Maunsel White
Maunsel White (c. 1783 – December 17, 1863) was an Irish born American
Background
Born in Ireland around 1783, White immigrated to the United States as a penniless thirteen-year-old. He first settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where he became closely acquainted with future U.S. President Zachary Taylor. He moved to New Orleans around 1800.
White married a French Creole, Celestine de la Ronde, who hailed from a wealthy New Orleans family allied with military leader and future U.S. president Andrew Jackson. On Celestine's death, White married her sister, Heloise.
White died in
Military experience
During the War of 1812, White bore the rank of captain and commanded the Louisiana Blues, a company of uniformed volunteers that participated in the Battle of New Orleans.[1]
White became acquainted with General
When White heard a British soldier remark that the battle had been "a mere skirmish," White replied, "One more such skirmish and devilish few of you will ever get back to tell the story."[2]
It may have been during wartime that White obtained the title "
Business career
Possessing only an informal education, White entered business as an accounting
By 1845 White had retired as an active partner in Maunsel White and Company in order to focus on growing sugarcane on his plantations, particularly Deer Range, where he made his home. White tried to operate Deer Range as a model plantation, investing heavily in new equipment to modernize and streamline sugar production. Although he primarily produced sugar at Deer Range Plantation, White also grew large amounts of corn, as well as small amounts of rice and indigo.
A large
Political career and civic leadership
In 1812 White was elected to the New Orleans City Council.[5]
White became a member of the city of New Orleans' Finance Committee, during which time he suggested a successful plan for making property owners pay the cost of paving streets in the rainy, semi-tropical city. He also put forth an unsuccessful plan to protect the low-lying city from
Governor
In 1846 White was elected to the
Peppers and sauces
Despite his varied career in business, politics, and civic matters, White is best known today as an enthusiastic grower and promoter of peppers, and as an inventor of two sauces, one a pepper sauce, and the other a wine sauce.
An 1850 New Orleans Daily Delta newspaper article (reprinted in several other sources at the time) noted that "Col. White has introduced the celebrated tobasco [sic] red pepper, the very strongest of all peppers, of which he has cultivated a large quantity with the view of supplying his neighbors, and diffusing it through the state." Furthermore, observed the newspaper, "by pouring strong vinegar on it after boiling, he has made a sauce or pepper decoction of it, which possesses in a most concentrated form all the qualities of the vegetable. A single drop of this sauce will flavor a whole plate of soup or other food."[6]
Although White never marketed this pepper sauce, his heirs advertised it for sale beginning in 1864, a year after White's death (as "Maunsel White’s Concentrated Essence of Tobasco [
White's other sauce, known as "Maunsel White's 1812 Sauce," contains a mixture of wines, peppers, and spices. According to White family lore, White invented his 1812 Sauce to commemorate the victory of his friend Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. In fact, White supposedly first served the sauce during a dinner at his Deer Range Plantation in Jackson's honor. The present-day White family still manufactures this wine sauce on a limited basis and sells it primarily in the New Orleans area.
Footnotes
- ^ Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1868), cited on Rootsweb.com.
- ^ William Henry Perrin, ed., "Battle of New Orleans," Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891), Note V, pp. 349–404, cited at Louisiana USGenWeb Archives.
- ^ Clement Eaton, "Maunsel White," The Mind of the Old South (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), p. 51.
- ^ "Maunsel White, of Louisiana," DeBow's Review XXV (October 1858), p. 482.
- ^ John Kendall, History of New Orleans (Chicago and New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1922), cited on History of New Orleans.
- ^ "Pepper," New Orleans Daily Delta, January 26, 1850.
- ^ TABASCO.com.
References
- ^ 1850 Louisiana Federal Slave Schedules, Plaquemines Parish, 587
- ^ He is buried in Cypress Grove Cemetery, New Orleans, where a plaque commemorates his service in the War of 1812 and gives his birth date as 1781. Maunsel White's Findagrave Memorial
- ^ Officers, Members, Charter, and Rules of the Boston Club of New Orleans. Pub. by the Boston Club. 1919. pp.40
- ^ "An American Tradition Since 1868", Mclhenny Company website, accessed July 1, 2018.
Further reading
- Shane K. Bernard, "Tabasco: Edmund McIlhenny and the Birth of a Louisiana Pepper Sauce," Louisiana Cultural Vistas (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities publication), Fall 2005.
- A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. II, N-Z, s.v., "White, Maunsel."
- Clement Eaton, "Maunsel White," in The Mind of the Old South (1967).
- John Kendall, History of New Orleans (Chicago and New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1922), cited on History of New Orleans.
- Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1868), cited on Rootsweb.com.
- "Maunsel White, Merchant of New Orleans," DeBow's Review XIV (January 1853).
- "Maunsel White, of Louisiana," DeBow's Review XXV (October 1858).
- "Pepper," New Orleans Daily Delta, January 26, 1850.
- William Henry Perrin, ed., "Battle of New Orleans," Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891), cited at Louisiana USGenWeb Archives.