near the James River, and by 1764 had a huge

home built for himself in Ayr, Scotland.

Britain's designs on Florida did not last long, as the 1783 Treaty of

Paris returned Florida to Spain. Freed blacks who had emigrated to the

Caribbean islands returned to Florida and went into Spanish courts to

confirm their status. Such status was attainable until the U.S. flag flew

over Florida in 1821. The years between Florida's becoming a state in

the Union and the Civil War witnessed racism become a reality.

Independent Spanish Florida did not require that economic status be

accorded by color; American Florida saw blacks as a threat, and free

blacks soon watched their status disappear. All blacks were soon

accorded the status of slaves.

The institution of slavery was not inflicted on the world because of

white Europeans, black Africans, or Islamic traders. It was not the exclusive

province of Freemasons, Huguenots, Jews, or Muslims. The blame

for any institution that allows the rights of one class to be taken away

by another class can rarely be assigned to any group or religion, but as

an organization religion can lead the way to elitism. The handful who

believed they had the right to profit from slavery caused many others

to feel that handful was an abomination in a land built on individual

freedom. Ultimately the blame lies in the ability of the elite class to

dominate through the institutions it could manipulate and control.

Although most American dockworkers and shipwrights were not

smugglers or slave traders, their livelihood depended on those who

were. As a lodge, union, or congregation, the rank and file went along

with whatever they needed to in order to ensure their own incomes, to

advance the greater good of the group, or simply to remain a part of the

status quo. Thus the world begets blacks trading in black slaves, signers

of the Bill of Rights owning slaves, and freedom fighters willing to

enslave others.

Still, the worst was yet to come. Many who fought for an American

nation, an experiment in individual liberties, a refuge from the tyranny

of royalty and religious leaders, would commit to criminal conspiracies

to tear apart the nation. Assassination, murder, conspiracy, and a backlash

of racial hatred were unleashed upon America because of the

manipulations of a few people. This led to America's most deadly war

and to the murder of American presidents.

Chapter 13

THE MASONIC BETRAYAL

In 1826 the New York Freemason William Morgan decided to go

public with the secrets of the order. Morgan's "brothers" had him

arrested on bogus charges, imprisoned, and taken by force to a Masonic

lodge, where he was murdered. Prosecutors brought charges against a

handful of the conspirators. The jury was packed with Masons, however,

and the accused were acquitted. After a special prosecutor was brought

in, a few of the Mason murderers were actually convicted, but the

longest sentence was thirty months. As an anti-Mason backlash swept

the country, membership was lost and lodges disbanded.

The conspiracy that the American public had feared had simply

gone underground. Prominent Freemasons controlled the slave trade,

the plantations, and the cotton industry, and through their wealth they

controlled American politics—from the North to the Deep South.

The history books tell us that the issues of slavery and states' rights

led the United States down the path to Civil War. But most Americans

did not own or trade slaves, or even own the plantations that required

the work of slaves. The average citizen also did not own the textile mills

that processed the cotton produced on the slave plantations. A handful

of elite and wealthy people did, and they stirred the public to racial

hatred and the Civil War.

The southern United States was one of the few remaining areas that

still practiced slavery, as did Portuguese Brazil and Spanish Cuba. As the

causes of the war are studied, it appears that the "free" states of the

North were opposed to the "slave" states of the South. The lines were

not always geographical. An abolitionist movement did exist in the

North, especially in states that enjoyed no commercial benefits from

slavery. The abolitionist movement existed in the South and the West as

well.

In the North some people did benefit from the slave trade, and as a

result they formed some odd alliances that fought against the tide of

emancipation in the twenty years prior to the war. One such alliance

was that of Northerner Caleb Cushing and two Southerners, John

Anthony Quitman (the governor of Mississippi) and Jefferson Davis.

Although Cushing was an active and high-ranking Mason, his mentor,

Daniel Webster, advised him to move out of his Newburyport,

Massachusetts, home because of his unpopularity. But the thirty-thirddegree

Mason controlled the plantation trade and the opium trade from

his mansion and had friends in high places.

Cushing's coconspirator John Anthony Quitman was born in the

Roosevelt territory of Rhinebeck, New York, but moved to Mississippi

to become grand master of that state's Masonic hierarchy. He was the

grand master for seventeen years. His power in the lodge and the capitol

building of Mississippi gave him unbridled ambition, and he was

very active in determining the fate of Texas. Quitman, who was against

the admission of any new states as "free" states, proposed raising an army

and marching west to conquer the new territory that had been taken

from Mexico. It was an act of treason that caused Quitman to be

brought up on charges of violating American neutrality laws. The other

coconspirator, Jefferson Davis, would later become president of the

Confederate states.

The three conspirators joined forces to get General Franklin Pierce

into the White House. The enemy of this alliance was President

Zachary Taylor, who had assumed the presidency in March 1849.

Taylor, a slaveholder, had wanted the southwestern states to be admitted

as free states. In February 1850 the new president called a meeting

of Southern leaders and told them he would hang secessionists who

took arms against the Union "with less reluctance than he had hanged

deserters and spies in Mexico." It wasn't the last time he threatened

hanging. Taylor again publicly spoke out against those who committed

acts of treason. He specifically referred to Quitman and his cabal, threatening

to see them hanged for their deeds.

The very next day, July 4, 1850, the president took ill. The day was

to be a celebration of both the independence of the country and the

consecration of the almost finished Washington Monument. It was very

much a Masonic celebration, as was everything surrounding the erection

of the obelisk. When work was started two years before, the architect

wore George Washington's Masonic apron. The stone was quarried

from a quarry owned by a Mason. Twenty-one lodges were in attendance

at the monument's dedication.

President Taylor, who was surrounded by enemies, did not realize

his days were numbered. Later some would insist that the general who

had blazed through Mexico in much greater heat to win a war could

not handle the climate of Washington. His death, it was said, was

brought on because Taylor drank too much cold milk and ate a large

quantity of cherries during the celebration, which allegedly causes a

stomach inflammation.

Many believe that Taylor was the victim of a plot. Numerous people

survived the July 4th picnic. Investigative techniques may not have

been as developed back then as they are today, but arsenic was a wellknown

poison in the nineteenth century. The symptoms of arsenic

poisoning include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Taylor exhibited these symptoms, yet somehow the diagnosis was an

overdose of cherries and cold milk. Arsenic can be easily discovered in

the body, as it is deposited in the fingernails and hair. When the body

of the president was exhumed in 1991 to test for arsenic, the poison

was detected, although not in a large enough quantity to kill him. The

test was done 140 years after Taylor's death, however, rendering the

results inconclusive.

John Quitman and his cohorts were not hanged as Zachary Taylor

had threatened. Instead Quitman was elected to Congress, and the conspirators

succeeded in getting their man into the White House. When

Franklin Pierce was sworn in, Caleb Cushing was rewarded with the

post of attorney general and Jefferson Davis became secretary of war.

Governor Quitman was exonerated of criminal charges.

COTTON WHIGS

In those critical years, the Whig party of the North relied on the leadership

of the aristocrat Robert C. Winthrop, who was not concerned

with the slavery issue. Although the antislavery movement was strong

among the common voters, the people in Winthrop's class—the shippers,

merchants, insurers, and railroad builders—relied on cheap labor.

But instead of relying on blacks for labor, Northerners exploited the

immigrants and the average citizens. The Whig ties with the plantations

of the Deep South and the English banking establishment, which

financed the cotton trade, were strong.

Georgia planter and Mason Howell Cobb led the Southern

Democrats. Cobb was an aristocrat who owned more than a thousand

slaves. Between Cobb and Winthrop there was an attempt to maintain

the status quo. The spoiler was a party called the Free-Soilers, an antislavery

group that had a poor showing in the presidential election but

was riding a groundswell of abolitionist opinion.

The fateful ten years between Pierce and Lincoln witnessed the

destruction of the Whig party, as it became obvious that the group was

playing to the Southern elite. As the antislavery movement grew, the

Republican party replaced the Whig party, and the antislavery movement

finally had a candidate: Abraham Lincoln.

As the movement against slavery grew, the opposition to it became

more violent and secretive. The Knights of the Golden Circle, which

was founded by Dr. George W L. Bickley in Ohio, had secret passwords,

handshakes, temples, sworn oaths, and supreme councils. It drew its

membership from Masonic lodges. The Knights of the Golden Circle

attempted to create one huge slave state, and its largest membership

came from Texas, where Governor Sam Houston was a member.

With its funding from England and its push toward secession, the

group would be, in the eyes of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest threat to

the United States. Lincoln had thirteen thousand members arrested for

disloyalty, with Bickley himself being charged with spying.1 The

Knights of the Golden Circle were then led by General Albert Pike, a

thirty-third-degree Mason. He too recruited among Masonic lodges

often in the border states and Ohio. Pike also recruited among the

Native American tribes. In the spring of 1860 Pike raised to thirty-second

degree Peter Pitchlyn, the chief of the Choctaw Nation; Holmes

Colbert, national secretary of the Chickasaw; and Elias Boudinot of the

Cherokees.

Before the war, Pike was a member of the Democratic American

party, which is commonly known as the Know-Nothings. He joined

the Confederacy and was among the numerous Masons picked by fellow

Mason Jefferson Davis to run the Confederate states. After the Civil

War, Pike was the driving force of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in

which he was the chief justice. This organization also recruited among

Masonic lodges, and in some areas the local Klan membership was limited

to Masons. Though the Klan was started in 1866, it was officially

disbanded after three years as the wave of violence and riots incited by

the organization created a backlash.

In 1905 Walter L. Fleming wrote a pro-Klan book featuring the late

Pike on the cover. The organization started up once more, again drawing

its membership from Masonic lodges. Somehow Pike, who had

been charged with treason for his role in the Civil War, has been honored

with a statue in Judiciary Square in Washington. While there have

been modern protests against the statue's presence, there is an equally

strong movement to keep it there.

THE REVENGE OF THE SLAVE TRADERS

The Civil War did not just end with the surrender at Appomattox. The

final act of the war took place at Ford's Theater, where the president was

killed by an assassin who was part of a very large conspiracy. John Wilkes

Booth, the shooter, was a Mason and a member of the Knights of the

Golden Circle. The conspiracy, of course, was much larger than Booth.

Four members of the organization were hanged for their roles and several

others went to prison, but still a wider circle provided financial support.

The conspiracy in the Lincoln assassination had as many mysteries

as the Kennedy assassination would a hundred years later.

After Lincoln's death, Congress formed an Assassination

Committee to determine if Andrew Johnson had played a role in the

murder. Booth had visited Johnson's residence hours before the shooting.

The assassin reportedly met with the future president in 1864 and

even earlier, when he was the military governor of Tennessee. Johnson

was one of three presidents to come from Tennessee; all three were

Masons. He was the first president to receive the Scottish Rite degrees.

Johnson was also the target of anti-Masons, and because the clergy had

spoken out against him, he later requested that no clergy be present at

his funeral.

Lincoln had basically ignored Johnson since the president's

Inauguration Day, and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, wrote a letter to a

friend claiming that Johnson had a hand in her husband's murder.

Congress, however, was no more able to find evidence of a conspiracy

than it was a hundred years later when President Kennedy was removed

from office by a bullet.

Years after the Warren Commission determined that a lone assassin

managed to kill President Kennedy with an antique rifle, a new theory

emerged: Kennedy had attempted to have Fidel Castro eliminated, and

Kennedy's assassination was the retaliation. Coincidentally, Lincoln

actually did instigate a plot to attack the Confederate capitol at

Richmond and kill the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, and his

cabinet.

Colonel Ulrich Dahlgren was handpicked by Lincoln to lead the

attack. Dahlgren was killed in the attempt, and papers found on his

body pointed to the plot's origin in Washington. In retaliation, the plot

to kill Lincoln was hatched by none other than Davis and his secretary

of state, Judah Benjamin.

Benjamin was a unique individual who started in the Confederate

government as attorney general and later became the secretary of state.

Born in the British West Indies of Sephardic Jewish parents, he was part

of a large and active Jewish community that thrived in the Southern

pre—Civil War states. Benjamin's mentor in the pre-Civil War period

was John Slidell, an influential New Yorker who became a transplanted

Southerner. Because it was in the interest of slave traders to expand the

slave states, both Democrat Slidell and Whig leader Caleb Cushing

pushed first to declare war on and then to attempt to annex Mexico.

Slidell's connections were very much tied to Europe, where his daughter

married into the prestigious French-Jewish banking house Erlanger

et Cie. Slidell's niece married August Belmont, who represented the

even more prestigious Rothschild Bank. The friendships of Slidell

helped Benjamin develop connections in Europe that benefited the

South during the war. One of these benefits was the floating of a war

bond by Erlanger in Europe to raise funds for the Confederate states.

Benjamin also became the head of the Confederate intelligence. He

established operations in Canada, where the South had hoped to bring

in an ally against the Union. This failed, but the Canada connection was

useful in getting money and in running operations. More than one million

dollars was held in Canada for the attempt to attack the White

House and kill or kidnap the president. Two weeks before the Lincoln

assassination, Benjamin dispatched John Surratt to Canada. While there

is little indication that Benjamin knew Surratt would play a role in the

conspiracy, the Confederate secretary of state helped destroy any evidence

by burning all his papers and fleeing to England, where he practiced

law. Benjamin was the only member of the Confederate

government never to return to the United States.

The murder of Lincoln was most likely planned from at least the

time of his second inauguration, when five of the coconspirators—

Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt, David Herold, John Surratt, and Ned

Spangler—were photographed together. Booth was a guest of the inauguration

courtesy of Lucy Hale, the daughter of a senator from New

Hampshire and Booth's fiancee.

Just what precautions, if any, were taken to protect the president

prior to the assassination is unknown. There was no Secret Service

detail, although Lincoln had a bodyguard, John Parker, a member of the

Washington Metropolitan Police. Apparently not very diligent, Parker

showed up late and took his seat outside the president's box at the theater.

Since Parker could not see the play, he decided to find a better vantage

point and simply left his post. Parker then invited two other

Lincoln employees, his footman and coachman, to join the bodyguard

for a drink in a nearby tavern. Investigators have never discovered

where Parker actually was when the president was killed.

There was no question where John Kennedy's security detail was

many years later in the hours leading up to his assassination. Nine of

them spent the previous night in a nightclub run by a friend of Jack

Ruby, Pat Kirkwood. Ruby sent over strippers from his Carousel Club

to entertain the Secret Service men, who were still drinking at 3:30

A.M.2 A telexed warning that the president would be assassinated in

Dallas was ignored, and the parade route was changed at the last minute

and not secured. The driver of the president's car hit the brakes after the

first shot and moved again only after the third.3 Like Lincoln's security

detail, Kennedy's much larger Secret Service was not held accountable

for his death.

Mortally wounded, President Lincoln was brought to the home of

William Peterson, where several doctors, including Charles C.Taft, were

present. Dr. Taft wasn't able to save the president, but he reportedly

saved some of his hair, which ended up in a locket worn by Teddy

Roosevelt at his inauguration. What went on at Peterson's house is lost

to history, but another mysterious death occurred shortly after: William

Peterson later committed suicide.

The mortally wounded John Kennedy was brought to Parkland

Hospital and later to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. The

Parkland doctors completely disagreed with the inexperienced Bethesda

doctors about the wounds and the directions of the bullets' entries and

exits.4 Yet the Dulles-controlled Warren Commission ignored the discrepancy,

5 instead claiming that the Bethesda doctors were right and the

Parkland doctors had agreed with Bethesda's findings.

The killers of both presidents were soon found and killed. There

were persistent rumors that Booth actually survived his shooting, while

the body of a patsy was used to give the illusion of Booth going to the

grave. Other guests of the Lincolns at Ford's Theater also met with

gruesome deaths. For example, Henry Rathbone's wife, Clara, was

reportedly stabbed to death by her husband before he tried to end his

own life. He would be placed in an insane asylum.

Ten years later Mary Todd Lincoln would also find herself committed

to an asylum. Her son Robert was in the White House when his

father was shot, with President Garfield in 1881 when he was shot, and

in Buffalo when President McKinley was shot in in 1901. For a while

Robert Lincoln had been business partners with some of the people

connected to his father's death. Later Robert was shocked to discover

documents implicating others who survived the plot. He is said to have

destroyed the papers.

The conspirators of Lincoln's assassination fled the scene, first to

find help for Booth, who was wounded. The group, which included the

soldier Boston Corbett, was caught. Corbett shot Booth, and was later

declared insane and sent to an asylum.

Mary Surratt, another arrested conspirator, was the first American

woman condemned to death by hanging. Just before Mary's death her

daughter, Anna Surratt, attempted to see President Andrew Johnson to

get clemency for her mother. Two men, both onetime senators, stopped

Anna Surratt. Senator Preston King would not see the year's end; he

committed suicide by tying a bag of bullets around his neck and jumping

off a ferry. Senator James Lane shot himself months later. While

there was evidence that the Lincoln conspiracy included his secretary

of war, Edwin Stanton, Stanton was involved in the investigation,

which would proceed only after those who benefited from its conclusions

were in control.

The list of suspicious deaths surrounding the Kennedy murder is

even lengthier and has been the focus of several books.

Allen Dulles, the former head of the CIA, was chosen to investigate

the assassination of the man who fired him. Kennedy had threatened to

dismantle the CIA. Dulles's right-hand man, Charles Cabell, the deputy

director of the CIA, was the brother of the mayor of Dallas, where the

assassination was staged.6 The commission that investigated Kennedy's

death was named after a thirty-third-degree Mason and Supreme Court

justice, Earl Warren. Senator Richard Russell, a Mason from Georgia,

and Gerald Ford, another thirty-third-degree Mason, joined the commission.

The Warren Commission basically rubber-stamped the findings

of the FBI, whose investigation concluded faster than one could fill out

a job application. The FBI, of course, was headed by another Mason, J.

Edgar Hoover. With the detractors quickly becoming victims and a

favorable media system in place, the conclusion of the Warren

Commission was allowed to stand—despite its glaring inaccuracy and

the sentiment of the public.

The role of secret societies such as the Knights of the Golden Circle did

not end with the defeat of the secessionist South. The damage to the

United States was already staggering: More than six hundred thousand

men had been killed in a population of only thirty million. The national

debt rose 2,500 percent. And the divisive politics that existed before the

war did not cease. The North generated further hatred through the

harsh punitive politics of Reconstruction. In the South and in states like

Ohio that sympathized with the South, a new group of secret societies

thrived. The Ku Klux Klan became a resurrected version of the Knights

of the Golden Circle.7 Members fostered racial hatred even in areas of

the country that were not previously divided by race. As a secret society,

the Ku Klux Klan claimed kinship to Masonry and recruited among

the ancient order's members. This time the policy of the elite was

preached loud enough to become the voice of the mob.

Chapter 14

THE OPIUM BROTHERHOOD

The use of the drug opium had already been around for thousands

of years when crusading Templars were introduced to it by the

Arabs. Opium had been cultivated from 6000 B.C.E. in Europe and was

found in neolithic burials in southern Spain dating to 4200 B.C.E. The

culture we recognize as the world's first higher civilization, Sumeria,

had a name for opium, hul-gil, or "joy plant," a name that was in use up

to 5,400 years ago. An Egyptian medical text dating to 1550 B.C.E. listed

a long list of ailments opium would relieve. The Greeks, whose mystic

cults used opium in religious rituals, prescribed it for problems such as

headaches, epilepsy, coughs, and kidney stones. At the same time, they

understood it was addictive. Homer refers to opium as the drug of forgetfulness.

The Romans used it as a painkiller and as a poison, putting

large amounts of the drug in the wine of the intended victim.

From the Mediterranean cultures of Galen and Pliny, the drug

spread east to Arabic physicians. Muslim peoples not only inherited the

medicinal uses of the drug from these ancient societies but also held the

drug in high recreational esteem; in a land that prohibited alcohol,

opium was a good substitute. Opium traveled east with the Muslim

traders who preceded Marco Polo on land and crossed the Indian

Ocean by ship.

During the Crusades, the secretive sect known as the Assassins used

the drug hashish to experience the pleasures of heaven. Such enlightenment

prepared them for their missions, as they were no longer afraid

to die for their faith. The Knights Templar were soon aware of the

Assassins and hashish, as well as of opium. The knights returned with

tales of the usefulness of these new drugs, to give courage, as opium did,

and to motivate men in battle, as did hashish.

Opium use in Europe had declined after the fall of the Roman

Empire, only to increase again after Crusaders reintroduced the drug.

After the demise of the Templars in 1307, there is little written on the

subject, but opium remained in demand and explorers from Vasco

da Gama, a member of the Knights of Christ, to Columbus and Cabot

were instructed to obtain the magic elixir.1 The medieval alchemist

Paracelsus called it "the stone of immortality."

During his travels on the Indian Ocean, Afonso de Albuquerque

was acquainted with the usefulness of opium and advised the

Portuguese king about the potential profit that existed in buying and

reselling the drug. In a letter to his king, who was the grand master of

the Knights of Christ, Albuquerque wrote, "I would order poppies . . .

to be sown in all the fields of Portugal."2 It was a lesson that the

Europeans failed to take to heart. It was easier to buy Turkish or Indian

opium.

OPIUM COMES TO THE AMERICAS

The Pilgrims understood the benefit of the drug and took it with them

on their travels to America in 1620. Laudanum was the name given to

the Pilgrims' mixture of opium, wine, saffron, cinnamon, and cloves.

The Pilgrims brought a second opium-based concoction, paregoric, in

which the drug was mixed with licorice, honey, benzoic acid, camphor,

and anise oil.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence

and a member of the Continental Congress, was the surgeon general of

the Continental army. He did much to advance the use of medicines

and his "heroic therapy," which incorporated opium. In fact, this therapy

later provided a name for opium's favored derivative, heroin. Rush

prescribed opium for cholera, for relief of intestinal spasms, and as part

of a mixture for enemas.

Like all drugs, opium had its downside. Physicians who prescribed

it for a period of four days or less best understood the power of the

poppy. An opium dependence goes beyond a habit; the opium becomes

as fundamental as food and water, as the user's body is actually altered

chemically and cannot function without the drug.3 If one maintains a

healthy lifestyle and uses opium properly, the drug can be part of daily

existence; many prominent and not-so-prominent people have survived

decades-long drug habits. But the nature of opium is not conducive to

a healthy lifestyle. Addicts experience physical deterioration, such as

gastric and circulatory disorders. The mental effects exhibit themselves

in a loss of interest in both personal hygiene and anyone except one's

source of the drug. The body appears to feed on itself, becoming emaciated

from lack of food. From hepatitis and liver damage to skin disease

and respiratory disease, the body begins a descent matched only by

the mind's descent. Forgetfulness, lethargy, and irritability are the daily

range of emotions suffered by the opium addict.

Today's modern "improvement" of the opium-based group, which

includes morphine and heroin, renders the deadly effects of addiction

within days. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the opium

smoker started on a slower road that led to the final impact: death.

Although these effects were fully known, as they are today, knowledge

of them did not stop the trade; it continues to this day.

THE OPIUM TRADE

The cornerstone of colonial trade was the supercommodity. The commodity

for Portugal had been the black slave; the commodity that grew

Spain's empire was silver. The Dutch would lead the way into the spice

trade, creating huge demand for pepper and other herbs back home in

Europe. Britain and France discovered the commodities that were

referred to as food-drugs: sugar, tea, coffee, and alcoholic beverages such

as rum. Colonizing America was not just about finding places to dump

the undesirable populations of Europe; it was also about making a

profit.

Getting England addicted to Chinese tea was easy; keeping a trade

balance became more difficult. In 1700 the British East India Company

imported twenty thousand pounds of tea. Six years later that figure

grew 400 percent to a hundred thousand pounds. By 1766 the cost of

tea imports was becoming impossible to meet with silver. When the figure

hit six million pounds, it became clear that tea would drain England

of silver unless something was done.

Up until the eighteenth century, drug use in the world was never

described as an epidemic or plague, but the British would change that.

The Chinese had discovered the pleasure of smoking opium, first mixed

with tobacco, which was brought by the Dutch, then in a pure form.

The British East India Company cornered the opium-producing market

and sold its drugs to willing Asians. In every southeast Asian country

where Britain's empire was active, the government was forced to

admit Indian opium. The Chinese had the most money to spend, and

their extravagance easily spread opium use. Opium was expensive to

bring to market, but China had such a large wealthy ruling class that

there were enough customers who could afford to buy and use the drug

on a regular basis. The British East India Company had found a way to

correct the tea trade imbalance.

Today we often dismiss the crimes of the past as simply being "the

way things were." The British and American traders, however, should

not be dismissed so lightly. "They were not ignorant of what sort of

substance they were selling. They knew it was a poison. They knew it

was addictive."4

By 1836 China imported enough opium to make the drug the

largest revenue-producing commodity in the world. It enriched a handful

while destroying the social and political structure of China. By this

time the drug merchants included Americans. The great motivator, greed,

was as powerful to Boston's blue bloods as it was to the English. This

greed is the reason the drug trade continues today, and why the Western

world, specifically America and Europe, is experiencing a drug epidemic.

Ironically, it is the former victims of American and European colonialism

that are now exporting the drugs to their ex-colonial overlords.

The British and American traders who took part in what was called

the China trade often had little the Chinese were willing to buy. The

Chinese wanted silver and raw Indian cotton, and America and Europe

wanted tea. An exception to the rule was ginseng; America's ginseng,

produced in New England and the Appalachian region, was regarded as

an aphrodisiac in China. But the market for ginseng was too small to

balance America's demand for tea. There were two alternatives. The first

was opium. The Chinese were already consumers of opium for almost

a thousand years, but they had brewed it into tea. Like many other natural

drugs, the opium tea did not cause the debilitating effects that

opium smoking and opium derivatives caused. Similarly, the effect of

chewing coca leaves on the Andean population of South America had

some negative side effects, but nothing like the damage caused by

addiction to the refined version of the plant, cocaine. In both cases the

refinement of a natural plant created a substance that caused addiction.

The Europeans created the opium addiction. Shortly after discovering

the pleasures of tobacco in the American colonies, the Dutch

brought the new commodity to China; the Dutch most likely introduced

both tobacco and opium smoking. The horrors of addiction

quickly became known to the Chinese. In 1729 Chinese Emperor Yung

Cheng prohibited the sale and use of opium in his country as anything

but medicine. When the British East India Company assumed control

over Bengal and Bihar, the opium-producing districts of India, it greatly

expanded the trade. By 1767 the company was importing two thousand

chests, each filled with 170 pounds of pure opium, each year.

As in America, the British established trade monopolies. The Indian

growers, by law, had to sell to the British East India Company. But the

British love of profit was no match for the Chinese edict, and the company

could no longer sell to China. Instead, the British East India

Company became the middleman that bought the opium from the

Indian producers and sold to English and American merchants who

were willing to run the risk of shipping the product.

In 1799 the Chinese emperor Kia King made all opium trade illegal.

This very act most likely served to increase the profits that were

made in the trade, as both the price of opium and the amount consumed

increased. The British Levant Company, another nationally chartered

business syndicate, purchased half the Turkish opium crop and

brought it to Europe, where it was sold as medicine.

British and American ships participated in the trade by carrying

goods that were attractive to Turkey and India, like tin, lead, and wool.

They carried the opium to China, where thousands of pounds of the

drug filled chests that were exchanged for tea, spices, and exotic goods.

Another product the Chinese wanted was fur. This provided a lever

for the Americans to lift the British monopoly on the China trade. John

Jacob Astor's ships were among the first to sail to the Pacific Northwest,

where they harvested the coats of seals and otters. Although the Native

tribes had hunted the wildlife for centuries, it took only a few years for

the hunting to drive the populations to the point of near extinction.

This, in turn, made the hunt more expensive.

America as a nation did not sanction the buying and selling of

opium, but it did not forbid it either. The American participants in this

trade did nothing illegal as far as their own country was concerned. They

were, however, breaking Chinese law, as it was illegal to distribute opium

there. Like the British, the Americans could rely on their country to

invoke protective policy when China attempted to enforce its law. Both

Britain and the United States maintained a naval presence to protect their

commerce. China, which had no navy, was unable to enforce its laws on

its coastline. British and American traders took advantage by occupying

Asian islands, where they kept warehouses. Without ships or a coast guard,

China could not approach the islands. Just in case of the unlikely inspection

by a Chinese mandarin assigned to customs duty, the opium was

usually kept aboard floating warehouses—ships that would not make voyages

but simply float off the coasts of the occupied islands. From these

warehouse ships Chinese merchants bought opium and smuggled it into

Canton or the interior of China.

Remarkably, the opium trade was officially prohibited by the British

government, but the prohibition was ignored as the governmentchartered

British East India Company profited from the trade. The

partners of the company were the elite of a nation that could simply

outlaw competition and disregard the country's own laws. Henry

Dundas, the Viscount Melville, was a political boss in Scotland, and his

number one goal was to enrich the aristocrats. In Scotland he restored

the lands of the nobles. In the United Kingdom he started the Scottish

control over the British East India Company, which had no Scottish

directors prior to the eighteenth century. Dundas served as president of

the company's board from 1793 to 1801. Outside the British Isles he

interfered with business from America to Asia. He wrote the blueprint

for opium trade with China, and in 1809 was the head of the Board of

Control of India. He stocked the Indian subcontinent with friends, all

Scots who governed Britain's crown jewel. The Chinese laws could not

be changed but they could be rendered insignificant by circumventing

the restrictions. Dundas's cronies used "country ships" carrying opium

bought from British India, which were accompanied and protected by

British East India Company ships. The company would buy tea with

the proceeds from the opium sales. The company allowed Americans

into the marketplace, and English bankers often assisted them in financing

the voyages.

The Dundas family was steeped in Masonry, and the tradition carries

into later times. Thomas Dundas, the second Earl of Zetland,

became grand master in 1844 and remained in that post until 1870. The

Dundas clan brought Masonry to Hong Kong, and the first lodge in

that city, chartered in 1846, was named for their lodge in England: the

Zetland Lodge No. 525.

LORDS AND DRUG LORDS

At the same time that England defended its right to distribute opium

in China, it took to restricting the drug business at home. The government

began monitoring the pharmaceutical houses that were expanding

the use of opium in Europe. England went to war twice to protect

the illegal trade conducted by the country's elite; the 1,000 percent

profit was enough to entice the country to protect the illegal trade. In

the nineteenth century the drug lords of Britain were the Jardines, the

Mathesons, and the Sutherlands—all Scots ushered into prosperity

thanks to Dundas. These families built dynasties that are still in power

today, while millions of Chinese became addicted to opium.5

The first families of the opium trade joined together in small partnerships.

William Jardine and James Matheson formed the opium-trading

firm of Jardine and Matheson while still in their twenties. Opium was

their prime business, and they published regular newsletters called the

Opium Circulars, which gave information about the drug's markets and

prices. A Brit posted in East Asia could pick up a newspaper anywhere

from Patna to Singapore to get the current opium prices for Bengal and

Patna opium. In this way Britain could claim to be adhering to Chinese

policy, and Jardine and Matheson replaced the British East India

Company as the largest trading firm in the empire. But they were fully

aware of the horrors addiction brought to China. David Matheson, a

young partner, assured of nearly unlimited wealth at an early age, chose

to resign rather than to profit from the drug trade.

Jardine and Matheson's early success was the result of working in

close cooperation with the British East India Company. The British

East India Company had a monopoly on tea, which was legal until

1833. When Britain officially agreed not to ship opium, Jardine and

Matheson—headquartered in Hong Kong—provide the loophole by

bringing in the drug. The British East India Company was provided

with tea, but its ships did not actually carry the opium. The drug was

still packaged with company seals to ensure its quality, however.

Jardine and Matheson was controlled by family and Masonic relationships,

and like their American counterparts they wore their family

names like a badge. James Matheson, cofounder of Jardine and

Matheson, had a nephew, Hugh, who would invest opium profits in

mining. Hugh Matheson founded Rio Tinto Zinc Company, which is

still in operation today. Alliances with the key banks Schroeder's and

Barings provided the ability to move on a global scale.

The Barings, who later were instrumental in founding the

Peninsula and Oriental Steamship lines, were already a force in

international trade when they began financing the opium trade. James

Matheson's mother's family, the MacKays, who held the title of Earl of

Inchcape, until recently controlled the board of the steamer lines.

Before steam was the power of choice, opium was carried by clipper

ships, which were built for speed. Two of the first opium clippers were

the Alexander Baring and the Falcon. The Barings financed many

American firms in various businesses, including the Binghams and

Stephen Girard. Girard, like Astor, was an early pioneer of the China

trade, but he was quickly eclipsed by New England merchants.

The British had the early lead in the importation of opium and

were often the target of Chinese legislation and activity. This is why the

British allowed American ships to enter the trade and often financed

them. In this way the British were not directly breaking China's prohibition,

but the British lenders and shippers would make money from

their investments in the American ships.

THE PROFITS OF THE CHINA TRADE

The British families had been benefiting from the trade for a century,

but the Americans caught up quickly. To the chagrin of the British, the

Americans went to Turkey to buy lower-grade opium that competed

with the better British-grown Indian grades. Americans proved themselves

adept at smuggling and grew wealthy from the trade.

A recent book called The Wealthy 100 created a unique ranking of

Americans by wealth and the proportion of that wealth in relation to

the gross national product. John Jacob Astor, born in 1763, ranked third;

Stephen Girard, born in 1750, was fourth; Elias Hasket Derby, born in

1739, was number 38; smuggler John Hancock, born in 1737, was number

54; and the not as well known Thomas Handasyd Perkins, born in

1764, was ranked number 78.6 While opium traders Astor and Girard

ranked much higher, Thomas Perkins was even more influential, as he

brought scores of American blue bloods into the trade.

THE HOUSE THAT PERKINS BUILT

Thomas Perkins deserves credit for being one of America's first and

foremost opium dealers, as well as one of the greatest drug smugglers in

history. His amazing fortune places him ahead, in comparable dollars, of

even the computer billionaires of the 1990s. Perkins's wealth made him

a very influential man in American politics and the power behind the

Boston Brahmin class. Old reports state that the first families of Boston

were from Salem, which implies they made their fortunes in shipping.

What is not often understood is that these first families all made their

start in the opium trade. The Appletons, Cabots, Endicotts, Hoopers,

Higginsons, Jacksons, Lowells, Lawrences, Phillipses, and Saltonstalls

made their money by being related to Thomas Perkins or by riding on

the coattails of the mercantile prince.

Not only did these families create wealth, but also they then created

industries that survived and prospered for decades to come. One

industry was insurance. The Perkinses understood the value of spreading

risk; they would often be financed in part by the first families of

New England, who wanted their share of the area's most lucrative trade,

and in part by insurance.

Marine insurance is regarded as the grandfather of all modern

forms of insurance in America, and it got its start in New England

insuring cargo from basic commodities to slaves and opium.

Connecticut was home to some of America's first insurance companies.

Many have survived intact or as parts of larger companies, though few

realize their foundation was insuring the drug and slave traders in the

early nineteenth century.

Born in 1764, Thomas Perkins decided early that Harvard was not

where he would seek his fortune. Instead he apprenticed with shipping

merchants and his older brother, James, who was in the Santo

Domingo—New England part of the triangle trade. Thomas married Sarah

Elliot, whose father was a British tobacco trader, and through his new family

connections made his start in business aboard one of Elias Derby's ships.

Derby was Salem's most important merchant, and the shipping

business made him very rich. Today he is regarded as America's first millionaire

and a trailblazer of global commerce. Derby's father started

their business importing sugar from the West Indies. Because this was

made illegal by Britain's restrictive trade acts, it was a fine sort of

revenge that led Derby into privateering against British cargo ships during

the Revolution. While many succumbed to the risks, Derby prospered.

In the postwar period his ships sailed around the world, and his

Grand Turk was the first New England ship to reach the Chinese port

of Canton, in 1785. Thomas Perkins sailed as the supercargo, the person

responsible for transacting the ship's business, with the ship commanded

by Captain James Magee, who was related to Derby's wife.

Perkins was responsible for obtaining a good price for the cargo on

board the ship. He would then take the proceeds, in whatever form, and

invest them in a suitable cargo to bring home. The trade was not always

direct, which made the job of the supercargo even more important.

Often the supercargo would receive instructions to buy and sell in any

way deemed necessary to ensure the owner's profit. On slave ships the

captain and supercargo often conspired to abandon some of the crew in

order to increase the share of the profits for those who remained.

The Perkins family had little problem with the morality—or lack

of morality—of the trade, as its previous business was the slave and sugar

trade in Santo Domingo. In 1792 a slave insurrection in that country

ruined the Perkinses' business, so James and Thomas formed a new partnership

as J. and T. H. Perkins. It did not take more than one successful

voyage to become wealthy, and the many successful Perkins voyages

made Thomas both wealthy and powerful.

For the crew who traveled on a Perkins ship, life was not as comfortable

or as lucrative. In 1814 Charles Tyng was a thirteen-year-old

who had run away from school. Colonel Thomas Perkins, who received

his title by serving in the Massachusetts militia, took the boy aboard a

China-bound ship; Thomas's brother had married the boy's aunt. If the

four-foot eight-inch teenager had expected any benefits from being

related to the wealthy shipowner, he soon found out the opposite was

true. His uncle John Higginson was supercargo aboard the ship, and the

first words young Charles heard from him were instructions to the carpenter

to beat the boy. Tyng was beaten daily for minor infractions, for

not knowing his way about the ship, and for the amusement of those in

charge. He was thrown in the hog pen as punishment. Tyng was even

denied adequate clothing for the passage around Cape Horn, and he

was handed over to three unusually obese women, wives of a Hawaiian

king, for their sexual amusement. Charles Tyng survived his brief stint

working for his uncles, and after being twice cheated by them later, he

left their employ. Tyng left his memoirs preserving the tales of the

opium trade and of the Perkinses' role.7

The other men aboard the Perkinses' ship fared better, but the ship

was underprovisioned and ran out of food on the way to Canton. This

also happened on the return trip. The ship's owners netted four hundred

thousand dollars for their efforts, or lack thereof, as they sat home

in New England.

While today the memoirs of New England's first families and the

museums dedicated to those clans downplay the role of opium and

black slaves in building New England's fortunes, their involvement in

those trades is undeniable. Shippers could fare well carrying tobacco

and cotton to Rotterdam and London, but fortunes were built on trading

opium for tea in China. Salem's wives had grown fond of Chinese

lacquer furniture and Eastern silk gowns,8 and when the East India

Marine Hall opened, Asian dress was the order of the evening.

Smuggling opium had its rewards, and both T H. Perkins and opium

kingpin Joseph Russell became extremely prominent merchants as a

result of their shipping businesses. Their wealth gave them power and

access to government. Perkins and Russell traveled to France to carry

out their ventures and to act on behalf of their country during the

Monroe administration. During the War of 1812, Russell was made

charge d'affaires of the United States at the Court of Saint James's.

Perkins was a principal member of the Federalist party and was

elected to the Senate eight times. He was also the president of the

Boston branch of the United States Bank (in which post he was succeeded

by a Cabot). Perkins made his money from the opium trade

before the drug business led to open war in China, and invested the

profits into sawmills, gristmills, textiles, and the railroad business—

including the Boston and Lowell, the Boston and Providence, and other

railroads farther west. With his combined interests, Perkins was soon

considered the wealthiest man in New England. Many New England

family fortunes began with investments in the Perkins China ventures.

As a community leader, Perkins did what many slave traders, drug

smugglers, and robber barons would do: He became a philanthropist.

His charities included the Perkins Institute for the Blind and

Massachusetts General Hospital.9

As Thomas Perkins devoted himself to European affairs and his

business interests in New England, he turned over the day-to-day

responsibilities of opium trafficking to his relatives. His children also

made connections through marriage, wedding Cabots, Gardiners,

Higginsons, Forbeses, and Cushings.

THE CUSHING INHERITANCE

While relationships to the Perkins business and family were the start of

many fortunes, they were also the start of several political careers. One

of the most powerful political families that had ties to the Perkinses

were the Cushings.

In China the Boston-based Cushing family soon became responsible

for operating the Perkins family business. Thomas Cushing was

already an active merchant during the eighteenth century. As a businessman,

Cushing would sometimes collect intelligence on the Tories,

but he was reluctant to share it. He was against the Revolution, as he

feared it would interfere with his shipping business. But Cushing overcame

his fears when he found that he could make a fortune overcharging

both the Americans and the French for supplies. Such excessive

profiteering was shared by Otis and Gerry, and even smaller merchants

did not consider it wrong to gouge the military.

Chief among a cadre of Thomas Cushings nephews was John

Perkins Cushing, who started out as the head of the American hong, or

house of foreign trade, in Canton. John Cushing's mother was Ann

Perkins, and her connections would allow him access to wealth known

to very few. After the early death of his mother, young Cushing was

raised by T. H. Perkins.

John Cushing started his career in the countinghouse of the Perkins

home office, but was sent to Canton at age seventeen to further his education.

A year later he was in charge of the Canton branch, the epicenter

of Perkins's profit machine. Cushing developed an early friendship

with one of China's most powerful merchants, Houqua, who was head

of the Cohong, the community of Chinese merchants. The friendship

of Houqua meant everything for a foreign merchant. Soon Cushing was

regarded as the most influential American in Canton.

Cushing stayed in Canton for twenty-five years and increased his

personal wealth by buying ships and shares in ships. In 1830 he retired

from the China trade and sold his own interests. He returned to New

England, where he married Louisa Gardiner and built city mansions

and country estates for himself. But he never fully retired, as he made

investments in the Chinese voyages of others. Cushing's family wealth

was earned entirely in drug trafficking with China, and his descendants

ensured that the trade did not end.

Caleb Cushing was the heir apparent. A graduate of Harvard at the

age of seventeen, Caleb Cushing became a lawyer and represented the

family's interests. He also became a thirty-third-degree Mason.

Caleb Cushing's political career started in the House of

Representatives, and after the suspicious death of William Henry

Harrison in 1843, Cushing was sent by the new president Tyler to

China as U.S. Commissioner. In China, Cushing did more to represent

the Perkins-Cushing interests in the opium-smuggling business than

the interests of his country. China, beaten by the British navy in the

war, lacked the ability to stand up to the threats of Cushing. The country

granted American ships the use of five ports.

Cushing went on to promote war against Mexico, plot with secessionists,

and conspire against Zachary Taylor. The death of Taylor

elevated Cushing to attorney general of the United States.

THE STURGIS FAMILY

At the same time that John Perkins Cushing was beginning his career

in the opium trade, another Perkins relative was also achieving success.

The Sturgises were one of the first families of Massachusetts, claiming

descent from Edward Sturgis, who arrived in 1630. The family started

in farming, but the marriage of Russell Sturgis to Elizabeth Perkins,

Thomas's sister, ensured the Sturgis family's fortune in the shipping

business. Thomas Perkins would invest with Russell Sturgis in the Hope,

and Sturgis set sail for China.

Meanwhile, one of Russell's sons, James Perkins Sturgis, was sent to

the island of Lintin, just outside of Hong Kong, to manage the storage

facilities for all the opium traders. Because opium importing was illegal,

Lintin served as what might be called a drop house—a large terminal

for all the ships carrying opium.

As the Sturgis family wealth grew, Nathaniel Russell Sturgis teamed

up with George Robert Russell, who started Russell and Company, the

most important opium-trafficking firm of the 1830s. A Russell Sturgis

headed Barings Bank, which financed the opium trade. The women in

the Sturgis clan did their part as well. Elizabeth Perkins Sturgis married

Henry Grew, and their daughter, Jane, married J. P. Morgan's only son,

John Pierpont Morgan.

RUSSELL AND COMPANY

As the China trade expanded in the 1830s, the most important shipping

family was Samuel Russell's. A latecomer to the business, Samuel

Russell founded Russell and Company in 1823. He directed the company's

ships to Smyrna in Turkey to buy opium; the ships then brought

the opium to China. The company grew by hiring the right people and

by buying out their competitors.

Russell's chief of operations in Canton was Warren Delano Jr., the

grandfather of future president Franklin Roosevelt. Russell partners

who contributed funds to mount his overseas ventures included John

Cleve Green, who financed Princeton, and Abiel Abbot Low, who

financed construction at Columbia University in New York.10

The Russell family had a tremendous influence at Yale, and their

relationship continues to the present day. Yale was originally called the

Collegiate School. In early colonial times Elihu Yale served with the

British East India Company. He made a fortune with the company and

became governor of Madras in India in 1687. Later in life Yale gave

away much of his wealth, and Cotton Mather renamed the Collegiate

School in Yale's honor in 1718.

Joseph Coolidge was another Russell investor, as were members of

the Perkins, Sturgis, and Forbes families. The Perkinses and Russells

were soon united in a merger. Coolidge's son organized United Fruit,

which kept the colonial interests of many of New England's influential

families tied together. His grandson, Archibald C. Coolidge, was a

founder of the Council on Foreign Relations.11

Samuel Russell's cousin William Huntington Russell set up a trust

a Yale that created a unique organization of elite families under the

name of the Skull and Bones. Russell's cofounder was Alfonso Taft. The

Skull and Bones is a very secretive order that admits only fifteen new

members each year. Prominent families that have been part of this

organization include the Harrimans, Bushes, Kerrys, Tafts, Whitneys,

Bundys, Weyerhaeusers, Pinchots, Goodyears, Sloanes, Stimsons,

Phelpses, Pillsburys, Kelloggs,Vanderbilts, and Lovetts.

While the Russell shipping empire became one of the greatest and

most far-reaching, there is still one more New England family that

played a significant role in the trade.

THE FORBES CLAN

When the Cushings left China, the Forbes family took over operations.

The Forbeses were not the first in the opium trade with China, but they

brought drug smuggling to its highest level of profitability and left a

legacy that extends into modern times.

The Forbes family roots reach well back into Scotland, where they

can be traced to at least the thirteenth century. Sir Alexander Forbes, the

first Lord Forbes, was granted lands in 1423 and was made a lord of

Parliament in 1445. Incessant warfare in both Scodand and England made

loyalty to the king precarious. Well before the massive Scottish immigration

after Culloden in 1745, the Forbeses, who were Protestants (and

therefore not Jacobites), were already situated in Massachusetts and connected

with the families that would become American "aristocracy." As

with the Gardiners and others illicit traders, the fortune accumulated by

the Forbeses in opium trading was invested in land and industry. John and

Robert Forbes would lead the way to the family fortune.

John Murray Forbes (1813-1898), the son of Ralph Bennet Forbes

and Margaret Perkins Forbes, started his business career at age fifteen in

the Boston countinghouse of bis uncles James and Thomas Perkins. John

Forbes was soon allowed to travel to Canton to represent the Perkins syndicate,

and he stayed for seven years. In 1837, at the age of twenty-four,

Forbes returned from Canton so wealthy that he could finance the construction

of several railroads, including the Michigan Central Railroad,

which he bought unfinished and extended to Lake Michigan and Chicago.

Forbes became a prime mover, leading a group of capitalists who

could raise millions to complete acquisitions of companies. Many had

previously invested with Forbes in the China trade, and they remained

grateful for and loyal because of the fortunes they had reaped. Forbes

continued to extend the Michigan Central's service, to Detroit and into

Canada, and he built other railways including the Hannibal and Saint

Joseph Railroad in Missouri and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy

Railroad, of which he served as president.

NAUSHON ISLAND

Following the lesson of Gardiner, John Forbes bought an island where

he could conduct business isolated from the prying eyes of neighbors.

Like Gardiner's Island, the island of Naushon, just south of the Woods

Hole area of Cape Cod, served as a protectorate for smugglers for as

long as Massachusetts was a colony. The shifting sandbars and the isola

tion from the active ports of the New England coast protected many

lawbreaking merchants.

The island first belonged to one of Massachusetts's most elite families,

the Winthrops. There is little evidence that they were involved in

the merchant trade. John Winthrop, the leader of seven hundred

Puritans, was the first of the family who came to America. John

Winthrops idea of religion was that it was something to be imposed on

others. The Taliban form of Islam is an apt comparison to the religious

vision of John Winthrop. Puritans made it a crime to miss church, to

dance, to sing, and to celebrate Christmas; likewise, the Taliban made it

a crime to miss prayers, to dance, to sing, and to celebrate (as opposed

to observe) Islamic festival days. Both fundamentalist groups punished

their people with torture and humiliation.

As governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop opposed

democracy as well, believing his colony should be governed by a handful

of pious leaders. Fleeing religious persecution apparently did not

mean that Winthrop would hesitate to persecute others, and in

America's first incidence of religious persecution, he banished Anne

Hutchinson from the colony. Such elitism pervaded the thinking of the

rulers of Massachusetts up to—and even after—the American

Revolution.

The second family to own the island was the Bowditches. They

would never enjoy the power of the Winthrops or the wealth of the

Forbeses, but the Bowditches were industrious seafarers and the family

was very well connected with Massachusetts blue bloods. William

Bowditch sailed to America in the seventeenth century, when the family

began making its living from the sea. Habakkuk Bowditch, a son

who began a career at sea in the mid-eighteenth century, lost two ships

and two sons to the sea and had taken up the cooper trade when his

fourth son, Nathaniel, achieved long-lasting fame. Born in 1773 in

Salem, Nathaniel enjoyed mathematics more than anything else, and

this skill would revive the family's status. Even while in his teens,

Nathaniel was renowned for his knowledge of mathematics and languages,

to the point that others brought him books to further his

education. He spoke French, Spanish, and German and understood

Latin, and he even studied two dozen other languages. Remarkably, he

found an error in Newton's Principia.

During the Revolution a privateer from Beverly captured a ship

carrying the library of a noted Irish scholar. A group of merchants

bought the books and housed them in the Philosophical Library, where

Nathaniel Bowditch could continue his mostly self-taught education.

Despite his widespread reputation, he still had to go to sea to make his

fortune. Bowditch worked as a supercargo and made five voyages and a

huge fortune, while at the same time making lunar calculations to navigate

without the use of a chronometer. Legendary status came when

Bowditch navigated into Salem Harbor during a blinding snowstorm.12

He combined his book knowledge and practical experience to enhance

the ability of American merchants to navigate their own country.

Bowditch rewrote the American Coastal Pilot and then later produced his

own book, The New American Practical Navigator, which served as a tool

for navigating treacherous American waters until the government took

over the responsibility fifty years later.13 Bowditch's premier work is

simply referred to as "Bowditch" by sailors; it remains a classic in the

field. Since 1802 it has been reprinted in seventy editions.

Bowditch, who married his cousin Mary Ingersoll, refused mathematics

chairs at several universities, including Harvard, the University of

Virginia, and West Point, instead preferring his position as president of

the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company.14

At the entrance to Buzzards Bay, Naushon, the Bowditches' private

island, was more of an island kingdom than a summer home. When

Kidd rushed around planting his treasure, Naushon's Tarpaulin Cove

and Gardiner's Island were his last stops. In the years preceding the

Revolution, the cove served as a hiding place where smugglers could

wait to unload their merchandise.

A lighthouse was built on Naushon just before the Revolutionary

War to protect the ships navigating the shoals. During the Revolution

it served as a meeting place for privateers. James Bowditch, Nathaniel's

brother, fought the government's efforts to improve the lighthouse, as

guests were unwanted. When James died in 1817, an improved lighthouse

was erected. At this point the Bowditch family, which had owned

Naushon for more than a century, sold the island to the Forbeses. Since

then the "kingdom" has been in the hands of various Forbes family

members and trusts.

THE FORBES FAMILY AND NAUSHON ISLAND

John Murray Forbes married into another first family of New England

when he wed Sarah Hathaway of New Bedford. Their five children

included William Hathaway Forbes, who married Edith Emerson (a relative

of Ralph Waldo Emerson's) and became president of the newly

formed Bell Telephone, John Malcolm Forbes, and Mary Hathaway

Forbes, who married a Russell.

The Hathaway, Forbes, and Perkins families were united in a merger

with Russell and Company even before John and Sarah Forbes were

united in marriage. Money from the opium trade and later investments

ensured the prominence of the family for generations to come. The

grandson of John Murray Forbes, William Cameron Forbes, was

appointed by Teddy Roosevelt as governor general of the Philippines,

and was later appointed to a post in Asia by President Harding.

John Forbes's brother was Robert Bennet Forbes (1804-1889), who

was known as "Black Ben" Forbes. His historical biography notes his

exploits as a sea captain in the China trade but ignores his involvement

in the opium business. At age thirteen Robert Forbes sailed for his uncles

to China, and at age twenty-four, when Perkins and Russell merged their

companies to form the most powerful American house in China, young

Robert secured the lucrative post of running the Lintin operation.

Forbes left China in 1834 to marry Rose Green Smith, and he

almost lost his fortune in the Panic of 1837. Seeking to rebuild his

wealth, Forbes went back to China and played a prominent role in the

outbreak of the Opium War, during which Russell and Company prospered.

Forbes was made the head of the company, replacing John C.

Green. By 1850 Forbes owned interests in more than sixty ships and

was the American vice-consul to China and France. In his later life

Forbes was noted for his contribution to the U.S. Navy during the Civil

War, and he became the first commodore of the Boston Yacht Club.

THE SYNDICATE

The early shipping business was unusually risky and the loss of a single

ship was a disaster to some companies. Often the way to spread the risk

was to "syndicate" the business so that merchants took shares in one

another's companies. In addition to the Perkins and Russell syndicates,

a third syndicate drew in some important personages.

Augustine Heard was an Ipswich merchant whose father participated

in the often illegal molasses and sugar trade. He too relished the

thought of getting revenge on the harsh and restrictive trade laws that

favored the home country at the expense of the colonies, so he became

a privateer. Heard started his career in the countinghouse and then

became a supercargo. In 1807 he sailed to Smyrna aboard the Betsy.15

The Heard Company started by selling ginseng and otter skins but soon

joined the opium trade. Heard's partners included John Forbes, John

Green, and Joseph Coolidge.

The American base of the opium trade moved south from the ports of

New England to New York. Families who were prominent in

Connecticut became equally important in New York. Ultimately, the

drug-smuggling families would attain the White House.

Chapter 15

OPIUM: FROM THE LODGE TO THE DEN

During the glory years of the China trade, New York succeeded

Boston as the center of American shipping. Ships and warehouses

lined South Street's three-mile-long stretch of piers a few short

blocks from Wall Street's Tontine Coffee House, which served as the

center of the growing financial industry. The waterfront was so busy

that spectators came to watch the hustle of dockworkers, shipbuilders,

and auctioneers. Hammers clanged, barrels rolled, auctioneers shouted,

and thousands worked hard building and loading ships. Skilled labor

was so in demand that a sail maker was paid a previously unheard of

four dollars a day.

Ships sailed from New York to all ports. Similar to New England's

Brahmin families, many New York families achieved great wealth in the

drug trade. American shippers had as many excuses for involvement in

the trade as their British counterparts. And like the British, the

Americans had less to offer as exports, and the new country became the

dumping ground for British wares. The American families brought to

China ginseng, furs, and opium, their only valued goods.

It should be noted that the trade was not illegal in the United

States. What has become labeled the "China trade," which included tea

and opium, furs, and furniture, reduces the stigma that might be perceived

in modern times. Not all of the China traders carried opium,

and their activity was not considered criminal. The laws that were

broken were only those of another nation's, a common enough attitude

in colonial expansionist times. Although the morality of the opium

trade was questioned by a handful, both the British and American governments

had no quarrel with any aspects of the China trade.

NEW YORK'S WEALTHIEST CITIZEN

America's richest opium smuggler was possibly John Jacob Astor. In

1800 Astor was worth $250,000 when the average American family had

an income of $750. When he died in 1848 his wealth was equal to

almost 1 percent of the entire country's gross national product.1

Astor's wealth was made in numerous ways, but his opium fortune

was a direct result of the British East India Company's granting him a

license to sell furs to China and to engage in the opium trade. The fur

business was soon abandoned in all but name. In 1816 Astor's American

Fur Company actually sailed directly to Turkey to buy ten tons of

opium, which was then sold illegally in Canton.

Astor's rapid rise to great wealth is an unlikely story. The son of a

German butcher, Astor came to America in 1784 at age twenty-one. He

reportedly spoke very little English, although he had lived for a short

time in London. He is described as having no grace, charm, or wit; he

is even said to have once wiped his hands on the table linens at a dinner

party. Yet Astor's gruff manners and poor English did not stop him

from rapidly entering society. He quickly married into wealth and

breeding in the form of Sarah Todd of New York's Breevort family.2

This connection most likely prompted his invitation to join New York's

most prestigious Masonic lodge, the Holland No. 8. Here he mingled

with Archibald Russell, the Livingstons, De Witt Clinton and George

Clinton, and members of New York's other first families.

The Holland No. 8 Lodge was founded in 1787 after negotiating

with the Masons to be allowed to hold meetings in the Low Dutch language.

At first the new lodge admitted only eight members. The numOpium:

ber 8 is significant to elite Masonry: There were eight original Templar

knights, there are eight points on the Masonic cross, and there were

eight prominent and wealthy New Yorkers in the new lodge.

From his new connections Astor discovered the lucrative fur pelt

business. Pelts that could be bought for a dollar from a New York Indian

could fetch six times the price in London.3 Astor typically cheated the

Indians by getting them drunk and then overcharging for the liquor.4

He cheated his own workers with low-paying contracts, although his

own records show he was more generous in bribes: He once made a

thirty-five-thousand-dollar payment to Michigan Governor Lewis

Cass.5 In short, Astor prospered in the fur business.

Astor's proceeds from the fur trade were invested into New York

City real estate during the year Washington was elected president and

New York was in recession. And Astor instinctively knew how to take

advantage of people. For example, when Aaron Burr shot Alexander

Hamilton in a duel, Burr had to flee the country and so Astor bought

Burr's Greenwich Village home for cash. In 1825 Astor bought land

from the U.S. government and immediately evicted seven hundred

farmers.

Astor's China connections were made through his fur business, as

the Chinese bought beaver pelts that Astor's trappers and traders took

from New York and the Oregon territory. He was the first New York

merchant to join the China trade, and soon he replaced the furs with

opium.

In 1807 New York City entered another recession as the Embargo

Act stopped shipping. A letter from Punqua Wingchong, a visiting

Chinese merchant and a mandarin connected to the ruling family in

China, claimed the embargo had stranded him in New York City and

requested permission from President Jefferson to be allowed to sail

home. Jefferson made an exception and asked on what ship he intended

to sail. Punqua Wingchong requested the Beaver, an Astor ship. The ship

left New York with Punqua Wingchong and a hull full of furs. When it

returned Jefferson discovered that Punqua Wingchong was not a merchant

but a dockhand, and the voyage was a ruse created by Astor. The

Beaver made a two-hundred-thousand-dollar profit from the trip.

The profit was put into still another farm, which extended from

Broadway to the Hudson in midtown New York.6 But the American

government got even when it went to war with Britain. Astor lost his

fur capital in Astoria, Oregon, which was worth eight hundred thousand

dollars.

Nevetheless, Astor's drug business grew unhindered. In writing he

requested that a Constantinople merchant "please send returns in

opium" for a consignment of 1,500 red fox furs.7 With three separate

fleets sailing the world, Astor made enough drug and pelt money to dip

into an immense amount of real estate. By 1826 the German immigrant

who made his fortune in America was buying the mortgages of Irish

immigrants and foreclosing on them to add to his holdings at lower

prices.8

In 1847 Moses Yale Beach compiled a list of the wealthiest New

Yorkers. Some had a million or two; Astor towered above them.9 Astor

stopped at nothing to increase his fortune. In 1848 he was eighty-four

years old and extremely wealthy, yet he still demanded rent even from

widows. He died in March of that year, and his second son, William

Backhouse Astor, inherited most of his father's twenty-million-dollar

fortune.

John Jacob Astor's son learned well. In the 1860s, when workingclass

New Yorkers were going through a severe economic depression,

officers of a Russian fleet docked in New York raised $4,760 to buy fuel

for the poor. William Astor, however, raised rents 30 percent.10 When he

died in 1875, he owned seven hundred buildings and houses—most of

them crammed with poor tenants. His legacy is the multitude of slums

where the poor starved. Yet the Astor name still graces communities

from Queens in New York to Oregon.

NEW YORK'S OTHER CHINA TRADERS

Astor receives the credit for launching New York City into the opium

trade, but others soon followed. Many were New Englanders who

moved operations to New York. Prominent families included the

Griswolds from Old Lyme, Connecticut; the Lows from Salem; and the

Grinnells from New Bedford.11

The Griswold Family

Nathaniel Griswold and George Griswold III built the family fortune

through their ownership of a large fleet of trading ships that called on

ports all over the world. Originally based in East Lyme, a small port on

the Long Island Sound coast of Connecticut, the Griswold brothers ran

an empire. Their black-and-white-checkered flag was seen in China, the

West Indies, and South America. Although the Griswolds have not

become a household name in subsequent centuries, many family members

achieved prominence as a result of trading in the eighteenth century.

The Griswolds' agent in Canton was Russell and Company, in

which a Griswold relative was a partner.

Nathaniel Griswold was content to be a merchant, but his brother

George had greater ambitions. George was a director of Columbia

Insurance, was involved in the Bank of America, and dabbled in other

ventures including gold mining. Other family members also made the

merchant connection. For example, Nathaniel's daughter Catherine

married Peter Lorillard, New York's first tobacco merchant.

The Griswolds played a role in early American politics, as Matthew

Griswold was brought to the position of Federalist governor of

Connecticut through family money. Future Griswolds served in the

U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate as politicians for

Connecticut and Pennsylvania. John D. Lodge, the great-great-grandson

of sea trader George Griswold III, was Connecticut's governor from

1951 to 1955. Still other Griswolds became captains of industry, bishops,

and college professors.

John Cleve Green

One Griswold employee who later achieved prominence on his own

was John Cleve Green, who is usually remembered as one of the major

benefactors of Princeton University. Born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey,

in 1800 to an elder of the Presbyterian Church, Green began his career

in the counting room of N. L. Griswold of New York City. He was

soon promoted to a supercargo and traveled to South America, Spain,

and finally China at the height of the opium trade. Green married the

boss's daughter, Sarah Griswold. Green's connections and his knack for

being in the right place at the right time landed him a position with

Russell and Company. After six years in Canton working for the preeminent

opium house, Green returned to New York. He continued in

the China trade and also advanced his career as director of the Bank of

Commerce and other banks, railroads, and New York Hospital.

The Low Family

The Low family was a group of Massachusetts merchants that moved to

New York. Seth Low was born on Cape Ann in 1782. He moved at an

early age to Salem, where he earned his living as a trader and a merchant.

In Tall Ships to Cathay Helen Augur mentions that Seth Low

married Mary Porter, which connected the Lows with the prominent

Lord family. Seth had twelve children, and as the Salem area was losing

its importance, he moved his family to New York. There Seth and his

brother William Henry Low, a senior partner in Russell and Company,

helped expand the American role in the trade that Russell inherited

from the Perkins syndicate.

Several of Seth Low's children were involved in the China trade, but

his son Abiel Abbot Low achieved the greatest fame. Abiel Low joined

Russell and Company as a clerk just a short time before the Opium

Wars started. He took over the Forbeses' position of personal secretary

and agent for Houqua, which helped to expand his wealth and power.

After acquiring work experience and connections, Abiel decided to go

out on his own. He returned to New York and commissioned the fastest

clipper ships money could buy; only the Forbes ships could compete

with his. His A. A. Low and Brothers remained in the forefront and continued

trading with China and Japan even when most other companies

had left the trade.

Profits from his Abiel Low's Asia business were invested in the first

Atlantic cable and the building of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.

His son Seth graduated from Columbia University in 1870 and went

on to become mayor of Brooklyn and then the first mayor of New York

City after it consolidated in 1898. Seth Low the younger is famous for

donating a million dollars, supposedly one third of his fortune, to build

the Low Library at Columbia.

Abiel Low, who married Ellen Almira Dow, had a daughter also

named Ellen, who in 1869 married into the Pierrepont family—which

would later be known as the Pierpont family. The Pierpont and Morgan

families were eventually united and played a significant role in the

development of American finance.

The House of Morgan was actually started by China trader George

Peabody. Described as a solitary miser, Peabody nevertheless joined forces

with Barings Bank to get American states to pay on their bond debts,

much of which was in British hands. Barings went as far as to bribe famed

statesman Daniel Webster to make speeches on the issue. Peabody bought

the bonds for pennies on the dollar and reaped a fortune when they were

finally repaid. Like other Salem merchants, he amassed great wealth in the

China trade and invested in railroads. Because he was heirless, Peabody

gave his money to philanthropic causes, including a library in Salem, and

he turned over his company to young Junius Spencer Morgan. Junius

Morgan's heir was son J. Pierpont Morgan, whose stamp on Barings Bank

would last for more than a century.12

The Grinnell Family

The Grinnells are another China-trading family whose origins are

sketchy, but they most likely possess a Huguenot background. Cornelius

Grinnell was an American sea captain who became a privateer during

the American Revolution. He married Sylvia Howland, which established

the Grinnells among New England's first families. Other

Grinnells married into Rhode Island's Brown dynasty and into the

Russell family.

Joseph Grinnell, son of Cornelius, cultivated the family wealth in

the shipping and whaling businesses. Grinnell collaborated with a man

by the name of Preserved Fish and Joseph's brother Henry to establish

the firm of Fish, Grinnell, and Company. Over time Fish was dropped

from the name and the business became Grinnell, Minturn, and

Company. The company would become one of New York City's largest

shipping firms.

The Grinnell family roots were in New Bedford, where the first of

the Greek Revival mansions was built for Joseph. His profits, like those

of many other merchants, were put into the textile trade, and he

founded the still-in-operation Wamsutta Mills. Various Grinnells later

financed polar explorations and rescue missions, pioneered real-estate

development in Key West, and even found a town—Grinnell, Iowa—

and its local college (Grinnell College).

Howland and Aspinwall

Another company that moved from New England to New York during

the golden years of the opium trade was Howland and Aspinwall. This

merger of two founding families spawned great wealth for generations

to come.

John Howland was the first of the clan to travel to America, where

he married a fellow Mayflower passenger. John's son, Joseph Howland,

started in the whaling business in Connecticut. Joseph's sons also considered

the sea to be a road to wealth and went into shipping. Howland

shipping would take part in the sugar and slave trade in the Caribbean

and in ventures in Cuba, Mexico, and the Mediterranean before discovering

the China trade. The Howland children made good matches,

with one daughter marrying James Roosevelt and another marrying

James Brown of Brown Brothers Harriman.

The most significant Howland marriage was a business merger with

the Aspinwall family. Like the Howlands, the Aspinwalls were in the

shipping business prior to the American Revolution. Around the turn

of the nineteenth century, John Aspinwall married Susan Howland. The

new Howland and Aspinwall firm generated great profits in the China

trade, and in 1837 William Henry Aspinwalls fortune was estimated to

be greater than Cornelius Vanderbilt's. Post-China trade ventures

included building America's oldest steamship line and several railroads,

and, like most other China traders, participating in philanthropy.

Aspinwall was considered both an honest and a pious man, and has

been referred to as a visionary. He was a cofounder of the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York and led America in new adventures

around the world while he lived quietly in New York.

Aspinwall claimed that his Panama Railroad, which was erected

before the famous canal, could be built in six months. Not having traveled

there himself, he didn't realize that the first thirteen miles went

through dense jungles and impenetrable swamps filled with poisonous

insects and snakes. From mosquitoes and sand flies to alligators and

other hazards, the area was know as a pesthole from the days of Spanish

exploration. General Grant, who visited the construction site, described

the conditions of the rainy season as "beyond belief."13

The conditions took their toll on the workers, who often toiled in

mud up to their necks, fighting off the swarming insects from sunrise

to sunset. Sickness and disease—including cholera, yellow fever, smallpox,

and dysentery—claimed many lives, as did harsh treatment similar

to what was enacted on slaves. A commonly told story holds that there

was a dead Irishman for every railroad tie. Howland and Aspinwall

declared the death toll at one thousand, but estimates actually run up to

six thousand. Chinese workers, called coolies, who did hard labor for

low wages, were imported. Eight hundred arrived; two hundred survived.

Many committed suicide by hanging themselves, paying companions

to stab or shoot them, or simply drowning themselves in the

ocean. Aspinwall was in New York at the time, where, ironically to

modern sensibilities, he helped created the Society for the Prevention

of Cruelty to Animals.

Like their Boston counterparts, New York's first families used marriage

to ensure that their wealth and prominence would remain intact.

Harriet Howland married James Roosevelt, President Franklin

Roosevelt's great-grandfather, and Mary Aspinwall married Isaac

Roosevelt, the same president's grandfather. The son of Mary Aspinwall

and Isaac Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, married Rebecca Howland.

THE ROOSEVELTS AND THE DELANOS

The Roosevelts and the Delanos were among America's first Dutch

families. Claes Martenszen van Roosevelt arrived in America before

1649 and died in 1660. Like John Jacob Astor, Roosevelt's only son,

Nicholas, got his start in the fur business. He in turn had two sons who

split the family into two lines: the Oyster Bay, New York line, from

which President Teddy Roosevelt was born, and the Hyde Park New

York line of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Oyster Bay branch got

most of its wealth from the merchant business; the Hyde Park branch

invested primarily in real estate.

Membership in the elite societies of their day, including Masonry,

and intermarriage increased the Roosevelt family fortune. Isaac

Roosevelt married into a sugar-trading family, which often implied the

triangular trade of sugar, molasses, and slaves. After the Molasses Act of

1733, anyone who wouldn't smuggle couldn't survive. The Roosevelts

survived and prospered,14 and Isaac's brother James joined the business.

Isaac became close with William Walton, and both were involved in

founding the Bank of New York. James would also make a connection

to the Waltons when he married Maria Walton.

Other Roosevelts married Howlands and Aspinwalls, which is how

they were introduced to the China trade. The Howland and Aspinwall

families were also active in building clipper ships and later in the

steamship and railroad businesses.

By the 1820s the Roosevelt clan were more than just wealthy; they

were also very well connected. James Roosevelt, son of Rebecca

Aspinwall Roosevelt, sat on boards with the Vanderbilts and J. Pierpont

Morgan. James Roosevelt's son James "Rosy" Roosevelt became

engaged to Helen Schermerhorn Astor. At their engagement party, one

of the guests in attendance was Sara Delano.

The Delanos were another of America's first families. Descendants

of a Huguenot family by the name of de la Noye, who fled Holland for

America, they arrived on the Fortune in 1621. Philip de la Noye came

to America at age nineteen and became a Massachusetts landowner. He

modified the spelling of his surname to Delano and married into the

family of John and Priscilla Alden. Philip's son, Thomas Delano, married

the Alden's daughter, also named Priscilla, although the couple was

fined ten pounds for engaging in intercourse before the wedding.

Farther down the family tree, Warren Delano, Franklin's grandfather,

made his fortune in the opium business, starting through the

Grinnell firm. Warren's daughter Sara Delano became the mother of

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Sara's sister Dora married a

Forbes, and their sister Annie married Fred Hitch, a Russell and

Company associate in Shanghai.

The Delano family seemed to gravitate toward the sea and the trading

business. Warren Delano was an associate of James Roosevelt's father

and was a partner in Russell, Sturgis, and Company (also known as

Russell and Company at various stages). Warren was the China representative

and owned a mansion in Macao. For a while he retired from

opium trading and sank his fortune into New York real estate and coal

and copper mines in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

In August 1857 the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust

started a domino effect that wiped out many banks. All but one bank in

New York suspended specie payment. By the end of the year, five thousand

businesses had failed, tens of thousands of workers had lost their

homes and jobs, and people starved and froze to death both in the cities

and in the coal towns. While his workers died, Warren lived in Algonac,

his estate, complete with high-ceilinged rooms with rosewood furniture,

teakwood screens, potted plants, and Buddhist bells.

Although Warren Delano suffered no loss of creature comforts, his

net worth suffered dearly. He was desperate to keep his status and

decided to go back to China and the drug-smuggling business; it was

the simplest way to rebuild his fortune. "It would be denied in these

later years that the opium he bought and shipped was intended for the

tremendously profitable market provided by addicts," writes Kenneth

Davis, who mentions specifically that it was opium, and not tea, that

brought wealth along with a touch of notoriety.15 By this time the New

England drug smugglers were bringing the drug to American addicts.

The family later claimed that the opium Warren brought to America

was for the relief of the Civil War wounded, but he returned to China

in 1859, which predated the Civil War by two years.

The future President Franklin Roosevelt announced his engagement

to Eleanor in grandfather Warren's room, surrounded by Chinatrade

regalia. More prominent than his cousin Teddy was, Franklin took

his role in Masonry seriously, becoming active in the Holland No. 8

Lodge in New York City and a Scottish Rite Temple in Albany.

Theodore Roosevelt is famous, of course, as a U.S. president and for

leading the charge on San Juan Hill. Roosevelt's public persona depicts

him as a "trustbuster," fighting the giant Standard Oil and mediating

mining strikes. Despite his Masonic membership, however, he was far

from egalitarian. He was also closely tied to big business, and was able

to raise the necessary corporate donations for his candidacy; his trustbusting

activities, though, would leave him at odds with the Rockefeller

and Carnegie interests.

The twenty-sixth president of the United States is on record as

being a racial elitist with an attitude that bordered on favoring ethnic

cleansing. He has been quoted as saying, "Some day we will realize that

the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizen of the right

type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we

have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong

type." He also said, "I wish very much that the wrong people could be

prevented entirely from breeding... Criminals should be sterilized and

feebleminded persons forbidden to leave offspring."16

While Teddy was crying out against the unwashed masses, the

country was gripped by a fear of anyone who was foreign—Chinese,

African, Italian, or Eastern European. The Eugenics Records Office

(ERO) was created and funded by the wealthiest people of the day to

reduce the population of the poor. The ERO, which was funded by

John D. Rockefeller, the Carnegie Institution, George Eastman, and the

widow of E. H. Harriman, singled out specific undesirable traits, from

alcoholism to an inordinate love of the sea, and then sought to sterilize

those who exhibited such traits. The movement grew in America and

was adopted by Nazi Germany, which then showed the world the ultimate

expression of these beliefs.

President Grant and Julia Dent

The Delano family's influence continued, as Susannah Delano married

Captain Noah Grant in June 1746. They had a son Noah, also a sea captain,

who married Rachel Kelly. They also had a son Jesse, who married

Hannah Simpson. Jesse and Hannah Grant's son was Ulysses Simpson

Grant, the renowned Civil War general and U.S. president, who married

Julia Dent.

The Dent family of England ranked alongside the Jardines and

Mathesons in the opium trade,17 but the prosperity of the trade may not

have extended to the American Dents. The Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant

mentions her father as a prosperous landowner descended from a

Maryland plantation owner and her mother's father as a China trader in

the firm of Wrenshall, Peacock, and Pillon. The American

Dents were a New England family who took part in the early China

trade first by exporting ginseng to that country. Julia Dent's mother and

father came to the Midwest to trade along the Mississippi River with

Edward Tracy.

Ulysses Grant was a late bloomer who had drifted down to failure

and disgrace during his early army career. He drank to the point that

he was broke and finally resigned from the army. He failed at farming,

failed at selling real estate, and made only a modest income as a clerk

until someone convinced him to return to the military. The Civil War

saved his reputation and gained him the presidency of the United

States.

AMERICA'S MERCHANT FAMILIES GO TO WAR

The elite merchant families of Boston and New York grew wealthy in

the opium trade, which was inherited from England; China, however,

suffered.

The Chinese rapidly became addicted in increasing numbers. The

importation of opium chests numbered five thousand in 1821 and grew

to thirty-nine thousand by 1837. This figure represents 6,630,000

pounds of opium. Soon the addiction reached the royal palace. Emperor

Tao Kwong lost three sons to drug addiction, and it was estimated that

China had four to twelve million addicts.18 The emperor conducted a

study of the effects of opium on his country. He was told that for the

first time his treasury was being drained of silver rather than being

resupplied by the tea trade. Brigandage plagued the highways. Soldiers

refused to fight, and when coerced to fight against other warlords the

soldiers were defeated. It was obvious that corruption was spreading in

the army and the civil service. Mandarins were regularly bribed to allow

the importation of illegal products. And at Canton the marketplace was

stocked with the apparatus of the opium trade.

The emperor ordered a crackdown and numerous drug users were

arrested. To drive home the emperor's point, an opium merchant was

publicly crucified in Canton. A Chinese boat was caught unloading

opium believed to have been bought from Thomas Perkins. At first

nothing was done, but then all trade came to a halt. On the day Bennett

Forbes became a partner at Russell and Company, he complained that

they could not unload a chest of opium.19 Russell and Company made

an announcement that it would cease trading opium. Its agent, John

Green, sent instructions to India to stop all opium trading. But it was

too late for them and for others. The agent of the emperor, Lin Tse-hsu,

surrounded all the British and American ships and subjected them to

house arrest. He then confiscated twenty thousand chests of opium and

staged the Chinese version of the Boston Tea Party, mixing the opium

with lime and throwing it into the water. Russell and Company lost

1,400 chests, Jardine and Matheson lost 7,000 chests, and the British

Dent and Company lost 1,700 chests.

Even after the destruction of millions of dollars' worth of drugs,

the house arrest continued. Wealthy Americans in China, including

Warren Delano, A. A. Low, and John Green, were forced to do without

servants and had to cook for themselves for the first time. The punishment

was considerably less harsh than that inflicted on their Chinese

partners in the trade, who were jailed and quickly executed.

Finally the opium debate reached Parliament. Statesmen like

William Gladstone decried the trade in opium and its effect on the

Chinese, but in the end the money was the key. The only way to compensate

the British businessmen for their loss was to declare war on

China. The brief war compelled China to sign a treaty giving the

British Hong Kong and access to its markets.

THE LEGACY OF THE CHINA TRADE

The area that would become Hong Kong replaced the tiny islands and

floating warehouses that served as the storage facilities for opium. From

Hong Kong, ships could sail up along the coast and spread opium to

even greater numbers of the Chinese population. But along with legality

came a decrease in profits. The shipping firm called the Peninsula

and Oriental Steamship line allowed Chinese buyers to place orders for

opium directly with India, eliminating the British middleman.

But some companies thrived in the new situation. For the firm of

Jardine and Matheson, the Opium War represented a new beginning.

Made famous by the James Clavell novel Noble House, Jardine and

Matheson, the house that opium built, grew and prospered as a result of

having the power of England behind it. Today Simon and Henry

Keswick, direct descendants of William Jardine, run the company, which

is not known to have broken English or Chinese rules since the Opium

War days. It has its many tentacles in shipping, the Cunard Line, trading,

auto sales, brokerage, engineering, restaurants and hotels, property

investment and management, insurance, and banking.

The power Jardine and Matheson once wielded in London is no

longer as strong, as the company was unable to persuade Margaret

Thatcher to hang on to Hong Kong. In 1984 Hong Kong was thirteen

years away from reverting back to Chinese rule. Jardine and Matheson

moved its exchange listing to Singapore, which infuriated China. The

hard feelings between the company and modern China still persist.

Jardine and Matheson is thought by many, including China, to have

played a role in getting Chris Patten appointed Hong Kong's last governor

under British rule. Patten's democratic reforms, and Henry

Keswick's criticism of China after Tiananmen Square in 1989, have kept

the relationship tenuous.20 In 1995 more than half of Jardine's profits

were still earned in China and Hong Kong.

A competing company from the Persian-English family of Sassoon

also had a major part in the China trade. Like their Scottish counterparts

the Sassoons brought opium to China, but theirs was homegrown.

Saleh Sassoon was the treasurer to the Ahmet Pasha, or governor of

Baghdad. When the pasha was overthrown, the family moved to

Bombay. Sassoon's son David became a merchant and was granted a

license to trade in Indian opium and cotton. The Opium Wars were a

brief setback, but David's son Edward Albert brought opium profits

home to England, where he increased the family fortune in the textile

trade. Being knighted by the queen was Edward's reward for his contribution

to the economy. And marrying a Rothschild was a means of

ensuring his power.

THE OPIUM LEGACY IN AMERICA

For their part in the drug business the Americans took home a lot of

money. In 1844 Caleb Cushing created the American treaty with

China, which officially allowed American ships in the China trade.

After the wars in China the drug-smuggling business became more

dangerous, as there was Asian competition and there were much faster

steamships. British and American firms started bringing drugs to safer

shores—their own. In Britain, the cities of Liverpool, Dover, Bristol,

and even London were the import drug centers. This was around the

time that the attempts to regulate opium use became serious.21 Between

pre- and post-Opium Wars the opium imports in England tripled to

280,000 pounds.22 The drug was even prescribed to children in such

concoctions as Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, and unwed mothers discovered

it was an easy way to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Opium would be regulated as a poison in 1868, but without substantial

penalty. Opium's derivative morphine was soon the cause of massive

addiction of returning Crimean War veterans, who learned to inject the

drug.

The drug trade in Europe became widespread, and it was the product

of an alliance between criminal families from various nations and

Swiss and German pharmaceutical companies. A large number of these

firms were happy to deal with the smugglers, simply shipping drugs

under deliberately misleading labels.23 For instance, German firms

shipped heroin, the latest derivative of opium, as aspirin. Turkey was the

one nation that resisted the demands of the League of Nations and

profited from its own production of opium. Turkey held out until 1931,

when it officially closed its factories. Bulgaria took up the slack.

The drug trade, of course, never stopped. More and more customers

bought the products, and as regulation grew, so did the profits from the

trade. The only part that has changed is the level of violence. When corporations

controlled the industry, they had no need to compete differently

from how they had in selling other products. When the

corporations were replaced by criminals, those who felt the need to get

rid of the competition often killed it.

In 1840 New Englanders imported twenty-four thousand pounds

of opium into the United States. This garnered much attention, but the

U.S. reaction was to slap a duty on the product. Drug importers, once

dependent on a small group of addicts in their homeland, soon had

thousands as the Civil War saw an increase in prescribed opium and

opium abuse. Horace Day wrote The Opium Habit, blaming the Civil

War for the massive spread of addiction.

Chapter 16

WEALTH: THE LEGACY OF THE OPIUM TRADE

New England always had an elite class. Some of the early families

were wealthy or at least titled in England, while others were

prominent in their respective churches. For nearly four hundred years

status was accorded by just how far back the family name could be

traced. There were two classes of people who came to early

Massachusetts: the original blue bloods, the religious dissenters from the

East Anglia district north of London, and a more geographically varied

group of "others."

The blue bloods became Massachusetts's first and original upper

class. They were Puritans led by John Winthrop of the East Anglia town

of Groton. Winthrop was likened to the biblical Nehemiah, who led his

people out of Babylonian captivity. In England the Puritans might have

made up 20 percent of the population; in East Anglia it was closer to

40 percent. The map of New England provides the evidence of the

Puritan infiltration: Boston, Ipswich, Lynn, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex

are among the many town names brought to seventeenth-century New

England from the mother country. Puritans were in and out of favor

and risked persecution as the kings of England came and went, married,

or converted. The New World, they hoped, would provide relief and the

Puritan version of religious freedom.

The second group was from a much wider geographic range. This

included Huguenots who fled Catholic persecution in France and were

not always welcome in other countries. In 1585 the Edict of Nantes

gave them religious freedom, but it was later rescinded. Troops in

Catholic France supervised the reconversion. This prompted many families,

including the Faneuils, Bowdoins, Reveres, and Olivers, to relocate

to New England. It brought the Jays and Bayards to New York.1 The

Huguenots were merchants first, and because of the precarious nature

of their existence and survival in Europe, they were possibly a much

more adaptable people.

Prestige was brought from Europe, achieved with the money accumulated

in the New World, or acquired by marriage. By the late seventeenth

century distinctions among European brands of Protestantism

were blurred and the struggles pitted the English Protestants against the

Scottish and Irish Catholics. The English favored Parliamentary rule

while the Catholic Irish and Scots often favored the king, especially if

it was a Stuart king.

Boston was a microcosm of this old society, where the top tier of a

class system was built on status in Europe and in the church and was

later joined by those who made their fortunes in the New World.

Members of this class were bent on self-preservation and accomplished

this in many ways: intermarriage, dominance in business and politics,

and endowment of public institutions. Cabots married Lowells,

Roosevelts married Astors, and Paines married Whitneys. Such names

were like tribal tattoos; they indicated royal lineage and thus prestige.

Names also served to exclude certain groups, and pressure was put on

individual family members to marry within their station.

Fortunes amassed in real estate, privateering, merchanting, or smuggling

were reinvested in railroads, textile mills, insurance companies, and

banks, allowing the elite class to control the economy. Money bought

politicians and elected those who chose to brave the political waters.

Money—often from opium trading, smuggling, and slave trading—was

used as an endowment to build educational institutions and buy professorial

chairs that would then control just who would be approved to

enter the elite and how history would be viewed.

The universities and museums determined how the history books

would be written. They could color the past to suit themselves or others.

The opium clippers were referred to as "tea clippers."The slave trade

became the "sugar and molasses trade." Wartime profiteering and price

gouging were simply not discussed. Slave traders who were now bank

presidents were "prominent businessmen." And many people whose

fortunes were built on opium and slave trading became those prominent

businessmen.

THE APPLETONS

The Appletons' fortune began to accumulate almost upon their landing

in the New World in the seventeenth century, but it was later enhanced

by association with the China trade and with cronyism. The family lived

at the pinnacle of Boston society, which was referred to as the Boston

Associates,2 a tight-knit group that included two Appletons, a Cabot-

Lowell, two Jacksons, and a handful of others who would lay the foundation

of New England industry.

The Appleton family can be traced to the sixteenth century in

England. Samuel Appleton (1766-1853) fought in King Philip's War

and was a member of the first provincial council and a Connecticut

judge. He also owned a sawmill and invested in an early ironworks in

Massachusetts. An Appleton married a Perkins in 1701, and descendants

of the earliest settlers include Jane Means Appleton Pierce, who became

the first lady to the fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce; and Calvin

Coolidge, the thirtieth president.

Samuel Appleton started the family in the textile business and made

significant investments in real estate and railroads. He married Mary

Gore. Appleton was actively involved in the Massachusetts Historical

Society, was a trustee of Massachusetts Hospital, and was a contributor

to Dartmouth, Harvard, and the Boston Female Asylum.

Nathan Appleton (1779-1861) was a founder of the Boston

Manufacturing Company, the Waltham Cotton Factory, the Hamilton

Company, and numerous other mills. The Appletons, along with the

Lowells, Jacksons, and Thorndikes, brought to Massachusetts the first

looms that operated in the United States. As a group they are responsible

for putting both Waltham and Lawrence, Massachusetts, and

Manchester, New Hampshire, on the map as textile cities. Nathan

Appleton was one of the founders of the textile city dubbed Lowell

after John Lowell, scion of another New England first family. Appleton

served several terms in the Massachusetts state legislature and the U.S.

House of Representatives, and he also became an organizer of the

Boston Athenaeum.

Nathan owned ships, founded banks and insurance companies, and

invested in railroads and in infrastructure projects. His brother William

became president of the Boston branch of the United States Bank.

Appletons, Jacksons, and Lowells controlled the board of the Suffolk

Bank, which acted as the central bank for New England.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was lucky enough to be born into

one of New Hampshire's first families, the Wadsworths, which afforded

him the ability to travel throughout Europe and write poetry. He married

Frances Appleton, the daughter of Nathan Appleton, which substantially

increased Longfellow's wealth. The Longfellow House in

Cambridge was a gift from his father-in-law. Longfellow owned shares

in at least five textile companies that his father-in-law invested in, and

when his friend and contemporary Charles Dickens visited the mills of

Lowell, it is no small wonder he compared them favorably to England's.

Jesse Appleton was a man of principle. He served as the president

of Bowdoin College, where Longfellow had been a student and a professor.

Jesse's daughters benefited from both his station and his lessons

and developed a knack for marrying well. Daughter Frances married a

Bowdoin professor. Daughter Mary married John Aiken, a prominent

attorney and significant investor in the textile industry.

Despite the family's involvement in the China trade, Jane Appleton

had a sense of morality that seems at odds with her fortune. When she

met Franklin Pierce, who attended Bowdoin, he was studying to

become an attorney. The Appleton family discouraged the match, as

Pierce was not as prominent as the Appletons, despite the fact that his

father was the governor of New Hampshire.

Pierce entered politics early, a career that went hand in hand with

being an attorney. He was a Jacksonian, which pitted him against the

Whig class of Massachusetts's monied elite, but at the same time he was

pro-slavery. Pierce soon retired from politics to enlist as a private in the

war against Mexico. He emerged a general and a war hero. When his

war hero status raised his value as a candidate, Pierce was swept into

national politics by the same faction that had removed Taylor. Jane

Appleton Pierce did all she could to keep her husband from becoming

a presidential candidate. His getting the party nomination caused her to

faint, and for a while she fought his going to Washington, as it had a

reputation for hard drinking that to her was immoral.

Incredible tragedy struck Jane and Franklin Pierce, as their third and

only surviving son was killed on the way to the inauguration in

Washington. Jane avoided public life, and a childhood friend took her

place at White House functions.

Pierce was a one-term president who had a flair for creating divisiveness.

He was the first president to appoint a non-Protestant cabinet

member. The postmaster general was James Campbell, a Pennsylvania

Catholic whose appointment and reception of a papal delegate helped

create the backlash that would become the Know-Nothing (American

nativist) party. Pierce endorsed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which was the

eye of the slavery hurricane and led to the splitting of the Democratic

party and the ending of the Whig party—and the creation of the

Republican party. He brought England and America to the verge of war

for a third time over policy and further strained relations with Europe

when plans to annex Cuba were leaked to the European press.

Pierce's attorney general, Caleb Cushing, was the real power behind

the "throne." The thirty-third-degree Mason and opium trader was the

grand master to the divisive politics that threatened the nation. Pierce's

secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, completed the conspiracy, leading the

Southern states into war against the Union.

Jane Appleton's marriage to Pierce was not the only connection the

Appleton family had to the presidency. Nathan Appleton became

father-in-law to Thomas Coolidge, whose descendant would also reach

the White House. Coolidge money too had been increased in the

China trade, and Thomas Coolidge had no qualms about admitting his

devotion to the acquisition of wealth, as "money was becoming the

only real avenue to power and success both socially and in the regard

of your fellow-men."3 Coolidge money was spread at Harvard and at

the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among other institutions. Coolidge

money would also start the United Fruit Company, which linked other

prominent New England families for a hundred years.

THE CABOTS

Samuel Eliot Morison, one of America's highest authorities on the history

of the sea trade, writes, "Seaboard Massachusetts has never known

such a thing as social democracy. . . . Inequalities of wealth have made

political democracy a sham."4 Writing on the mansions of pre-

Revolutionary New England, which include George Cabot's at

Beverly, Jonathan Jackson's at Newburyport, and John Heard's at

Ipswich, Morison points to the sea as the source of wealth. Bluntly

referring to the Revolution as an effect of George Ill's harsh maritime

policy, Morison calls Boston the headquarters of the Revolution. What

England called smuggling, he emphasizes, Americans called free trade.5

The Cabot family began the family fortune upon arrival in America,

when John Cabot emigrated from the Channel Islands to Salem in 1700.

His son Joseph became a successful merchant and married into the

Higginson family, one of the most prominent in the colony.

George Cabot was the seventh of Joseph's eleven children, and

despite his Harvard education he was shipped off as a cabin boy under

the command of two older brothers. Their father's ships were active

with the Spanish colonies in the trade of rum and fish, two staples of

the slave plantations. At age eighteen George was made captain. After

four years at sea, George married and took over a share in the distillery

business from his wife's side of the family, as well as control of his brothers'

shipping interests. George made his last voyage at age twenty-seven,

at which time he was already a captain of industry.

The Revolutionary War was great business for George as he fitted

out forty ships as privateers and shared richly in many prizes. What

Cabot and his fellow merchants had fought for, in addition to prizes,

was to make a union of the colonies in the belief that it would expand

their mercantile business. And for a while it did. In 1784 George Cabot

was already trading through the Baltic Sea, pioneering the Russian

trade with his ships Bucanier and Commerce.6 In 1787, with the war at an

end, the Cabot family established the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.

Cabots also owned fishing fleets in Beverly, which led Senator George

Cabot to draft and push through an act giving fishermen a bounty to

expand the codfishing business.

From 1789 to 1799 Alexander Hamilton had dictated the financial

and foreign policy for the nation's first two administrations. His privy

council was called the Essex Junto.7 Made up of George Cabot, Stephen

Higginson, Jonathan Jackson, John Lowell, and Thomas Pickering, the

Junto almost created a second revolution when the policies of Jefferson

were not in accord with the council's own financial interests.

The fortunes of the Essex Junto were made mostly from the sea and

from unrestricted trade. Its credit needs were met not by the infant government

in Washington but by the same facilities members had relied

on before the Revolution: the London banking houses. The Essex Junto

was actually a traitorous conspiracy, as it broke away from the United

States because of Jefferson's embargo. When home among his fellow

aristocrats, George Cabot was a pillar of the compact society; outside

New England he was an anarchist, a charge he had made against

Jefferson. The conspiracy blew over as the embargo was lifted.

Senator George Cabot, whose mother was Elizabeth Higginson,

married his first cousin, also named Elizabeth Higginson. The union

was one of many dynastic marriages among the opium families who

became the Brahmin class of Boston. George further cemented his role

in the establishment by serving as president of the Boston branch of the

United States Bank, as director of Suffolk Insurance, and as president of

Boston Marine Insurance.

The next famous Cabot was Edward (1818-1901), the third of

eleven children of Samuel Cabot and Eliza Perkins (daughter of

Thomas Handasyd Perkins). The offspring of two of the most powerful

China trading families, Edward Cabot decided to be a sheep farmer.

After losing a fortune in that business in Illinois, he returned home and

became an architect. Edward would get commissions to design Johns

Hopkins University and the Boston Athenaeum, both of which were

financed by family.

The best-known Cabot might be Henry Cabot Lodge, a Harvard

Ph.D. historian-turned-politician. A true elitist, he fought against

women's suffrage and even against the direct election of U.S. senators.

To foster these elitist politics the Cabot family endowed organizations

such as the Brookings Institute, where world leaders like James

Wolfensohn of the World Bank; Henry Schacht of Warburg, Pincus;

David Rockefeller; and Barton Biggs of Morgan Stanley bridge the

corporate-political divide and influence government policy.

THE LOWELLS

A Boston elitist saying holds that the Lowells speak only to the Cabots,

and the Cabots speak only to God.

The Lowell family achieved its status in Brahmin society by its early

arrival in the colonies and its development of Newburyport as an early

center of shipbuilding and a merchant community. The early families

did everything they could to preserve their status and wealth, including

marrying into other wealthy and prestigious families.

John Lowell was part of the class of 1721 at Harvard and shared

classrooms with Hancocks, Winslows, Hutchinsons, and Woolcotts. A

great example of what the dynastic marriage can produce is the relationship

of John Lowell and Jonathan Jackson. John "Old Judge"

Lowell, a Harvard graduate in 1761, married the daughter of Stephen

Higginson, a leading merchant, and Elizabeth Cabot Higginson. As

Lowell was a lawyer, this connection maintained his status in the merchant

community, which had already been established by his family.

John's close friend Jonathan Jackson had inherited twenty thousand

pounds and married the daughter of Patrick Tracy, one of Bostons richest

merchants. The marriage increased Jackson's wealth and his status as a

merchant, and extended his connections into England—a necessary connection

for financing. For Jackson, John Lowell represented connections;

for John Lowell, Jackson meant more clients. Their partnership was

cemented by marriage between the families. John Lowell's son, Francis

Cabot Lowell, was born to his second wife, Susan Cabot. Francis Cabot

Lowell married Hannah, the daughter of Jackson and his first wife.

John and Elizabeth Lowell were New England's finest couple, and

their Boston home on High Street was next door to that of their best

friends, the Jacksons. From this power base the two men were able to

increase their fortunes, thanks to the Revolution. John represented the

business affairs of British families, handled the wills of leading patricians

in Boston, collected seven hundred separate fees related to privateer

actions, and was in charge of liquidating many Tory-owned properties

after the war. His legal machine benefited from his action in the early

politics of the new country.

John Lowell served as a member of the State Constitutional

Convention, which advocated that "all men are born free and equal,"

but it is doubtful that he personally advocated such sentiments. Both

Lowell and best friend, Jackson, were slave owners. John Lowell has the

distinction of being the last man in Boston to own a black slave.

After the war the classes were further divided in America as economic

depression and higher taxation struck home. A huge chasm

existed between the haves and the have-nots, and the Lowells were

among those who had it all. In order to have a place to keep it all,

Lowell, along with members of the Russell and Higginson families,

started the Massachusetts Bank, which became the First National Bank

of Boston.

While the Lowell family wealth was already one of the greatest and

they were one of the most powerful clans in the new country, Francis

Cabot Lowell further increased the family wealth and made an imprint

on the American textile industry

In England, Richard Arkwright launched the industrial revolution

by bringing machinery to the textile industry, which was formerly

dependent on people in their homes. Spinning, carding, and weaving

yarn on hand looms was the original cottage industry. A woman often

went to a storekeeper, bought the yarn on consignment, and returned

woven cloth to earn a profit. Women could weave at home while earning

a wage at the same time. The industrial revolution would change

the home-based industry to a factory-based one, starting with the spinning

frame, the first fully powered machine for spinning yarn.

An assistant to Richard Arkwright, Samuel Slater, memorized the

design of the spinning frame and brought it to America, where slave

trader Moses Brown financed the first cotton-spinning wheel in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island. For Brown it was a natural progression from

one type of cruel labor to another; instead of exploiting captive labor,

there was an entire new class of labor ready to be used—children. The

company Brown built was named in honor of the machine's inventor,

Arkwright.

Francis Cabot Lowell followed Brown's example and went to

England in 1810 to get plans for his own factory. His first factory would

be a partnership with brother-in-law Tracy Jackson, as well as with Paul

Moody and Nathan Appleton. Lowell's mill combined all the operations

of making raw cotton into finished clothes. As soon as he realized it

could be done, he used his political influence to push for high duties

on imported cloth, in order to lessen his competition.

Lowell's inner circle of Boston Associates then scouted for a location

to build even larger mills. They found that the confluence of the

Concord and Merrimack Rivers was perfect for providing the waterpower

needed to power their looms. Thus the sleepy farming village of

East Chelmsford was turned into a factory village called Lowell.

Lowell was much more than a single factory; it was the first corporate

town. Several corporations were formed and scouts were sent

throughout the state to find the necessary machine operators. Children

were the best source of labor. Times were tough and children as young

as ten were in great supply. The youngest of the factory girls were "doffers,"

doffing, or taking off, the full bobbins from the spinning frames

and replacing them. These girls worked fourteen-hour days, starting at

five in the morning, for the munificent sum of two dollars a week.8

As in mining towns, unscrupulous textile operators would often

allow workers to run up charges at factory stores. The combination of

inflated prices and accumulated debt ensured that workers would stay.

The women and children brought to the factory town often could not

afford to leave, their condition reduced to something not much different

from slavery.

The elite factory owners were able to color things differently. John

Greenleaf Whittier, poet and newspaper editor, lived near Lowell and

wrote of the mill town, describing it as a "city springing up like the

enchanted palaces of Arabian Tales." These brick "palaces" ran six days a

week, fourteen hours a day, and when it was dark whale-oil lamps

extended the day. The living conditions were worse. Accommodations

were in blocks of sixteen "houses," with five hundred people forced to

use one privy. In another tenement in Lowell the tenants had to carry

their waste, human and otherwise, to Austin Avenue. In another Lowell

block the commissioners counted 396 people living in conditions

Whittier described as filthy, unsanitary, foul, and wretched. But the

women had to live there as a condition of their employment. What Mr.

Whittier and other writers who were tainted by those who paid their

salaries seemed to miss, a Massachusetts labor commissioner pointed

out: The state's laws protected horses better than people.9

Despite the conditions, the wage was higher than a teenage girl

could make outside the factory system, and children could send home

money to their families. Despite the abuses, the millworkers did not

fight for raises. Eventually they were forced to fight to keep the same

wage, as factory owners started cutting wages after competition from

other mills grew. The plight of the mill women achieved national attention

many decades later when seventy-three-year-old Mary Jones

marched with several hundred textile workers, half of them under the

age of sixteen, from Philadelphia to New York to visit President Teddy

Roosevelt. By this time American mills and mines employed two million

children. Marching in rags, many of the women missing fingers

from machine accidents, the group attempted to call on a New York

senator first and then on Teddy Roosevelt at his mansion. Both men

avoided the demonstration, but the public outcry created by the march

finally led to child protection laws.

Although many of New England's elite kept their family money

and power intact, it was the Cabot name that remained a political force.

Henry Cabot Lodge served in Congress and the Senate from 1893 to

1924 and was even nominated for president by Teddy Roosevelt at the

1916 Republican Convention. Lodge's grandson Henry Cabot Lodge

was John F. Kennedy's ambassador to South Vietnam, and was involved

heavily in the secret negotiations that led to the assassination of South

Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem.

CHASING THE DRAGON

After the first Opium War, the California gold rush diverted attention

from the opium trade in China. The great rush to reach the West meant

there was more money to be made shipping goods to California than

to China. The eastern magnates, made wealthy by the opium trade, were

the driving force behind the rush to build a transcontinental railroad.

With slavery banned, the next best labor was imported and cheap. The

railroad owners turned to China, where coolies, or unskilled laborers,

could be carried over on ships along with opium.

Many Chinese desired to leave their country as famine and taxes

hurt farming. Many of the immigrants came from the same coastal

provinces where the opium business had thrived. The means of getting

out of China was as harsh as the immigration on the death ships from

Ireland—sometimes worse. Dubbed the pig trade, the immigrants were

treated like slaves as they got on the transport ships, which were often

managed by Americans. The Chinese were marked with the letter C for

their destination, California. They commited themselves to an indenture

period that many did not understand. Thousands would be

"relieved" of their obligation, as the death rate was a startling 40 percent,

higher than that of the African slave trade.

Most of the immigrants whose passage was paid—at the price of

indenture—were men who were destined to work on the railroads. To

service the men, Chinese overseers bring them drugs and occasionally

prostitutes. Many of the women brought to serve as prostitutes were

sold by their families or kidnapped; some were as young as eight years

old.10

Emigration from China spread the use of opium to Australia and

Peru, two other common destinations, as well as to California. In

America the nation was discovering the negatives of drug addiction, but

there was no public outcry until opium became associated with the

immigrants.

While in the grips of a new hysteria against immigration and the

poor, the attitudes of Americans changed. One could buy heroin in the

Sears catalog or at the grocery store and cannabis at the drugstore, but

now the American government and the Hearst media sought to convince

Americans that such evils were being foisted upon the country by

foreigners. The Chinese brought the opium, the Mexicans brought the

marijuana, and the blacks brought the cocaine. The head of the Federal

Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, and the Hearst newspapers

spoke out against anything that was associated with people of these heritages,

including their music. Even the labor unions, threatened by the

large numbers of hardworking Asians, called the Chinese drug smugglers.

The editorial opinion of the Hearst organization mirrored the position

of the Ku Klux Klan in seeking 100 percent "Americanism."

Thomas Edison's first films were on the Chinese and their alleged proclivity

for opium. Americans soon got the message. It was one thing

when old women drifted off to sleep after sniffing an opium pipe; it was

another when strangers were using the drug.

At the turn of the century, Roosevelt relied on the word to suppress

Asian opium. Although it was ironic that the nineteenth-century

Roosevelts and Delanos had built a family fortune on addicting

Chinese to opium, the tide had turned. America was smoking more

opium each year than the six largest nations of Europe put together.

The man who might be dubbed America's first drug czar, Hamilton

Wright, claimed that the Chinese brought the problem to American

shores and that opium's use had grown beyond the Chinese workers.

He pointed out that five hundred thousand pounds of opium were used

each year, and less than 10 percent was for legitimate medicinal purposes.

Wright placed the blame on "ignorant physicians" and "law-defying

retail druggists," and called on the country to establish laws that would

curb opium use. But cocaine was also becoming popular, and Wright

claimed, "It is current knowledge . . . where large numbers of Negroes

congregate, cocaine is peddled pretty openly."12

The result of the racist hysteria was the Harrison Act, which started

the ban on drugs such as heroin. The ban had two immediate results: It

drove the price of heroin up 1,500 percent13 and it induced the use of

the syringe to help addicts get more bang for their bucks. Another longterm

effect was violence. As it was no longer a drug that was used primarily

by middle-aged women, opium and heroin found the young and

the poor to be receptive and repetitive clients. The illegal trade was the

source of wealth for those who braved the risks. A new generation of

smugglers became America's legacy. And the poor learned that you no

longer had to have a name like Cabot or Lowell to get rich in the drug

trade.

Chapter 17

THE POWER OF THE NEW SKULL AND BONES

One of the stranger buildings on the Yale Campus resembles a

mausoleum. Inside, a young man, one of fifteen juniors chosen

each year, lies naked in a coffin. He is not dead; he is reciting a sexual

autobiography of his life before being "tapped" for the Skull and Bones.

The ceremony is called Connubial Bliss, and it no doubt helps the

bonding process that will last a lifetime.1 Standing around are the fourteen

other initiates and the current membership, who are all seniors at

Yale. The goings-on get stranger, and it is said that if one would climb

to the top of nearby Weir Hall, one "could hear strange cries and moans

coming from the bowels of the tomb."2 Unlike a normal fraternity, no

one actually resides in the building; it only conducts rituals there. Also

unlike a fraternity, the Skull and Bones initiates emerge wealthier and

with connections that can ensure a lifetime of success.

Former president George Bush is one of those who has lain in the

coffin. He is not the only famous member; his son George W. Bush is

another. A third president, William Howard Taft, was a "Bonesman," and

his father, Alphonso Taft, was one of the founders. The odds of three

presidents coming out of the same fifteen-member-a-year fraternity are

infinitesimal. Then again, the support from fellow Bonesmen means

they have clout—enough clout to get to the White House. The membership

list of Skull and Bones is one of the greatest concentrations of

power in the United State. Names like Pillsbury, Kellogg, Weyerhaeuser,

Phelps, and Whitney abound. They rule in the business world and they

rule in the political arena.

Besides the three presidents, numerous congressmen, justices, and

military leaders have been members of the Skull and Bones. Rhode

Island Senator John Chafee is a member. Senator Robert Taft was a

member. Conservative William F. Buckley is a member, and so is his

CIA-proponent brother, James. The CIA as an employer is a virtual class

reunion of Yale; both organizations have the same statue of Nathan

Hale,3 and both are regarded as a "campus," which is not a usual designation

for the headquarters of a government intelligence unit. And

among the active Yale class reunion at Langley, membership in Skull and

Bones is regarded as a most prominent background. The director of personnel

in the early years was F. Trubee Davison, who was made a

Bonesman in 1918. When the CIA made Chile safe for the interests of

American businessmen, the deputy chief of station was Bonesman Dino

Pionzio. Bonesman Archibald MacLeish started his career in intelligence

and then moved to fellow Bonesman Henry Luce's Time magazine.

MacLeish s appointment to an intelligence position was granted by

another member of Yale's secret societies, Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis of

the Scroll and Key.4

McGeorge Bundy, the man who gave us a war in Vietnam, is a

member of the Skull and Bones. William Sloane Coffin, who went from

the CIA to protesting the war, is also a member. Russell Davenport,

founder of Fortune, is a Bonesman. Senator John Forbes Kerry, an heir

to the China trading Forbes family, is also a member.

For many, note the authors of Wise Men, Six Friends and the World

They Made, "Membership in a senior society at Yale was the capstone of

a successful career at Yale. The oldest and greatest, indeed the most legendary

... was Skull and Bones." Two of those six friends alluded to in

the book's title were Skull and Bones members William Averill

Harriman and Robert Abercrombie Lovett. When Harriman carried

secret dispatches in the First World War, he coded them 322, a code

understood only by Bonesmen. When third wife Pamela Churchill

asked Harriman about it in 1971, he told her he couldn't tell even her.5

For those who wonder what goes on inside the iron gates of this

quasi-Masonic sanctuary, there are few answers. If a Bonesman is in a

room and the subject of the organization comes up, he not only will

not reply but also he will leave the room. The oaths taken among the

bones and skulls of celebrity skeletons have never been broken. Nor has

the power.

In recent years Ron Rosenbaum and Antony Sutton, authors of

America's Secret Establishment, have shed light on the secret organization.

The Skull and Bones is the beneficiary of a trust set up by the Russell

and Company heirs. How much money from the vast China trading

fortune went into the Russell Trust Association is unknown, but each

tapped member starts with fifteen thousand dollars and countless valuable

connections. Old-money names include Adams, Bundy, Cheney,

Lord, Stimson, and Wadsworth. New-money names include Harriman,

Rockefeller, Payne, and Bush.6 Averill Harriman, of the Wall Street firm

Brown Brothers Harriman, is another member and the patron of the

Bush fortune. And Brown Brothers Harriman is the repository of the

Skull and Bones's funds.

From this remarkable base of power the heirs to the Russell Trust

maintain control as the inner circle of power. The outer circle, which

consists of organizations that exist in at least semi-daylight, include the

Trilateral Commission, the Brookings Institute, the Council on Foreign

Relations, and the Round Tables of Commerce in numerous cities.

These in turn ensure that the elite stay in control of American business,

government, universities, and the media. In fact, a revolving door of

Trilateral and Council on Foreign Relations members serve in key

positions in both government and business. They make the rules. They

allow themselves to use tax-free foundations to ensure the ideas of the

ruling class will always prevail by funding the "right" people and projects.

The elite system perpetuates itself.

Though a blanket of secrecy protects the inner workings of such

organizations, the secrecy has been under attack. In April 2001 the New

York Observer and Ron Rosenbaum actually filmed the secret rites of

the Skull and Bones' initiation. Using high-tech night-vision video

equipment, the organization—whose members gave birth to the OSS

and the CIA, filled numerous secretary of state posts, and served as

national security advisers—were spied on themselves. While the vulgar

scene need not be retold in these pages, it would have been a much

greater embarrassment if other media had carried the story further.

Is there a Skull and Bones agenda? Bonesmen "believe in the

notion of 'constructive chaos,' which justifies covert action," writes Joel

Bainerman in Inside the Covert Operations of the CIA and Israel's Mossad.

The foreign policy of the Bonesmen is almost always carried out

through a secret agenda.7 Alphonso Taft was secretary of war when he

pressured McKinley to declare war on Spain. After McKinley was assassinated,

Teddy Roosevelt took over and brought in Bonesman William

Howard Taft. Others of the order who have held warrior posts include

Henry Stimson, secretary of state under Hoover; Robert Lovett, secretary

of defense at the height of the Cold War; General George Marshall,

who became Truman's secretary of state; McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's

national security adviser; and Averell Harriman, ambassador-at-large for

southeast Asia during Vietnam. Following the Stimson doctrine that

there should be regular periodic wars to divert discontent and rally the

nation to a single purpose, Bonesmen George Bush and George W.

Bush would uphold the tradition with brief military excursions in Asia

and Latin America.

Just how much clout has the order of the Skull and Bones exerted

on twentieth-century history? In Asia, American policy started with the

policy of the New England opium families. After reaping their fortunes

in Asia, the families turned their attention homeward to railroads, mills,

and mines. An American presence remained in China as missionaries

then tried to "reform" the Chinese to further accept Western ways.

Henry Luce was the son of a missionary to China. He was sent to Yale

for an education and was tapped for the Skull and Bones. In Whiteout:

The CIA, Drugs and the Press, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

write, "Tap Day was a critical turning point for Luce. He yearned to be

tapped for Skull and Bones, the supreme society at Yale, the ultimate

honor."8 With eighty-six thousand dollars borrowed mostly from other

Yalies and family friends, Luce, with the help of Yale students serving

as assistants, started Time magazine, which would later be Life magazine.

Luce married Clare Boothe Brokaw, who took as much of an interest

in China as he did. Together they acted on behalf of the China

Institute of America to bring Chinese students to the United States.

Luce and his wife were very close to the ruling Chinese Soong family,

whose corrupt activities helped the rise of Communism. When Chiang

Kai-shek's army was defeated, Luce's China Lobby united John Foster

and Allen Dulles, the Rockefeller family, Thomas Lamont, and Cardinal

Spellman to push for American assistance. Chiang lost credibility as his

army was defeated in one battle after another and he and his family

looted three hundred million dollars of American funds. But Chiang

would not lose the support of Luce, who was still rabid that Mao Tsetung

had beaten Chiang. Time magazine would constantly play up the

Nationalist cause.

Mao Tse-tung was a Yale student, perhaps as a result of Luce's China

efforts. The Yale Divinity School had established a number of "branch"

schools in China, and Mao was their most famous student. Although he

was not tapped for the Skull and Bones, just about every recent ambassador

to China was a Bonesman: George Bush, Winston Lord, and James

Lilley, all alumni of the Skull and Bones, all served as ambassador to

China.

With the outspoken Luce leading the way, America was rallied to

take up the French battle in Vietnam as a means of curtailing further

Communist expansion. The result was a long, drawn-out, and expensive

war that took tens of thousands of lives and wreaked havoc on America

by bringing heroin addiction to eighty thousand returning war veterans.9

The China Lobby and the Skull and Bones were firmly behind the

Vietnam War, and they were unfortunately in position to ensure that

the war continued. The so-called best and the brightest, like Bonesmen

McGeorge Bundy, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Dean Acheson (whose son

is a Bonesman), gave bad advice to one president after another, while

Americans wondered how many lives the country would be forced to

sacrifice twelve thousand miles away. The issue, however, was greater

than the war itself. The Yale-driven CIA had never stopped fighting and

then supporting the KMT army of Chiang Kai-shek, and soon the war

became a turf battle for blue-chip corporations and drug traffickers

alike.10 The conflict in Vietnam was a source of profits for the corporations

that received the greatest amount of business from the war:

Textron's Bell Helicopter Company, chemical firms including Dow

Chemical and Monsanto, which produced Agent Orange and other

defoliants, and construction company Brown and Root, a key backer of

President Johnson.

THE UNITED FRUIT CONNECTION

Just as the debate on Vietnam was decided by a handful, so too would

relations with Latin America be decided by a few. When the opium

business lost its luster, the Russell partners found opportunity elsewhere.

Joseph Coolidge, a Russell partner, turned over the marine trade

heritage to his son Thomas Coolidge, who organized United Fruit. The

company started as a banana importer but soon became master of the

so-called banana republics it controlled, owning their railroads and

communications systems.

The Yale blue bloods and their CIA were firmly in control of the

company, which was also doing business with New Orleans mobsters.

Joe Macheca, the reputed boss of organized crime in New Orleans,

merged his shipping line into United Fruit in 1900. His underworld

successor, Charles Matranga, stayed close to United Fruit throughout

his life, and at his funeral United Fruit executives paid their respects.11

The New Orleans mob was then controlled by Carlos Marcello, during

which time it imported morphine and cocaine from Honduras. In the

same year that Marcello took control, the board of directors bought out

its greatest rival, Samuel Zemurray, with stock in its company. A few

years later, when Zemurray became a nuisance as a board of directors

member, Thomas Cabot sacked him.

Later a new challenge emerged. Jacob Arbenz, the democratically

elected president of Guatemala, decided the land should be given back

to the people, and so he had the audacity to buy United Fruit's land at

the value the company had stated it was worth.12 United Fruit shareholder

John Foster Dulles said the country was under "a Communisttype

reign of terror" and that America must act.13 Massachusetts

Congressman John McCormack assailed the Guatemalan government

for its attack on his constituents' investment, declaring that 90 percent

of New England's foreign investments were in Latin America.14 Senator

Henry Cabot Lodge, whose family owned stock, led the attack15 and

was joined by Thomas Cabot and his brother John Moors Cabot, assistant

secretary of state.

The United Fruit story was fed to the media and trumped in

Congress, and finally a top executive made the case to the Council on

Foreign Relations. The council hired a lobbyist, Thomas Corcoran, to

act as liaison to the CIA. Tommy the Cork, as he was called, was friends

with Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith, the CIA director. Corcoran had

served as the legal representative to the CIA's "airline" in Laos and

Vietnam.16 The American intelligence agency actually had a proprietary

airline first called CAT, Civil Air Transport and later dubbed Air

America, that would be the subject of a 1990 movie by the same title.

In 1954 the CIA used Honduras to topple the government of

Guatemala. A series of graft and drug scandals in Honduras brought

down the leadership in the 1970s, but the CIA ensured that Honduras

would be a main staging point for actions in nearby Guatemala and

Nicaragua. When the showdown came with the DEA, which was making

the CIA uncomfortable, it was the DEA office that closed.17 Despite

the so-called War on Drugs, the drug-free plan was much less important

than the agenda of United Fruit, its shareholders, and the CIA.

THE BUSH CONNECTION

George Bush's best-known He about taxes eclipses his other great He:

"Take my word, this scourge will stop," which was part of his inauguration

speech. The amount of American heroin addicts, which dropped

from five hundred thousand to two hundred thousand in the years after

Vietnam, rose sharply again after America—through the CIA—lent

assistance to Afghanistan. The CIA backing of the opium growers

fooled few. The president's Strategic Council on Drug Abuse was frustrated

enough by the CIA's silence on the issue that it pointed out in a

New York Times editorial that drug use would rise just as it did with the

CIA adventures in Laos. The prediction was correct, as the addict census

grew to 450,000 and heroin deaths in New York rose 77 percent.18

A creative form of the Skull and Bones constructive chaos had the

government spending billions to fight a war on drugs and billions more

to jail users, while making the world safe for drug lords from the Afghan

hills to the Golden Triangle of southeast Asia and the Honduran coast.

GEORGE BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, AND DICK CHENEY

The Bush tradition in the Skull and Bones began with George's father,

Prescott, who was a Bonesman and served in Army intelligence. At the

wedding of Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker, five Bonesmen served

as ushers. Bush family members were close to the Rockefellers and

Harrimans and served on numerous corporation boards. George

Herbert Walker Bush was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut,

and schooled at Andover and Yale. With money from the owner of the

Washington Post and connections from family and his Bones cabal,

George headed to Texas to make his fortune.

Bonesman Henry Neil Mallon, one of four Mallons in the group,

gave George the chance to learn the oil business through his company,

Dresser Industries, which had been bought from its founding family by

Mallon with Harriman money. After George's apprenticeship at Dresser

he started his own company, Zapata Oil, with two partners. Zapata Oil

drilled in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The company's island base in the

Cay Sal Bank would be used for CIA operations against Castro. The Bay

of Pigs invasion in 1961 was actually known as Operation Zapata. Two

vessels used in the operation were Barbara and Houston, the names of

George's new wife and newly adopted home base.19 While it is

generally denied, George's CIA career began at this time, and he was

still active in the organization in 1963. He later became director of the

CIA.

George W. Bush's career went according to the same game plan as

his father's with the exception of CIA involvement. George W. went to

Yale, was a member of the Skull and Bones, worked in the oil business,

and then moved into politics. In the 2000 presidential race he picked

Richard Bruce Cheney as his running mate. Although the soon-to-be

vice president was not a Bonesman, there are nine Cheneys in the

membership list of the Skull and Bones. The Cheney ancestor who

came to America in 1667 landed in Massachusetts, entitling the family

to be counted among the blue bloods. Like George H.W. Bush, Cheney

was connected to military intelligence, and he was a strong supporter of

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Cheney was even George's secretary

of defense during Operation Desert Storm. Cheney too went to Texas,

where he became the head of Halliburton, an oil-drilling company that

bought Dresser Industries in 1998 under his tenure as boss. The company's

Brown and Root subsidiary remains an important campaign

donor, now to Republican candidates rather than to Democrats, and a

beneficiary of large government contracts.

THE BONES AND THE OCTOBER SURPRISE

In November 1980 President Jimmy Carter, who had so far survived

two assassination attempts and the intrigues of a powerful machine he

could not fully comprehend, lost the presidential election. The powers

that were had thrown their weight behind the charismatic Ronald

Reagan and Bonesman George Bush. But what the Republicans feared

the most was that the hostage situation in Iran would end just before

the election. Despite the constant mismanagement by the Carter White

House, a last-minute release of the American hostages, the "October

Surprise," could spike Carter's popularity enough to carry the election.

The conspiracy theory covered in numerous books tells the story

of George Bush, fellow Bonesman Senator John Heinz HI, and a handThe

ful of intelligence operatives flying to Spain to meet with members of

Iran's government. The deal was that Iran would hold the hostages until

after the election in exchange for arms. This deal would also start the

strange Oliver North-Iran-Contra Affair that was unearthed years later.

After the election, a series of murders and strange deaths began that

included Reagan's campaign manager and spymaster William Casey;

Amaram Nir, an Israeli officer; arms dealer Cyrus Hashemi20; and

broadcast journalist Jessica Savitch. In a remarkable coincidence,

Senators John Heinz and John Tower were killed in separate plane

crashes within hours of each other, in April 1991. Both were allegedly

connected to the October Surprise. And both were powerful men in

the Senate.

The father of Senator Heinz was John Heinz II, who was a Skull

and Bones member in 1931. John III, prince of the Heinz ketchup

company fortune, married Teresa Simoes Ferreira, who was born of a

Portuguese family in Mozambique, which at the time was still a colony.

Ferreira, a board member of the Carnegie Institute, a member of the

Brookings Institute, and a member of the Council on Foreign

Relations, suddenly inherited a fortune worth $860 million. She then

would marry another senator, Bonesman John Forbes Kerry. John

Kerry, whose ancestors were among the opium pioneers in China,

investigated the Iran-Contra Affair, unearthed Oliver North's private

aid network to the Contras, and exposed the Bank of Commerce and

Credit International (BCCI). He was given credit for his courage in

attacking the mainstream corruption in Washington and intelligence

drug dealing, but others say his investigation stopped short. The coincidences

don't.

COINCIDENCE AND THE JFK ASSASSINATION

The murder of President John Kennedy is a half century old, but many

believe it will never be solved. The first suspicions of foreign involvement,

given credence by J. Edgar Hoover and Clare Boothe Luce, were

quickly discredited. Luce had said an anti-Castro agent had called her

the day JFK was killed and said Oswald was a Communist.21 The next

victim of suspicion was the American right wing, as allegedly someone

named George Bush tipped off the authorities of the assassination plot.

The next suspects were organized criminals, such as the Mafia, and even

Texas oil producers. Finally, the American CIA took over as the most

likely culprit. Surveys of skeptics of the Warren Commission Report,

which Allen Dulles predicted no one would ever read, indicate that the

CIA was the power behind the conspiracy. One skeptic was Robert

Kennedy, who asked CIA Director John McCone point-blank, "Did

the CIA kill my brother?"22 McCone said no.

A motive for the murder of President Kennedy could be that he

had failed to take back Cuba, and this threatened other Caribbean

islands where United Fruit and a handful of sugar companies reaped the

rewards of exploitative capitalism. Another motive might be that

Kennedy had threatened to end the Vietnam profit center, which

brought fortunes to the numerous blue-blood investments in aviation,

particularly Textron, which owned Bell Helicopter, and the Brown and

Root construction company, which had provided Lyndon B. Johnson

with his campaign war chest. This chapter will not attempt to solve the

mystery of the Kennedy assassination, but it will try to shed light on

some of the awkward coincidences that authors of the Warren

Commission Report, such as Kennedy haters Earl Warren and Allen

Dulles, believed no one would ever read.

The conspiracy as traced by the Warren Commission may have

started when a young marine named Lee Harvey Oswald, who had

contact with the Office of Naval Intelligence, started studying Russian

while stationed in a high-security base in Japan, and then left the

marines and defected to Russia.23 In Russia the soldier was treated well,

was given an apartment and a job, and was able to get married. He also

had his picture taken with an American "tourist," Marie Hyde, who said

she became lost while on her tour, a near impossibility in the 1960s

Cold War Russia.

The defector, who had been suspected of passing information on

the U-2 flights to his Russian hosts, returned home without even a slap

on the wrist from his government. Instead he was given a loan by the

government to buy a home with his Russian bride. He then got a series

of jobs, with at least one requiring a security clearance. He also met

George DeMohrenschildt, who was connected in the oil business and

knew both George Bush and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

DeMohrenschildt introduced Oswald to Michael Ralph Paine and

Ruth Hyde Paine, both of whom belonged to the United World

Federalists, which was started by Cord Meyer of the CIA.

Another member of Meyer's United World Federalists was Priscilla

Johnson. Supposedly turned down for a CIA job because of her membership

in United World Federalists, Johnson nevertheless turned up in

Russia and met Oswald.24 Michael Paine's mother was Ruth Forbes

Paine, of the same family whose ships carried opium to China in the

nineteenth century. Ruth Paine's brother, William Forbes, was on the

board of United Fruit. On his father's side, Michael's ancestors include

Cabots, one of whom is a cousin who sat on the board of directors of

United Fruit. Michael's wife, also named Ruth, was the daughter of

William Avery Hyde. She was close to her husband's family, and in July

1963 went to Naushon Island, the Forbes kingdom off Woods Hole, to

visit her mother-in-law, Ruth.

Mother Ruth's best friend, Mary Bancroft, was not only in the CIA

but was also involved in a long-term relationship with Allen Dulles.

Bancroft wrote all about her twenty-year affair in her autobiography,

My Life as a Spy. Bancroft's father was elected mayor of Cambridge four

times and was president of the Boston Elevated Railway. Her stepmother's

stepfather was Clarence Walker Barron, who published Barron's

and the Wall Street Journal. Bancroft's first husband worked as chief of

United Fruit in Cuba, and her daughter married the son of Bonesman

and Senator Robert Taft.25

When Ruth Paine, wife of Michael, returned from Naushon, the

Paines took in young Lee Harvey Oswald and his Russian wife, Marina.

Ruth found her adopted defector a job in the Texas School Book

Depository. Ruth and Michael also provided a key piece of evidence

that would help convict their new friend, should the police department

protect Oswald long enough to get him to trial. In a declassified document,

an informant describes a phone call Michael made to Ruth right

after the shooting, with Michael saying he didn't believe Oswald was

involved and that "we both know who is responsible."26

Why would Robert Kennedy ask if the CIA killed his brother? The

CIA had caused the biggest blunder of John Kennedy's short presidency,

the Bay of Pigs invasion. It caused Kennedy to dump Allen

Dulles, who advised for the operation, and threaten to smash the CIA

into a million pieces. And it was also surprising when the committee set

up to investigate the murder of the president was made up of Earl

Warren, who was beholden to the Teamsters, whom Robert Kennedy

had investigated; Gerald Ford, who was also beholden to the Teamsters;

and Allen Dulles. The CIA was a natural suspect in the assassination.

The greatest piece of evidence in the Warren Commission investigation

was what became known as the Zapruder film, which was

quickly bought by Luce's Time/Life Corporation. The film showed

President Kennedy's head snap in a way that could be caused only by a

bullet from the right front. It was made to appear that the President's

head was falling forward indicating a shot from the rear, which meant

that the frames in the film were reversed.27 Later this reversal of frames

was said to be an accident.

After the Warren Commission fell out of favor with the thinking

public, other commissions were set up to investigate the CIA and the

growing amount of political assassinations in America. The newer evidence

pointed to the involvement of intelligence in the Kennedy assassination,

and forensic evidence showed the improbability of there being

a single shooter. It is more likely that a two- or three-man hit team had

been in place. Marita Lorenz testified that she was part of the operation

and named two of the CIA operatives and a number of Cubans who

were also involved. In her short and remarkable life, Lorenz had been a

lover of Fidel Castro and then part of the CIA Operation 40 plot to kill

him. At that time she was "dating" Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez

Jimenez, whose government was so corrupt that even the Roman

Catholic Church took issue with it.28 How did Lorenz survive to testify?

Her mother was Alice June Lofland, a cousin of Henry Cabot

Lodge,29 and she worked for the NSC.30 Lorenz testified to the Select

Committee on Assassinations about the Operation 40 plot against the

president: "From the time I rejoined Operation 40 ... all I heard was

'We're going to get Kennedy.' "31 She said no one would murder her

because of her mother's "power in the National Security Agency."32

Among the series of strange deaths that took place shortly after JFK

was murdered was that of Mary Pinchot Meyer, the ex-wife of Cord

Meyer. Pinchot Meyer was murdered while walking along the

Chesapeake and Ohio towpath. Georgetown murders are rare, but this

one included some very strange circumstances and was never solved.

Cord Meyer was the Yale-educated CIA agent who was linked to

Ruth and Michael Paine through the United World Federalists, which

he had founded before Dulles brought him into the CIA. Pinchot

Meyer had been having an affair with JFK. Meyer was one of the most

influential people in the CIA. Just after Pinchot Meyer's death, the CIA

counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton entered her house "with

a key he kept to the place" and took her diary.33,34 Angleton was joined

by Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, who was Pinchot Meyer's

brother-in-law.

Although a series of unlikely coincidences, no matter how suspicious,

cannot be conclusive evidence of a conspiracy, it does suggest

something that exists far from the eyes of the public. The coincidences

point to an elite handful of interlocking relationships that have a hold

over national affairs—a grip that most citizens could not imagine possible.

The coincidences further suggest that the media, in the hands of

such an elite, may stop far short of serious investigative reporting.

That there is a conspiracy is not in doubt; there are numerous conspiracies.

An elite class has always been in power and always will be. When

the chauffeur of a Rockefeller pays more in taxes than the man he

drives, the will of the elite is in evidence. When the House Select

Committee on Assassinations concludes that the assassinations of

Kennedy and Martin Luther King were conspiracies but nothing further

is done, this is more evidence. When officers of the DEA complain

of being told to back off because they are causing a problem for the

CIA, this gives evidence that a higher power that goes unchecked is in

control.

The fact that a nation allows itself to be ruled by an elite class has

become old news to those being ruled, and has become a given to those

who do not need to aspire to power because it is already theirs.

The story of the night that George W Bush was tapped for entry in

the Skull and Bones is told in Bill Minutaglio's First Son. George was

not sure he wanted the rigor of meeting with fellow Bonesmen two

nights a week. He was already born into wealth and, thanks to his

father, into power. George told a fellow classmate that he would rather

join "Gin and Tonic." His father, probably anticipating his son's doubt,

knocked on his door at 8 P.M. and told young George that it was time

to do the right thing, to become a "good man." George accepted.35

NOTES

Chapter 1

1. Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

(Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 267—71.

2. Charles G. Addison, The History of the Knights Templar (Kempton, 111.:

Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997), p. 83.

3. Ibid., p. 88.

4. Ibid., p. 89.

5. John Westfall Thompson and Edgar Nathaniel Johnson, An Introduction to

Medieval Europe (New York: W. W. Norton Co., 1937), p. 564.

6. Barber, p. 237.

7. Ibid., p. 241.

8. John J. Robinson, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry (New York:

M. Evans & Co., 1989), p. 228.

9. Desmond Seward, The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders (London:

Penguin, 1972), p. 78.

10. Piers Paul Read, The Templars (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), p. 250.

11. Seward, p. 207.

12. Read, p. 259.

13. Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians:The Templars and Their Myth (New

York:

Barnes & Noble, 1987), p. 60.

14. Universe Lodge No. 705 Web site, http://www.yesic.com/~mason/lodge/universe.

htm.

15. Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons

and

the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus (Boston: Element Books, 1997), p.

313.

Chapter 2

1. From Dom Pedro Alcazar, Seakeeping, edited by Mark S. Harris, as posted on

the Web site www.florilegium.org/ files/TRAVEL/Seakeeping.

2. Ibid.

3. Knight and Lomas, p. 297.

4. Thompson and Johnson, p. 596.

5. Frederick Pohl, Prince Henry Sinclair (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1967), pp.

62-3.

6. Ibid., p. 90.

7. Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades (Ann Arbor: University of

Michigan

Press, 1992), pp. 61-70.

8.Will Durant, The Reformation: A History of European Civilization from

Wycliff to

Calvin 1300-1564 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957), p. 112.

9. Robinson, p. 21.

10. Seward, p. 43.

11. Ibid., pp. 230-1.

12. Seward, pp. 234-6.

13. Ibid., p. 330.

14. Ibid., p. 313.

15. Guy Patton and Robin Mackness, Web of Gold: The Secret Power of a Sacred

Treasure (London: Sidgewick & Jackson, 2000), p. 242.

Chapter 3

1. Patrick Pringle, Jolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy (New York:

WW.

Norton, 1953), p. 22.

2. Robert C. Ritchie, Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates (Cambridge,

Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), pp. 203-227.

3. Clare Brandt, An American Aristocracy: The Livingstons (Garden City, New

York:

Doubleday, 1986), p. 38.

4. Jan Rogozinski, Honor among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the

Pirate

Democracy in the Indian Ocean (Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books,

2000),

pp. 69-76.

5. Ritchie, p. 36.

6. Ibid.

7. Brandt, p. 21.

8. Stephen Birmingham, America's Secret Aristocracy (New York: Berkley

Books,

1987), pp. 33-4.

9. Brandt, pp. 30-6.

10. Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic of New York City (New York: Kondansha,

1997),

p. 107.

11. Ritchie, p. 26.

12. George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New

England

Coast 1630-1730 (New York: Dover Publications, 1996), p. 77.

Chapter 4

1. Steve Wick, The Settler and the Sachem, from the Web site

www.Lihistory.com.

Also see Bernie Bookbinder, Long Island: People and Places, Past and Present

(New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998).

2. Robert Ellis Cahill, Pirates and Lost Treasures (Peabody, Mass.: Chandler

Smith

Publishing, 1987), p. 84.

3. David M. Fletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation (Columbia: University of

Missouri Press, 1973), p. 71.

4. Edwin P. Hoyt, John Tyler (New York: Abelard Schuman, 1969), p. 72.

5. Fletcher, p. 135.

6. Hoyt, p. 132.

7. John Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream of Empire (Edinburgh: Berlinn

Limited,

2000), p. 185.

8. Brandt, p. 55.

9. Ibid., p. 105.

10. Ibid., 103-8.

11. Axel Madsen, John Jacob Astor: America's First Millionaire (New York: John

Wiley,

2001), p. 32.

12. David Leon Chandler, The Jefferson Conspiracies (New York: William

Morrow

and Company, 1994), p. 151.

13. Ibid., p. 100.

14. Louis B. Davidson and Eddie Doherty, Strange Crimes at Sea (Binghamton,

N.Y.: Vail-Ballou Press, 1954), p. 105.

15. Birmingham, pp. 100-2.

16. Dow and Edmonds, p. 89.

17. Ibid., p. 42.

18. Ritchie, pp. 113-6.

19. Birmingham, p. 203.

20. Stephen Hess, America's Political Dynasties (New York: Doubleday, 1966), p.

191.

Part Two: Introduction

1. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge (New York:

Arcade Publishing, 1989), p. 174.

2. Ibid., p. 143.

3. William Bramley, The Gods of Eden (New York: Avon Books, 1989), p. 228.

4. Ibid., p. 276.

5. Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the

Transformation

of the American Social Order 1730-1840 (Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1996), p. 46.

Chapter 5

1. A. J. Langguth, Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution (New

York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), pp. 95-7.

2. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783-1860

(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1921), pp. 27-8.

3. Herbert Allen, John Hancock: Patriot in Purple (New York: Macmillan, 1948),

pp.

61-9.

4. Robert Leckie, George Washington's War: The Saga of the American

Revolution

(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 53.

5. Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin

Franklin to Bill Gates: A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present

(Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1996), pp. 191-3.

6. Langguth, p. 179.

7. Paul Lewis, The Great Incendiary: A Biography of Samuel Adams (New York:

Dial

Press, 1973), chapter 9.

8. Ellis, p. 155.

9. Baigent and Leigh, p. 209.

10. Ibid., p. 116.

11. Langguth, p. 294.

12. Christopher Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990),

pp.

64-75.

13. Bullock, p. 79.

14. Baigent and Leigh, pp. 260-2.

15. Robert Hieronimus, America's Secret Destiny: Spiritual Vision and the

Founding of

a Nation (Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 1989), p. 26.

Chapter 6

1. Richard B. Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny (New York: Harper and

Row, 1973), p. 11.

2. Bullock, p. 60.

3. Ibid., p. 118.

4. Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes from

the

Life of Benjamin Franklin (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), p. 130.

5. Morris, p. 23.

6. Michael Howard, The Occult Conspiracy: Secret Societies, Their Influence and

Power

in World History (Rochester,Vt.: Destiny Books, 1989), p. 80.

7. Leckie, p. 29.

8. Ibid., p. 39.

9. David Schoenbrum, Triumph in Paris: The Exploits of Benjamin Franklin (New

York: Harper and Row, 1976), p. 10.

10. Howard, p. 58.

11. Hieronimus, p. 32.

12. Helen Augur, The Secret War of Independence (Boston: Little, Brown, and

Co., 1955), p. 17.

13. Kevin Phillips, The Cousins' War (New York: Basic Books, 1999), p. 147.

14. Anton Chaitkin, Treason in America (Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence

Review, 1984), p. 247.

15. John Dos Passos, The Shackles of Power (New York: Doubleday, 1966), pp.

87—9.

16. Hess, pp. 369-85.

Chapter 7

1. Augur, pp. 70-1.

2. Ibid., p. 37.

3. Ibid., 66-9.

4. Andre Maurois, Adrienne: The Life of the Marquis de la Fayette (New York:

McGrawHill, 1961), p. 23.

5. Burke Davis, The Campaign That Won America: The Siege atYorktown (New

York:

Dial Press, 1970), p. 113.

6. Morison, p. 7.

7. Baigent and Leigh, p. 40.

8. Augur, pp. 200-1.

9. Hess, p. 227.

10. Langguth.p. 279.

11. Ibid., p. 342.

12. Ibid., p. 32.

13. Augur, pp. 70-1.

14. Klepper and Gunther, p. 27.

15. George Wilson, Stephen Girard: The Life and Times of America's First Tycoon

(Philadelphia: Combined Books, 1995), p. 188.

Chapter 8

1. David Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women (New York: Random

House, 2001), pp. 5-9.

2. Langguth, p. 467.

3. Ibid., pp. 473-4.

4. Barbara W Tuchman, The First Salute (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988), p.

250.

5. Baigent and Leigh, p. 218.

6. Tuchman, p. 191.

7. From Robert A. Selig, Deux-Ponts Germans, from the Web site www.americanrevolution.

org.

8. Seward, p. 330.

9. Tuchman, p. 229.

10. Tuchman, p. 141.

Chapter 9

1. David Ovason, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital (New York:

Harper

Collins, 1999), pp. 142-9.

2. A. Ralph Epperson, Masonry: Conspiracy against Christianity (Tucson: Publius

Press, 1997), p. 281.

3. Hieronimus, p. 39.

4. Ibid., p. 28.

5. Baigent and Leigh, p. 261.

6. Thomas Fleming, The Duel (New York: Basic Books, 1999), p. 109.

7. Bullock, p. 150.

8. Ovason, p. 85.

9. Ibid., p. 269.

10. Ibid., p. 237.

11. Howard, p. 88.

12. Fleming, p. 4.

13. Bramley, p. 226.

Chapter 10

1. Brent Staples, "How Slavery Fueled Business in the North," from the Web site

www.fresnobee.com (July 25, 2000), pp. 1-4.

2. Pringle,pp. 17-18.

3. Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-

1870

(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), p. 296.

4. Thomas Brosnahan, Kim Grant, and Steve Jermanok, New England (Hawthorn,

Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, 1999), p. 346.

5. Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow (New York: Warner Books, 1985),

66.

6. Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro:The History of the Caribbean 1492—

1969

(New York: Harper and Row, 1970), p. 245.

7. Davis, p. 231.

8. Thomas Handasyd Perkins, The Memoir of Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1856;

reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1971), p. 10.

Chapter 11

1. Jack Weatherford, The History of Money (New York: Three Pavers Press,

1997),

p. 22.

2. Seward, p. 161.

3. Elaine Sanceau, Henry the Navigator: The Story of a Great Prince and His

Times

(New York: W W Norton, 1947), p. 255.

4. Ibid., p. 224.

5. Ibid., p. 255.

6. Sale Kirkpatrick, The Conquest of Paradise (New York: Penguin, 1991), pp. 50-

7. Benjamin Keen, trans., The Life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son

Ferdinand (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1959), p. 5.

8. Gianni Granzotto, Christopher Columbus:The Dream and the Obsession,

Stephen

Sartarelli, trans. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1985), pp. 39-41.

9. Keen, pp. 16-17.

10. Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus

(Boston: Litde, Brown and Co., 1942), p. 57.

11. Ibid., p. 93.

12. Granzotto, p. 44.

13. Ibid., pp. 594-5.

14. Samuel Eliot Morison, Christopher Columbus, Mariner (Boston: Little, Brown

and Co., 1942), pp. 127-9.

15. Thomas, p. 90.

16. Ibid., p. 96.

17.Williams, p. 34.

18. James Pope-Hennessy, Sins of the Father: A Study of the Atlantic Slave Traders

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968), p. 45.

19.Will Durant, The Reformation: The Story of Civilization VI (New York: Simon

Schuster, 1957), p. 194.

20. Thomas, p. 191.

21. Seward, p. 294.

22. Davis, pp. 36-38.

23. Rod Davis, American Voudou (Denton: University of North Texas Press,

1999),

pp. 8-9.

24. James A.Rawley, The Trans-Atlantic SlaveTrade (New York:W.W. Norton,

1981),

pp. 105-6.

25. Ibid., pp. 136-8.

26. Will Durant and Ariel Durant, Rousseau and Revolution: The Story of

Civilization X (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), p. 939.

27. Augur, pp. 3-27.

28. Charles Nicholl, The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado (New York:

William Morrow and Company, 1995), pp. 127, 309-11.

29. Thomas, p. 155.

Chapter 12

1. Thomas, p. 204.

2. Ibid., p. 248.

3. Ibid., p. 177.

4. Bullock, p. 59.

5. Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, p. 32.

6. Ibid., p. 33.

7. Ibid., p. 278.

8. Thomas, p. 176.

9. Robert G. Albion, William A. Baker, and Benjamin W Labaree, New England

and the Sea (Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1972), p. 37.

10. Pope-Hennessy, p. 226.

11. Bullock, p. 59.

12. Thomas, pp. 771—2

13. Brandt, pp. 68-9.

14. Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (New York: W W

Norton, 1975), p. 77.

15. Ibid., p. 80.

16. Ibid., p. 315.

17. Ruth Harrison Jones, ed., Harrison Heritage vol. VI, no. 4 (Dec, 1986)

"Unknown Possible Ancestors of the Presidents Harrison," from the Web site

http://moon.ouhsc.edu/rbonner/HHDOCS/86decHH.html.

18. Morgan, p. 121.

19. Pope-Hennessy, pp. 223-4.

20. Bullock, p. 80.

21. Baigent and Leigh, p. 180.

Chapter 13

1. Jim Marrs, Rule by Secrecy (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), pp. 209-12.

2. John Davis, The Kennedy Contract (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), p. 81.

3. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1988),

p. 328.

4. David S. Lifton, Best Evidence (New York: Penguin, 1992) pp. 64-7.

5. Robert J. Groden and Harrison Edward Livingstone, High Treason (New York:

Berkley Books, 1989), p. 104.

6. Groden and Livingstone, p. 154.

7. Marrs, p. 216.

Chapter 14

1. Martin Booth, Opium: A History (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996), pp.

16-24.

2. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global

DrugTrade

(New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 79.

3. Booth, pp. 82-3.

4. Carl A. Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy (New York:

Routledge, 1999), p. 32.

5. Edward A. Gargan, "The Humbling of a Heavyweight," New York Times, 30

November 1995.

6. Klepper and Gunther, p. 11.

7. Charles Tyng, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain (New

York:Viking, 1999), pp. xiii-xviii.

8. Charles Corn, The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade (New York:

Kodansha, 1999), p. 303.

9. Thomas G Cary, Memoir of Thomas Handasyd Perkins (Boston: Little, Brown

and

Co., 1856; reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1971), p. 209.

10. Fay, Peter Ward, The Opium War 1840-1842, (Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1995), p. 140.

11.Chaitkin.p. 135.

12. Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, p. 115.

13. Albion, Baker, and Labaree, p. 92.

14. Nathaniel Bowditch, Bowditch's Coastal Navigation (New York: Arco

Publishing,

1979), Notes.

15. Thomas N. Layton, The Voyage of the Frolic: New England Merchants and the

Opium Trade (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), p. 25.

Chapter 15

1. Klepper and Gunther, p. 28.

2. Ibid., page 29.

3. Ellis, p. 177.

4. Lucy Kavaler, The Astors: An American Legend (New York: Dodd, Mead,

1968),

p. 30.

5. Ibid., p. 30.

6. Ellis, p. 210.

7. Ibid., p. 211.

8. Ibid., p. 244.

9. Klepper and Gunther, p. 19.

10. Ellis, p. 318.

11. Albion, Baker, and Labaree, pp. 97-100.

12. Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the

Rise

of Modern Finance (New York: Touchstone Books, 1991), pp. 8-16.

13. From the Web site www.trainweb.org/panama/historyl.html.

14. Kenneth Sydney Davis, FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny 1882-1928 (New

York:

Random House, 1996) pp. 15-20.

15. Ibid., p. 42.

16. Jeremy Rifkin and Jeremy P.Tarcher, The Biotech Century (New York:

Putnam,

1999), p. 117.

17. Jeffrey Steinberg, (editor) et al. Dope, Inc. (Washington, D.C.: Executive

Intelligence

Review, 1992) p. 127.

18. Booth, p. 128.

19. Fay, p. 132

20. Gargan, "The Humbling of a Heavyweight."

21. Booth, pp. 51-66.

22. Ibid., pp. 51-74.

23. Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen, Web of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies

and

the History of the International Drug Trade (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and

Littlefield, 1998), p. 125.

Chapter 16

1. Phillips, p. 13.

2. Nelson W Aldrich, Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America (New

York:

Allworth Press, 1996), p. 61.

3. Ibid., p. 13.

4. Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, p. 23.

5. Ibid., p. 27.

6. Ibid., p. 154.

7. Ibid., p. 167.

8. Harriet H. Robinson, "Early Factory Labor in New England" (Boston: Wright

& Potter, 1883), pp. 380-92, from the Web site of the Massachusetts Bureau of

Statistics of Labor, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robinsonlowell.

html.

9. Page Smith, The Rise of Industrial America: A People's History of the Post-

Reconstruction Era (New York: Penguin, 1990), p. 221.

10. Booth, chapter 9.

11. Thom Metzger, The Birth of Heroin and the Demonization of the Dope Fiend

(Port

Townsend, Wash.: Loomponics Unlimited, 1998), p. 132.

12. Edward, Marshall, NewYork Times,"The Story of the Opium Fight," March 12,

1911, from Schaffer Library of Drug Policy Web site, http://www.druglibrary.

org/schaffer/.

13. Metzger, p. 176.

Chapter 17

1. Jonathan Vankin, Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes (New York: Dell, 1992),

p. 234.

2. Ron Rosenbaum, The Secret Parts of Fortune (NewYork: HarperCollins, 2000),

p.l.

3. Robin W. Winks, Cloak and Gown, Scholars in the Secret War 1939-1961

(New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 15.

4. Ibid., p. 96.

5. Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, Wise Men, Six Friends and the World They

Made (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), pp. 80-2.

6. Antony Sutton, America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of

Skull

and Bones (Billings, Mont.: Liberty House Press, 1983), p. 8.

7. Joel Bainerman, Inside the Covert Operations of the CIA and Israel's Mossad

(New

York: SPI Books, 1994), p. 164.

8. Ralph G. Martin, Henry & Clare: An Intimate Portrait of the Luces (New York:

Putnam, 1991), p. 61.

9. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the

Press (NewYork: Verso, 1998), p. 238.

10. McCoy, pp. 162-73.

11. Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine, Politics, Drugs, Armies and

the

CIA in Central America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), p. 52.

12. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the

American Coup in Guatemala (New York: Doubleday, 1982), p. 76.

13. Ibid., p. 11.

14. Ibid., p. 72.

15. Ibid., pp. 82-4.

16. Ibid., pp. 90-2.

17. Scott and Marshall, p. 57.

18. Cockburn and St. Clair, pp. 259-61.

19. L. Fletcher Prouty, JFK, the CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F

Kennedy (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1992), pp. 131-2.

20. Vankin, pp. 182-4.

21. Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press,

1994).

pp. 52-3.

22. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Time, (New York:

Ballatine,

1978), p. 665.

23. Groden and Livingstone, pp. 160-1

24. John Newman, Oswald and the CIA (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1995), pp.

61-7.

25. Martin, pp. 264-5.

26. Fonzi, p. 10.

27. Fonzi, p. 217.

28. Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett, Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the

Amazon—Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil (New York:

Harper

Collins, 1995) p. 312.

29. Marita Lorenz, Marita (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993), p. 33.

30. Ibid., p. 58.

31. Ibid., p. 127.

32. Ibid., p. 168.

33. Timothy Leary,"The Murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer," The Rebel (November

22, 1983).

34. Burton Hersh, The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA

(New

York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992), p. 358.

35. Bill Minutaglio, First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty (New

York: Random House, 1999), pp. 103-5.

SECRET SOCIETIES OF AMERICAS ELITE

SECRET SOCIETIES
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