Marcellus Duval

Duval's interests were not just ideological. Within a year of his arrival, he was rumored to own illegally captured Black Seminoles on his plantation in Van Buren, Arkansas. It later became known that he and his brother secretly contracted with Indians to secure title to over 260 of the maroons. In exchange, the Duval brothers were slated to receive one-third of the blacks -- a potentially huge economic windfall.