In , a Baltimore merchant named William Taylor sent his recently released indentured servant, John McDonogh, to New Orleans to work as a merchant on his behalf. McDonough owned many enslaved people.
McDonogh supported the American Colonization Society. Much of McDonogh's early financial success came from his merchant shipping business.
Ships would sail from Baltimore to New Orleans laden with anchors, paints, hardware, molasses casks, hoops for hogsheads, glassware, bricks, bagging, rope, candles, provisions, and dry goods. In turn, McDonogh would send ships filled with cotton, sugar, molasses, flour, indigo, and logwood back to Baltimore. By the year , McDonogh had reached the peak of his mercantile success. The first pieces of property McDonogh acquired were large tracts in West Florida, which he bought from the Spanish government.
In his dealings with land property, McDonogh developed a scheme to maximize profits from this ownership: he rented his properties in respectable neighborhoods to brothel owners. When the neighboring families moved away from their homes, McDonogh bought their properties for an affordable sum.
He then evicted the brothels and rented the properties to reputable families again. As a landlord, McDonogh did little to maintain his properties, earning him a reputation as a slumlord. His will also freed some of the enslaved people he owned, including arrangements to send them to Africa.
