1776 in America: Adam Smith and the Origins of The Modern Day Economy

The Intersecting Legacies of Christopher McPherson Smith and Adam Smith: A Study in Scottish Enlightenment, Atlantic Commerce, and African American Agency

The genealogical and ideological relationship between Christopher McPherson Smith and the preeminent Scottish economist Adam Smith is a complex narrative that bridges the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment with the nineteenth-century struggle for African American civil rights. While no evidence of a direct biological kinship exists between the two men, their connection is forged through a shared intellectual heritage, a common socio-economic environment in colonial and post-revolutionary Virginia, and a specific alignment of economic philosophies that emphasizes free trade, individual agency, and a skepticism of government intervention. Christopher McPherson Smith, primarily known as the grandson of the free African American clerk and prophet Christopher McPherson, serves as the historical custodian of a legacy that began with a Scottish merchant father and culminated in a unique synthesis of Scottish rationalism and Black prophetic tradition.

The Genealogical Architecture of the McPherson-Smith Lineage

To understand the relationship between these figures, one must first delineate the specific genealogical transitions that occurred over three generations. The lineage originates with Charles McPherson, a Scottish merchant of significant social standing in mid-eighteenth-century Virginia. Charles McPherson was part of the robust network of Scottish "factors" who dominated the Chesapeake tobacco trade, a group deeply immersed in the intellectual currents of their homeland, which included the burgeoning field of political economy championed by Adam Smith.

Charles McPherson fathered a child, Christopher, with an enslaved woman named Clarinda in Louisa County around 1763. This child, Christopher McPherson, would go on to become one of the most remarkable free people of color in the early American Republic, serving as a high-level clerk for the State of Virginia and later as a religious visionary. The transition from the surname McPherson to McPherson Smith occurred in the subsequent generation. Christopher McPherson married Mary "Polly" Burgess in 1800, and the couple had at least one daughter and an adopted son. Christopher McPherson Smith, who republished his grandfather's autobiography in 1855, is identified by historical records and contemporary analysis as the grandson of the original Christopher McPherson.

Generation	Name	Key Status / Role	Relationship Context
First	Charles McPherson	Scottish Merchant, Virginia	Father of Christopher McPherson; Peer of Scottish intellectual circles.
Second	Christopher McPherson	Free Black Clerk and Prophet	Son of Charles; Subject of the 1811 autobiography.
Third	Christopher McPherson Smith	Resident of NYC / Publisher	Grandson of Christopher; Republished the narrative in 1855.
N/A	Adam Smith	Economist / Philosopher	Ideological parallel; Contextual peer to the first generation.

The adoption of the "Smith" surname likely occurred through the marriage of Christopher McPherson's daughter, though the younger Smith retained the "McPherson" name as a middle name to preserve the family's connection to their Scottish and prophetic patriarch. This naming convention reflects a deliberate effort to maintain a link to a grandfather who had achieved a level of wealth and prestige rare for a free Black man in the early nineteenth century.

Charles McPherson and the Scottish Mercantile Presence in Colonial Virginia

The influence of Adam Smith on the McPherson lineage is most directly observable in the life and social circle of Charles McPherson. As a Scottish merchant operating in Virginia during the height of the "Tobacco Era," Charles was part of a class of men who were the primary consumers and conduits of Scottish Enlightenment thought in the American colonies. These Scottish merchants were known for their literacy and their adherence to the principles of classical education and rational commerce.

Charles McPherson's status was such that he was a personal acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson, who in 1773 wrote to him inquiring about his possible relation to James Macpherson, the translator of the Ossian poems. Jefferson’s fascination with the "sublime emotions" of the Scottish Highlands illustrates the high cultural regard in which the McPherson name was held by the Virginia elite. This cultural capital provided a protective umbrella under which Christopher McPherson was raised. Charles McPherson ensured that his son was educated and placed him under the apprenticeship of David Ross, another prominent Scottish merchant who would eventually manumit Christopher in 1792.

The commercial environment in which Charles McPherson operated was essentially the real-world laboratory for the theories Adam Smith would publish in The Wealth of Nations (1776). The Scottish merchant class in Virginia pioneered the "store system," which integrated the colonial interior into the global market, a mechanism of economic development that Adam Smith analyzed in depth. Charles McPherson’s own business interests, which involved the management of investments and partnerships—including a partnership with William Smith—demonstrated the practical application of the contract-based, self-interested economic behavior that Smith theorized was the engine of national wealth.

Christopher McPherson: The Clerk, the Prophet, and the Pursuit of Economic Liberty

Christopher McPherson (ca. 1763–1817) embodied the transition from the Scottish mercantile tradition to an African American identity characterized by a fierce pursuit of agency. His professional life was defined by the clerical excellence he learned from his father's associates. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a clerk for the Commercial Agent for the State of Virginia and for a Commissary General at the siege of Yorktown. Post-war, he rose to positions of significant responsibility, supervising white employees for David Ross and later working for George Wythe, the esteemed judge of the High Court of Chancery in Richmond.

McPherson’s life was an exercise in the Smithian ideal of social mobility through skill and industry. He achieved a level of prosperity that allowed him to rent expensive properties in Richmond and engage in international trade, shipping tobacco to Europe. However, his commitment to the principles of economic liberty was frequently tested by the restrictive racial laws of Virginia. His repeated applications for bank loans, despite offering white endorsers with substantial shares, were rejected—a failure of the market that he interpreted as an unjust government-sanctioned restraint on trade.

The Prophetic Turn and the Struggle for Civil Rights

In 1799, McPherson’s identity took a radical turn when he converted to Christianity and began to believe himself a divinely appointed messenger. This "prophetic persona" did not replace his economic identity but rather expanded it. He saw the impending millennium not as a destruction of the world but as the establishment of a "New Zion" where justice and equality—ideals he also linked to the American founding—would prevail.

McPherson's activism culminated in 1811 when he attempted to establish a night school for free and enslaved Black men in Richmond. This act of community empowerment, combined with his public denunciations of the city's police and his insistence on his prophetic role, led to his social and financial downfall. He was eventually committed to the state insane asylum in Williamsburg, an event that highlighted the precarious nature of freedom for a Black man who dared to operate as an equal to his white peers.

The Intellectual Kinship: Philosophical Parallels with Adam Smith

The most striking link between Christopher McPherson Smith (and the legacy of his grandfather) and Adam Smith is an ideological one. Both the economist and the McPherson family legacy are characterized by a profound commitment to the principles of economic liberalism and a skepticism toward centralized government management.

Historical analysis suggests that the "Two Adams of the Scottish Enlightenment" (referring to Smith and perhaps the archetype of the "New Adam" or prophet that McPherson represented) shared a foundational belief in the theory of unintended consequences. This theory posits that individual actions, particularly in the economic sphere, often lead to broader social benefits that were not part of the individual's original intent. Christopher McPherson’s own life was a testament to this; his personal pursuit of literacy, property, and legal standing contributed to the broader movement for African American civil rights in ways that extended far beyond his individual biography.

Comparative Economic Ideologies

Feature	Adam Smith (Economist)	The McPherson-Smith Legacy
View on Trade	Advocated for Free Trade and open markets.	Attempted to participate in international tobacco markets.
Role of Government	Skeptical of centralized economic planning.	Repeatedly protested government interference in personal business.
Human Rights	Viewed slavery as inefficient and morally problematic.	Asserted dignity and rights through legal and prophetic means.
Social Order	Belief in the "Invisible Hand" and spontaneous order.	Belief in a divinely ordained "Millennium" of peace and justice.

Furthermore, both Smith and the McPherson lineage were convinced that economic activity required protection from the government rather than control by it. McPherson’s legal battles were essentially demands for the government to fulfill its role as a protector of contracts and property rights rather than a barrier to them. This alignment suggests that the intellectual currents of the Scottish Enlightenment were not merely academic for the McPherson family but were the very tools they used to navigate and challenge the racial hierarchy of the Atlantic world.

Christopher McPherson Smith and the 1855 Republication: Preserving a Legacy in Crisis

Christopher McPherson Smith’s primary contribution to this history was the republication of his grandfather’s autobiography, A Short History of the Life of Christopher McPherson, in Lynchburg in 1855. This republication occurred during a pivotal decade in American history, characterized by the hardening of proslavery sentiment and the rising tensions that would lead to the Civil War.

The 1855 edition, printed at the Virginian Job Office, was more than a tribute to a relative; it was a political act. By reintroducing the story of a man who had served the Revolutionary cause and been a peer to the Founding Fathers, Christopher McPherson Smith was asserting the historic right of African Americans to full citizenship and dignity. The inclusion of certificates of character from figures like George Wythe and references to visits with James Madison served as an archive of Black achievement that challenged the dehumanizing narratives of the 1850s.

The Context of Seneca Village and Urban Displacement

The younger Smith’s activities were not limited to Virginia. In the 1850s, Christopher McPherson Smith was a resident of New York City during the dismantling of Seneca Village. Seneca Village was a thriving community of Black property owners located in what is now Central Park. The displacement of this community for a public works project represents the exact type of centralized government management that the McPherson-Smith legacy was ideologically opposed to.

The presence of a descendant of Christopher McPherson in New York during this period suggests a generational continuity in the struggle for Black land ownership and civil rights. Just as the original McPherson had fought the bank and the Richmond city council for his economic place, his grandson witnessed—and likely resisted—the destruction of an African American economic stronghold in the North. This connection reinforces the idea that the "Smithian" commitment to individual property rights and economic agency was a core family value.

The Smith Surname and the Evolution of the Family Identity

The addition of the surname "Smith" to the McPherson lineage is a point of significant historical interest. While the name is common, its adoption by the grandson of a man who was ideologically compared to Adam Smith raises questions about whether the name was a deliberate homage or a result of maternal lineage. Given the propensity of the family for naming and prophetic aliases—Christopher McPherson often called himself "Pherson, Son of Christ"—the name Smith may have carried multiple layers of meaning.

In the context of nineteenth-century Virginia, the name Smith was also associated with other prominent families, but for a free Black man, it often served as a marker of a specific community or a link to a white progenitor or patron. In the case of Christopher McPherson Smith, the name became the vehicle through which his grandfather's narrative was preserved and disseminated in Lynchburg. The 1855 publication explicitly credits "Christopher McPherson Smith" as the publisher, ensuring that the legacy of the "McPherson" name remained prominent while identifying the publisher as part of a new generation.

Economic Agency and the Struggle for Property Rights in the Early Republic

The economic life of Christopher McPherson provides a granular view of how the principles of Adam Smith were both utilized and frustrated in the early American Republic. McPherson’s career as a storekeeper and clerk for David Ross placed him at the heart of the "mercantile line of life". He managed large-scale operations, supervised white men, and participated in the complex credit cycles that fueled the Virginia economy.

However, the "Wealth of Nations" that Adam Smith envisioned was predicated on a level playing field that did not exist for McPherson. His inability to secure a bank loan, despite his substantial property and social connections, was a direct result of the "despotic" tendencies of the local government and financial institutions. McPherson explicitly linked his financial distress to the actions of the Richmond authorities, describing how his property was seized and sold for "less than half cost" after he was labeled a lunatic.

Year	Property / Financial Event	Significance
1784-87	Principal storekeeper for David Ross	Managed 8-10 white men; high commercial status.
1800	Principal executor of James Ross's will	Accepted as a legal authority by the court.
1807-10	Rented house for $25/year	Entry-level property holding in Richmond.
1811	Rent increased to $120/year	Significant upgrade in social and economic status.
1811	Bank of Virginia loan rejection	Systematic exclusion from the capital market.
1811	Seizure of property by sheriffs	State-sponsored destruction of Black wealth.

This narrative of economic rise and state-sponsored fall illustrates the "third-order insights" of the McPherson story. It is not just a tale of a Black man succeeding against the odds, but a critique of the early American economy's failure to adhere to the very Enlightenment principles it claimed to champion. Christopher McPherson Smith’s republication of this narrative in 1855 served as a reminder that the "invisible hand" was being throttled by the visible hand of racial oppression.

From Richmond to New York: The Geographic and Social Migration

The migration of the McPherson-Smith family from the rural tobacco stores of Louisa and Fluvanna Counties to the urban centers of Richmond, Lynchburg, and eventually New York City reflects the broader patterns of the African American diaspora in the nineteenth century. Christopher McPherson's move to New York toward the end of his life in 1817 was likely an attempt to escape the increasingly hostile environment of Virginia.

His grandson, Christopher McPherson Smith, established himself in New York decades later, placing him at the center of the abolitionist and civil rights debates of the 1850s. This geographic shift represents a transition from the Southern mercantile environment of Charles McPherson to the Northern urban environment of the mid-nineteenth century. Yet, throughout this transition, the family retained its focus on literacy and documentation. The 1855 Lynchburg publication suggests that even as part of the family moved North, they maintained strong ties to their Virginia roots and felt it necessary to intervene in the Southern social landscape.

Comparative Analysis of Economic Thought and Social Justice

The relationship between Adam Smith and the McPherson-Smith lineage also invites a deeper exploration of the "theory of moral sentiments." Adam Smith’s earlier work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), focused on the role of sympathy and social cohesion in human society. Christopher McPherson’s prophetic writings often echoed these themes, calling for mankind to "treat each other as beloved brethren" and to "render justice to man".

While Adam Smith approached these ideas through the lens of moral philosophy, McPherson approached them through the lens of Christian prophecy and lived experience. Both, however, arrived at the conclusion that a healthy society required a foundation of justice and the recognition of the dignity of the individual. The "unintended consequence" of Charles McPherson’s relationship with an enslaved woman was the creation of a family that would use the very intellectual tools of his class to demand a world that Charles himself likely could not have imagined.

Key Takeaways of the McPherson-Smith Relationship

• Genealogical Link: Christopher McPherson Smith was the grandson of Christopher McPherson, who was the son of Charles McPherson, a Scottish merchant and peer of the Enlightenment elite.

• Ideological Alignment: Both the McPherson lineage and Adam Smith were committed to free trade, property rights, and a skepticism of centralized government control.

• Cultural Context: The family was recognized by figures like Thomas Jefferson as part of the broader Scottish intellectual and literary diaspora.

• Historical Preservation: The 1855 republication by Christopher McPherson Smith was a strategic use of the family's "Scottish rationalist" and "clerical" legacy to fight for 19th-century civil rights.

• Economic Agency: The biography of Christopher McPherson serves as a case study in the application and systematic denial of Smithian economic principles for people of color in the early Republic.

  
  

The Enduring Influence of the Scottish Diaspora

The connection between Christopher McPherson Smith and Adam Smith is ultimately a testament to the pervasive influence of the Scottish Enlightenment in the Atlantic world. The Scottish diaspora in Virginia created a unique social space where the son of an enslaved woman could be educated in the clerical and economic traditions of the metropole. This education provided Christopher McPherson with the agency to operate as a "clerk for all the principal offices," a role that allowed him to document his own life and create an archive that his grandson would eventually preserve.

The story of the McPherson-Smith family suggests that the "Wealth of Nations" was not just about the accumulation of gold or the productivity of labor, but about the distribution of dignity and the right of every individual to participate in the "mercantile line of life". By reclaiming the "McPherson" name and the "Smith" ideological legacy, Christopher McPherson Smith asserted that the principles of the Enlightenment belonged as much to the descendants of the enslaved as they did to the philosopher of Kirkcaldy.

Future Outlook: The McPherson Legacy in Historical Memory

The rediscovery of the McPherson-Smith legacy in recent decades has been facilitated by the digitalization of slave narratives and the work of historians who recognize the complexity of the free Black experience. Projects like the "Shockoe Project" in Richmond aim to commemorate the lives of individuals like Christopher McPherson, acknowledging their role in the "very center of the story of enslavement in the United States".

As scholars continue to explore the connections between the Scottish Enlightenment and the African American intellectual tradition, the figures of Christopher McPherson Smith and Adam Smith will likely remain central to the conversation. Their "relation" is a reminder that history is not a series of isolated biographies but a network of intersecting ideas and lineages that continue to shape our understanding of freedom and justice in the modern world.

Conclusion: The Convergence of Two Scottish Legacies

In final analysis, Christopher McPherson Smith is related to Adam Smith not through blood, but through the profound and durable ties of the Scottish intellectual diaspora. The lineage that began with Charles McPherson and Clarinda produced a family that embodied the highest aspirations of the Enlightenment while suffering its most severe contradictions. Christopher McPherson’s mastery of the clerical arts and his grandson’s commitment to historical preservation represent a unique African American engagement with Smithian economic thought. Through the 1855 republication of his grandfather’s work, Christopher McPherson Smith ensured that the voice of a man who saw himself as both a "Son of Christ" and a participant in the global tobacco trade would endure, bridging the gap between the rationalism of the eighteenth century and the social justice movements of the nineteenth. The connection to Adam Smith provides a framework for understanding this resilience, showing how the principles of economic liberty and individual agency were wielded as weapons in the long struggle for African American equality.

Works cited

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